Columella, De Re Rustica

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§ 1.pr.1 Book I Preface Again and again I hear leading men of our state condemning now the unfruitfulness of the soil, now the inclemency of the climate for some seasons past, as harmful to crops; and some I hear reconciling the aforesaid complaints, as if on well-founded reasoning, on the ground that, in their opinion, the soil was worn out and exhausted by the over-production of earlier days and can no longer furnish sustenance to mortals with its old-time benevolence.
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§ 1.pr.2 Such reasons, Publius Silvinus, I am convinced are far from the truth; for it is a sin to suppose that Nature, endowed with perennial fertility by the creator of the universe, is affected with barrenness as though with some disease; and it is unbecoming to a man of good judgment to believe that Earth, to whose lot was assigned a divine and everlasting youth, and who is called the common mother of all things — because she has always brought forth all things and is destined to bring them forth continuously — has grown old in mortal fashion.
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§ 1.pr.3 And, furthermore, I do not believe that such misfortunes come upon us as a result of the fury of the elements, but rather because of our own fault; for the matter of husbandry, which all the best of our ancestors had treated with the best of care, we have delivered over to all the worst of our slaves, as if to a hangman for punishment. As for me, I cannot cease to wonder why those who wish to become speakers are so careful in the choosing of an orator whose eloquence they may imitate; those who investigate the science of surveying and mathematics emulate a master of the art of their choice; those who devote themselves to the study of dancing and music are most scrupulous in their search for one to teach modulation of the speaking and singing voice, and no less for an instructor in graceful movement of the body;
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§ 1.pr.4 even those who wish to build call in joiners and master-builders; those who entrust ships to the sea send for skilful pilots; those who make preparations for war call for men practised in arms and in campaigning; and, not to go through the list one by one, for any study which one wishes to pursue he employs the most expert director; in short, everyone summons from the company of the wise a man to mould his intellect and instruct him in the precepts of virtue; but agriculture alone, which is without doubt most closely related and, as it were, own sister to wisdom, is as destitute of learners as of teachers.
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§ 1.pr.5 For that there are to this day schools for rhetoricians and, as I have said, for mathematicians and musicians, or, what is more to be wondered at, training-schools for the most contemptible vices — the seasoning of food to promote gluttony and the more extravagant serving of courses, and dressers of the head and hair — I have not only heard but have even seen with my own eyes; but of agriculture I know neither self-professed teachers nor pupils.
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§ 1.pr.6 For even if the state were destitute of professors of the aforementioned arts, still the commonwealth could prosper just as in the times of the ancients — for without the theatrical profession and even without case-pleaders cities were once happy enough, and will again be so; yet without tillers of the soil it is obvious that mankind can neither subsist nor be fed.
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§ 1.pr.7 For this reason, what has come to pass is the more amazing — that the art of the highest importance to our physical welfare and the needs of life should have made, even up to our own time, the least progress; and that this method of enlarging and passing on an inheritance, entirely free from guilt, should be looked upon with scorn. For other methods, diverse and in conflict as it were, are at odds with justice; unless we think it more equitable to have acquired spoils by the soldier's method, which profits us nothing without bloodshed and disaster to others.
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§ 1.pr.8 Or, to those who detest war, can the hazard of the sea and of trade be more desirable, that man, a terrestrial being, violating the law of nature and exposing himself to the wrath of wind and sea, should hang on the waves and always wander over an unknown world in the manner of birds, a stranger on a distant shore? Or is usury more commendable, a thing detested even by those whom it appears to aid?
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§ 1.pr.9 But certainly no more admirable is the “canine pursuit,” as the ancients called it, of barking at every man of outstanding wealth, and the practice of legal banditry against the innocent and in defence of the guilty — a fraud despised by our ancestors, but even allowed by us within the city and in the very forum. Or should I regard as more honourable the hypocritical fawning of the man who frequents the levees, for a price, and hovers about the thresholds of the mighty, divining the sleeping hours of his lord by hearsay? For the servants do not deign to reply to his questions as to what is going on indoors.
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§ 1.pr.10 Or am I to think it a greater gift of fortune for a man, rebuffed by a door-keeper in chains, to loiter about those ungrateful doors, often until late at night, and by the most demeaning servility to purchase at the price of dishonour the honour and power of the fasces, though with the dissipation of his own inheritance? For it is not with voluntary servitude, but with bribes, that preferments are bought. If good men are to shun these pursuits and their kind, there remains, as I have said, one method of increasing one's substance that befits a man who is a gentleman and free-born, and this is found in agriculture.
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§ 1.pr.11 If the precepts of this science were put in practice in the old-fashioned way, even in imprudent fashion by those without previous instruction (provided, however, that they were owners of the land), the business of husbandry would sustain smaller loss; for the diligence that goes with proprietorship would compensate in large measure the losses occasioned by lack of knowledge; and men whose interests were at stake would not wish to appear forever ignorant of their own affairs, and for that reason more zealous to learn, they would gain a thorough knowledge of husbandry.
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§ 1.pr.12 As it is, we think it beneath us to till our lands with our own hands, and we consider it of no importance to appoint as an overseer a man of very great experience or at least, if he is inexperienced, one who is wide-awake and active, that he may learn more quickly what he does not know. But if a rich man purchases a farm, out of his throng of footmen and litter-bearers he sends off to the fields the one most bankrupt in years and strength, whereas such work requires, not only knowledge, but the age of vigour and physical strength as well, to endure its hardships; or, if the owner is of moderate means, out of the number of his hands for hire he orders someone who now refuses him the daily tribute money, since the man cannot be a source of income, to be made a foreman, though he may know nothing of the work which he is to superintend.
