318 Generous land-dealings 



deeply interested in promoting manumissions 1 whenever he gets a chance. 

 His tender concern for the welfare of his slaves constantly meets us, 

 and he is only consoled for the death of one by reflecting that the man 

 was manumitted in time 2 and so died free. In fact he does not regard 

 slavery as a normally life-long condition ; and he allows his slaves to 

 make informal wills and respects their disposition of their savings 

 among their fellows 3 in the household, which is to slaves a sort of 

 commonwealth. Masters who don't feel the loss of their slaves are 

 really not human. But this all refers to domestics, and does not touch 

 the case of the field-hand toiling on the farm. 



A transaction 4 in reference to the sale of some land by the lake of 

 Como, Pliny's own neighbourhood, illustrates the normal changes of 

 ownership that were going on, and his own generous nature. An old 

 lady, an intimate friend of his mother, wanted to have a property in 

 that lovely district. Pliny gave her the offer of any of his land at her 

 own price, reserving only certain parcels for sentimental reasons. Be- 

 fore (as it seems) any bargain was made, a friend died and left ^ of 

 his estate to Pliny, including some land such as the old lady desired. 

 Pliny at once sent his freedman Hermes to offer her the suitable 

 parcels for sale. She promptly clinched the bargain with Hermes 

 at a figure which turned out to be only | of the full value. Pliny's 

 attention was called to this, but he stood by the act of his freedman 

 and ratified the sale. The publicani who were then farming the 5 / 

 duty on successions soon appeared, and claimed the 5 / as reckoned 

 on estimated full value of the property. The old lady settled with 

 them on these terms, and then insisted on paying to Pliny the full 

 value, not the bargained price; which offer he, not to be outdone, 

 gracefully declined. Such was the course of a commonplace transaction, 

 carried out by exceptional people in an unselfish spirit. We are most 

 certainly not to suppose that this sort of thing was common in land- 

 dealings. Another letter 5 shews us how a well-meant benefaction 

 might fail in its aim for want of means in the beneficiary. An old 

 slave- woman, once Pliny's wet-nurse, had evidently been manumitted, 

 and he made her a present of a small farm (agellum) to provide her 

 maintenance. At that time its market value was ample to secure this. 

 But things went wrong. For some reason the yearly returns fell, and 

 the market value fell also. Whether the old woman had tried to 

 manage it herself and failed, or whether a bad tenant had let down the 

 cultivation, does not plainly appear. At any rate Pliny was greatly 

 relieved when a friend, presumably one living near the place, under- 



1 See epist iv 10, vn 16, 32, vm 16. 2 Cf Martial I icr, vi 29. 



3 An important limitation, on which see Wallon in 55. 



4 vn ir, 14. 5 vi 3. 



