Comunità di irrigazione e rapporti fra rivales: riflessioni giurisprudenziali e tutela pretoria.

This paper deals with local irrigation systems organized by villages and communities in the Roman world. It will examine both some epigraphic and literary texts on this subject and some relevant jurisprudential sources belonging to Justinian’s Digest on this topic. In all these cases, the need for joint water use led to the development of at least initial forms of ‘association’ among rivales, intended for the regulation of: a) the distribution of water; b) the hydraulic work such as digging and maintenance; c) the arbitration of possible disputes between users. For their part, the juridical texts can better explain the probable ‘legal status’ of these communities, namely how they were structured and how internal relationships between rivales were considered.