BOOK I. VII. 5-viii. I 



greatest carelessness or greed on the part of tlie 

 slave stands in the way. There is no doubt that 

 both these offences are either committed or fostered 

 through the fault of the master, inasmuch as he has 

 the authority to prevent such a pei'son from being 

 placed in charge of his affairs, or to see to it that he is 

 removed if so placed. On far distant estates, how- 6 

 ever, which it is not easy for the OA\'ner to visit, it is 

 better for every kind of land to be under free farmers 

 than under slave overseers, but this is particulai'ly 

 true of grain land. To such land a tenant farmer 

 can do no great harm, as he can to plantations of 

 vines and trees, while slaves do it tremendous 

 damage : they let out oxen for hire, and keep them 

 and other animals poorly fed ; they do not plough 

 the ground carefully, and they charge up the solving 

 of far more seed than they have actually sown ; what 

 they have committed to the earth they do not so 

 foster that it will make the proper growth ; and 

 when they have brought it to the threshing-floor, 

 every day during the threshing they lessen the 

 amount either by trickery or by carelessness. For 

 they themselves steal it and do not guai'd against 

 the thieving of others, and even when it is stored 

 away they do not enter it honestly in their accounts. 

 The result is that both manager and hands are 

 offenders, and that the land pretty often gets a bad 

 name. Therefore my opinion is that an estate of 

 this sort should be leased if, as I have said, it cannot 

 have the presence of the owner. 



Vm. The next point is with regard to slaves — over 

 what duty it is proper to place each and to what sort 

 of tasks to assign them. So my advice at the start 

 is not to appoint an overseer from that sort of slaves 



83 



