The Complete Works of
VARRO
(116 BC–27 BC))
Contents
The Translations
ON AGRICULTURE
ON THE LATIN LANGUAGE
The Latin Texts
LIST OF LATIN TEXTS
The Dual Text
DUAL LATIN AND ENGLISH TEXT
The Biographies
INTRODUCTION TO MARCUS TERENTIUS VARRO by Roland G. Kent
MARCUS TERENTIUS VARRO by F. H. Belvoir
The Delphi Classics Catalogue
© Delphi Classics 2017
Version 1
The Complete Works of
MARCUS TERENTIUS VARRO
By Delphi Classics, 2017
COPYRIGHT
Complete Works of Marcus Terentius Varro
First published in the United Kingdom in 2017 by Delphi Classics.
© Delphi Classics, 2017.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form other than that in which it is published.
ISBN: 978 1 78656 389 7
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is an imprint of
Delphi Publishing Ltd
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The Translations
Rieti, as seen from San Mauro hill, east of the city, Lazio, central Italy — Varro was born near Reate (now Rieti).
Remains of a Roman bridge at Rieti, third century BC
ON AGRICULTURE
Varro was born in Reate, now Rieti, to a family of equestrian rank, which owned a large farm in the Reatine plain, near Lago di Ripa Sottile. He supported Pompey, reaching the office of praetor, after having been tribune of the people, quaestor and curule aedile. Varro’s literary output was prolific; with scholars estimating him to have produced 74 works in approximately 620 books, of which only one work survives complete, although we possess numerous fragments of the others, many contained in Gellius’ Attic Nights. Regarded as “the most learned of the Romans” by Quintilian (Inst. Or. X.1.95), Varro was recognised as an important source by many other ancient authors, including Cicero, Pliny the Elder, Virgil, Aulus Gellius, Macrobius, Augustine and Vitruvius, who credits him with a book on architecture.
Varro’s only complete extant work is Rerum rusticarum libri tres (On Agriculture), formed of three books. The work concerns country affairs, opening with an effective setting of the agricultural scene, while also employing dialogue. The first book covers the themes of agriculture and farm management, the second deals with sheep and oxen, while the third concludes with poultry and the keeping of other animals, including bees and fishponds. The text is notable for its lively interludes, as well as graphic background detail concerning political events, of which Varro was a key figure.
Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, Pompey the Great, (106 – 48 BC), Julius Caesar’s great rival, was a military and political leader of the late Roman Republic, as well as a legendary general. Varro supported Pompey politically.
Gallo-Roman harvesting machine — relief from Trier
CONTENTS
LOEB CLASSICAL LIBRARY TRANSLATION (HOOPER)
BOOK I
BOOK II
BOOK III
F. H. BELVOIR 1918 TRANSLATION
BOOK I
THE HUSBANDRY OF AGRICULTURE
1 CONCERNING THE FARM ITSELF
2 CONCERNING THE EQUIPMENT OF A FARM
3 CONCERNING THE OPERATION OF A FARM
4 CONCERNING THE AGRICULTURAL SEASONS
A CALENDAR OF AGRICULTURAL OPERATIONS
ANOTHER CALENDAR OF SIX AGRICULTURAL SEASONS
1 PREPARING TIME
2 PLANTING TIME
3 CULTIVATING TIME
4 HARVEST TIME
5 HOUSING TIME
6 CONSUMING TIME
BOOK II
THE HUSBANDRY OF LIVE STOCK
BOOK III
THE HUSBANDRY OF THE STEADING
ENDNOTES.
