14 The Forests of the Ancients. 
That the Greek republics had mainly public forests 
seems to be likely; for Attica, at least, this is true with- 
out doubt. 
While the first Roman kings seem to have owned royal 
domains, which were distributed among the people after 
the expulsion of the kings, the public property which 
came to the republic as a result of conquest was in most 
cases at once transferred to private hands, either for 
homesteads of colonists or in recognition of services of 
soldiers and other public officers or to mollify the con- 
quered, or by sale or for rent, not to mention the rights 
acquired by squatters. The rents were usually farmed 
out to collectors (publicani) or corporations formed of 
these, but Livy mentions State forests in which the cut- 
ting was regulated, probably largely merely reserving the 
ship timber. 
That single cities and other smaller units owned com- 
mon forest properties occasionally seems also established. 
Private forest properties connected with farm estates 
existed in Ethiopia, in Arabia, among the Greeks and 
among the Romans at home as well as in their colonies. 
Especially: pasture woods (saltus) connected with small 
and large estates (latifundia) into which probably most 
forest areas near settlements were turned, are frequently 
mentioned as in private ownership; but also other 
private forests existed. 
The institution of servitudes or rights of user (usus 
and usus-fructus) and a considerable amount of law 
regarding the conditions under which they were exercised 
and regarding their extinguishment were in existence 
among the Romans in the first centuries of the Christian 
era. ‘ 
