Colonus (person)

A colonus was a tenant farmer from the late Roman Empire and Early Middle Ages. Known plurally as coloni or colonate, these farmers were sharecroppers, who paid back landowners with a portion of their crops, in exchange for use of their farmlands. The coloni's tenant-landlord relationship eventually degraded into one of debt and dependence. As a result, the colonus became a new type of land tenancy, in which the occupants were placed in a state between freedom and slavery.

In Italy, much of the agricultural land was leased to tenants. There was a concept in place that allowed the tenants to have tenure on the land, even though they were not the owners. Tax liabilities went with the sales of a land plot, but most of the taxed public land in Italy was leased rather than owned. Therefore, many of the taxes were imposed upon the tenants rather than the land owners. These tenants could also sell and buy leases, which indicates a somewhat flexible and fair property system. According to the Roman courts, agricultural tenants also had rights against landowners who tried to unjustly infringe upon their contracts. This time period indicated a degree of fairness and justice toward the coloni.

Originally, a colonus was a mutual relationship in which a landowner allowed a tenant the use of their land, in return for a portion of the farmed crops. However, under the rule of Emperor Diocletian, there was a reform in the taxation system, which many historians attribute as the cause of the shift in the tenant-landowner relationship. During his time in power, during the fourth century, there were several constitutional laws created for the purpose of tying coloni to the land in order to increase land taxes and poll taxes. Diocletian had created a tax system based on persons and land, as well as a regular census of the people to monitor the empire's population and wealth.

The status of these farm workers gradually declined until they reached an all-time low during the Justinian period in the 5th century. Emperor Justinian I sought to eliminate corruption in tax collecting, as well as make it more efficient. He simplified the administrative infrastructure so that more power was given to the head of the provinces. According to Brown (1971), "the increased professionalization of tax collection did much to destroy the traditional structures of provincial life, as it weakened the autonomy of the town councils in the Greek towns". Justinian was also known for his complete revision of all Roman law, resulting in the collection of legislation now known as Corpus juris civilis. Under book 11 of these codes, which concerns public law, Justinian modified law based upon taxation, distribution of land, and types of coloni. When describing the agricolae censiti, Justinian explicitly mentions a type of coloni, known as coloni adscripticii, which were considered non-free and comparable to slaves.

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