Ain el-Djemala Imperial Estate
About
This Bagradas valley property took its name, Fundus Neronianus, from Nero, whose confiscations after the great fire and various conspiracies swelled North Africa's imperial estates in the 60s CE. A Hadrianic-era inscription found here preserves a procurators' letter applying the lex Manciana, letting tenant farmers break new ground on unused imperial land for a crop share. The rescript itself dates just after Trajan's death, but it reaffirmed tenure the estate had run under for decades.
What happened here
Land held in one ownership and worked as a unit, whether the owner is a senator, an emperor or a town. Day to day it is run by a manager who keeps the accounts, allots the tasks and answers for the shortfall. The workforce is mixed — slaves in gangs, tenant farmers on shares, and seasonal labour hired for the harvest and the vintage. Tenants owe a proportion of the crop and a fixed number of days' work, and the terms are posted publicly, which is how we know them. Buildings cluster: presses, granaries, a smithy, quarters, a shrine. Disputes over water and over how many days are owed go to the estate's own procurator first and to the emperor if that fails.
In ancient writing
- Sermo procuratorum (imperial procurators' rescript), CIL VIII 25943 25943
A Hadrianic-period inscription from Ain el-Djemala records a letter of the imperial procurators applying the lex Manciana to the fundus Neronianus, distinguishing its saltus (a portion of the larger fundus) and authorizing coloni to bring unused land under cultivation for a share of the harvest.
Sources
Nearby
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