284 Successful enterprises 



mentioned above who squandered a fortune on ill-judged farming. A 

 more successful venture 1 was that of Remmius Palaemon, apparently 

 in the time of Claudius. He was a freedman, not a farmer, but a school- 

 master (grammaticus) of repute, a vainglorious fellow. He bought some 

 land, not of the best quality and let down by bad farming. To farm this 

 he engaged another freedman, one Acilius Sthenelus, who had the vine- 

 yards thoroughly overhauled (pastinatis de integro). Before eight years 

 were out, he was able to sell a hanging crop for half as much again as 

 it had cost him to buy the land, and within ten years he sold the land 

 itself to Seneca (not a man for fancy prices) for four times as much as 

 he had given for it. Truly a fine speculation. Sthenelus had carried 

 out another of the same kind 2 on his own account. We must note that 

 both were in the vine-culture, not in corn-growing, and the appearance 

 of freedmen, probably oriental Greeks, as leaders of agricultural enter- 

 prise in Italy. There is nothing to shew that these undertakings were 

 on a large scale : the land in Sthenelus' own case is stated as not more 

 than 60 iugera. But no doubt he was, like many of his tribe, a keen 

 man of business 3 and not too proud or preoccupied to give close atten- 

 tion to the matter in hand. Such a man would get the utmost out of 

 his slaves and check waste: he would keep a tight grip on a slave 

 steward if (which we are not told) he found it necessary to employ one 

 at all. For Pliny, as for most Romans, a profitable speculation had 

 great charms. He cannot resist repeating the old Greek story 4 of the 

 sage who demonstrated his practical wisdom by making a 'corner' in 

 olive-presses, foreseeing a ' bumper' crop. Only he turns it round, 

 making it a 'corner' in oil, in view of a poor crop and high prices, and 

 tells it not of Thales but of Democritus. 



There were of course many principles of agriculture that no eco- 

 nomic or social changes could affect. The 'oracle' of Cato, as to the 

 importance 5 of thorough and repeated ploughing followed by liberal 

 manuring, was true under all conditions. But just for a moment the 

 veil is lifted to remind us that in the upland districts there was still an 

 Italy agriculturally, as socially, very different from the lowland arable 

 of which we generally think when speaking of Italian farming. 'Plough- 

 ing on hillsides 6 is cross-wise, and so toilsome to man that he even 

 has to do ox-team's work: at least the mountain peoples 7 use the 

 mattock for tillage instead of the plough, and do without the ox.' It 

 is to be regretted that we have so little evidence as to the condition of 



1 Nffxiv 49, 50. 2 ^yxiv 48. 



3 Such as the agricola strenuus depicted in the letter of Marcus to Fronto (p 29 Naber), 

 who has omnia ad usum magis quam ad voluptatem. 



4 NH xvin 273-4. Aristotle Politics in. 5 NH xvm 174. 



6 NffxviU 178 ...transverse monte. 



7 certe sine hoc animali montanae gentes sarculis arant. 



