250 Columella 



turns out to be a recent acquisition not yet on the books. Then comes 

 the reading of notices issued by officials 1 of the manors, of wills 2 made 

 by rangers, of the names of his stewards ; of a freedwoman's divorce, 

 the banishment of an atriensis, the committal of a cashier for trial, 

 and the proceedings in court in an action between some chamberlains. 

 Of course all this is not to be taken seriously, but we can form some 

 notion of the state of things that the satirist has in mind. Too gross 

 an exaggeration would have defeated his purpose. The book is full of 

 passages bearing on the history of slavery, but it is domestic slavery, 

 and that often of the most degrading character. 



IXXXIII. COLUMELLA. 



The great interest taken in agriculture after the establishment of 

 the Roman peace by Augustus is shewn by the continued appearance 

 of works on the subject. The treatise of Celsus, who wrote in the time 

 of Tiberius, was part of a great encyclopaedic work. It was probably 

 one of the most important books of its kind : but it is lost, and we only 

 know it as cited by other writers, such as Columella and the elder 

 Pliny. It is from the treatise of Columella, composed probably under 

 Nero, that we get most of our information as to Roman husbandry 

 (rusticatio, as he often calls it) in the period of the earlier Empire. The 

 writer was a native of Spain, deeply interested, like other Spanish 

 Romans, in the past present and future of Italy. It is evident that in 

 comparing the present with the past he could not avoid turning an 

 uneasy eye to the future. Like others, he could see that agriculture, 

 once the core of Roman strength, the nurse of a vigorous free popula- 

 tion, was in a bad way. It was still the case that the choicest farm- 

 lands of Italy were largely occupied by mansions and parks, the 

 property of non-resident owners who seldom visited their estates, and 

 hardly ever qualified themselves to superintend their management in- 

 telligently. The general result was hideous waste. In modern language, 

 those who had command of capital took no pains to employ it in 

 business-like farming: while the remaining free rustics lacked capital. 

 Agriculture was likely to go from bad to worse under such conditions. 

 The Empire would thus be weakened at its centre, and to a loyal Pro- 

 vincial, whose native land was part of a subject world grouped round 

 that centre, the prospect might well seem bewildering. Columella was 

 from the first interested in agriculture, on which his uncle 3 at Gades 



1 edict a aedilium. 



2 saltuariorum testamenta. They were evidently slaves and could only make wills by 

 leave of their owner. See Dig xxxm 7 is 4 . 



3 Many times referred to in the book. 



