[1146] In NH XVIII 120 he cites Vergil as giving a piece of advice based on the usage of the Po country. Pliny as a Transpadane may have been prejudiced in Vergil’s favour and possibly jealous of the Spanish Columella.
[1147] In NH XVIII 170 he cites Verg G I 53, calling it oraculum illud, but with a textual slip.
[1148] NH XVIII 70.
[1149] The passing mention in Annals XVI 13 of the great mortality among the servitia and ingenua plebes in the plague of 65 AD is a good specimen. The two classes are often thus spoken of together. Cf Sueton Claud 22, Nero 22.
[1150] Annals III 54.
[1151] This policy bore fruit in the possibility of forming reserves in the next period. See Spart Severus 8 § 5, 23 § 2.
[1152] Annals IV 27.
[1153] Annals IV 6 infecunditati terrarum.
[1154] Annals VI 16, 17. Caesar’s law is described as de modo credendi possidendique intra Italiam. Nipperdey holds that it cannot be the law of BC 49, but must be an unknown law, not of temporary effect. See his note.
[1155] Nipperdey’s restoration of this sentence with the help of Suet Tib 48 seems to me quite certain.
[1156] si debitor populo in duplum praediis cavisset. The precedent of Augustus is mentioned in Sueton Aug 41.
[1157] See Cicero in Catil II § 18.
[1158] See the case of Sittius in Cic pro Sulla §§ 56-9. Such financial opportunities were evidently few in the later Empire.
[1159] trepidique patres (neque enim quisquam tali culpa vacuus) ... etc.
[1160] Germ 26.
[1161] See Schweitzer-Sidler’s notes, and cf the remarks of Caesar BG IV 1, VI 22.
[1162] See Pliny NH XVIII 259 and Conington’s notes on Verg G I 71-83. Varro I 44 § 3.
[1163] Germ 24.
[1164] servos condicionis huius per commercia tradunt, ut se quoque pudore victoriae exsolvant.
[1165] Germ 25 frumenti modum dominus aut pecoris aut vestis ut colono iniungit, et servus hactenus paret. The colonus here is clearly a tenant, his German analogue a serf.
[1166] Agricola 28.
[1167] per commercia venumdatos et in nostram usque ripam mutatione ementium adductos.
[1168] CIL VIII 18587, Ephem epigr VII 788, where it is annotated by Mommsen and others.
[1169] Mentioned in two routes of the Itinerarium Antoninum.
[1170] Cf Gaius II 7, 21, and below, note on p 351.
[1171] Cf Digest VIII 6 § 7, XLIII 20 §§ 2, 5.
[1172] See Marquardt Stvw 1, index under Lamasba.
[1173] Were they perhaps veterani? That there were a number of these settled in Africa is attested by Cod Th XI 1 § 28 (400), cf XII 1 § 45 (358).
[1174] Written 97 AD, under Nerva.
[1175] de aquis 75. Formerly this offence was punished by confiscating the land so watered, ibid 97.
[1176] de aquis 6.
[1177] de aquis 9.
[1178] de aquis 107-10. But according to Digest XLIII 20 § 1³⁹⁻⁴³ (Ulpian) the grant was sometimes not personis but praediis, and so perpetual.
[1179] de aquis 105, 116-8.
[1180] de aquis 120, 124-8.
[1181] impotentia possessorum.
[1182] holitores as in Horace epist I 18 36. Later called hortulani as in Apuleius metam IX 31-2, 39-42. Girard, textes part III ch 4 § 1 e, gives an interesting case of a colonus hortorum olitoriorum between Rome and Ostia, belonging to a collegium. The man is probably a freedman.
[1183] de aquis 112-5.
[1184] de aquis 11, cf also 92.
[1185] Wilmanns exempla 2844-8.
[1186] Hermes XIX pp 393-416.
[1187] Plin epist VII 18.
[1188] Mommsen op cit p 410. See index under instrumentum.
[1189] Whether we have in Columella a direct reference to this method is a question I have discussed in the chapter on that author. However answered, it does not affect the present passage. See the chapter on the African inscriptions.
[1190] See the case cited in the chapter on Pliny the younger.
[1191] By H Blümner in Müller’s Handbuch ed 3, IV ii 2 p 544.
[1192] Mommsen op cit p 416. See the chapter on evidence from the Digest.