Lago di Ripa Sottile, nar the farm owned by Varro’s family
LOEB CLASSICAL LIBRARY TRANSLATION (HOOPER)
Translated by William Davis Hooper and Revised by Harrison Boyd Ash
BOOK I
[1.1] Had I possessed the leisure, Fundania, I should write in a more serviceable form what now I must set forth as I can, reflecting that I must hasten; for if man is a bubble, as the proverb has it, all the more so is an old man. For my eightieth year admonishes me to gather up my pack before I set forth from life. [2] Wherefore, since you have bought an estate and wish to make it profitable by good cultivation, and ask that I concern myself with the matter, I will make the attempt; and in such wise as to advise you with regard to the proper practice not only while I live but even after my death. [3] And I cannot allow the Sibyl to have uttered prophecies which benefited mankind not only while she lived, but even after she had passed away, and that too people whom she never knew — for so many years later we are wont officially to consult her books when we desire to know what we should do after some portent — and not do something, even while I am alive, to help my friends and kinsfolk. [4] Therefore I shall write for you three handbooks to which you may turn whenever you wish to know, in a given case, how you ought to proceed in farming. And since, as told, the gods help those who call upon them, I will first invoke them — not the Muses, as Homer and Ennius do, but the twelve councillor-gods; and I do not mean those urban gods, whose images stand around the forum, bedecked with gold, six male and a like number female, but those twelve gods who are the special patrons of husbandmen. [5] First, then, I invoke Jupiter and Tellus, who, by means of the sky and the earth, embrace all the fruits of agriculture; and hence, as we are told that they are the universal parents, Jupiter is called “the Father,” and Tellus is called “Mother Earth.” And second, Sol and Luna, whose courses are watched in all matters of planting and harvesting. Third, Ceres and Liber, because their fruits are most necessary for life; for it is by their favour that food and drink come from the farm. [6] Fourth, Robigus and Flora; for when they are propitious the rust will not harm the grain and the trees, and they will not fail to bloom in their season; wherefore, in honour of Robigus has been established the solemn feast of the Robigalia, and in honour of Flora the games called the Floralia. Likewise I beseech Minerva and Venus, of whom the one protects the oliveyard and the other the garden; and in her honour the rustic Vinalia has been established. And I shall not fail to pray also to Lympha and Bonus Eventus, since without moisture all tilling of the ground is parched and barren, and without success and “good issue” it is not tillage but vexation. [7] Having now duly invoked these divinities, I shall relate the conversations which we had recently about agriculture, from which you may learn what you ought to do; and if matters in which you are interested are not treated, I shall indicate the writers, both Greek and Roman, from whom you may learn them.
Those who have written various separate treatises in Greek, one on one subject, another on another, are more than fifty in number. [8] The following are those whom you can call to your aid when you wish to consider any point: Hiero of Sicily and Attalus Philometor; of the philosophers, Democritus the naturalist, Xenophon the Socratic, Aristotle and Theophrastus the Peripatetics, Archytas the Pythagorean, and likewise Amphilochus of Athens, Anaxipolis of Thasos, Apollodorus of Lemnos, Aristophanes of Mallos, Antigonus of Cyme, Agathocles of Chios, Apollonius of Pergamum, Aristandrus of Athens, Bacchius of Miletus, Bion of Soli, Chaer
estus and Chaereas of Athens, Diodorus of Priene, Dion of Colophon, Diophanes of Nicaea, Epigenes of Rhodes, Euagon of Thasos, the two Euphronii, one of Athens and the other of Amphipolis, Hegesias of Maronea, the two Menanders, one of Priene and the other of Heraclea, Nicesius of Maronea, and Pythion of Rhodes. [9] Among other writers, whose birthplace I have not learned, are: Androtion, Aeschrion, Aristomenes, Athenagoras, Crates, Dadis, Dionysius, Euphiton, Euphorion, Eubulus, Lysimachus, Mnaseas, Menestratus, Plentiphanes, Persis, Theophilus. All these whom I have named are prose writers; others have treated the same subjects in verse, as Hesiod of Ascra and Menecrates of Ephesus. [10] All these are surpassed in reputation by Mago of Carthage, who gathered into twenty-eight books, written in the Punic tongue, the subjects they had dealt with separately. These Cassius Dionysius of Utica translated into Greek and published in twenty books, dedicated to the praetor Sextilius. In these volumes he added not a little from the Greek writers whom I have named, taking from Mago’s writings an amount equivalent to eight books. Diophanes, in Bithynia, further abridged these in convenient form into six books, dedicated to King Deiotarus. [11] I shall attempt to be even briefer and treat the subject in three books, one on agriculture proper, the second on animal husbandry, the third on the husbandry of the steading, omitting in this book all subjects which I do not think have a bearing on agriculture. And so, after first showing what matter should be omitted, I shall treat of the subject, following the natural divisions. My remarks will be derived from three sources: what I have myself observed by practice on my own land, what I have read, and what I have heard from experts.
