[840] Odes I 1 patrios ... agros, Epode II 3 paterna rura bobus exercet suis.
[841] Epode IV 13 arat Falerni mille fundi iugera, etc.
[842] Odes III 16 quicquid arat impiger Apulus.
[843] Epode II 39 foll.
[844] A fact recognized by Horace himself in lines 14-16 of Odes III 4, and Sat I 5 lines 77 foll.
[845] Odes I 35 pauper ... ruris colonus, II 14 inopes coloni. Sat II 2 115, where the fact of expulsion in favour of a military pensioner is judiciously ignored. See below.
[846] These coloni of course owned their farms; that is, were domini. Odes III 4 lines 37-8, Sat II 6 55-6.
[847] Odes I 1 mercator ... indocilis pauperiem pati, cf III 2.
[848] So Cicero’s estate at Arpinum is spoken of ad Att XIII 9 § 2 as praediola and was perhaps let in the same way.
[849] Cf Seneca epist 47 § 14, 86 § 14.
[850] The ownership of the slaves is another matter, for in letting farms the dominus often supplied the slaves. See Index, instrumentum.
[851] I find that Mr Warde Fowler, The death of Turnus p 105, also takes this view. But he understands pater to imply that the man brought up a family, which I do not. I agree that it gives the idea of headship of a household.
[852] Italische Landeskunde II p 615.
[853] The description of such an agellus in Plin epist I 24 illustrates the wants of a literary landowner excellently.
[854] Tibullus II 1 51 agricola adsiduo ... satiatus aratro.
[855] Tibullus II 6 25-6.
[856] Ovid fasti I 207, III 779-82, IV 693-4.
[857] Ovid metam I 135-6, Manilius I 73-4.
[858] Vitruvius II 1.
[859] I cannot accept Prof. Richmond’s view (Inaugural lecture 1919 p 25) of the Georgics as ‘concerned with every side of husbandry.’
[860] Whether Vergil suffered two expulsions, and what is the chronological order of eclogues I and IX, are questions that do not affect my inquiry.
[861] Pliny epist III 10 § 7.
[862] Aen VII 641-817, IX 603-13.
[863] e.g. Aen VI 613.
[864] Ellis on Catullus XXIII 1.
[865] See page 217.
[866] Sueton Vespas I.
[867] Keightley includes Mago, whether rightly or not I am not sure. Conington’s Introduction treats this matter fully.
[868] The futility of addressing rustic readers in polished literary language (diserte) is commented on by Palladius [4th cent AD] in his opening sentences. He has been thought to have in view Columella, who by the by is Vergil’s great admirer. I cannot accept the views of Daubeny in his Lectures pp 3-5. It is possible that the use of fire in improving land may be a bit of Vergil’s own advice, but I doubt it. See Daubeny pp 91-4, georg I 84 foll.
[869] E Meyer Kl Schr p 488 describing the hopeless task of Augustus in attempting the moral and physical regeneration of Italy makes the general remark ‘Nur an die höheren Stände, nur an die Elite, konnte Augustus sich wenden.’ This is a true picture of the situation as a whole. To have to begin building at the top was fatal.
[870] Most clearly stated in Columella I 7.
[871] For coloni of Cicero’s time see II in Verr III § 55, pro Caecina § 94, pro Cluent §§ 175, 182. The references in Horace are given below. That letting to tenants was practised about 100 BC or earlier, appears certain from the reference to Saserna’s opinion on this policy in Columella I 7 § 4.
[872] Velleius II 88, and many passages in Seneca and other authors.
[873] Dion Cass LII 27-8.
[874] Compare Suet Aug 41 for the Emperor’s actual policy. It seems that the influx of specie captured at Alexandria sent the rate of interest down and the price of land up.
[875] This is admirably dealt with in Sellar’s Virgil, and need not be reproduced here.
[876] Mr T R Glover, Virgil p 14, reminds us that the poet’s father is said to have done some business in timber at one time.
[877] When Cicero de orat III § 46 credits messores with a rustic brogue he can hardly be thinking of foreign slaves.
[878] As in Lucan VII 402 vincto fossore.
[879] Varro RR II 10.
[880] See Varro RR II 2 § 20, 5 § 18, 7 § 16, even for treatment of homines 10 § 10. Written books of prescriptions were provided.
[881] Georg III 515-30.
[882] tristis suggests the owner. A slave was not likely to care.
[883] In Sellar’s Virgil chapter VI § 5 there is an excellent treatment of this episode, with a discussion of V’s relation to Lucretius and a most apposite quotation from G Sand.
[884] Varro II 5 § 4, Columella VI praef § 7, Plin NH VIII § 180.