[1193] Mommsen op cit p 412.
[1194] Digest XXXIII 7 § 20¹ non fide dominica sed mercede. ibid § 12³ qui quasi colonus in agro erat.
[1195] Dig XXXIII 7 § 20³ praedia ut instructa sunt cum dotibus et reliquis colonorum et vilicorum et mancipiis et pecore omni legavit et peculiis et cum actore. Cf also XL 7 § 40⁵.
[1196] Dig XXXIII 7 § 20⁴.
[1197] But that uxor was sometimes loosely used of a slave’s contubernalis is true. Wallon II 207, cf Paulus Sent III 6 §§ 38, 40, Dig XXXIII 7 § 12⁷,³³.
[1198] Mommsen op cit p 409.
[1199] Columella I 9 § 4.
[1200] Plut de defectu oraculorum 8.
[1201] oratio VII, Euboicus seu venator.
[1202] A contemporary of the younger Pliny, flourished about 100 AD.
[1203] I think Nero is meant here.
[1204] Mahaffy, Silver Age p 329, thinks Carystos is meant, though it might be Chalcis.
[1205] ἀφορμῆς. This passage seems openly to recognize the ruinous competition of slave labour under capitalists, which the single artisan was unable to face. The admission is so far as I know very rare in ancient writers. That Dion’s mind was greatly exercised on the subject of slavery in general, is shewn by Orations X, XIV, XV, and many scattered references elsewhere.
[1207] As in Archbishop Trench’s charming Lectures on Plutarch pp 10, 77 foll.
[1208] Matt 21 §§ 28-30. I cannot feel sure of this general inference.
[1209] Matt 21 §§ 33-41, Mar 12 §§ 1-9, Luk 20 §§ 9-16.
[1210] I Cor 9 §§ 7-10, I Tim 5 § 18, II Tim 2 § 6.
[1211] Luk 12 §§ 16-9, etc.
[1212] οἰκονόμος, Luk 12 §§ 42-8, 16 §§ 1-12, I Cor 4 § 2.
[1213] [Aristotle] Econ 1 5 § 3 δούλῳ δὲ μισθὸς τροφή.
[1214] James 5 § 4.
[1215] Rom 4 § 4.
[1216] Matt 20 §§ 1-16. Abp Trench, Notes on the Parables, has cleared away a mass of perverse interpretations.
[1217] Matt 6 § 12, Luk 7 § 41, 16 § 5.
[1218] Matt 25 §§ 14-30, Luk 19 §§ 12-26.
[1219] Acts 1 § 18, 4 §§ 34-7.
[1220] Often referred to. See Friedländer’s index under Nomentanus, and cf VIII 61, IX 18, 97.
[1221] I 55, X 48.
[1222] III 47 etc. Cf VII 31, XII 72.
[1223] II 11 nihil colonus vilicusque decoxit. This may imply that the vilicus was a servus quasi colonus liable to a rent and in arrears. See notes pp 299, 311. But I do not venture to draw this inference.
[1224] VII 31.
[1225] X 87. Cf Juv IV 25-6, Digest XXXII § 99, XXXIII 7 § 12¹²,¹³, etc.
[1226] XII 59.
[1227] IV 66.
[1228] VI 73, X 92.
[1229] IX 2 haud sua desertus rura sodalis arat.
[1230] XII 57.
[1231] V 35, X 14, etc.
[1232] Plin NH XVIII § 35.
[1233] IX 35.
[1234] See Juv XIV 267-302 on the risks faced by speculators in sea-borne commerce.
[1235] III 58.
[1236] III 47.
[1237] dona matrum ‘presents from their mothers.’ Eggs, I think. Cf VII 31 and Juv XI 70-1. The conjecture ova matrum (Paley) is good.
[1238] The story of the Usipian deserters who found their way back into Roman hands by way of the slave-market is a curious episode of 83 AD. Tac Agr 28. See the chapter on Tacitus.
[1239] VII 80.
[1240] X 30, of a charming seaside villa at Formiae. o ianitores vilicique felices, dominis parantur ista, serviunt vobis. In Dig XXXIII 7 § 15² we hear of mulier villae custos perpetua.
