BOOK XVIII. VII. 37-viii. 39 



of the money he had accumulated through the 

 generosity of his late Majesty Augustus, about 100 

 milUon sesterces, in buying up farms in Picenum 

 and farming them with the purpose of making a 

 name for himself, so that his heir refused to take 

 over the estate. Is it our opinion then that this 

 pohcy means ruin and starvation ? Nay rather, I 

 vow, it is that moderation is the most vahiable 

 criterion of all things. Good farming is essential, 

 but superlatively good farming spells ruin, except 

 when the farmer runs the farm with his own family 

 or with persons whom he is in any case bound to 

 maintain. There are some crops which it does not 

 pay the landlord to harvest if the cost of the labour 

 is reckoned, and oUves are not easily made to 

 pay ; and some lands do not repay very careful 

 farming — this is said to be the case in Sicily, 

 and consequently newcomers there find themselves 

 deceived. 



^"111. What then will be the most profitable way aenerai 

 of farming land ? Presumably to follow the oracular '/,"',„1^^,' 

 dictura : Bi^ viaking good from bad. But it is only 

 fair to justify our forefathers who laid down rules 

 for conduct by their teachings ; for the term ' bad 

 lands ' they meant to be undcrstood to mean the 

 cheapest lands, and the chief point in their economy 

 was to keep down expenses to the minimum. For 

 the sort of instructions in question were given by men 

 who though they liad headed triumphal processions 

 deemed ten pounds of silver as part of one's furniture 

 a criminal extravagance, who when their baiUff died 

 insLsted on leaving their victories and returning to 

 their farms, and the cultivation of whose cstates " was 

 taken over by the government and who conmianded 



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