The Moretum 231 



small cultivator. It is curious that just above (118, cf 147-8) the poet 

 is at pains to excuse his omission to discuss in detail the proper 

 management of horti, on the pretext of want of space. For he was no 

 mean antiquary, and Pliny tells 1 us that in the Twelve Tables hortus 

 was used of what was afterwards called villa, a country farm, while 

 heredium stood for a garden; and adds that in old timeflerse hortus 

 ager pauperis erat. But hortus is to Vergil strictly a garden, and the 

 old Corycian is cited expressly as a gardener: his land, we are told, 

 was not suited for growing corn or vines. 



The mention of gardening invites me to say a few words on the 

 short descriptive idyll Moretum which has been regarded as a youthful 

 composition of Vergil (perhaps from a Greek original) with more justice 

 than some other pieces attributed to him. I see no strong objection to 

 admitting it as Vergilian, but it is of course crude and far removed 

 from the manner and finisl) of the mature Georgics. The peasant 

 Simylus, exigui cultor rusticus agri, is a poor small farmer whose thrift 

 and industry enable him to make a living 'in a humble and pottering 

 way/ as Gilbert puts it. His holding is partly ordinary arable land, 

 but includes a hortus as well. In the latter he skilfully grows a variety 

 of vegetables, for which he finds a regular market in the city. Poor 

 though he is, and accustomed to wait on himself, apparently unmarried, 

 he yet owns a slave (famulam, 93) and she is a negro, fully described 

 (31-5), woolly hair, thick lips, dark skin, spindle shanks, paddle feet, 

 etc. She probably would do the house-work, but the preparation of 

 food is a duty in which her master also bears a part. We hear of no 

 male slave, and the ploughing of fields and digging the garden are 

 apparently done by himself singlehanded. The yoke of oxen are men- 

 tioned in the last lines. The picture is such as may have been true of 

 some humble homesteads in Italy, but the tradition of a Greek original, 

 and the names Simylus and Scybale, must leave us in some doubt as 

 to whether the scene be really Italian. The position is in fact much 

 the same as it is in regard to the Bucolics. 



Whatever may be the correct view as to the authorship and bearing 

 of the Moretum, there are I think certain conclusions to be drawn from 

 an examination of the Georgics, which it is time to summarize. First, 

 the tendency of the poem is to advocate a system of smaller holdings 

 and more intensive cultivation than had for a long period been customary 

 in a large part of Italy. This reform is rather suggested by implication 

 than directly urged, though one precept, said to be borrowed 2 from old 

 Cato, recommends it in plain words. For the glorification of labour in 

 general is all the while pointing in this direction. Secondly, the policy 



1 Pliny NH xix 50-1. 



2 II 412-3 laudato ingentia rura, exiguum colito. Not found in surviving text of Cato. 