[885] The molle atque facetum attributed to V by Horace is I think rightly explained by Quintilian VI 3 § 20, and amounts to easy and fastidious taste, of course the result of careful revision, his practice of which is attested in the Suetonian biography.
[886] So Tibullus II 1 41-2.
[887] Cf Cic de off I §§ 41, 150, passages in which the growth of the technical sense is seen.
[888] See the interesting story of the bee-farm in Varro RR III 16 §§ 10, 11.
[889] Pliny NH XIX §§ 50-1.
[890] II 412-3 laudato ingentia rura, exiguum colito. Not found in surviving text of Cato.
[891] II 532.
[892] I 125-8, II 336-42.
[893] II 136-76.
[894] Dionys Hal I 36-7, Strabo VI 4 § 1, p 286, Varro RR I 2 §§ 1-7.
[895] Horace Odes IV 5, 15, published about 14 BC. So Martial V 4 declares that Domitian has made Rome pudica.
[896] Sueton Aug 32 (cf Tib 8), and the elder Seneca contr X 4 § 18. Even in the second century AD, Spart Hadr 18 § 9 ergastula servorum et liberorum tulit. Perhaps the ergastula in Columella I 3 § 12 refer to the same practice.
[897] H Blümner in Müller’s Handbuch IV 2 2 p 543 says that Varro does not refer to the Kolonat als Pacht. But that sense seems clearly implied in I 2 § 17, II 3 § 4 in lege locationis fundi. In I 16 § 4 it surely includes tenants, even if the application is more general. In II praef § 5 colonus is simply = arator, opposed to pastor.
[898] Columella I 7.
[899] Pliny epist III 19, IX 37.
[900] This reminds us of Varro’s words, speaking (I 17 § 2) of free workers ... cum ipsi colunt, ut plerique pauperculi cum sua progenie.
[901] Cf Tibullus II 1 23 turbaque vernarum saturi bona signa coloni.
[903] Hor epist I 14 39, cf II 2 184-6.
[904] Hor Sat I 3 99 foll, where animalia seems to mean little more than homines.
[905] Hor Sat II 6 55-6, Odes III 4 37-40.
[906] The one reference to the assignations [G II 198] only speaks of the misfortune of Mantua, not of his own.
[907] Hor Epist I 16 69-72.
[908] Hor Sat I 1 28, 32.
[909] For the story of the φιάλη (freedman’s offering) sent yearly by Maecenas to Augustus as a recognition of his restoration of Roman freedom, see Gardthausen Augustus VII 7 and notes.
[910] Monum Ancyr ed Mommsen, I 16-9, III 22-8.
[911] Tacitus ann XIV 53.
[912] Gardthausen Augustus VII 7, pp 768-9. He quotes Schol ad Juvenal V 3 (Maecenas) ad quem sectio bonorum Favoni pertinuerat.
[913] Varro RR I 17, a notable chapter.
[914] Livy VI 12, VII 25.
[915] Plin NH XXXVII §§ 201-3.
[916] Augustus VI 3, p 547.
[917] Macrob Sat I 11 § 22.
[918] Dion Cass XLVIII 6 § 3.
[919] The words of Donatus (after Suetonius) in his life of Vergil. Reifferscheid’s Suetonius p 59.
[920] Keightley (1846) says the same.
[921] With much respect and regret, I cannot accept the views of Prof Conway in his inaugural lecture of 1903.
[922] The absence of reference to Cicero has of course been noted. But this was general in the Augustan age.
[923] Seneca epist 86 § 15.
[924] Seneca controversiae II 1 § 26.
[925] Seneca excerpt contr V 5
[926] Compare the reference to unruly servorum agmina in Calabria, Tac ann XII 65, in the time of Claudius.
[927] Seneca excerpt contr VI 2.
[928] Seneca contr II 1 § 5.
[929] Seneca contr VII 6 § 18.
[930] Seneca contr X 4 § 18 solitudines suas isti beati ingenuorum ergastulis excolunt. See above p 233 and below on Columella p 263.
[931] Seneca contr VII 6 § 17, cf Plut Cat mai 24.
[932] Val Max IV 4 § 6.
[933] Val Max IV 3 § 5, cf 4 § 7, 8 § 1.
[934] Val Max VII 5 § 2.
[935] Phaedr IV 5, II 8.
[936] Such as Polybius the influential freedman of Claudius, to whom Seneca addressed a consolatio.
[937] Epist 77 § 7 is a notable passage.
[938] Cf de benef III 26.
[939] As by the younger Pliny paneg 42 on Trajan.
[940] de benef V 18 § 2, 19 § 1, VII 4 § 4.
[941] de clement I 18, nat quaest I 16 § 1.
[942] de benef III 22 § 1, cf Athenaeus 276 b.
[943] de benef V 19 § 9, epist 12 § 3.
