a restraining influence 239 



of slavery and the labour-question ? Here I must refer to the three 

 great writers on agriculture. Cato, about 150 years earlier, and Colu- 

 mella, about 80 years later, both contemplate the actual buying of 

 land, and insist on the care necessary in selection. The contemporary 

 Varro seems certainly to assume purchase. All three deal with slave- 

 labour, Cato like a hard-fisted dominus of an old-Roman generation 

 just become consciously imperial and bent on gain, Columella as a 

 skilful organizer of the only regular supply of labour practically avail- 

 able : Varro, who makes more allowance 1 for free labour beside that 

 of slaves, reserves the free man for important jobs, where he may be 

 trusted to use his wits, or for unhealthy work, in which to risk slaves 

 is to risk your own property. All the ordinary work in his system is 

 done by slaves. The contemporary Livy 2 tells us that in his time large 

 districts near Rome had scarce any free inhabitants left. The elder 

 Pliny, reckoning up the advantages of Italy for the practice of agricul- 

 ture, includes 3 among them the supply ofservitia, though no man knew 

 better than he what fatal results had issued from the plantation-system. 

 It is to be borne in mind that this evidence relates to the plains and 

 the lower slopes of hills, that is to the main agricultural districts. It 

 is to these parts that Gardthausen 4 rightly confines his remarks on the 

 desolation of Italy, which began before the civil wars and was accelerated 

 by them. Other labour was scarce, and gangs of slaves, generally 

 chained, were almost the only practicable means of tillage for profit. 

 Speaking broadly, I think the truth of this picture is not to be denied. 

 If then the word had gone forth that a return to smaller-scale farming 

 was to be advocated as a cure for present evils, it was hardly possible 

 to touch on slavery without some unfavourable reference to the plan- 

 tation-system. Now surely it is most unlikely that Maecenas, a cool 

 observer and a thorough child of the age, sincerely believed in the 

 possibility of setting back the clock. The economic problem could 

 not be solved so simply, by creating a wave of ' back-to-the-land ' 

 enthusiasm. I suggest that he saw no good to be got by openly 

 endeavouring to recreate the race of small working farmers by artificial 

 means. Would it be wise to renew an attempt in which the Gracchi 

 had failed ? Now to Vergil, who had passed his youth in a district of 

 more humane agriculture, the mere praise of farming, with its rich 

 compensations for never-ending toil and care, would be a congenial 

 theme. The outcome of their combination was that a topic not easily 

 idealized in treatment was omitted. The realistic value of the picture 

 was impaired to the relief of both poet and patron. But what the poem 

 gained as a beautiful aspiration it lost as a practical authority. 



1 Varro RR I 17, a notable chapter. 2 Livy vi 12, vn 25. 



3 Plin NH xxxvn 201-3. 4 Augustus vi 3, p 547. 



