saltus and grazing 165 



full swing. The effective government of Rome was passing more and 

 more into the hands of the Senate, and the leading nobles did not 

 neglect their opportunities of adding to their own wealth and power. 

 Sharing the military appointments, they enriched themselves with 

 booty and blackmail abroad, particularly in the eastern wars : and, 

 being by law excluded from open participation in commerce, they in- 

 vested a good part of their gains in Italian land. From what we learn 

 as to the state of Italy during the last century of the Republic, it seems 

 certain that this land-grabbing process took place chiefly if not wholly 

 in the more accessible parts of the country, so far as arable lands were 

 concerned. Etruria and the districts of central Italy near Rome were 

 especially affected, and also Lucania. Apulia soon became noted for 

 its flocks and herds, which grazed there in winter and were driven in 

 the summer months to the mountain pastures of Samnium. The 

 pasturage of great private * runs ' (saltus) was thus supplemented by 

 the use of wastes that were still state-property, and the tendency to 

 monopolize these latter on favourable terms was no doubt still growing. 

 With the troubles that arose later out of this system of possessiones we 

 are not here concerned. But thejin^reasejoj^gt^^ with 



tillage is an important point ; for that it was the most paying sort of 

 farming was one of the facts expressly recognised 1 by Cato. The 

 working of estates on a large scale was promoted by the plentiful 

 supply of slaves in this period. On arable lands they were now 

 employed in large gangs, sometimes working in chains, under slave 

 overseers whose own privileges depended on their getting the utmost 

 labour out of the common hands. In pastoral districts they enjoyed 

 much greater freedom. The time was to come when these pastores, 

 hardy ruffians, often armed against wild beasts, would be a public danger. 

 But forv>the present it is probable that one of their chief recommen- 

 dations was that they cost next to nothing for their keep. 



No man knew better than Cato that it was not on such a land- 

 system as this that Rome had thriven in the past and risen to her 

 present greatness. He was proud 2 of having worked hard with his own 

 hands in youth, and he kept up the practice of simple living on his 

 own estate, sitting down to meals with the slaves 3 whom he ruled with 

 the strictness of a practical farmer. Around him was going on the 

 extension of great ill-managed properties owned by men whom political 

 business and intrigues kept nearly all the year in Rome, and who gave 

 little personal attention to the farming of their estates. When the 

 landlord rebuilt his villa, and used his new country mansion mainly 

 for entertaining friends, the real charge of the farm more and more 



1 Pliny Nffxvui 29, 30, and Cicero de o/u 89, Columella vipraef$$ 3-5. 



2 Jordan op cit p 43. Plutarch Cat mai 4. 3 Plut Cat mat 3-5, 20-1. 