[944] de constant (ad Serenum) 5 § 1.
[945] epist 47 § 14.
[946] epist 90 § 27, artificem vides vitae etc.
[947] epist 65 § 6.
[948] epist 88 § 21. The contrast of liberalis and sordidus often occurs.
[949] epist 90 § 15.
[950] epist 44 § 3 aquam traxit et rigando horto locavit manus.
[951] epist 114 § 26 quot millia colonorum arent fodiant ... etc.
[952] epist 123 § 2 non habet panem meus pistor: sed habet vilicus, sed habet atriensis, sed habet colonus. atriensis = head of domestics, porter or butler.
[953] de benef VI 4 § 4 colonum suum non tenet, quamvis tabellis manentibus, qui segetem eius proculcavit, qui succidit arbusta, non quia recepit quod pepigerat sed quia ne reciperet effecit. Sic debitori suo creditor saepe damnatur, ubi plus ex alia causa abstulit quam ex crediti petit.
[954] The pactum implied in pepigerat.
[955] de benef VII 5 §§ 2, 3, conduxi domum a te; in hac aliquid tuum est, aliquid meum; res tua est, usus rei tuae meus est. itaque nec fructus tanges colono tuo prohibente, quamvis in tua possessione nascantur ... nec conductum meum, quamquam sis dominus, intrabis, nec servum tuum, mercennarium meum, abduces ... etc. See the chapter on the Jurists of the Digest.
[956] epist 90 § 39 licet itaque nunc conetur reparare quod perdidit, licet agros agris adiciat vicinum vel pretio pellens vel iniuria, licet in provinciarum spatium rura dilatet et possessionem vocet per sua longam peregrinationem ... etc. For iniuria cf Columella I 3 §§ 6, 7. The violent expulsion of poor farmers by the rich is an old topic. Cf Sallust Iug 41 § 8, Appian civ I 7 § 5 and see index.
[957] epist 87 § 7 quia in omnibus provinciis arat ... quia tantum suburbani agri possidet quantum invidiose in desertis Apuliae possideret.
[958] de ira III 29 § 1.
[959] Lucan VII 387-439.
[960] vincto fossore coluntur Hesperiae vegetes.
[961] I 158-82.
[962] longa sub ignotis extendere rura colonis. Cf Seneca de vita beata 17 § 2 cur trans mare possides? cur plura quam nosti? and Petron 37.
[963] VI 152 o famuli turpes, servum pecus.
[964] Calpurn ecl IV 118.
[965] Petron § 37 fundos habet qua milvi volant. A proverbial phrase, cf Persius IV 26 dives arat ... quantum non milvus oberret, Juvenal IX 55.
[966] Petron § 53.
[967] edicta aedilium.
[968] saltuariorum testamenta. They were evidently slaves and could only make wills by leave of their owner. See Dig XXXIII 7 § 12⁴.
[969] Many times referred to in the book.
[970] I 3 §§ 8-13.
[971] Cf Plin epist III 19 § 2 pulchritudo iungendi, and Mayor’s note. Petron § 77.
[972] I 3 §§ 6, 7, where he even refers to a very disobliging neighbour of his own estate.
[973] I 1 § 20 longinqua ne dicam transmarina rura ... etc.
[974] I praef §§ 13-15, XII praef §§ 8-10.
[975] I praef § 12.
[976] I 7 passim.
[977] If we are to hold that opus here refers only to work on the particular farm hired by the tenant, I presume it includes improvements, as in Digest XIX 2 § 24³.
[978] remissionem petere non audet.
[979] felicissimum fundum esse qui colonos indigenas haberet et tamquam in paterna possessione natos iam inde a cunabulis longa familiaritate retineret.
[980] urbanum colonum, qui per familiam mavult agrum quam per se colere.
[981] rusticos et eosdem adsiduos colonos.
[982] in his regionibus quae gravitate caeli solique sterilitate vastantur. Cf I 5 § 5, gravibus, and Varro I 17 § 2.
[983] By H. Blümner in Müller’s Handbuch. So also Gummerus in Klio 1906 pp 85-6.
[984] domini praesentia cariturum.
[985] Dig XXXIII 7 § 25¹, XIX 2 § 24, § 25³.
[986] M Weber Röm Agrargeschichte p 244. Of course opus is a general term, not technical as operae (= labour units) often is. See Vinogradoff Growth of the Manor note 94 on p 110. From Horace epist I 1 21 opus debentibus I can get no help.
[987] See below, in the chapter on the African inscriptions.
[988] Caesar civ I 34, 56.
[989] Wallon, Esclavage II 99, 100, refers to the long leasing of municipal estates, held in virtual perpetuity so long as the rent was paid. He cites Gaius III 145. So too estates of temples, and later of the fiscus.