ROMAN AGRICULTURE. 415 



Varro and Cato to Pliny, and therefore any improvements it 

 received must have taken place antecedently to their era. As 

 these authors, however, generally refer to the Greeks as their 

 masters in this art, it appears very doubtful whether they 

 did anything more than imitate their practice. As a more 

 luxurious people, they introduced new fruits, and probably im- 

 proved the treatment of birds and other minor products ; for 

 these belong more to gardening and domestic economy than to 

 field cultivation. In the culture of grain, herbage, plants, and 

 fruit trees, and in the breeding and rearing of cattle, Noah and 

 his sons, the Jews, the Babylonians, Egyptians, and Greeks, 

 may have been as advanced as the Romans, for anything that 

 appears to the contrary. The great agricultural advantage which 

 mankind has derived from the Romans, is the diffusion of the 

 art by their almost universal conquests. 



The Extent to which Agriculture was carried in the Roman 

 Provinces, and its Decline. The art of agriculture was not 

 only familiar to, but held in estimation by, every Roman soldier. 

 It was practised by him in every foreign country where he was 

 stationary, and he taught it to the inhabitants of such as were 

 uncultivated. In some countries, as in Carthaginia, a large 

 part of Spain, and a part of the southeast of France, agriculture 

 was as far advanced as in Italy ; because, at Carthage and Mar- 

 seilles, the Greeks had planted colonies which flourished an- 

 terior to the Romans, or at least long before they extended 

 their conquests to these countries ; but in Helvetia, Germany, 

 and Britain, it was in a very rude state, or unknown. 



In Germany, except on the borders of the Rhine, agriculture 

 was never generally practised. The greater part of the country 

 was covered with forests, and hunting and pasturage were the 

 chief occupations of the people, when not engaged in war. The 

 decline of the Roman power in that country, therefore, could 

 make very little difference as to its agriculture. In Britain, 

 according to Caesar, agriculture was introduced by colonies from 

 Belgium, which took shelter there from the encroachments of 

 the Belgae from Germany, about 150 B.C. These colonies began 

 to cultivate the sea coasts, but the natives of the inland parts 

 lived on roots, berries, flesh, and milk, and it appears from 

 Dionysius that they never tasted fish. Pliny mentions the use 



