A glimpse of farm-tenancies 183 



themselves to Varro. It would seem that they were in general much 

 the same as in Cato's time, but that Varro is more inclined to discuss 

 openly some details that Cato took for granted. So in his turn Varro 

 takes some things for granted, passing lightly over details that we 

 cannot but wish to know. 



There is however one important matter, ignored by Cato (at least 

 in his text as we have it), to which reference is found in Varro. It is 

 the presence of the free tenant farmer (colonus) in the agricultural 

 system of Italy. He tells us that the formal lease 1 of a farm usually 

 contained a clause by which the colonus was forbidden to graze a she- 

 goat's offspring on the farm. In another passage 2 the same prohibi- 

 tion is mentioned, but with this limitation, that it applies only to land 

 planted with immature saplings. So poisonous were the teeth of 

 nibbling goats thought to be. The restriction imposed on the tenant 

 suggests that the landlord was bargaining at an advantage ; the lessor 

 could dictate his terms to the lessee. That the tenant farmers of this 

 period were at least in some cases humble dependants of their land- 

 lords is clearly shewn by a passage 3 of Caesar. In order to hold 

 Massalia for Pompey in 49 BC, Domitius raised a squadron of seven 

 ships, the crews for which he made up from his own 4 slaves freedmen 

 and tenants. Soon after he refers to this force 5 as the tenants and 

 herdsmen brought by Domitius. These herdsmen are no doubt some 

 of the slaves before mentioned. It is evident that the free retainers 

 called tenants are not conceived as having much choice in the matter 

 when their noble lord called them out for service. Probably their 

 effective freedom consisted in the right to own property (if they could 

 get it), to make wills, to rear children of their own, and other like 

 privileges. But their landlord would have so great a hold 6 on them 

 that, though in theory freemen, they were in practice compelled to do 

 his bidding. In later times we shall find the tenant farmer a common 

 figure in rural life, but very dependent on his landlord ; and it is by 

 no means clear that his position had ever been a strong and indepen- 

 dent one. Of Varro all we can say is that he does refer to farm- 

 tenancy as a business-relation, and infer from his words that in that 

 relation the landowner had the upper hand. 



Beside what we may call the legal sense of 'tenant,' Varro also uses 

 colonus in its older sense of 'cultivator.' In discussing the convenience 

 of being able to supply farm needs, and dispose of farm surplus, in the 

 neighbourhood, he points out that the presence or absence of this 



1 RR II 3 7 in lege locationis fundi excipi solet ne colonus capra natum in fundo pascat. 



2 RR I i 17 leges colonicas . . .etc. 3 Caesar BC I 34, 56. 

 4 servis libertis colonis suis. 5 colonis pastoribusque. 

 6 As a creditor on a debtor. 