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§ 1.pr.13 When I observe these things, reviewing in my mind and reflecting upon the shameful unanimity with which rural discipline has been abandoned and passed out of use, I am fearful lest it may be disgraceful and, in a sense, degrading or dishonourable to men of free birth. But when I am reminded by the records of many writers that it was a matter of pride with our forefathers to give their attention to farming, from which pursuit came Quinctius Cincinnatus, summoned from the plough to the dictatorship to be the deliverer of a beleaguered consul and his army, and then, again laying down the power which he relinquished after victory more hastily than he had assumed it for command, to return to the same bullocks and his small ancestral inheritance of four iugera;
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§ 1.pr.14 from which pursuit came also Gaius Fabricius and Curius Dentatus, the one after his rout of Pyrrhus from the confines of Italy, the other after his conquest of the Sabines, tilling the captured land which they had received in the distribution of seven iugera to a man, with an energy not inferior to the bravery in arms with which they had gained it; and, not unseasonably to run through individual cases at this time, when I observe that so many other renowned captains of Roman stock were invariably distinguished in this twofold pursuit of either defending or tilling their ancestral or acquired estates, I understand that yesterday's morals and strenuous manner of living are out of tune with our present extravagance and devotion to pleasure.
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§ 1.pr.15 For, even as Marcus Varro complained in the days of our grandfathers, all of us who are heads of families have quit the sickle and the plough and have crept within the city-walls; and we ply our hands in the circuses and theatres rather than in the grainfields and vineyards; and we gaze in astonished admiration at the posturings of effeminate males, because they counterfeit by their womanish motions a sex which nature has denied to men, and deceive the eyes of the spectators.
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§ 1.pr.16 And presently, then, that we may come to our gluttonous feasts in proper fettle, we steam out our daily indigestion in sweat-baths, and by drying out the moisture of our bodies we arouse a thirst; we spend our nights in licentiousness and drunkenness, our days in gaming or sleeping, and account ourselves blessed by fortune in that “we behold neither the rising of the sun nor its setting.”
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§ 1.pr.17 The consequence is that ill health attends so slothful a manner of living; for the bodies of our young men are so flabby and enervated that death seems likely to make no change in them. But, by heaven, that true stock of Romulus, practised in constant hunting and no less in toiling in the fields, was distinguished by the greatest physical strength and, hardened by the labours of peace, easily endured the hardships of war when occasion demanded, and always esteemed the common people of the country more highly than those of the city. For as those who kept within the confines of the country houses were accounted more slothful than those who tilled the ground outside, so those who spent their time idly within the walls, in the shelter of the city, were looked upon as more sluggish than those who tilled the fields or supervised the labours of the tillers.
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§ 1.pr.18 It is evident, too, that their market-day gatherings were employed for this purpose — that city affairs might be transacted on every ninth day and country affairs on the other days. For in those times, as we have previously remarked, the leading men of the state used to pass their time in the fields and were summoned from their farms to the senate when advice on matters of state was wanted; as a result of which those who summoned them were called viatores or “road-men.”
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§ 1.pr.19 And so long as this custom was preserved, with a most persevering enthusiasm for tilling their lands, those old Sabine Quirites and our Roman forefathers, even though exposed to fire and sword, and despite the devastation of their crops by hostile forays, still laid by a greater store of crops than do we, who, with the sufferance of long-continued peace, might have extended the practice of agriculture.
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§ 1.pr.20 So, then, in “this Latium and Saturnian land,” where the gods had taught their offspring of the fruits of the fields, we let contracts at auction for the importation of grain from our provinces beyond the sea, that we may not suffer hunger; and we lay up our stores of wine from the Cyclades Islands and from the districts of Baetica and Gaul. Nor is it to be wondered at, seeing that the common notion is now generally entertained and established that farming is a mean employment and a business which has no need of direction or of precept.
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§ 1.pr.21 But for my part, when I review the magnitude of the entire subject, like the immensity of some great body, or the minuteness of its several parts, as so many separate members, I am afraid that my last day may overtake me before I can comprehend the entire subject of rural discipline.
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§ 1.pr.22 For one who would profess to be a master of this science must have a shrewd insight into the works of nature; he must not be ignorant of the variations of latitude, that he may have ascertained what is suitable to every region and what is incompatible. He should tell over in his mind the rising and setting of the stars, that he may not begin his operations when rains and winds are threatening, and so bring his toils to naught.
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§ 1.pr.23 He must observe the behaviour of the current weather and season, for they do not always wear the same habit as if according to a fixed rule; summer and winter do not come every year with the same countenance; the spring is not always rainy or the autumn moist. These matters I cannot believe that any man can know beforehand without the light of intelligence and without the most accurate instruction. Indeed, it is granted to few to discern what the very diversity of land and the nature of each soil may deny us, or what they may promise us.
