BOOK XVIII. IV. 17-20 



at the date when Lucius Metellus gave a proces- 150b.o. 



sion of a verv large nuniber of elephants in his 



triumph, the price of a peck of emnier wheat was 



one as, as also was that of a gallon of wine, 30 pounds 



of dried figs, 10 pounds of oil and 12 pounds of meat. 



Nor was this the result of the large estates of indi- 



viduals who ousted their neighbours, inasmuch as 



by the law of Licinius Stolo the Hmit w-as restricted 3(;8-7B.r. 



to 500 acres, and Stolo himself was convicted under 



his own law because he owned a larger amount of 



land, held under his son's name instead of his own. 



Such was the scale of prices when the state had 



already some luxury. At any rate there is a famous 



utterance of \Linius Curius, who after eelebrating 



triumphs and making a vast addition of territory to 290 b.o. 



the empire, said that a man not satisfied with seven 



acres must be deemed a dangerous citizen ; for that 



Mas the acreage assigned for commoners after the 



expulsion of the kings. What therefore was tlie 



cause of such great fertility ? The fields were tilled Agncuiiun 



in those days by the hands of generals themselves, '"""'"'■''<'• 



and we may well believe that the earth rejoiced in 



a laurel-decked ploughshare and a ploughman who 



had celebrated a triumph, whether it was that those 



farmers treated the seed with the same care as they 



managed their wars and marked out their fields with 



the same diligence as they arranged a camp, or 



whether everything prospers better under honour- 



able hands because the work is done with greater 



attention. The honours bestowed on Serranas found 257 s.o. 



him sowing seed, which was actuallv the origin of 



his surname. An apparitor brought to Cincinnatus 458 b.c. 



his commission as dictator when he was ploughing 



his four-acre property on the Vatican, tlie land now 



