BOOK XIV. V. 48-51 



Sthenelus, a plebeian, the son of a freedman, by his 

 intensive cultivation of a vineyard of not more than 

 60 iugera, in the region of Mentana, which he sold 

 for 400,000 sesterces. Also Vetulenus Aegiakis, 

 he too a freedman, gained a great reputation in 

 the district of Liternum in Campania, and a still 

 greater reputation in pubHc esteem on account of his 

 cultivating the estate which had been the place of 

 exile of Africanus"; but the greatest reputation, 

 thanks to the activity of the same Sthenelus, attached 

 to Remmius Palaemon, also famous for his treatise on 

 grammar, who within the last 20 years bought a farm 

 for 600,000 sesterces inthe same regionof Mentana, 

 at the turning ofFthe main road ten miles from Rome. 

 The low price of property through all the districts 

 just outside the city in every direction is notorious, 

 but especially in the neighbourhood referred to, since 

 Palaemon had bought farms that had also been let 

 down by neglect and that were not above the average 

 quahty of soil even among those extremely poor 

 estates. He undertook the cultivation of this 

 property not from any high motive but at first out of 

 vanity, for which he was known to be so remarkable ; 

 but he had the vineyards dug and trenched afresh 

 under the superintendence of Sthenelus, and so, 

 though only playing the part of a farmer, he finally 

 got the estate into an almost incredibly wonderful 

 condition, as within eight years, the vintage, while 

 still hanging on the trees, was knocked down to a 

 purchaser at a price of 400,000 sesterces ; and every- 

 body ran to see the piles of grapes in these vineyards, 

 while the sluggish neighbourhood vindicated itself 

 against this discredit by the excuse of his exception- 

 ally profound studies, and recently Annaeus Seneca, 



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