_Dominium_ was therefore inseparable from _Jus Quiritium,_ the law of the Roman city, the _optimum jus civium Romanorum_. The _peregrinus_ was excluded from landed property both Roman and private; he could neither inherit nor transmit; claim nor defend in equity. Moreover the name _peregrinus_ was not confined to the stranger proper but was also bestowed upon subjects of Rome[8] who, being deprived of their property and also of political liberty by right of conquest, had not received the right of citizenship which was for a long time confined within very narrow limits. It would thus appear conclusive from the law quoted that the client and plebeian could not at first hold land _optimo ex jure quiritium_. Thus the tenure of the patricians was threefold: First, they had full property in the land; second, they had a seigniorial right, _jus in re_, in the land of their clients and the plebeians whose property belonged to the _populus, i.e._ the generality of the patricians; in the third place, in their own hands, they held lands which were portions of the domain and which were held by a very precarious tenure called _possessio_. According to Ihne, all lands in Rome were held by the above mentioned tenure until the enactment of the Icilian law _de Aventino publicando_ which involved a change of tenure by converting the former dependent and incumbered tenure of the plebeians into full property. [Footnote 1: De Officiis, I, 12; Gaius, Frag., 234: Digest, 50, 16.] [Footnote 2: Varro, De L.L.V. 14; Plautus, _Trinummus_, Act I, Scene 2, V. 75; Harper's _Latin Dictionary_; Cicero, _De Off_., I, 12: "Hostis enim apud majores nostros is dicibatur, quem nunc peregrinum dicimus."] [Footnote 3: Cic., _loc. cit._; Gaius, Frag., 234.] [Footnote 4: Forcellini, _Lexic._; Harper's _Latin Lex_.] [Footnote 5: _i.e._ The descendents of a person escheated could bring no action for the recovery of the property.] [Footnote 6: Giraud, _Recherches sur le Droit de Propriété_, p. 210.] [Footnote 7: Gaius, Bk. II, 40.] [Footnote 8: Ulpian, Frag., Title XIX, 4; Giraud, 216.] SEC. 3.--AGER PUBLICUS. In her early history Rome was continually making fresh conquests, and in this way adding to her territory.[1] She steadfastly pursued a course of destruction to her neighbors in order that she might thereby grow rich and powerful. In this way large tracts of territory became Roman land, the property of the state or _Ager Publicus._[2] This public land extended in proportion to the success of the Roman arms, since the confiscation of the territory of the vanquished was, in the absence of more favorable terms, a part of the law of war. All conquered lands before being granted or sold to private individuals were _Ager Publicus_[3] a term which with few exceptions came to embrace the whole Roman world.