10 



men of Hamilcar and Hannibal. They were so much more 

 distinguished than any other contemporaneous nation, in the 

 science and practical operations of tillage, that a voluminous 

 work by Mago, one of their most celebrated generals, was so 

 highly appreciated, by their haughty and implacable enemies, 

 that it was translated, -for the benefit of the people, by an express 

 decree of the Roman Senate. 



As to the value placed on Agriculture by the Romans, we 

 have the fullest evidence. It was encouraged by liberal dona- 

 tions of land, elevated by the sanctions of religion, and rendered 

 not merely a meritorious pursuit, but an object of the first 

 consideration, by the most wealthy and illustrious citizens. In 

 their conquests, if not always more magnanimous than most 

 other nations, they never lost sight of the grand object for 

 which their invasions were projected, the augmentation of 

 the resources, and prospective aggrandizement of the empire. 

 Instead, therefore, of desolating, they endeavored to improve the 

 countries which they subdued, and were solicitous to civilize 

 the inhabitants by the introduction of letters, with the useful and 

 ornamental arts. Cato derived as much honor from his writings 

 on husbandry, as by his eloquence in the Senate house, his 

 victories in the field, or his lofty patriotism at Utica. Cincin- 

 natus was twice called from his plough, to the dignified offices 

 of Consul and Dictator. Virgil acquired as much fame for his 

 poems on rural economy, as by his epic on the adventures of the 

 Ilian prince. Pliny, the Linnreus of antiquity, was as ambitious 

 to obtain the honors which were lavishly bestowed on the 

 cultivators of the soil, as the distinction of pro-consul in Spain. 

 Varro, the intimate friend of Cicero, and who had the reputation 

 of being one of the greatest philosophers, and the most learned 

 man of Rome, has his name perpetuated by a treatise on rustic 

 affairs, being one only of his five hundred writings which have 

 come down to us. Columella was the agricultural Cyclopediast 

 of the Claudian age, and his great work, in which he treats on 

 all the branches of agriculture and gardening, is still extant. 



Simultaneous with the advancement of the arts of civilization 

 in the West, if not at an earlier period, there was a like 

 movement in the East, by which they were extended over Pal- 

 estine, Persia, Media, and the populous valleys of the Indus and 



