coloni
coloni — noun
1. During the final centuries of the Roman Empire, a person who worked a farm owned
During the final centuries of the Roman Empire, a person who worked a farm owned by a wealthy landowner and was legally required to stay on that land. The coloni could not move away or find different work, and they paid for the use of the land by giving the landlord part of their crops or animals instead of money.
In the 4th century, landless North African farmers often became coloni on large estates.
historical context: 4th-century North Africa
The coloni were not slaves, but they could not leave the estate without permission.
contrasting coloni with slavery
Roman Egyptian records describe a coloni who paid his yearly rent in wine and grain.
A coloni's children were tied to the land and worked the same farm.
Roman law let landowners turn indebted free farmers into coloni.
- serf
describes a similar legal status in medieval Europe, but the serf system developed several centuries after the Roman coloni system ended
- tenant farmer
a general modern term for someone who farms land owned by another; coloni were tenant farmers with the additional restriction of being legally tied to the land
文法句型
the coloni + plural verb
the coloni + singular verb (class meaning)
用法筆記
Technically the plural of Latin 'colonus' (one farmer) and 'coloni' (many farmers), but in English historical writing 'coloni' is also used as a collective noun referring to the social class or system as a whole.