His mixed investments 169 



Roman districts of Italy, becoming industrialized as a field for invest- 

 ment of capital by the senatorial class, who practically controlled the 

 government and were debarred from openly engaging in commerce. $ 

 N The exploitation of rustic properties as income-producing securities 

 was merely a new phase of the grasping hard-fisted greed characteristic 

 of the average Roman. Polybius, observing Roman life in this very 

 age with Greek eyes, was deeply impressed 1 by this almost universal 

 quality. And Cato himself was a Roman of Romans. Plutarch 2 has 

 preserved for us the tradition of his economic career. As a young 

 man of small means he led the hard life of a farmer, as he was not 

 shy of boasting 3 in later years, and was a strict master of slaves. But 

 he did not find farming sufficiently remunerative, so he embarked on 

 other enterprises. Farming remained rather as a pastime than a 

 source of income : but he took to safe and steady investments, such 

 as rights over lakes, hot springs, fullers' premises, and land that could 

 be turned to profit 4 through the presence of natural pasture and wood- 

 land. From these properties he drew large returns not dependent on the 

 weather. By employing a freedman as his agent, he lent money on 

 bottomry, eluding the legal restriction on senators ; . and by combining 

 with partners in the transaction he distributed and so minimized the 

 risks of a most profitable business. And all through life he dealt in 

 slaves 5 , buying them young, training them, and selling at an enhanced 

 price any that he did not want himself. He bred some on his estate, 

 probably not many. It is said that, in addition to her own children, 

 his wife would suckle 6 slave-babies, as a means of promoting good 

 feeling in the household towards her son. 



In these details, of the general truth of which there is no reason- 

 able doubt, we have a picture of a man of astounding versatility and 

 force : for of his political and military activities I have said nothing. 

 But as a writer on agriculture how are we to regard him ? Surely not 

 as a thoroughgoing reformer. His experience had taught him that, 

 if you must have a good income (a point on which he and his con- 

 temporaries were agreed), you had better not look to get it from 

 farming. But if for land-pride or other reasons you must needs farm, 

 Cato is ready to give you the best practical advice. That many (if indeed 

 any) men of property would take the infinite trouble and pains that 

 his system requires from a landlord, he was probably too wise to 

 believe. But that was their business. He spoke 7 as an oracle ; as in 

 public life * take it or leave it ' was the spirit of his utterances. The 

 evidence of his life and of his book, taken together, is more clear as 



1 Polyb xxxn 13 10, ii. 2 Plut Cat mai 21, 25, 4. 



3 Jordan op tit p 43. < Cf Plin epist in 19 5. 



6 Plut Cat mai 21,4. Plut Cat mai 20. 



7 Pliny even refers to his precepts as oracula. 



