Sane, inquit Agrius, et simul cogitans portam itineri dici longissimam esse ad subsellia sequentibus nobis procedit.
Cum consedissemus, Agrasius, Vos, qui multas perambulastis terras, ecquam cultiorem Italia vidistis? inquit. Ego vero, Agrius, nullam arbitror esse quae tam tota sit culta. Primum cum orbis terrae divisus sit in duas partes ab Eratosthene maxume secundum naturam, ad meridiem versus et ad septemtriones, et sine dubio quoniam salubrior pars septemtrionalis est quam meridiana, et quae salubriora illa fructuosiora, dicendum utique Italiam magis etiam fuisse opportunam ad colendum quam Asiam, primum quod est in Europa, secundo quod haec temperatior pars quam interior. Nam intus paene sempiternae hiemes, neque mirum, quod sunt regiones inter circulum septemtrionalem et inter cardinem caeli, ubi sol etiam sex mensibus continuis non videtur. Itaque in oceano in ea parte ne navigari quidem posse dicunt propter mare congelatum. Fundanius, Em ubi tu quicquam nasci putes posse aut coli natum. Verum enim est illud Pacuvi, sol si perpetuo sit aut nox, flammeo vapore aut frigore terrae fructos omnis interire. Ego hic, ubi nox et dies modice redit et abit, tamen aestivo die, si non diffinderem meo insiticio somno meridie, vivere non possum. Illic in semenstri die aut nocte quem ad modum quicquam seri aut alescere aut meti possit? Contra quid in Italia utensile non modo non nascitur, sed etiam non egregium fit? Quod far conferam Campano? Quod triticum Apulo? Quod vinum Falerno? Quod oleum Venafro? Non arboribus consita Italia, ut tota pomarium videatur?
[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?
An Phrygia magis vitibus cooperta, quam Homerus appellat ampeloessan, quam haec? Aut tritico Argos, quod idem poeta polupuron? In qua terra iugerum unum denos et quinos denos culleos fert vini, quot quaedam in Italia regiones? An non M. Cato scribit in libro Originum sic: ‘ager Gallicus Romanus vocatur, qui viritim cis Ariminum datus est ultra agrum Picentium. In eo agro aliquotfariam in singula iugera dena cullea vini fiunt’? Nonne item in agro Faventino, a quo ibi trecenariae appellantur vites, quod iugerum trecenas amphoras reddat? Simul aspicit me, Certe, inquit, Libo Marcius, praefectus fabrum tuos, in fundo suo Faventiae hanc multitudinem dicebat suas reddere vites. Duo in primis spectasse videntur Italici homines colendo, possentne fructus pro impensa ac labore redire et utrum saluber locus esset an non. Quorum si alterutrum decolat et nihilo minus quis vult colere, mente est captus adque adgnatos et gentiles est deducendus. Nemo enim sanus debet velle impensam ac sumptum facere in cultura, si videt non posse refici, nec si potest reficere fructus, si videt eos fore ut pestilentia dispereant. Sed, opinor, qui haec commodius ostendere possint adsunt. Nam C. Licinium Stolonem et Cn. Tremelium Scrofam video venire: unum, cuius maiores de modo agri legem tulerunt (nam Stolonis illa lex, quae vetat plus D iugera habere civem R.), et qui propter diligentiam culturae Stolonum confirmavit cognomen, quod nullus in eius fundo reperiri poterat stolo, quod effodiebat circum arbores e radicibus quae nascerentur e solo, quos stolones appellabant. Eiusdem gentis C. Licinius, tr. pl. cum esset, post reges exactos annis CCCLXV primus populum ad leges accipiendas in septem iugera forensia e comitio eduxit. Alterum collegam tuum, viginti virum qui fuit ad agros dividendos Campanos, video huc venire, Cn. Tremelium Scrofam, virum omnibus virtutibus politum, qui de agri cultura Romanus peritissimus existimatur. An non iure? inquam. Fundi enim eius propter culturam iucundiore spectaculo sunt multis, quam regie polita aedificia aliorum, cum huius spectatum veniant villas, non, ut apud Lucullum, ut videant pinacothecas, sed oporothecas. Huiusce, inquam, pomarii summa sacra via, ubi poma veneunt contra aurum, imago.
