264 procurator 



the purely agricultural superintendence of the farm in hand. This 

 would make him a mere farm-bailiff, directing operations on the land, 

 but with little or no responsibility for such matters as finance. And in 

 a few passages we have mention of a procurator. This term must be 

 taken in its ordinary sense 1 as signifying the landlord's 'attorney' or 

 full legal representative. He is to keep an eye on the management, 

 for instance 2 the threshing-floor, if the master is not at hand. The 

 position of his quarters indicates his importance: as the steward's 

 lodging is to be where he can watch goings-out and comings-in, so 

 that of the procurator is to be where 3 he can have a near view of the 

 steward as well as doings in general. Judging from the common prac- 

 tice of the day, it is probable that he would be a freedman. Now, why 

 does Columella, after referring to him thus early in the treatise, proceed 

 to ignore him afterwards? The only reasonable explanation that occurs 

 to me is that the appointment of such an official would only be neces- 

 sary in exceptional cases : in short, that in speaking of a procurator he 

 implies an unexpressed reservation 'supposing such a person to be 

 employed.' Circumstances that might lead to such an appointment 

 are not far to seek. The landlord might be abroad for a long time on 

 public duty or private business. There might be large transactions 

 pending (purchases, sales, litigation, etc) in connexion with the estate 

 or neighbourhood ; in the case of a very large estate this was not un- 

 likely. The estate might be one of several owned by the same lord, 

 and the procurator intermittently resident on one or other as from time 

 to time required. Or lastly the services of an agent with full legal 

 powers may have been desirable in dealing with free tenantry. If a 

 landlord had a number of tenant farmers on his estates, it is most un- 

 likely that his vilici, slaves as they were, would be able to keep a firm 

 hand 4 on them : and the fact of his letting his farms surely suggests 

 that he would not desire to have much rent-collecting or exaction of 

 services to do himself. 



One point in which Columella's system seems to record a change 

 from earlier usage may be found in the comparative disuse of letting 

 out special jobs to contractors. In one passage 5 , when discussing the 

 trenching-work required in pastinatio, and devices for preventing the 

 disputes arising from bad execution of the same, he refers to conductor 

 as well as dominus. The interests of the two are liable to clash, and 

 he tries to shew a means of ensuring a fair settlement between the 



1 See Cic de oratore I 249, pro Tullio 17. 2 I 6 23. 



3 I 6 1 procuratori supra ianuam ob easdem causas : et is tamen mlicum observet ex vicino. 

 Cf Plin#M/in 19 2. 



4 In Columella's time. At a later date this could hardly be said, as the position of coloni 

 became worse. 



6 in 13 12, 13. Cf Dig XLIII 24 is 1 . 