[2.1] On the festival of the Sementivae I had gone to the temple of Tellus at the invitation of the aeditumnus (sacristan), as we have been taught by our fathers to call him, or of the aedituus, as we are being set right on the word by our modern purists. I found there Gaius Fundanius, my father-in-law, Gaius Agrius, a Roman knight of the Socratic school, and Publius Agrasius, the tax-farmer, examining a map of Italy painted on the wall. “What are you doing here?” said I. “Has the festival of the Sementivae brought you here to spend your holiday, as it used to bring our fathers and grandfathers?” [2] “I take it,” replied Agrius, “that the same reason brought us which brought you — the invitation of the sacristan. If I am correct, as your nod implies, you will have to await with us his return; he was summoned by the aedile who has supervision of this temple, and has not yet returned; and he left a man to ask us to wait for him. Do you wish us then meanwhile to follow the old proverb, ‘the Roman wins by sitting still,’ until he returns?” “By all means,” replied Agrius; and reflecting that the longest part of the journey is said to be the passing of the gate, he walked to a bench, with us in his train.
[3] When we had taken our seats Agrasius opened the conversation: “You have all travelled through many lands; have you seen any land more fully cultivated than Italy?” “For my part,” replied Agrius, “I think there is none which is so wholly under cultivation. Consider first: Eratosthenes, following a most natural division, has divided the earth into two parts, [4] one to the south and the other to the north; and since the northern part is undoubtedly more healthful than the southern, while the part which is more healthful is more fruitful, we must agree that Italy at least was more suited to cultivation than Asia. In the first place, it is in Europe; and in the next place, this part of Europe has a more temperate climate than we find farther inland. For the winter is almost continuous in the interior, and no wonder, since its lands lie between the arctic circle and the pole, where the sun is not visible for six months at a time; wherefore we are told that even navigation in the ocean is not possible in that region because of the frozen sea.” [5] “Well,” remarked Fundanius, “do you think that anything can germinate in such a land, or mature if it does germinate? That was a true saying of Pacuvius, that if either day or night be uninterrupted, all the fruits of the earth perish, from the fiery vapour or from the cold. For my part, I could not live even here, where the night and the day alternate at moderate intervals, if I did not break the summer day with my regular midday nap; [6] but there, where the day and the night are each six months long, how can anything be planted, or grow, or be harvested? On the other hand, what useful product is there which not only does not grow in Italy, but even grow to perfection? What spelt shall I compare to the Campanian, what wheat to the Apulian, what wine to the Falernian, what oil to the Venafran? Is not Italy so covered with trees that the whole land seems to be an orchard? [7] Is that Phrygia, which Homer calls ‘the vine-clad,’ more covered with vines than this land, or Argos, which the same poet calls ‘the rich in corn,’º more covered with wheat? In what land does one iugerum bear ten and fifteen cullei of wine, as do some sections of Italy? Or does not Marcus Cato use this language in his Origines? ‘The land lying this side of Ariminum and beyond the district of Picenum, which was allotted to colonists, is called Gallo-Roman. In that district, at several places, ten cullei of wine are produced to the iugerum.’ Is not the same true of the district of Faventia? The vines there are called by this writer trecenariae, from the fact that the iugerum yields three hundred amphorae.” And he added, turning to me, “At least your friend, Marcius Libo, the engineer officer, used to tell me that the vines on his estate at Faventia bore this quantity. [8] The Italian seems to have had two things particularly in view in his farming: whether the land would yield a fair return for the investment in money and labour, and whether the situation was healthful or not. If either of these elements is lacking, any man who, in spite of that fact, desires to farm has lost his wits, and should be taken in charge by his kinsmen and family. For no sane man should be willing to undergo the expense and outlay of cultivation if he sees that it cannot be recouped; or, supposing that he can raise a crop, if he sees that it will be destroyed by the unwholesomeness of the situation. [9] But, I think, there are some gentlemen present who can speak with more authority on these subjects; for I see Gaius Licinius Stolo and Gnaeus Tremelius Scrofa approaching, one of them a man whose ancestors originated the bill to regulate the holding of land (for that law which forbids a Roman citizen to hold more than 500 iugera was proposed by a Stolo), and who has proved the appropriateness of the family name by his diligence in farming; he used to dig around his trees so thoroughly that there could not be found on his farm a single one of those suckers which spring up from the roots and are called stolones. Of the same farm was that Gaius Licinius who, when he was tribune of the plebs, 365 years after the expulsion of the kings, was the first to lead people, for the hearing of laws, from the comitium into the “farm” of the forum. [10] The other whom I see coming is your colleague, who was of the Commission of Twenty for parcelling the Campanian lands, Gnaeus Tremelius Scrofa, a man distinguished by all virtues, who is esteemed the Roman most skilled in agriculture.” “And justly so,” I exclaimed. “For his estates, because of their high cultivation, are a more pleasing sight to many than the country seats of others, furnished in a princely style. When people come to inspect his farmsteads, it is not to see collections of pictures, as at Lucullus’s, but collections of fruit. The top of the Via Sacra,” I added, “where fruit brings its weight in gold, is a very picture of his orchard.”