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§ 1.pr.24 Of how many, in fact, is it the lot to survey all parts of this science, so as thoroughly to understand the practice of cropping and ploughing and to have an accurate knowledge of the varied and very unlike types of soil (of which some deceive us by their colour, some by their texture; in some lands the black soil which they call pulla, as in Campania, is commended; in others a fat, glutinous soil answers better; in some countries, as in Africa and Numidia, a crumbling, sandy soil surpasses in fertility even the strongest land; while in Asia and Mysia a stiff and viscous soil is especially productive)?
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§ 1.pr.25 Of how many is it the lot to have an understanding in the matter of these soils, as to what crop a hillside will refuse to yield, what a level situation, what a cultivated land, what a wooded land, what a land that is moist and grassy or dry and blasted; to discern also the method of planting and tending trees and vineyards, of which there are endless varieties; and of acquiring and keeping cattle, since we have admitted this as a part of agriculture, though the herdsman's art is distinct from husbandry?
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§ 1.pr.26 And yet even this is not of one pattern; for a stud of horses requires one kind of management; a herd of cattle another; a flock of sheep still another, and of these the Tarentine breed demands a different method from the coarse-wooled; a still different treatment is required by the goat kind, and of these the hornless and thin-haired are cared for in one way, the horned and shaggy-haired, as in Cilicia, in another way. Moreover, the business of the swine -breeder and swineherd is different, their method of feeding is different; nor do light-coated and heavy-coated swine require the same climate, rearing, and care.
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§ 1.pr.27 And, to take my leave of cattle, as a part of which the care of farmyard poultry and bees is reckoned, who has extended his studies so far as to be acquainted, in addition to the points which I have enumerated, with the many methods of grafting and pruning? to put in practice the cultivation of the many fruits and vegetables? to devote his attention to the many varieties of figs as well as to rose-gardens, when even greater things are neglected by most people even though they have now begun to be, for many farmers, not the least part of their revenue?
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§ 1.pr.28 For meadows and willow-thickets, broom-plants and reeds, though they require little attention, still require some. After this announcement of subjects so many and so varied, it does not escape me that, if I demand, of those who are concerned with farm-work, the farmer whom we seek and shall describe, the enthusiasm of the learners will be cooled; for, being disheartened by the hopelessness of mastering so varied and so vast a science, they will not wish to try what they distrust their ability to attain.
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§ 1.pr.29 Nevertheless, as Marcus Tullius has very properly said in his Orator, it is right that those who have an earnest desire to investigate subjects of the greatest utility for the human race, and to transmit to posterity their carefully weighed findings, should try everything. And if the force of an outstanding genius or the equipment of celebrated arts is wanting, we should not immediately relapse into idleness and sloth, but rather that which we have wisely hoped for we should steadfastly pursue. For if only we aim at the topmost peak, it will be honour enough for us to be seen even on the second summit.
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§ 1.pr.30 Have not the Muses of Latium admitted to their sanctuaries, not Accius and Vergil alone, but also assigned seats of honour to those next to them and to those far from second rank? The far-famed fulminations of Cicero did not deter from the pursuit of eloquence Brutus or Caelius, Pollio or Messala or Calvus; for Cicero himself had not yielded in fright to the thunderings of Demosthenes and Plato, and the father of eloquence, that divine Maeonian, with the mighty floods of his rhetoric had not quenched the zeal of those who came after him.
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§ 1.pr.31 And we observe that even artists of lesser fame, who through these many generations have been admirers of Protogenes and Apelles and Parrhasius, have not ceased from their own labours; and, though stunned by the beauty of Phidias' Olympian Jove and of his Minerva, men of the succeeding age, Bryaxis, Lysippus, Praxiteles, and Polyclitus, were not reluctant to try what they could do or how far they could advance. But in every branch of knowledge the highest have attained to admiration and reverence, and those of lesser worth have received their meed of praise.
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§ 1.pr.32 Added to this is that in the case of the man whom we wish to be a finished husbandman, even though he be not a man of consummate skill, though he may not have attained to the sagacity of a Democritus or a Pythagoras in the nature of the universe, and the foreknowledge of Meton or Eudoxus in the movements of the stars and the winds, the learning of Chiron and Melampus in the care of cattle and the prudent wisdom of Triptolemus or Aristaeus in the tilling of the fields and the soil, still he will have made great progress if he has equalled in practice our own Tremelliuses and Sasernas and Stolos.
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§ 1.pr.33 For agriculture can be conducted without the greatest mental acuteness, but not on the other hand, “by the fat-witted,” to use a frequent expression. For far from the truth is the belief, held by many, that the business of husbandry is extremely easy and requires no mental keenness. There is no occasion for further discussion of the subject as a whole at this point, inasmuch as its several divisions are to be set forth in the several Books assigned to them, which I shall carry through, each in its own order, but only after I have said by way of preface what I judge to be especially pertinent to the science in general. Book I
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§ 1.1.1 One who devotes himself to agriculture should understand that he must call to his assistance these most fundamental resources: knowledge of the subject, means for defraying the expenses, and the will to do the work. For in the end, as Tremelius remarks, he will have the best-tilled lands who has the knowledge, the wherewithal, and the will to cultivate them. For the knowledge and willingness will not suffice anyone without the means which the tasks require;
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§ 1.1.2 on the other hand, the will to do or the ability to make the outlay will be of no use without knowledge of the art, since the main thing in every enterprise is to know what has to be done — and especially so in agriculture, where willingness and means, without knowledge, frequently bring great loss to owners when work which has been done in ignorance brings to naught the expense incurred.
