INTRODUCTION 



The parents of Columella are named nowhere iii 

 his works, but he speaks often and with the greatest 

 respect of an uncle, Marcus Columella, ^ an expert 

 farmer of the Baetic province, in whose company 

 much of his youth appears to have been spent. The 

 Pythagorean philosopher, Moderatus of Gades, 

 mentioned by Plutarch, ^ may have been a relative. 



It is likewise uncertain at what time Columella 

 left his native Spain to take up residence in the 

 neighbourhood of Rome. But here, in hoc Latio et 

 Salurnia ierra^ he seems to have spent the greater 

 part of his life, owning at various times farms at 

 Carseoli, Ardea, and Albanum, in Latium,^ and a 

 farm which he called Ceretanum,^ located perhaps 

 at Caere in Etruria. We have evidence ^ that he 

 visited Syria and Cilicia at some period in his life ; 

 and from an inscription ' 



L. IVNIO L. F. GAL. 



MODERATO 



COLVMELLAE 



TRIB. MIL. LEG. VI. FERRATAE 



found at Tarentum we may assume that he was then 

 in military service, since his native town of Gades 



1 II. 15. 4; VII. 2. 4; XII. 21. 4; XII. 40. 2; XII. 43. 5; 



et al. 



2 Qtiuest. VIII. 7. 1. 3 1. Praef. 20. 



* III. 9. 2. 



^ III. 3. 3. Cf. Willielm Becher, " Das Caeretanum des L. 

 lunius Moderatus Columella," Philologisch-historiscke Beitrdge, 

 Kurt Wachsmuth (1897), pp. 186-191. 



* II. 10. 18. Perhaps in a.d. 36, under Trebelliua; cf. 

 Cichorius, op. cit., pp. 417-422. 



' C.I.L. IX. 235 (= Dessau 2923). 



