Working farmers 197 



were of course those in which a community of pursuits developed a 

 real sympathy, even affection between owner and owned, as in the 

 case of Tiro, on whose manumission 1 Quintus Cicero wrote to con- 

 gratulate his brother. In all these passages, however, there is one 

 thing to be noted. They do not look to the conditions of rustic life ; 

 and, so far as the evidence of Cicero goes, they do not shake my con- 

 viction that manumission was a very rare event on country estates. 



A topic of special interest is the evidence of the existence of farmers 

 who, whether employing slaves or not, worked on the land in person. 

 What does Cicero say as to avrovpyia in his time ? It has been pointed 

 out above that, when it suits his present purpose, he not only enlarges 

 on the homely virtues of country folk but refers to the old Roman 

 tradition of farmer-citizens called from the plough to guide and save 

 the state in hours of danger. He made full use of this topic in his 

 defence of Sextus Roscius, and represented his client as a simple rustic,- 

 reeking of the farmyard, how far truly, is doubtful. But he does not 

 go so far as to depict him ploughing or digging or carting manure. It 

 is reasonable to suppose that the slaves to whom he refers 2 did the 

 rough farm-work under his orders. When he can make capital out of 

 the wrongs of the humble labouring farmer, the orator does not shrink 

 from doing so. One of the iniquities laid to the charge 3 of Verres is 

 that he shifted the burden of taking legal proceedings from the lessees 

 of the Sicilian tithes (decumani) to the tithe-liable lessees of the land 

 (the aratores). Instead of the tithe-farmer having to prove that his 

 demand was just, the land-farmer had to prove that it was unjust. 

 Now this was too much even for those farming on a large scale : it 

 meant in practice that they had to leave their farms and go off to make 

 their appeals at Syracuse. But the hardship was far greater in the case 

 of small farmers (probably sub-tenants), of whom he speaks thus : 

 ' And what of those whose means of tillage 4 consist of one yoke of 

 oxen, who labour on their farms with their own hands in the days 

 before your governorship such men were a very numerous class in 

 Sicily when they have satisfied the demands of Apronius, what are 

 they to do next ? Are they to leave their tillages, leave their house 

 and home, and come to Syracuse, in the hope of reasserting their rights 

 at law against an Apronius 5 under the impartial government of a 

 Verres?' No doubt the most is made of these poor men and their 

 wrongs. But we need not doubt that there were still some small 



1 Cic ad fam xvi 16 i eum indignum ilia fortuna nobis amicum quam servum esse 

 maluisti. 



2 pro Roscio Amer 120 homines paene operarios. 



3 II in Verrem ill 27. 



4 quid, qui singulis iugis arant, qui ab opere ipsi non recedunt...&* 

 6 The infamous henchman of Verres. 