Illi interea ad nos, et Stolo, Num cena comessa, inquit, venimus? Nam non L. videmus Fundilium, qui nos advocavit. Bono animo este, inquit Agrius. Nam non modo ovom illut sublatum est, quod ludis circensibus novissimi curriculi finem facit quadrigis, sed ne illud quidem ovom vidimus, quod in cenali pompa solet esse primum. Itaque dum id nobiscum una videatis ac venit aeditumus, docete nos, agri cultura quam summam habeat, utilitatemne an voluptatem an utrumque. Ad te enim rudem esse agri culturae nunc, olim ad Stolonem fuisse dicunt.
[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.”
Scrofa, Prius, inquit, discernendum, utrum quae serantur in agro, ea sola sint in cultura, an etiam quae inducantur in rura, ut oves et armenta. Video enim, qui de agri cultura scripserunt et Poenice et Graece et Latine, latius vagatos, quam oportuerit. Ego vero, inquit Stolo, eos non in omni re imitandos arbitror et eo melius fecisse quosdam, qui minore pomerio finierunt exclusis partibus quae non pertinent ad hanc rem. Quare tota pastio, quae coniungitur a plerisque cum agri cultura, magis ad pastorem quam ad agricolam pertinere videtur. Quocirca principes qui utrique rei praeponuntur vocabulis quoque sunt diversi, quod unus vocatur vilicus, alter magister pecoris. Vilicus agri colendi causa constitutus atque appellatus a villa, quod ab eo in eam convehuntur fructus et evehuntur, cum veneunt. A quo rustici etiam nunc quoque viam veham appellant propter vecturas et vellam, non villam, quo vehunt et unde vehunt. Item dicuntur qui vecturis vivunt velaturam facere. Certe, inquit Fundanius, aliut pastio et aliut agri cultura, sed adfinis et ut dextra tibia alia quam sinistra, ita ut tamen sit quodam modo coniuncta, quod est altera eiusdem carminis modorum incentiva, altera succentiva. Et quidem licet adicias, inquam, pastorum vitam esse incentivam, agricolarum succentivam auctore doctissimo homine Dicaearcho, qui Graeciae vita qualis fuerit ab initio nobis ita ostendit, ut superioribus temporibus fuisse doceat, cum homines pastoriciam vitam agerent neque scirent etiam arare terram aut serere arbores aut putare; ab iis inferiore gradu aetatis susceptam agri culturam. Quocirca ea succinit pastorali, quod est inferior, ut tibia sinistra a dextrae foraminibus. Agrius, Tu, inquit, tibicen non solum adimis domino pecus, sed etiam servis peculium, quibus domini dant ut pascant, atque etiam leges colonicas tollis, in quibus scribimus, colonus in agro surculario ne capra natum pascat: quas etiam astrologia in caelum recepit, non longe ab tauro. Cui Fundanius, Vide, inquit, ne, Agri, istuc sit ab hoc, cum in legibus etiam scribatur ‘pecus quoddam’. Quaedam enim pecudes culturae sunt inimicae ac veneno, ut istae, quas dixisti, caprae. Eae enim omnia novella sata carpendo corrumpunt, non minimum vites atque oleas. Itaque propterea institutum diversa de causa ut ex caprino genere ad alii dei aram hostia adduceretur, ad alii non sacrificaretur, cum ab eodem odio alter videre nollet, alter etiam videre pereuntem vellet. Sic factum ut Libero patri, repertori vitis, hirci immolarentur, proinde ut capite darent poenas; contra ut Minervae caprini generis nihil immolarent propter oleam, quod eam quam laeserit fieri dicunt sterilem: eius enim salivam esse fructuis venenum: hoc nomine etiam Athenis in arcem non inigi, praeterquam semel ad necessarium sacrificium, ne arbor olea, quae primum dicitur ibi nata, a capra tangi possit. Nec ullae, inquam, pecudes agri culturae sunt propriae, nisi quae agrum opere, quo cultior sit, adiuvare, ut eae quae iunctae arare possunt.
