Aneignung und Enteignung: Soziale Vorurteile, juristische Theorie und Alltagspraxis an der tyrrhenischen Küste

Under classical Roman law, the seashore was common property, in effect
a no man’s land which anyone was free to exploit. The peculiar status of the beach zone (defined in law as the space between the water’s edge and the high-water mark) had its roots in the agrarian ideology of the early Republic. From the late Republic onwards, as wealthy Romans began to build seaside villas and fishponds along the Tyrrhenian coast, conflicts inevitably arose. Imperial rescripts confirmed the ‘freedom of the shore’, but from the second century AD, if not earlier, with the additional proviso that shore fishermen had to keep their distance from villas and public buildings (monumenta). Though not always observed to the letter, the principle of open access to the coast apparently remained on the lawbooks until the end of the ninth century, when it was revoked by the Byzantine emperor Leo VI.