Questions of land-purchase 319 



took to direct the cultivation of the farm. He expresses his confidence 

 that under the new management the holding would recover its value. 

 For his own credit, not less than for the advantage of his nurse, he 

 wishes to see it produce its utmost. These little holdings no doubt 

 needed very skilful management, and I suspect that idle slaves were 

 in this case the cause of the trouble. Slaves commonly went with land, 

 and I do not think the generous donor would give his old nurse the 

 bare land without the needful labour. The old ' Mammy ' could not 

 control them, and Pliny's friend saved the situation. 



Trajan's order, requiring Provincial candidates for office to invest 

 a third 1 of their property in Italian real estate, and the artificial rise 

 of prices for the time, has been dealt with above, Pliny advised a 

 friend, if he would be not sorry 2 to part with his Italian estates, to 

 sell now at the top of the market and buy land in the Provinces, 

 where prices would be correspondingly lowered. Of the risks attendant 

 on landowning in Italy he was well aware, and one letter 8 on the pros 

 and cons of a tempting purchase must be translated in full. He writes 

 thus to a friend. 



' I am doing as usual, asking your advice on a matter of business. 

 There are now for sale some landed properties that border on farms 

 of mine and indeed run into them. There are about them many points 

 that tempt me, but some equally important that repel me. The tempta- 

 tions are these. First, to round off my estate would be in itself an 

 improvement. Secondly, it would be a pleasure, and a real economy 

 to boot, to make one trip and one expense serve for a visit to both 

 properties, to keep both under the same 4 legal agent, indeed almost 

 under the same stewards, and to use only one of the granges as my 

 furnished house, just keeping the other in repair. I am taking into 

 account the cost of furniture, of chief servants, fancy gardeners, artisans, 

 and even hunting 5 outfit : for it makes a vast difference whether items 

 like these are concentrated in one spot or are scattered in separate 

 places. On the other hand I fear it may be rash to expose so large a 

 property to the same local climatic risks. It seems safer to encounter 

 the changes of fortune by not holding too much land in one neigh- 

 bourhood. Moreover, it is a very pleasant thing to have change of 

 scene and climate, and so too is the mere touring about from one of 

 your estates to another. Then comes the chief issue on which I am 

 trying to make up my mind. The farms are productive, the soil rich, 

 the water-supply good ; they contain pastures, vineyards, and wood- 



1 VI 19. 2 si paenitet te Italic orum praediorum. 3 in 19. 



4 sub eodem procuratore ac paene isdem actoribus habere. The actores seem to be = vilici, 

 under the newer name, procurator a much more important person. See paneg 36 for the 

 two as grades in the imperial private service. Cf chapter on Columella p 264. 



5 atriensium, topiarioruiHifabrorum, atque etiam venatorii instrument. 



