36 AGRICULTURE IN THE ANCIENT WORLD. 



every vanquished nation was compelled to merge itself into the 

 yeomanry of Eome, or to cede a third part of its domain, which 

 was thereupon converted into Roman farms. It has been well 

 said, that many nations have gained victories and conquests as 

 the Romans did; but none have equaled them in securing to 

 the plowshare what was won by the sword. 



The extent of a middle sized Roman farm was about twelve 

 and a half acres, the chief crops wheat, and spelt, which is even 

 better adapted than wheat to primitive cultivation. Peas, 

 beans, and a great variety of vegetables were diligently culti 

 vated. The rearing of cattle for milk or meat does not appear 

 to have been practiced until later times. From the Greeks they 

 borrowed the culture of the olive, fig and vine. The farmer 

 and his sons guided the plow, which was drawn by the ox or 

 cow; horses, asses and mules being used only as beasts of bur 

 den. The cattle, geese and swine were kept in the agrarium or 

 common pasture. 



So perfectly was the plowing performed, and so closely were 

 the furrows laid that harrowing was dispensed with altogether. 

 The farmer had many holidays going weekly to market and 

 keeping zealously all the religious and family festivals. After 

 the winter sowing, a whole month was considered a holiday. 



At a very early period there seems to have been no distinction 

 made between the rights of the large or small laud-holder in 

 the common pasture, which was the property of the State, and 

 not of the community. Day laborers w r ere common, but there 

 were few slaves, and as these were of the same blood and race, 

 captives from Etrurian or Volscian neighbors, they were per 

 mitted and doubtless encouraged to work out their freedom. 



A careful reading of Roman history, especially that part of it 

 which relates to the division of society into two great classes, 

 patricians and plebeians, the differences that arose about the use 

 of the common pasture, the concentration of land and capital 

 into fewer hands, dispossessing the small farmers and cultivat 

 ing estates with rural slaves, is necessary to a right understand 

 ing of the agricultural condition of modern Europe. 



In the sixth century, (Roman era,) Roman husbandry consisted 

 in the management either of the large estates of the aristocracy, 

 or of the pasturage, i. e., the public or common lands, or in the 

 tillage of petty holdings. Mommsen says &quot;the whole system 

 was pervaded by the unscrupulousness characteristic of the 



