BOOK I. I. 18-11. 2 



greater delight in his city residence will have no need 

 of a country estate"." This precept, if it could be 19 

 carried out in our times, I would not change. But 

 as things are, since political ambition often calls 

 most of us away, and even more often keeps us 

 away when called, I consequently rate it as most 

 advantageous to have an estate near town, which 

 even the busy man may easily visit every day after 

 his business in the forum is done. For men who 20 

 purchase lands at a distance, not to mention estates 

 across the seas, are making over their inheritances 

 to their slaves, as to their heirs and, worse yet, 

 while they themselves are still alive ; for it is certain 

 that slaves are corrupted by reason of the great 

 remoteness of their masters and, being once corrupted 

 and in expectation of others to take their places after 

 the shameful acts which they have committed, they 

 are more intent on pillage than on farming. 



II. I am of the opinion, therefore, that land should 

 be purchased nearby, so that the owner may visit 

 it often and announce that his visits will be more 

 frequent than he really intends them to be ; for 

 under this apprehension both overseer and labourers 

 will be at their duties. But whenever the chance 

 offers, he should stay in the country ; and his stay 

 should not be an idle one nor one spent in the shade. 

 For it behooves a careful householder to go around 

 every little bit of his land quite frequently and at 

 every season of the year, that he may the more 

 intelligently observe the nature of the soil, whether in 

 foliage and grass or in ripened crops, and that he may 

 not be ignorant of what may properly be done on it. 

 For it is an old saying of Cato that land is most 

 grievously maltreated when its master does not direct 



39 



