Book I. 



AGRICULTURE OF THE ROMANS. 



19 



to convenience. The remains of villas which have reached modern times, are chiefly 

 of brick stuccoed over. Pliny mentions walls in Africa and Spain, called formacii, the 



10 



formation of which, by cramming the earth between two boards, exactly agrees with the 

 French mode of building mud walls, called en pise. He also mentions walls of unburnt 

 brick, of mud, of turf, and frames filled up with bricks and mud. (Xat. Hist. lib. xxxv. 

 cap. 14.) 



SuBSKCT. 2. Of the Servants emjloyed in Roman Agriculture. 



85. The servants employed in Roman agriculture were of two sorts, freemen and slaves. 

 When the proprietor or farmer lived on the farm and directed its culture, these were 

 directly under his management ; in other cases there was a bailiff or overseer, to whom 

 all the other servants were subordinate. This was the case so early as Cato's time, who 

 is very particular in his directions respecting the care a bailiff ought to take of the 

 servants, the cattle, the laboring utensils, and in enacting his master's orders. 



86. The bailiff' was generally a person who had received some education, and could 

 write and keep accounts ; and it was expected that he should be careful, apt to learn, 

 and capable to execute his master's orders with a proper attention to situations and 

 circumstances. Columella, however, says, that < * the bailiff may do his business very well, 

 though he is illiterate." Cornelius Celsus says, that " such a bailiff will bring money to 

 his master oftener than his book ; because, being ignorant of letters, he is the less capable to 



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