ABSTRACT
Since the land was an important means of production, it is worthwhile to determine who owned it. In the Roman Empire in general and in Eretz-Israel in particular there were a number of different types of landowners. They can be divided according to either social or legal criteria:
(1) government estates (Duncan-Jones 1964a; D.J.Crawford 1976); (2) private estates which belonged either to the rich or to those close to government circles, whether the estates were granted
by the government or not; (3) a small tract of land held by a small-scale independent farmer; (4) city lands; (5) church lands.
