The handling of evidence 5 



with full regard to the periods and circumstances by which their 

 evidential values are severally qualified. And in order to place each 

 witness in his proper setting it is sometimes necessary to pause and 

 group a number of circumstances together in a special chapter. This 

 arises from the endeavour to preserve so far as possible the thread of 

 continuity, which is always really there, though at times very thin, 

 owing to the loss of many works in the course of ages. In such 

 chapters one has to look both backward and forward, and often to 

 digress for a moment on topics only connected indirectly with the 

 main object. 



I have tried to avoid needless repetitions, but some repetitions are 

 unavoidable, since the same point often serves to illustrate different 

 parts of the argument. To make a system of cross-references from 

 chapter to chapter quite complete is hardly possible, and would add 

 immensely to the bulk of foojt-notes. It has seemed better to attempt 

 completeness by elaboration of the Index. A few details from a period 

 later than that with which I am concerned are given in the Appendix, 

 as being of interest. Also the names of some books from which in a 

 course of miscellaneous reading I have derived more or less help, par- 

 ticularly in noting modern survivals or analogies. For significant 

 matter occurs in quite unexpected quarters. And the observers who 

 record facts of rustic life and labour in Italy or France, in North or 

 Central or South America, without attempting to manipulate them in 

 connexion with a theory, deserve much gratitude. 



It is evident that in the handling of evidence there is room for 

 some variety of method. And it seems reasonable to hold that the 

 choice of method should be mainly guided by two leading considera- 

 tions, the nature of the evidence available and the aim of the inquiry 

 pursued. In the present case the inquiry deals with a part, a somewhat 

 neglected part, of Greco-Roman history: and the subject is one that 

 can by no means be strictly confined to ascertaining the bare facts of 

 farm life and labour. Qlhat the conditions of agriculture were not only 

 important in connexion with food-supply, but had an extensive moral 

 and political bearing, is surely beyond dispute/* And the nature of the 

 surviving evidence favours, or rather requires, the taking of a corre- 

 spondingly wide view. Outside the circle of technical writings, the 

 literary evidence almost always has an eye to the position of agriculture 

 as related to the common weal ; nor is this point of view ignored even 

 by the technical writers. Therefore, in treating the subject as I have 

 tried to treat it, it is very necessary to take each witness separately so 

 far as possible, and not to appraise the value of his testimony without 

 a fair consideration of his condition and environment. This necessity 

 is peculiarly obvious in the case of the theorists, whose witness is 



