Egypt is obviously a paradigmatic example of the social and economic equilibrium of an entire society, deriving from the exploitation of a single water resource. Egypt’s dependence on the floods of the Nile in Antiquity was total. Precisely for this reason, the study of the organization of the management of Nilotic waters and the sanctioning system for abuses appears particularly interesting, especially if the observation concerns periods of climate emergency, not rare even in ancient times. The intervention focuses on the serious crisis of the Egyptian grain supply, which hit Constantinople, capital of the pars Orientis of the Roman Empire, in 409 AD. The constitution of the Theodosian Code C.Th. 9.32.1 is unique in its title, De Nili aggeribus non corrumpendis, and bears witness to the serious measures taken by Theodosius II to deal with the food emergency: the stake was the penalty provided for those who, in order to irrigate their fields, abused the use of private locks, causing the waters of the Nile to flow, due to drought, to the detriment of the entire community.
De aggeribus corrumpendis: le chiuse delle canalizzazioni nilotiche in occasione di emergenze climatiche tardoantiche. Disciplina e sanzioni
Paola Biavaschi
2026-01-01
Abstract
Egypt is obviously a paradigmatic example of the social and economic equilibrium of an entire society, deriving from the exploitation of a single water resource. Egypt’s dependence on the floods of the Nile in Antiquity was total. Precisely for this reason, the study of the organization of the management of Nilotic waters and the sanctioning system for abuses appears particularly interesting, especially if the observation concerns periods of climate emergency, not rare even in ancient times. The intervention focuses on the serious crisis of the Egyptian grain supply, which hit Constantinople, capital of the pars Orientis of the Roman Empire, in 409 AD. The constitution of the Theodosian Code C.Th. 9.32.1 is unique in its title, De Nili aggeribus non corrumpendis, and bears witness to the serious measures taken by Theodosius II to deal with the food emergency: the stake was the penalty provided for those who, in order to irrigate their fields, abused the use of private locks, causing the waters of the Nile to flow, due to drought, to the detriment of the entire community.
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