12 AGRICULTURE : 



If we pause for a moment to glance at the civil 

 institutions of this wonderful people, we discover 

 how soon and how deeply it entered into their poli- 

 cy, not merely to promote, but to dignify agricul- 

 ture and its professors.* When, Cicero said that 

 "nothing in this world was better, more useful, 

 more agreeable, more worthy of a free man than 

 agriculture,"! he pronounced not only his own opin- 

 ion, but the public judgment of his age and nation. 

 Were troops to be raised for the defence of the re- 

 public, the iribus ruslicus the country or farming 

 class was the privileged nursery of the legion.f 

 Did exigencies of state require a general or dictator, 

 he was taken from the plough. Were his services 

 to be rewarded, this was done, not with ribands or 

 gold, but by a donation of land. 



With such support from public opinion, it was 

 not to be supposed that the laws would be either 

 adverse or indifferent to this branch of industry ; we 

 accordingly find the utmost security given to the 

 labours of the husbandman ;|| no legislative inter- 

 position between the seller and buyer; neither 

 forced sales nor limitation of prices, and a sacred- 

 ness of boundaries never disturbed ;^f fairs and mar- 

 kets multiplied and protected against invasion 01 

 interruption,** and highways leading to these every- 

 where established, and of a character to call forth 

 the highest praise and admiration. |f 



* Tanus and Numa were deified for services rendered to ag- 

 riculture. 



f Cicero de Officiis, 1. ii. 



j This continued till the time of Marius. 



t) As much as he could plough in a day. 



|| To cut or destroy in the night the crop of his neighbour, sub- 

 lected the Roman to death. 



1f Terminus was among their gods. . 



** Assemblies of the people on days designated for fairs, and 

 on subjects other than those of trade, were not lawful. 



ft The Appian Way yet remains the wonder and reproach of 

 modern times. 