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§ 1.1.3 Accordingly, an attentive head of a household, whose heart is set on pursuing a sure method of increasing his fortune from the tillage of his land, will take especial pains to consult on every point the most experienced farmers of his own time; he should study zealously the manuals of the ancients, gauging the opinions and teachings of each of them, to see whether the records handed down by his forefathers are suited in their entirety to the husbandry of his day or are out of keeping in some respects.
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§ 1.1.4 For I have found that many authorities now worthy of remembrance were convinced that with the long wasting of the ages, weather and climate undergo a change; and that among them the most learned professional astronomer, Hipparchus, has put it on record that the time will come when the poles will change position, a statement to which Saserna, no mean authority on husbandry, seems to have given credence.
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§ 1.1.5 For in that book on agriculture which he has left behind he concludes that the position of the heavens had changed from this evidence: that regions which formerly, because of the unremitting severity of winter, could not safeguard any shoot of the vine or the olive planted in them, now that the earlier coldness has abated and the weather is becoming more clement, produce olive harvests and the vintages of Bacchus in the greatest abundance. But whether this theory be true or false, we must leave it to the writings on astronomy.
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§ 1.1.6 Other precepts of husbandry are not to be concealed from the tiller of the soil; and while Punic writers from Africa have handed them down in large numbers, yet many of them are assailed as erroneous by our farmers, as, for example, by Tremelius, who, though he brings this very charge, provides the excuse that the soil and the climate of Italy and of Africa, being of a different nature, cannot produce the same results. But whatever the causes by reason of which the agricultural practice of our times is at variance with the ancient principles, they should not discourage the learner from reading them; for in the works of the ancients far more is found to merit our approval than our rejection.
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§ 1.1.7 There is, furthermore, a great throng of Greeks who give instruction on husbandry; and the first of them, that most renowned poet, Hesiod of Boeotia, has contributed in no small degree to our art. It was then further assisted by men who have come from the well-spring of philosophy — Democritus of Abdera, Xenophon the follower of Socrates, Archytas of Tarentum, and the two Peripatetics, master and pupil, Aristotle and Theophrastus.
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§ 1.1.8 Sicilians, too, have pursued that occasion with no ordinary zeal, Hieron and Epicharmus, whose pupil was even Attalus Philometor. Athens assuredly has been the mother of a host of writers, of whom our most outstanding authorities are Chaereas, Aristandrus, Amphilochus, Euphronius, and Chrestus — Euphronius being not, as many believe, the Euphronius of Amphipolis (who is himself regarded as a praiseworthy farmer), but a native of Attica.
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§ 1.1.9 The islands, too, have honoured the study, as witness Epigenes of Rhodes, Agathocles of Chios, and Evagon and Anaxipolis of Thasos. Menander and Diodorus also, fellow-countrymen of the renowned Bias, one of the Seven, were among the first to lay claim to a knowledge of agriculture. Not inferior to these are Bacchius and Mnaseas of Miletus, Antigonus of Cyme, Apollonius of Pergamus, Dion of Colophon, and Hegesias of Maronea.
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§ 1.1.10 As a matter of fact, Diophanes of Bithynia epitomized the treatise of the Carthaginian Mago. Other writers, too, though of lesser fame, whose countries we have not learned, have made some contribution to our study. Such are Androtion, Aeschrion, Aristomenes, Athenagoras, Crates, Dadis, Dionysius, Euphyton, and Euphorion.
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§ 1.1.11 And with no less fidelity have Lysimachus and Eubulus, Menestratus and Plentiphanes, Persis and Theophilus, to the best of their ability, brought us their tribute.
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§ 1.1.12 And that we may endow Agriculture at last with Roman citizenship (for it has belonged thus far to writers of the Greek race), let us now recall that illustrious Marcus Cato the Censor, who first taught her to speak in Latin; after him the two Sasernas, father and son, who continued her education with greater care; then Tremelius Scrofa, who gave her eloquence, and Marcus Terentius, who added refinement; and presently Vergil, who gave her the power of song as well.
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§ 1.1.13 And finally, let us not disdain to mention her paedagogus, so to speak, Julius Hyginus, though still paying greatest reverence to the Carthaginian Mago as the father of husbandry, inasmuch as his twenty-eight memorable volumes were translated into the Latin tongue by senatorial decree.
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§ 1.1.14 No less honour, however, is due to men of our own time, Cornelius Celsus and Julius Atticus; for Cornelius has embraced the whole substance of the subject in five books, while the latter has published just one book on one kind of agriculture, that concerned with vines. And his pupil, as it were, Julius Graecinus, has taken care that two volumes of similar instructions on vineyards, composed in a more elegant and learned style, should be handed down to posterity.
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§ 1.1.15 These, then, Publius Silvinus, are the men whom you are to call into consultation before you make any contract with agriculture, yet not with any thought that you will attain perfection in the whole subject through their maxims; for the treatises of such writers instruct rather than create the craftsman.
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§ 1.1.16 It is practice and experience that hold supremacy in the crafts, and there is no branch of learning in which one is not taught by his own mistakes. For when a venture turns out unsuccessfully through wrong management, one avoids the mistake that he had made, and the instructions of a teacher cast a light upon the right course.