[1241] The note of Mommsen, Hermes XIX 412, deals with the case of servi quasi coloni farming parcels of land, recognized in the writings of jurists. It seems that they farmed either at their own risk or for owner’s account [fide dominica]. In the former case they could have a tenant’s agreement like the free coloni. In the latter they were only vilici and therefore part of the instrumentum. Here I think we may see beginnings of the unfree colonate. But Mommsen does not touch the point of manumission. It seems to me that an agreement with a slave must at first have been revocable at the pleasure of the dominus, and its growth into a binding lease was probably connected in many instances with manumission.
[1242] I 55 hoc petit, esse sui nec magni ruris arator, sordidaque in parvis otia rebus amat. And often.
[1243] VII 36, XI 34.
[1244] I 85, X 85. Cf Pliny epist VIII 17.
[1245] X 61, XI 48. The title de sepulchro violato, Dig XLVII 12, will illustrate this.
[1246] The form HNS (heredem non sequitur) is common in sepulchral inscriptions.
[1247] X 92.
[1248] Juv XIV 161-71.
[1249] XI 86-9.
[1250] XIV 179-81.
[1251] XIV 159-63.
[1252] II 73-4.
[1253] XIV 70-2.
[1254] VIII 245 foll. For the error in this tradition see Madvig, kleine philologische Schriften No 10.
[1255] III 223-9.
[1256] VI 287-95, cf XI 77-131.
[1257] XVI 32-4. See Hardy on Plin epist X 86 B, Shuckburgh on Sueton Aug 27, Tac hist III 24 vos, nisi vincitis, pagani. This use is common in the Digest.
[1258] VI 1-18, XV 147-58.
[1259] X 356-66.
[1260] VII 188-9, IX 54-5, etc.
[1261] IX 59-62.
[1262] VII 188-9, case of Quintilian.
[1263] XIV 86-95, 140 foll, 274-5. Cf X 225-6 etc.
[1264] XIV 140-55, XVI 36-9. Cf Seneca epist 90 § 39.
[1265] XI 151 foll.
[1266] VI 149-52, IX 59-62.
[1267] I 107-8.
[1268] X 356.
[1269] III 223-9, bidentis amans.
[1270] Mart XIV 49 exercet melius vinea fossa viros.
[1271] See his use of ingenuus = not fit for hard work, III 46, X 47, following Ovid, and cf the lines to a slave IX 92.
[1272] Juv XI 77-81.
[1273] See epist IV 10, VII 16, 32, VIII 16.
[1274] Cf Martial I 101, VI 29.
[1275] An important limitation, on which see Wallon III 55.
[1276] VII 11, 14.
[1277] VI 3.
[1278] VI 19.
[1279] si paenitet te Italicorum praediorum.
[1280] III 19.
[1281] sub eodem procuratore ac paene isdem actoribus habere. The actores seem to be = vilici, under the newer name. procurator a much more important person. See paneg 36 for the two as grades in the imperial private service. Cf chapter on Columella p 264.
[1282] atriensium, topiariorum, fabrorum, atque etiam venatorii instrumenti.
[1283] sed haec felicitas terrae inbecillis cultoribus fatigatur. No doubt lack of sufficient capital is meant.
[1284] See Digest XX 2 §§ 4, 7, for pignora on farms.
[1285] reliqua colonorum.
[1286] sunt ergo instruendi eo pluris quod frugi mancipiis: nam nec ipse usquam vinctos habeo nec ibi quisquam. I take instruendi as referring to agri just above. The slaves are a normal part of instrumentum fundi.
[1287] hac paenuria colonorum. Not the tenants’ poverty. Cf VII 30 § 3.
[1288] sum quidem prope totus in praediis.
[1289] Daubeny, Lectures p 147, regards this great variation as normal in modern experience, and vineyards as the least lucrative kind of husbandry.
[1290] VIII 15, IX 28, IV 6, X 8 § 5.
[1291] II 4 § 3.
[1292] querellae rusticorum, V 14 § 8, VII 30 § 3, IX 36 § 6.
[1293] remissiones, IX 37 § 2, X 8 § 5.
[1294] As de Coulanges remarks pp 17-8, Pliny does not propose to get rid of them, but to keep them as partiary tenants. They would be in his debt. He uses the expression aeris alieni IX 37 § 2. He would have to find instrumentum for them.
[1295] IX 20 § 2.
[1296] IX 16.
[1297] IX 20 § 2 obrepere urbanis qui nunc rusticis praesunt.
[1298] IX 37.