Holdings. Crops. Men 283 



foolish ambition of land-proud capitalists of his own day. His praise 

 of the ancient ways and regret for their disappearance do not suggest 

 any hope of their revival. To Pliny as to others it was only too clear 

 that legends of conquering consuls setting their own hands to the 

 plough had no practical bearing on the conditions of the present age. 



Thoughtful men 1 could not ignore the fact that the decline in pro- 

 duction of cereal crops left Italy exposed to risk of famine. At any 

 moment storms might wreck the corn-fleets from Egypt or Africa, and 

 the strategic value of Egypt 2 as a vital food-centre had been shewn 

 quite recently in strengthening the cause of Vespasian. No wonder 

 Pliny is uneasy, and looks back regretfully 3 to the time when Italy 

 was not fed by the Provinces, when thrifty citizens grew their own 

 staple foodstuffs, and corn was plentiful and cheap. He quotes some 

 prices from the time of the great Punic wars and earlier, which shew 

 the remarkable cheapness of wine oil dried figs and flesh, as well as of 

 various grains. This result 'was not due to great estates owned by 

 individual landlords 4 who elbowed out their neighbours, but to the 

 willing work of noble citizens tilling their little holdings. To look for 

 similar returns from the task-work of chained and branded slaves is a 

 sheer libel on Mother Earth. That he treats at great length of agri- 

 cultural details, not only of grain-crops in their various kinds, but fruits, 

 vegetables, indeed everything he can think of, and all the processes of 

 cultivation, is due to his encyclopaedic bent, and need not detain us 

 here. When he tells us 5 that vine-growing was a comparatively late 

 development among the Romans, who long were content with grain - 

 growing, it is a passing sigh over a vanished age of simple life. The 

 meaning of words changes and records the change of things. When 

 the T welve Tables 6 spoke of hortus, it was not a garden in the modern 

 sense, a place of pleasure and luxury, that was meant, but a poor man's 

 small holding. By that venerable code it was made a criminal offence 7 

 to cut or graze off under cover of night the crops raised on a man's 

 plough-land. A man whose farm was badly cultivated was disgraced 

 by the censors. For, as Cato 8 said, there is no life like the farmer's for 

 breeding sturdy men to make efficient soldiers and loyal citizens. The 

 gist of these utterances, picked out of the mass, is that Pliny would 

 like to see Italy able to provide for her own feeding and her own de- 

 fence, but knows very well that no such ideal is within the range of 

 hope. 



His interest in agriculture such as he saw it around him is shewn 

 in recording recent or contemporary doings, such as that of the man 



1 So Tiberius in Tac ann in 54. 2 Tac hist ill 8 Aegyptus, daustra annonae. 



3 My xvm 1 5 foil. 



4 ibid 1 7 ?2 latifundiis singulorum contingebat arcentium vicinos. 



6 NHxvui 24. 6 Nffxix 50-1. 7 NHxvui 12. 8 NHxviu ir, 26. 