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§ 1.1.17 Hence these precepts of ours promise, not to bring the science to perfection, but to lend a helping hand. And no man will immediately become a master of agriculture by the reading of these doctrines, unless he has the will and the resources to put them into practice. We set them forth, therefore, in the nature of supports to those who wish to learn, not intended to be beneficial by themselves alone, but in conjunction with other requirements.
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§ 1.1.18 And, as I have stated, not even those aids, nor the constant toil and experience of the farm overseer, nor the means and the willingness to spend money, avail as much as the mere presence of the master; for if his presence does not frequently attend the work, all business comes to a standstill, just as in an army when the commander is absent. And I believe that Mago the Carthaginian was pointing this out most particularly when he began his writings with such sentiments as these: “One who has bought land should sell his town house, so that he will have no desire to worship the household gods of the city rather than those of the country; the man who takes greater delight in his city residence will have no need of a country estate”.
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§ 1.1.19 This precept, if it could be carried out in our times, I would not change. But as things are, since political ambition often calls most of us away, and even more often keeps us away when called, I consequently rate it as most advantageous to have an estate near town, which even the busy man may easily visit every day after his business in the forum is done.
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§ 1.1.20 For men who purchase lands at a distance, not to mention estates across the seas, are making over their inheritances to their slaves, as to their heirs and, worse yet, while they themselves are still alive; for it is certain that slaves are corrupted by reason of the great remoteness of their masters and, being once corrupted and in expectation of others to take their places after the shameful acts which they have committed, they are more intent on pillage than on farming.
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§ 1.2.1 I am of the opinion, therefore, that land should be purchased nearby, so that the owner may visit it often and announce that his visits will be more frequent than he really intends them to be; for under this apprehension both overseer and labourers will be at their duties. But whenever the chance offers, he should stay in the country; and his stay should not be an idle one nor spent in the shade. For it behooves a careful householder to go around every little bit of his land quite frequently and at every season of the year, that he may the more intelligently observe the nature of the soil, whether in foliage and grass or in ripened crops, and that he may not be ignorant of what may properly be done on it.
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§ 1.2.2 For it is an old saying of Cato that land is most grievously maltreated when its master does not direct what is to be done thereon but listens to his overseer. Therefore, let it be the chief concern of one who owns a farm inherited from his ancestors, or of one who intends to buy a place, to know what kind of ground is most approved, so that he may either be rid of one that is unprofitable or purchase one that is to be commended.
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§ 1.2.3 But if fortune attends our prayer, we shall have a farm in a healthful climate, with fertile soil, partly level, partly hills with a gentle eastern or southern slope; with some parts of the land cultivated, and other parts wooded and rough; not far from the sea or a navigable stream, by which its products may be carried off and supplies brought in. The level ground, divided into meadows, arable land, willow groves, and reed thickets, should be adjacent to the steading.
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§ 1.2.4 Let some of the hills be bare of trees, to serve for grain crops only; still these crops thrive better in moderately dry and fertile plains than in steep places, and for that reason even the higher grainfields should have some level sections and should be of as gentle a slope as possible and very much like flat land. Again, other hills should be clad with olive groves and vineyards, and with copses to supply props for the latter; they should be able to furnish wood and stone, if the need of building so requires, as well as grazing ground for herds; and then they should send down coursing rivulets into meadows, gardens, and willow plantations, and running water for the villa.
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§ 1.2.5 And let there be no lack of herds of cattle and of other four-footed kind to graze over the tilled land and the thickets. But such a situation as we desire is hard to find and, being uncommon, it falls to the lot of the few; the next best is one which possesses most of these qualities, and one is passable which lacks the fewest of them.
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§ 1.3.1 Porcius Cato, indeed, held the opinion that in the inspection of farm land two considerations were of chief importance — the wholesomeness of the climate, and the fruitfulness of the region; and that if either of these were wanting and one had the desire none the less to live there, he had lost his senses and should be turned over to his legal guardians.
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§ 1.3.2 For no one in his right mind should go to the expense of cultivating barren soil, and, on the other hand, in an unhealthful climate, no matter how fruitful and rich the soil, the owner cannot live to the harvest; for where the reckoning must be made with Orcus, not only the harvesting of the crops but also the life of the husbandmen is uncertain, or rather death is more certain than gain.
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§ 1.3.3 After these two primary considerations he added, as deserving no less attention, the following: the road, the water, and the neighbourhood. A handy road contributes much to the worth of land: first and most important, the actual presence of the owner, who will come and go more cheerfully if he does not have to dread discomfort on the journey; and secondly its convenience for bringing in and carrying out the necessaries — a factor which increases the value of stored crops and lessens the expense of bringing things in, as they are transported at lower cost to a place which may be reached without great effort;
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§ 1.3.4 and it means a great deal, too, to get transportation at low cost if you make the trip with hired draught-animals, which is more expedient than looking after your own; furthermore, that the slaves who are to accompany the master will not be reluctant to begin the journey on foot. As to the goodness of the water, the point is so apparent to everyone that it needs no further discussion;
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§ 1.3.5 for who can doubt that water — without which none of us, whether of sound or delicate health, can prolong his life — is most highly esteemed? As to the suitability of a neighbour, there is, as a matter of fact, no fixed rule, since death and various other circumstances sometimes change him in our eyes. It is for this reason that some people reject Cato's opinion, though they appear to be badly mistaken. For, as it is the part of a wise man to endure the blows of fortune with a stout heart, so it is the mark of a madman to create misfortunes for himself voluntarily; and this is what he does who spends his money in the purchase of a worthless neighbour, even though he might have heard, from his first days in the cradle, provided he comes of gentle stock, the Greek proverb: Not even an ox would be lost but for an evil neighbour.
