254 The meaning of opus 



inoperative in practice. In the case of a neighbouring farm, why has the 

 landlord not kept it in hand, putting in a steward to manage it ? This 

 interpretation leaves us with no clear picture of a practical arrange- 

 ment. But this objection is perhaps not fatal. The right to enforce 

 proper cultivation is plainly guaranteed to landlords in Roman Law, 

 as the jurists constantly assert in discussing tenancies. And opus is a 

 term employed 1 by them in this connexion. It is therefore the safer 

 course to take it here in this sense, and to allow for a certain want of 

 clearness in Columella's phrase. At the same time it is tempting to 

 accept another 2 view, namely this, that the writer has in mind service 

 rendered in the form of a stipulated amount of auxiliary labour on 

 the landlord's * Home Farm ' at certain seasons. That a corvee arrange- 

 ment of this kind existed as a matter of course on some estates, we 

 have direct evidence 3 in the second century, evidence that suggests an 

 earlier origin for the custom. True, it implies that landlords were in 

 practice able to impose the burden of such task-work on their free 

 tenants, in short that they had the upper hand in the bargain between 

 the parties. But this is not surprising : for we read 4 of a great landlord 

 calling up his coloni to serve on his private fleet in the great civil war, 

 a hundred years before Columella. Still, it is perhaps rash to see in 

 this passage a direct reference to the custom of making the supply of 

 auxiliary labour at certain seasons a part of tenant's obligations. 

 Granting this, it is nevertheless reasonable to believe that the first 

 beginnings of the custom may belong to a date at least as early as 

 the treatise of Columella. For it is quite incredible that such a practice 

 should spring up and become prevalent suddenly. It has all the marks 

 of gradual growth. 



Another point of interest is the criticism of the town-bred colonus. 

 He prefers to work the farm with a slave staff, rather than undertake 

 the job himself. tf gather from this that he is a man with capital, also 

 that he means to get a good return on his capital. He fears to make 

 a loss on a rustic venture, being well aware of his own inexperience. 

 So he will put in a steward with a staff of slaves. The position of the 

 steward will in such a case be peculiarly strong. If he is slack and 

 thievish and lets down the farm, he can stave off his master's anger 

 by finding fault with the soil or buildings, and involve the tenant and 

 landlord in a quarrel over the rent. To devise pretexts would be easy 

 for a rogue, and a quarrel might end in a lawsuit. That Saserna, writing 



1 Dig xxxin 7 25!, xix i 24, 25*. 



2 M Weber Rom Agrargeschichte p 244. Of course opus is a general term, not tech- 

 nical as operae ( = labour units) often is. See Vinogradoff Growth of the Manor note 94 on 

 p no. From Horace epist 1121 opus debentibus I can get no help. 



3 See below, in the chapter on the African inscriptions. 4 Caesar civ \ 34, 56. 



