BOOK III. III. 2-4 



and that this was the customary yield not in one 

 district alone but also in the country around Faventia" 

 and in the Ager Gallicus,'' which is now annexed to 

 Picenum ; in our own times, at any rate, the 3 

 neighbourhood of Nomentum is illumined by a most 

 distinguished reputation ; and especially that part 

 owned by Seneca, <^ a man of outstanding genius 

 and erudition, on whose estates it is learned that 

 every iugerum of vineyard has yielded commonly 

 eight ciiUei.^ For the things that happened in our 

 Ceretanum ^ seem to have been in the nature of a 

 prodigy, in that a certain vine on your place ex- 

 ceeded the number of two thousand clusters, and 

 ■with me, that eight hundred grafted stocks of less 

 than two years ^ yielded seven cullei, or that first- 

 class vineyards produced a hundred amphorae ? to 

 the iugerum, when meadows, pastures, and wood- 

 land seem to do very well by the owner if they bring 

 in a hundred sesterces'' for every iugerum. For we 4 

 can hardly recall a time when grain crops, through- 

 out at least the greater part of Italy, returned a 

 yield of four for one.' Why, then, is viticulture in 

 disrepute ? Not, indeed, through its own fault, but 

 because of human failings, says Graecinus ; in the 

 first place because no one takes pains in searching 

 after cuttings, and for that reason most people plant 

 vine3^ards of the worst sort ; and then they do not 

 nourish their vines, once planted, in such a way as 



" 1 amphora — about 6-84 U.S. (5-70 Brit.) gallons. 



* 1 sestertius = about 4 cents. 



' Varro, in the preceding century, speaks {R.R. I. 44. 1-2) 

 of grain yields of 10 for 1 {cum decimo) in some parts of Italy, 

 of 15 for 1 {C2im quinto decimo) at some places in Etruria, and 

 of reported yields of a hundredfold (cum cenlet-imo) around 

 Syl'aris in Italy and at certain places in Syria and Africa. 



VOL. I. K 