[11] While we were speaking they came up, and Stolo inquired: “We haven’t arrived too late for dinner? For I do not see Lucius Fundilius, our host.” “Do not be alarmed,” replied Agrius, “for not only has that egg which shows the last lap of the chariot race at the games in the circus not been taken down, but we have not even seen that other egg which usually heads the procession at dinner. [12] And so, while you and we are waiting to see the latter, and our sacristan is returning, tell us what end agriculture has in view, profit, or pleasure, or both; for we are told that you are now the past-master of agriculture, and that Stolo formerly was.” “First,” remarked Scrofa, “we should determine whether we are to include under agriculture only things planted, or also other things, such as sheep and cattle, which are brought on to the land. [13] For I obs
erve that those who have written on agriculture, whether in Punic, or Greek, or Latin, have wandered too far from the subject.” “For my part,” replied Stolo, “I do not think that they are to be imitated in every respect, but that certain of them have acted wisely in confining the subject to narrower limits, and excluding matters which do not bear directly on this topic. Thus the whole subject of grazing, which many writers include under agriculture, seems to me to concern the herdsman rather than the farmer. [14] For that reason the persons who are placed in charge of the two occupations have different names, one being called vilicus, and the other magister pecoris. The vilicus is appointed for the purpose of tilling the ground, and the name is derived from villa, the place into which the crops are hauled (vehuntur), and out of which they are hauled by him when they are sold. For this reason the peasants even now call a road veha, because of the hauling; and they call the place to which and from which they haul vella and not villa. In the same way, those who make a living by hauling are said facere velaturam.” [15] “Certainly,” said Fundanius, “grazing and agriculture are different things, though akin; just as the right pipe of the tibia is different from the left, but still in a way united, inasmuch as the one is the treble, while the other plays the accompaniment of the same air.” [16] “You may even add this,” said I, “that the shepherd’s life is the treble, and the farmer’s plays the accompaniment, if we may trust that most learned man, Dicaearchus. In his sketch of Greek life from the earliest times, he says that in the primitive period, when people led a pastoral life, they were ignorant even of ploughing, of planting trees, and of pruning, and that agriculture was adopted by them only at a later period. Wherefore the art of agriculture ‘accompanies’ the pastoral because it is subordinate, as the left pipe is to the stops of the right.” [17] “You and your piping,” retorted Agrius, “are not only robbing the master of his flock and the slaves of their peculium — the grazing which their master allows them — but you are even abrogating the homestead laws, among which we find one reciting that the shepherd may not graze a young orchard with the offspring of the she-goat, a race which astrology, too, has placed in the heavens, not far from the Bull.” [18] “Be careful, Agrius,” interrupted Fundanius, “that your citation cannot be wide of the mark; for it is also written in the law, ‘a certain kind of flock.’ For certain kinds of animals are the foes of plants, and even poisonous, such as the goats of which you spoke; for they destroy all young plants by their browsing, and especially vines and olives. [19] Accordingly there arose a custom, from opposite reasons, that a victim from the goat family might be led to the altar of one god, but might not be sacrificed on the altar of another; since, because of the same hatred, the one was not willing to see a goat, while the other was pleased to see him die. So it was that he-goats were offered to father Bacchus, the discoverer of the vine, so that they might pay with their lives for the injuries they do him; while, on the other hand, no member of the goat family was sacrificed to Minerva on account of the olive, because it is said that any olive plant which they bite becomes sterile; for their spittle is poisonous to its fruit. [20] For this reason, also, they are not driven into the acropolis at Athens except once a year, for a necessary sacrifice — to avoid the danger of having the olive tree, which is said to have originated there, touched by a she-goat.” “Cattle are not properly included in a discussion on agriculture,” said I, “except those which enhance the cultivation of the land by their labour, such as those which can plough under the yoke.” [21] “If that is so,” replied Agrasius, “how can cattle be kept off the land, when manure, which enhances its value very greatly, is supplied by the herds?” “By that method of reasoning,” retorted Agrius, “we may assert that slave-trading is a branch of agriculture, if we decide to keep a gang for that purpose. The error lies in the assumption that, because cattle can be kept on the land and be a source of profit there, they are part of agriculture. It does not follow; for by that reasoning we should have to embrace other things quite foreign to agriculture; as, for instance, you might keep on your farm a number of spinners, weavers, and other artisans.”
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