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§ 1.3.6 And this saying applies not only to the ox, but to all parts of our estate; to such an extent, in fact, that many have preferred to forsake their homes because of the wrongdoing of their neighbours; unless we attribute it to some other motive than their inability to put up with bad neighbours that whole nations (I speak of the Achaeans and Hiberians, the Albanians, too, and the Sicilians as well; and, to touch upon our own beginnings, the Pelasgians, the Aborigines, and the Arcadians ) abandoned their native soil and sought out a different part of the world.
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§ 1.3.7 And not to speak merely of disasters affecting communities at large, it is a matter of tradition that private individuals too, both in the countries of Greece and in our own Hesperia, have been abominable neighbours; unless anyone could have endured that infamous Autolycus on an adjoining place, or unless Cacus, a resident of the Aventine mount, brought joy to his neighbours on the Palatine! For I prefer to speak of men of past time rather than of the present, so as not to call by name a neighbour of my own who does not allow a tree of any great spread to stand on our common line; who does not let a seed-bed go unhurt, or stakes to support the vines; who does not even let the cattle graze undisturbed. Rightly, then, as far as my opinion goes, did Marcus Porcius advise the avoidance of such a nuisance and particularly warn the farmer-to-be not to come near it of his own free will.
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§ 1.3.8 To the other injunctions we add one which one of the Seven Sages delivered to posterity for all time: that measure and proportion be applied to all things, and that this be understood as spoken not only to those who are to embark on some other enterprise, but also to those who are to acquire land — not to want to buy more than a regard for their reckonings allows. For this is the meaning of that famous maxim of our own poet: Admire large farms, but yet a small one till.
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§ 1.3.9 This precept, which a most learned man has expressed in verse, is, in my opinion, a heritage from antiquity, inasmuch as it is agreed that the Carthaginians, a very shrewd people, had the saying that the farm should be weaker than the farmer; for, as he must wrestle with it, if the land prove the stronger, the master is crushed. And there is no doubt that an extensive field, not properly cultivated, brings in a smaller return than a little one tilled with exceeding care.
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§ 1.3.10 For this reason those seven iugera of Licinius, which the tribune of the plebs distributed to each man after the expulsion of the kings, rewarded the ancients with greater returns than our very extensive fallow-lands bestow upon us nowadays. So great an amount, in fact, did Manius Curius Dentatus, whom we mentioned a little above, regard as a good fortune greater than that of one who had been consul and had received a triumph, when after the winning of a victory under his successful leadership, the people bestowed upon him, in token of reward for his unusual ability, fifty iugera of land; and, declining the generosity of the state, he was content with the portion allotted to his fellow-citizens and to the common people.
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§ 1.3.11 Later one, even though our victories and the annihilation of the enemy had desolated vast stretches of country, it was still a criminal matter for a senator to have more than fifty iugera in his possession. And Gaius Licinius was condemned under the terms of his own law when, with an unrestrained passion for ownership, he had exceeded the limit of landholdings which he had set up by legislation proposed when he was a tribune; and this not only because it was a mark of arrogance to occupy holdings of such extent, but quite as much for the reason that it seemed the more scandalous for a Roman citizen, by extending his ownership in unheard-of fashion beyond the sufficiency of his inheritance, to leave untilled those lands which the enemy by their flight had abandoned.
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§ 1.3.12 Therefore, as in all matters, so too in the acquiring of land, moderation shall be exercised. For only so much is to be occupied as is needed, that we may appear to have purchased what we may keep under control, not to saddle ourselves with a burden and to deprive others of its use and enjoyment after the manner of men of enormous wealth who, possessing entire countries of which they cannot even make the rounds, either leave them to be trampled by cattle and wasted and ravaged by wild beasts, or keep them occupied by citizens enslaved for debt and by chain-gangs. But every man's limit will be determined by his own desire plus his means;
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§ 1.3.13 for, as I have said before, the desire for possession does not suffice if you lack the wherewithal for cultivation.
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§ 1.4.1 Next in order is the precept of Caesonius, which Marcus Cato also is said to have employed, that land which one intends to purchase should be visited again and again; for at the first examination it does not reveal the hidden qualities, bad or good, which are more readily apparent to those who go over it again soon afterwards. Our ancestors, too, have handed down to us what may be called a stand for the appraisal of rich and fertile land, of whose properties we shall speak in a fitting place, when we come to the discussion of types of soil.
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§ 1.4.2 I have, however, a general rule which should be an attesting witness, so to speak, and should be proclaimed again and again; a rule which Marcus Atilius Regulus, a general of the greatest renown in the first Punic War, is reported to have laid down: that as a farm, even of the richest soil, is not to be purchased if it be unwholesome, just so we are not to buy a piece of worn-out land even though it be most wholesome. This advice Attilus gave to the husbandmen of his day with the greater authority as coming from the knowledge of experience;
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§ 1.4.3 for history relates that he was once the tiller of a pestilential and lean piece of ground in Pupinia. Wherefore, though it may be the part of a wise man not to buy anywhere and everywhere and not to be beguiled by either the allurements of fruitful land or the charm of its beauty, it is just as truly the part of an industrious master to render fruitful and profitable any land that he has acquired by purchase or otherwise; for our predecessors have left to us many means of relief from a noxious climate, whereby pernicious plagues may be alleviated, and even on lean land the good sense and painstaking of the husbandmen can overcome the thinness of the soil.
