Violence. Investments 405 



gone by. Slaves employed in hunting 1 are mentioned by Symmachus 

 as by Pliny. No doubt they took to this occupation with zest. The 

 degeneracy of hunting by deputy is contemptuously noted as a sign 

 of the times by the soldier critic 2 Ammianus. But it was no new thing. 

 That the general state of the countryside was hardly favourable to 

 the quiet development of agriculture may be gathered from many 

 notices. For instance, when he would have been glad to be out of 

 Rome for the good of his health, he complains 3 that the prevalence 

 j of brigandage in the country near forces him to stay in the city. A 

 friend urges him to come back to Rome for fear of a violent raid on an 

 estate apparently suburban: he can only reply 4 that a breach of 

 possession during his absence will not hold good in law. Whether the 

 militaris impressio* on his farm at Ostia, to which he casually refers, 

 was the raid of foreign foes suddenly landing on that coast, or the law- 

 less outrage of imperial troops,, is not certain: I rather suspect the 

 latter. For, fifteen years later (398), after the overthrow of Gildo, he 

 writes 6 that the soldiers are all back from Africa, and the Appian way is 

 clear : here the meaning seems plain. And his endeavour 7 to prevent the 

 commandeering of an old friend's house at Ariminum for military 

 quarters is significant of the high-handed treatment of civilians by 

 army men in those days, of which we have other evidence. Neverthe- 

 less men were still willing to buy estates. Symmachus himself was 

 still adding to his vast possessions. We see him in treaty 8 for a place 

 in Samnium, where there was apparently some queer practice on the 

 part of the seller: in another case he is annoyed 9 that his partner in a 

 joint purchase has contrived to secure the whole bargain as sole 

 nsferee, and rather sulkily offers to waive his legal claims on being 

 imbursed what he has already paid to the transferor. It seems strange 

 t a man who, beside his numerous properties in Italy, owned estates 10 

 Mauretania (where he complains that the governors allow his interests 

 suffer) and in Sicily (where the lessee is called conductor, probably a 

 enant in chief subletting to coloni\ should have had an appetite for 

 ore investments of doubtful economic value. But other investments 

 ere evidently very hard to find in an age when industry and commerce 

 ere fettered by the compulsory gild-system. And a man of influence 

 ike Symmachus was better able than one of the common herd to 

 otect his own interests by the favour of powerful officials. 



1 epist vin 2. Plin epist I 6, v 6 46. 



2 Aram Marc xxvm 4 18 alienis laboribus venaturi. 3 epist II 22. 4 epist v 18. 

 5 epist n 52. Cf the cases contemplated in Dig xix 2 13?, is 2 . 8 epist vn 38. 



7 epist IX 45 (48). 8 epist vi n. epist ix 27 (30). 



10 epist vn 66, ix 49 (52). In the law of 414 Cod Th xvi 5 54 we have these con- 

 ts privatorum opposed to conductores domus nostrae in Africa. See above, chapter on 

 African inscriptions. 



