258 The mlicus, 



as Cato Varro and others had done before him. Accordingly he begins 

 with the general organization of the normal large estate, and first dis- 

 cusses the choice and duties of the vilicus, on whose character and 

 competence everything depends. To this subject he returns in a later 

 part of the treatise, and the two passages 1 enforce the same doctrine 

 with very slight variations in detail. 



The steward 2 must not be a fancy-slave, a domestic from the master's 

 town house, but a well-tried hardy rustic, or at the very least one used 

 to hard labour. He must not be too old, or he may break down under 

 the strain ; nor too young, or the elder slaves will not respect him. He 

 must be a skilled farmer (this is most important) 3 , or at least thoroughly 

 painstaking, so as to pick up the business quickly: for the functions of 

 teaching and giving orders cannot be separated. He need not be able 

 to read and write, if his memory be very retentive. It is a remark of 

 Celsus, that a steward of this sort brings his master cash more often 

 than a book : for he cannot make up false accounts himself, and fears 

 to trust an accomplice. But, good bad or indifferent, a steward must 

 have a female partner 4 allotted him, to be a restraining influence on him 

 and in some respects a help. Being 5 his master's agent, he must be 

 enjoined not to live on terms of intimacy with any of the staff, and still 

 less with any outsider. Yet he may now and then invite a deserving 

 worker to his table on a feast-day. He must not do sacrifice 6 without 

 orders, or meddle with divination. He must attend markets only on 

 strict business, and not gad about, unless it be to pick up wrinkles 7 for 

 the farm, and then only if the place visited be close at hand. He must 

 not allow new pathways to be made on the farm, or admit as guests any 

 but his master's intimate friends. He must be instructed to attend 

 carefully 8 to the stock of implements and tools, keeping everything in 

 duplicate and in good repair, so that there need be no borrowing from 

 neighbours : for the waste of working time thus caused is a more serious 

 item than the cost of such articles. He is to see to the clothing 9 of the 

 staff (familiam) in practical garments that will stand wet and cold: 

 this done, some work in the open is possible in almost any weather. 

 He should be not only an expert in farm labour, but a man of the 



1 I Sand xi t. 2 I 8 1-3, xi i 3, 4, 7. 



** I 8 3, 4, where he says that a man who learns how to do things ab subiecto is not 

 fitted opus exigere. xi i 9-13 is not inconsistent with this, but lays more stress on the 

 necessity of training the vilicus. 



4 I 8 5 contubernalis mulier. She is to be vilica, cf xn i i, 2. Apuleius met vin 22. 



6 eidemque actort = him in his capacity of actor. Cf XI i 13, 19. See Index, actor. 



6 I 8 6, 7, XI i 22-3. 



7 nisi ut addiscat aliquant culturam. He is in a sense colonus, and hence his sphere of 

 duty is called colonia in xi i 23. In i 4 4, 5 the value of experiments is recognized. 



8 i 8 8, xi i 20-1. 9 i 8 9, xi i 21. 