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§ 1.4.4 These results we shall attain, moreover, if we pay heed, as to an oracle, to the truest of poets, who says: Be it our care to learn betimes the winds and moods of heaven, To learn the tillage of our sires and nature of the place, What fruits each district does produce and what it does refuse. And yet, not content with the authority of either former or present-day husbandmen, we must hand down our own experiences and set ourselves to experiments as yet untried.
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§ 1.4.5 This practice, though sometimes detrimental in part, nevertheless proves advantageous on the whole; because no field is tilled without profit if the owner, through much experimentation, causes it to be fitted for the use which it can best serve. Such management also increases the profit from the most fertile land. Accordingly, there should be no neglect, anywhere, of experimentation in many forms; and far greater daring should be shown on rich soil, because the return will not render the toil and expense a total loss.
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§ 1.4.6 But as the nature of the farm and the method of its cultivation is a matter of importance, even so is the construction of the farmstead and the convenience of its arrangement; for tradition has it that many have made mistakes, as is the case of two very eminent men, Lucius Lucullus and Quintus Scaevola, of whom the one put up too large a stand of buildings, the other not large enough to meet the requirements of his acreage; though either error is contrary to the interests of the owner.
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§ 1.4.7 For not only are we put to excessive expense in erecting buildings on too large a scale, but also we pay more for upkeep; on the other hand, when they are smaller than the farm requires, its products are wasted. For both the moist and the dry products which the earth produces are easily spoiled if there are no buildings into which they may be carried, or if such buildings are unsuitable because of their scantiness.
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§ 1.4.8 Furthermore, the master should be housed as well as possible in proportion to his means, so that he may more willingly visit the country and find more pleasure in staying there. And especially, if his wife also accompanies him, since her disposition, like her sex, is daintier, she must be humoured by amenities of some sort to make her stay more contentedly with her husband. The farmer, then, should build handsomely, but without letting building become his passion, and he should take in only so large a plot that, as Cato says, “the buildings may not seek for land, nor the land for buildings.” As to the qualities of a building site, I shall now speak in general terms.
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§ 1.4.9 As a building which is begun should be situated in a healthful region, so too in the most healthful part of that region; for when the surrounding atmosphere is bad, it is a contributing factor to a host of physical ills. There are certain places, such as Thebes in Boeotia is said to be, which are comparatively free from heat in midsummer but become frightful and unbearable with the cold of winter; there are places which are mild in winter but glow with a most cruel heat in summer, as they say of Chalcis in Euboea.
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§ 1.4.10 Let there be sought, then an atmosphere free from excesses of heat and cold; this is usually maintained halfway up a hill, because, not being in a hollow, it is not numbed with winter's frosts or baked with steaming heat in summer, and, not being perched on the top of a mountain, it is not fretted at every season of the year with every little breeze or rain. The best situation, then, is halfway up a slope, but on a little eminence, so that when a torrent formed by the rains at the summit pours around it the foundations will not be torn away.
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§ 1.5.1 Let there be, moreover, a never-failing spring either within the steading or brought in from outside; a wood-lot and pasture near by. If running water is wanting, make a search for a well close by, to be not too deep for hoisting the water, and not bitter or brackish in taste.
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§ 1.5.2 If this too fails, and if scanty hope of veins of water compels it, have large cisterns built for people and ponds for cattle; this rain-water is after all most suitable to the body's health, and is regarded as uncommonly good if it is conveyed through earthen pipes into a covered cistern. Next to this is flowing water which, having its source in the mountains, comes tumbling down over rocks as on Mount Gaurus in Campania. The third choice is well-water which is found on a hillside or in a valley, if not in its lowest part.
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§ 1.5.3 Worst of all is swamp-water, which creeps along with sluggish flow; and water that always remains stagnant in a swamp is laden with death. But the same water, harmful though its nature is, is purified by the rains of the winter season and loses its virulence; from this fact water from the heavens is known to be most healthful, as it even washes away the pollution of poisonous water, and we have stated that this is most approved for drinking.
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§ 1.5.4 On the other hand, bubbling brooks contribute greatly to the alleviation of summer heat and to the attractiveness of places; and, if local conditions will allow, I think that they, by all means, should be conducted into the villa, regardless of the quality of the water if only it is sweet. But if the stream is far removed from the hills, and if the healthfulness of the region and the somewhat elevated position of its banks allow the placing of the villa above flowing water, care must still be taken that it have the stream at the rear rather than in front of it, and that the front of the structure face away from the harmful winds peculiar to the region and towards those that are most friendly; for most streams reek with mists, hot in summer and cold in water, and these, unless dispersed by the greater force of winds that blow upon them, are the cause of destruction to man and beast.
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§ 1.5.5 It is best, moreover, as I have said, for a villa to face the east or the south in healthful situations, the north in noxious. A villa is always properly placed when it overlooks the sea and receives the shock of the waves and is sprinkled with their spray; yet never on the shore but not a little distance removed from the edge of the water.
