Rural Italy. Method 179 



as one of Pompey's lieutenants in the pirate war of 67 BC. The 

 dialogue of Book I would then be placed after the summer of that 

 year, probably not much later. The boast of the speakers as to the 

 splendid cultivation of Italy in general would refer to the time when 

 the disturbance caused by the confiscations and assignations of Sulla 

 was dying down and the rising of Spartacus had lately been suppressed. 

 It would be placed before the later disturbances caused by measures 

 designed to satisfy the claims of Pompeian Caesarian and Triumviral 

 armies. Vergil had not yet been driven from his Cisalpine farm. 



Whether by placing Book I in this interval, and by supposing 

 that the circumstances of that time would fit the utterances of Varro's 

 characters, I am exceeding the limits of sober guesswork, I cannot 

 judge. But I am convinced that in any case upland pastures and 

 forest-lands 1 accounted for a very large part of the surface of Italy 

 then, as they do still. Indeed Varro recognizes this in his references 

 to the migration of flocks and herds according to the seasons, and 

 particularly when he notes not only the great stretches of rough land 

 to be traversed but also the need of active and sturdy pastores able to 

 beat off the assaults of wild beasts and robbers. Surely the complete 

 cultivation of Italy, compared as it is with that of other countries, is 

 a description not to be taken literally, but as a natural exaggeration 

 in the mouth of a self-complacent Roman agriculturist. Be this as it 

 may, the^jeatise marks a great advance on that of Cato in some 

 respects. BM any details are common to both writers, in particular the 

 repeated insistence on the main principle that whatever the farmer 

 does must be made to pay. iProfit, not sentiment or fancy, was their 

 common and truly Roman aim.^but in the century or more that had 

 elapsed since Cato wrote other aumors (such as Saserna) had treated of 

 farming, and much had been learnt from Greek and Punic authorities. 

 Knowledge of the products and practices of foreign lands had greatly 

 increased, and Varro, who had himself added to this store, made free 

 use of the wider range of facts now at the service of inquirers. And 

 the enlarged outlook called for a systematic method. Accordingly 

 Varro's work is clearly divided into three discussions, of tillage 

 (Book l), grazing and stock-breeding (ll), and keeping fancy animals 

 (ill) chiefly to supply the market for table-luxuries. And he goes 

 into detail in a spirit different from that of Cato. Cato jerked out 

 dogmatic precepts when he thought fit, for instance his wonderful 

 list of farm-requisites. Varro is more concerned with the principles, 

 the reasons for preferring this or that method, derived from the 



1 The wild hill-pastures are referred to by Varro RR n i 16 as still leased to publicani 

 to whom the scriptura or registration fees had to be paid. I have given further references in 

 my Roman Republic 1351. See M Weber Romische Agrargeschichte pp 135 foil. 



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