130 Transition to Italy 



record of early Italian agriculture. This one great staple industry is 

 represented as the economic foundation of Roman political and military 

 greatness. No small part of the surviving Latin literature glorifies the 

 soundness of the Roman farmer-folk and the exploits of farmer-heroes 

 in the good old days, and laments the rottenness that attended their 

 decay. How far this tradition is to be accepted as it stands, or what 

 reservations on its acceptance should be made, and in particular the 

 introduction or extension of slave- labour, are the questions with which 

 it will be our main business to deal. 