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§ 1.5.6 For it is better to move back a considerable distance from the sea rather than a short way, since the intermediate space is filled with a heavier air. And neither should there be any marsh-land near the buildings, and no military highway adjoining; for the former throws off a baneful stench in hot weather and breeds insects armed with annoying stings, which attack us in dense swarms; then too it sends forth plagues of swimming and crawling things deprived of their winter moisture and infected with poison by the mud and decaying filth, from which are often contracted mysterious diseases whose causes are even beyond the understanding of physicians; and at every season of the year rust and dampness play havoc with farm implements and equipment, and with unstored and stored produce;
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§ 1.5.7 the highway, moreover, impairs an estate through the depredations of passing travellers and the constant entertainment of those who turn in for lodging. For these reasons my advice is to avoid disadvantages of this sort and to place the villa neither on a highway nor far from a highway, at a greater height, and to build it in such a way that it faces the point where the sun rises at the time of the equinox.
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§ 1.5.8 For the situation of this kind maintains an even and steady balance between the winds of winter and those of summer; and the more the site of the building slopes toward the east the more freely can it catch the passing breezes in summer and the less be molested by the storms of winter, and it can be warmed by the morning sun so that the frosts will melt — since ground is regarded as well-nigh pestilential when it is inaccessible and unfavourably situated with reference to the sun and the sun-warmed breezes; and if it is cut off from these, no other force can dry up or clear away the night frosts and any mould or dirt that has settled there. And these are destructive not only to men but to cattle and growing crops and their fruits as well.
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§ 1.5.9 But one who desires to erect a building on a sloping site should always begin operations at the lower side; for when the foundations start from the less elevated point, they will not only easily support their own superstructure but will also serve as a buttress and underpinning for any additions which may later be made to the upper side, if it should prove desirable to enlarge the villa — for of course the previous structure below will offer strong support for any that may be built above and rest on it afterwards.
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§ 1.5.10 On the contrary, if the foundation at the upper side of the slope supports a load of its own, anything that you may later add below will be full of cracks and chinks; for when new construction is added to old, it draws away as if objecting to the growing burden, and the older structure will press upon it as it gives way until, gradually, overpowered by its own weight, it will topple in ruins. Such a structural defect must therefore be avoided at the start when the foundations are first laid.
urn:cts:latinLit:phi0845.phi002:1.6.1
§ 1.6.1 The size of the villa and the number of its parts should be proportioned to the whole inclosure, and it should be divided into three groups: the villa urbana or manor house, the villa rustica or farmhouse, and the villa fructuaria or storehouse. The manor house should be divided in turn into winter apartments and summer apartments, in such a way that the winter bedrooms may face the sunrise at the winter solstice, and the winter dining-room face the sunset at the equinox.
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§ 1.6.2 The summer bedrooms, on the other hand, should look toward the midday sun at the time of the equinox, but the dining-rooms of that season should look toward the rising sun of winter. The baths should face the setting sun of summer, that they may be lighted from midday up to evening. The promenades should be exposed to the midday sun at the equinox, so as to receive both the maximum of sun in winter and the minimum in summer.
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§ 1.6.3 But in the part devoted to farm uses there will be placed a spacious and high kitchen, that the rafters may be free from the danger of fire, and that it may offer a convenient stopping-place for the slave household at every season of the year. It will be best that cubicles for unfettered slaves be built to admit the midday sun at the equinox; for those who are in chains there should be an underground prison, as wholesome as possible, receiving light through a number of narrow windows built so high from the ground that they cannot be reached with the hand.
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§ 1.6.4 For cattle there should be stables which will not be troubled by either heat or cold; for animals broken to work, two sets of stalls — one for winter, another for summer; and for the other animals which it is proper to keep within the farmstead there should be places partly covered, partly open to the sky, and surrounded with high walls so that the animals may rest in the one place in winter, in the other in summer, without being attacked by wild beasts.
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§ 1.6.5 But stables should be roomy and so arranged that no moisture can flow in and that whatever is made there may run off very quickly, to prevent the rotting of either the bases of the walls or the hoofs of the cattle.
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§ 1.6.6 Ox-stalls should be ten feet wide, or nine at the least — a size which will allow room for the animal to lie down and for the oxherd to move around it in performing his duties. The feed-racks should not be too high for the ox or pack-animal to feed from without inconvenience while standing.
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§ 1.6.7 Quarters should be provided for the overseer alongside the entrance, so that he may have oversight of all who come in and go out; and for the steward over the entrance for the same reason, and also that he may keep close watch on the overseer; and near both of these there should be a storehouse in which all farm gear may be collected, and within it a closet for the storing of the iron implements.
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§ 1.6.8 Cells for the herdsmen and shepherds should be adjacent to their respective charges, so that they may conveniently run out to care for them. And yet all should be quartered as close as possible to one another, so that the diligence of the overseer may not be overtaxed in making the rounds of the several places, and also that they may be witnesses of one another's industry and negligence.
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§ 1.6.9 As to the part devoted to the storage of produce, it is divided into rooms for oil, for presses, for wine, for the boiling down of must, lofts for hay and chaff, storerooms, and granaries, that such of them as are on the ground floor may take care of liquid products for the market, such as oil and wine; while dry products, such as grain, hay leaves, chaff, and other fodder, should be stored in lofts.

Via ToposText (topostext.org), a project of the Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation created by Brady Kiesling. Translated by Harrison Boyd Ash (1891-1944). Composed ca. 50 CE. Licence: public domain. Source.