Free and slave labour 171 



evident. It may well be that Cato insists so strongly on the need of 

 these qualities because they were becoming rare among the nobles of 

 his day. But, though he knew that the efficiency of a slave steward 

 could only be maintained by constant and expert watching, he never 

 suggests the employment of a free man in that capacity. The truth 

 seems to be that the * Manager,' a man paid by salary or percentage 

 and kept up to the mark by fear of ' losing his place/ is a compara- 

 tively modern figure. In antiquity the employment of Freedmen in 

 positions of trust was a move in that direction, though patrons kept a 

 considerable hold, beyond the purely economic one, on their freed- 

 men. But for charge of a farm Cato does not suggest employment of 

 a freedman. 



The blending of free and slave labour might well have been 

 brought out more clearly than it is : but to the author writing for his 

 own contemporaries it woujd seem needless to enlarge upon a con- 

 dition which everyone took for granted. Yet there are passages 

 where it is indicated plainly enough. Thus in the olive-press room 

 a bed is provided 1 for two free custodes (apparently foremen) out of 

 three : the third, a slave, is put to sleep with the f adores, who seem 

 to be the hands employed 2 to work the press, probably slaves, whose 

 labour is merely bodily exertion. The leguli who gather up the olives 

 are probably free, for they are interested 3 in making the amount so 

 gathered as large as possible. Strippers, strictores, who pluck the 

 olives from the tree, are also mentioned 4 in the chapter dealing with 

 the harvesting of a hanging crop by a contractor. As the need of care 

 to avoid damaging the trees is insisted on, and all the workers are 

 to take a solemn oath 5 that they have stolen none of the crop, we 

 may fairly infer that they are freemen. When the process of manu- 

 facture is let to a contractor, his factores are to take a similar oath, 

 and are probably free. So too when a crop is sold hanging : if the 

 buyer neglects to pay 6 his leguli and factores (which would cause 

 delay) the landlord may pay them himself and recover the amount 

 from the buyer. On the other hand in the grazing department the 

 underlings are slaves. In case of the sale of winter grazing, provision 

 is made 7 for an arbitration for settlement of damages done by the 

 emptor aut pastor es aut pecus emptoris to the dominus, or by the domi- 

 nus aut familia aut pecus to the emptor. And, until the compensation 

 awarded is paid, the pecus aut familia on the ground is to be held in 

 pledge by the party to whom compensation is due. This would 

 generally be the landlord, and \.\\Q familia of the emptor would be his 



1 Cato agr 13 i duo custodes liberi . . .tertius servus . . .etc. 



2 Ibid 66 ubi factores vectibus prement. 3 Ibid 64 i. 4 Ibid 144. 

 6 Ibid 144-5. 6 Ibid 146^-^- 7 Ibid 149 2. 



