Compascuus
Compascuus is Latin for commonly grazed,{{cite web
|url=http://www.quickdict.de/showlat.php/4016_lat_de_compascuus.html
|title=Übersetzung – Latein > Deutsch: compascuus > gemeinsam beweidet
|accessdate=2008-09-02
|author=Jörg Krumme
|work=Quickdict.de
|language=German
|url=http://www.ultralingua.com/onlinedictionary/index.html?action=define&service=latin2english&text=compascuus&src=&popup=&searchtype=browsing
|title=Compascuus
|accessdate=2008-09-02
|work=The Free Multi-Language Online Dictionary
|publisher=Ultralingua
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110717162557/http://www.ultralingua.com/onlinedictionary/index.html?action=define&service=latin2english&text=compascuus&src=&popup=&searchtype=browsing
|archive-date=2011-07-17
|url-status=dead
}} and hence often used in the forms ager compascuus (common pasture land){{cite book
|last=Tullius Cicero
|first=Marcus
|authorlink=Cicero
|editor=A.S. Wilkins
|title=Topica
|origyear=44 BC
|url=http://individual.utoronto.ca/pking/resources/cicero/topica.txt
|accessdate=2008-09-02
|series=Rhetorica
|volume=II
|date=October 1903
|location=Rome
|language=Latin
|quote=Si compascuus ager est, ius est compascere.
|url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/secondary/SMIGRA*/Ager.html
|title=Ager
|accessdate=2008-09-02
|author=George Long
|date=2000-12-07
|work=Lacus Curtius
}} and compascuum (the common pasture). In the early Roman Republic, there were three kinds of land: private, public and common pasture. The {{lang|la|lex agraria}} of 111 BC, which formalized the existing situation after the land reforms, set limits on how many cattle an individual could graze on ager compascuus without having to pay dues.{{cite web
|url=http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/medieval/agrarian_law.htm
|title=Agrarian Law; 111 B.C.
|accessdate=2008-09-02
|date=2001-11-10
|work=The Avalon Project
|publisher=Yale Law School
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081208215942/http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/medieval/agrarian_law.htm
|archive-date=2008-12-08
|url-status=dead
|last=Hardy
|first=Ernest George
|title=Roman Laws and Charters
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gk4E48hg4zsC&q=compascuus&pg=PA59
|accessdate=2008-09-02
|year=2005
|publisher=The Lawbook Exchange
|isbn=1-58477-517-3
}}
Placenames
This ancient term is still preserved in some placenames in Drenthe, because the border between the Netherlands and Germany in the Bourtange moor was not delimited and was a common pasture for shepherds from both sides of the border.{{cite web|url=https://www.dodenakkers.nl/artikelen-overzicht/begraafplaatsen/drenthe/barger-compascuum.html |title=Barger-Compascuum |website=Dodenakkers |author=Leon Bok |date=13 July 2011 |access-date=11 March 2022 |language=nl}}
- Barger-Compascuum{{cite web|url=https://etymologiebank.nl/trefwoord/bargercompascuum |title=Barger-Compascuum - (geografische naam) |website=Etymologiebank |access-date=11 March 2022 |language=nl |quote=The compascuum of Barge}}
- Emmer-Compascuum{{cite web|url=https://etymologiebank.nl/trefwoord/emmercompascuum |title=Emmer-Compascuum - (geografische naam) |website=Etymologiebank |access-date=11 March 2022 |language=nl |quote=The compascuum of Emmen}}