252 Stewards or tenants ? 



may well be that it was now more widespread than in Varro's time ; 

 but in both writers we may perhaps suspect some degree of overstate- 

 ment, to which reformers are apt to resort in depicting the abuses 

 they are wishing to reform. I do not allow much for this consideration, 

 for the picture, confirmed by general literary evidence, is in the main 

 unquestionably true. 



So much for the case of estates administered by slave stewards for 

 the account of their masters. But this was not the only way of dealing 

 with landed properties. We have already noted the system of letting 

 farms to cultivating tenants, and commented on the fewness of the 

 references to it in literature. This plan may have been very ancient 

 in origin, but it was probably an exceptional arrangement even in the 

 time of Cicero. The very slight notice of it by Varro indicates that it 

 was not normal, indeed not even common. In Columella we find a 

 remarkable change. In setting out the main principles 1 of estate 

 management, and insisting on the prime importance of the owner's 

 attention (cura domini\ he adds that this is necessary above all things 

 in relation to the persons concerned (in hominibus). Now the homines 

 are coloni or servi, and are unchained or chained. After this division 

 and subdivision he goes on to discuss briefly but thoroughly the proper 

 relations between landlord and tenant-farmer, the care needed in the 

 selection of satisfactory tenants, and the considerations that must guide 

 a landlord in deciding whether to let a piece of land to a tenant or to 

 farm it for his own account. He advises him to be obliging and easy 

 in his dealings with tenants, and more insistent in requiring their work 

 or service (opus)* than their rent (pensiones) : this plan is less irritating, 

 and after all it pays better in the long run. For, barring risks of storms 

 or brigands, good farming nearly always leaves a profit, so that the 

 tenant has not the face to claim 8 a reduction of rent. A landlord 

 should not be a stickler for trifles or mean in the matter of little per- 

 quisites, such as cutting firewood, worrying his tenant unprofitably. 

 But, while waiving the full rigour of the law, he should not omit to 

 claim his dues in order to keep alive his rights : wholesale remission 

 is a mistake. It was well said by a great landowner that the greatest 

 blessing for an estate is when the tenants are natives 4 of the place, a 

 sort of hereditary occupiers, attached to it by the associations of their 

 childhood's home. Columella agrees that frequent changes of tenant 



1 I 7 passim. 



2 If we are to hold that opus here refers only to work on the particular farm hired by the 

 tenant, I presume it includes improvements, as in Digest xix i 24 s . 



3 remissionem petere non audet. 



4 felicissimum fundtim esse qui colonos indigenas haberet et tamquam in paterna possessions 

 natos iam inde a cunabulis longa familiaritate retineret. 



