Petronius 249 



and traces this decay to the effect of luxury and corruption caused by 

 the influx of vast wealth, the spoils of Roman conquests. Among the 

 symptoms of disease he notes the latifundia, which it was now be- 

 coming the fashion to denounce, the land-grabbing passion that 

 prompted men to monopolize great tracts of land and incorporate in 

 huge estates, worked by cultivators unknown Ho them, farms that once 

 had been ploughed and hoed by the rustic heroes of old. But all such 

 utterances are merely a part of a declaimer's stock-in-trade. We may 

 fairly guess that they are echoes of talk heard in the literary circle of 

 his uncle Seneca. That they are nevertheless consistent with the land- 

 system of this period, is to be gathered from other sources, such as 

 Petronius and Columella. It remains to note that the word colonus is 

 used by Lucan in the senses of 'cultivator' and 'farmer/ rather sug- 

 gesting ownership, and of 'military colonist,' clearly implying it. That 

 of 'tenant' does not occur: there was no need for it in the poem. 

 Again, he has servire servilis and servitium, but servus occurs only in 

 a suspected 2 line, and as an adjective. His regular word for 'slave' is 

 famulus. 



The bucolic poems of this period are too manifestly artificial to 

 serve as evidence of value. For instance, when Calpurnius declares 1 

 that in this blessed age of peace and prosperity thefossor is not afraid 

 to profit by the treasure he may chance to dig up, we cannot infer that 

 a free digger is meant, though it is hardly likely that a slave would be 

 suffered to keep treasure-trove. 



Petronius, in the curious mixed prose- verse satire of which part has 

 come down to us,naturally says very little bearing directlyon agriculture. 

 But in depicting the vulgar freedman-millionaire Trimalchio he refers 

 pointedly to the vast landed estates belonging to this typical figure of 

 the period. He owns estates 'far as the kites 4 can fly.' This impression 

 is confirmed in detail by a report delivered by the agent for his pro- 

 perties. It is a statement 5 of the occurrences in a domain of almost 

 imperial proportions during a single day. So many children, male and 

 female, were born: so many thousand bushels of wheat were stocked 

 in the granary: so many hundred oxen broken in: a slave was crucified 

 for disloyalty to his lord : so many million sesterces were paid in to the 

 chest, no opening for investment presenting itself. On one park-estate 

 (hortis) there was a great fire, which began in the steward's house. 

 Trimalchio cannot recall the purchase of this estate, which on inquiry 



1 longa sub ignotis extendere rura colonis. Cf Seneca de vita beata \ 7 2 cur trans mare 

 possides? cur plura quam nosti? and Petron 37. 



2 VI 152 o famuli turpes, servum pecus. s Calpurn eel IV 118. 



4 Petron 37 fundos habet qua milvi volant. A proverbial phrase, cf Persius iv 26 dives 

 arat... quantum non milvus oberret, Juvenal IX 55. 



5 Petron 53. 



