Introduction

In the development and rise of civilizations and empires, land surveying has played a major role because it is crucial to the imposition and maintenance of system, order, and control of the landscape through the demarcation of properties, boundaries and roads. The key behind this system and order is always mathematics. We will focus on the Romans who had a highly developed system of land surveying as attested by their surveying manuals, and land divisions, town plans, architecture and engineering works still to be seen throughout the wide expanse of the earlier Roman Empire and Republic [1]. Indeed, some of these features in the landscape are still in use today. Additionally, we are fortunate to have extensive writings of Roman land surveyors, the Corpus Agrimensorum [2], describing many aspects of their work and methods. Some archaeological artifacts pertaining to surveying equipment have been found and analyzed. For example, the metal parts of a groma surveying instrument were unearthed in the workshop of the surveyor Verus at the ruins of Pompeii in southern Italy. Also, the tombstone of the surveyor Lucius Aebutius Faustus from Ivrea in northern Italy depicts a dismantled groma [3]. From these various sources a great deal is known about Roman land surveying and its central use of mathematics and geometry. With this considerable background to draw upon, we will try our hand at Roman land surveying and learn more about mathematics, geometry and history in the process.