AGRICULTURE IN ANCIENT ROME

Abstract

In an earlier number of this journal, (Vol. XXIV No. 5, May 1936) an account of agriculture in ancient Greece was given. It was shown that the art of Agriculture was fairly well advanced in ancient Greece. The Romans not only improved the art considerably but also spread it in the countries conquered by them. Many of their learned men have written on the subject. The most important of these authors are Cato, Varro, Virgil, Columella, Pliny and Palladius. Cato was the father of the Roman rustic writers. His De Re Rustico is the oldest work on Roman agriculture.. Varro had written 500 volumes on different subjects and his. De Re Rustica is a valuable book on Roman agriculture. Virgil's Georgics may be considered as a poetical com- pendium on agriculture. Columella's De Re Rustica, in twelve books, is a complete treatise on rural affairs, including field operations, timber trees and garden. Pliny was a great naturalist and his Natural History, in thirty- seven books, gives much valuable information on Roman agriculture. The De Re Rustica of Palladius, a poem in fourteen volumes, is little more then a compendium of those works which preceded it on the same subject'.