“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 observe 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.”
Agrasius, Si istuc ita est, inquit, quo modo pecus removeri potest ab agro, cum stercus, quod plurimum prodest, greges pecorum ministrent? Sic, inquit Agrius, venalium greges dicemus agri culturam esse, si propter istam rem habendum statuerimus. Sed error hinc, quod pecus in agro esse potest et fructus in eo agro ferre, quod non sequendum. Nam sic etiam res aliae diversae ab agro erunt adsumendae, ut si habet plures in fundo textores atque institutos histonas, sic alios artifices.
Scrofa, Diiungamus igitur, inquit, pastionem a cultura, et siquis quid vult aliud. Anne ego, inquam, sequar Sasernarum patris et filii libros ac magis putem pertinere, figilinas quem ad modum exerceri oporteat, quam argentifodinas aut alia metalla, quae sine dubio in aliquo agro fiunt? Sed ut neque lapidicinae neque harenariae ad agri culturam pertinent, sic figilinae. Neque ideo non in quo agro idoneae possunt esse non exercendae, atque ex iis capiendi fructus: ut etiam, si ager secundum viam et opportunus viatoribus locus, aedificandae tabernae devorsoriae, quae tamen, quamvis sint fructuosae, nihilo magis sunt agri culturae partes. Non enim, siquid propter agrum aut etiam in agro profectus domino, agri culturae acceptum referre debet, sed id modo quod ex satione terra sit natum ad fruendum. Suscipit Stolo, Tu, inquit, invides tanto scriptori et obstrigillandi causa figlinas reprehendis, cum praeclara quaedam, ne laudes, praetermittas, quae ad agri culturam vehementer pertineant. Cum subrisisset Scrofa, quod non ignorabat libros et despiciebat, et Agrasius se scire modo putaret ac Stolonem rogasset ut diceret, coepit: Scribit cimices quem ad modum interfici oporteat his verbis: ‘cucumerem anguinum condito in aquam eamque infundito quo voles, nulli accedent; vel fel bubulum cum aceto mixtum, unguito lectum’. Fundanius aspicit ad Scrofam, Et tamen verum dicit, inquit, hic, ut hoc scripserit in agri cultura. Ille, Tam hercle quam hoc, siquem glabrum facere velis, quod iubet ranam luridam coicere in aquam, usque qua ad tertiam partem decoxeris, eoque unguere corpus. Ego, Quod magis, inquam, pertineat ad Fundani valetudinem in eo libro, est satius dicas: nam huiusce pedes solent dolere, in fronte contrahere rugas. Dic sodes, inquit Fundanius: nam malo de meis pedibus audire, quam quem ad modum pedes betaceos seri oporteat. Stolo subridens, Dicam, inquit, eisdem quibus ille verbis scripsit (vel Tarquennam audivi, cum homini pedes dolere coepissent, qui tui meminisset, ei mederi posse): ‘ego tui memini, medere meis pedibus, terra pestem teneto, salus hic maneto in meis pedibus’. Hoc ter noviens cantare iubet, terram tangere, despuere, ieiunum cantare. Multa, inquam, item alia miracula apud Sasernas invenies, quae omnia sunt diversa ab agri cultura et ideo repudianda. Quasi vero, inquit, non apud ceteros quoque scriptores talia reperiantur. An non in magni illius Catonis libro, qui de agri cultura est editus, scripta sunt permulta similia, ut haec, quem ad modum placentam facere oporteat, quo pacto libum, qua ratione pernas sallere? Illud non dicis, inquit Agrius, quod scribit, ‘si velis in convivio multum bibere cenareque libenter, ante esse oportet brassicam crudam ex aceto aliqua folia quinque’.
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