De agri cultura
De agri cultura
Style
The work of Cato is often characterized as a "farmer's notebook" written in a "random fashion"; it is hard to think of it as literature. The book seems to be no more than a
Defence of farming
Cato's introduction compares farming with other common activities of that time, specifically commerce and usury. He criticizes both, the former on the basis of the dangers and uncertainty which it bears, the second because according to the Twelve Tables, the usurer is judged a worse criminal than a thief.[4] Cato makes a strong contrast with farming, which he praises as the source of good citizens and soldiers, of both wealth and high moral values.[5]
De agri cultura contains much information on the creation and caring of vineyards, including information on the slaves who helped maintain them. After numerous landowners in Rome read Cato's prose during this time, Rome began to produce wine on a large scale. Many of the new vineyards were sixty acres, and because of their large size, even more slaves were necessary to keep the production of wine running smoothly.[6]
Farm recipes
One section consists of recipes for farm products. These include:
- an imitation of Coan wine (in which sea water was added to the must);
- the first recorded recipe for vinum Graecum, imitating the style of strongly flavoured Greek wine that used to be imported to Roman Italy.
- recipes for savillum, libum and placenta, pastries similar to cheesecake.[7]
Rituals
There is a short section of religious rituals to be performed by farmers. The language of these is clearly traditional, somewhat more archaic than that of the remainder of the text, and has been studied by Calvert Watkins.
Manuscripts
All of the manuscripts of Cato's treatise also include a copy of
Editions
- Brehaut, E. 1933. Cato the Censor, on Farming. New York: Columbia University Press.
- Dalby, Andrew (1998), Cato: On Farming, Totnes: Prospect Books, ISBN 0-907325-80-7
- Goujard, R. (1975), Caton: De l'agriculture, Paris: Collection Budé, Les Belles Lettres
- William Davis Hooper, translator. Marcus Porcius Cato, "On Agriculture"; Marcus Terentius Varro, "On Agriculture". Harvard: Loeb Classical Library, 1934.
See also
References
- ^ Literally "On the Cultivation of the Field".
- ^ "Cato (1)", Oxford Classical Dictionary, second edition. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1970), p. 215.
- ^ Hooper, William Davis & Ash, Harrison Boyd: Marcus Porcius Cato, On agriculture; Marcus Terentius Varro, On agriculture Volume 283 of Loeb classical library. Loeb classical library. Latin authors. Harvard University Press, 1934. page xiii.
- ^ Est interdum praestare mercaturis rem quaerere, nisi tam periculosum sit, et item foenerari, si tam honestum. Maiores nostri sic habuerunt et ita in legibus posiverunt: furem dupli condemnari, foeneratorem quadrupli. Quanto peiorem civem existimarint foeneratorem quam furem, hinc licet existimare. (...) Mercatorem autem strenuum studiosumque rei quaerendae existimo, verum, ut supra dixi, periculosum et calamitosum. Hooper & Ash, page 2
- ^ Et virum bonum quom laudabant, ita laudabant: bonum agricolam bonumque colonum; amplissime laudari existimabatur qui ita laudabatur. (...) At ex agricolis et viri fortissimi et milites strenuissimi gignuntur, maximeque pius quaestus stabilissimusque consequitur minimeque invidiosus, minimeque male cogitantes sunt qui in eo studio occupati sunt. Hooper & Ash, page 2
- ISBN 978-1-592-40464-3.
- ^ "Cato's 'De Agricultura': Recipes".
- ^ M.D. Reeve discusses the descent of both Cato's and Varro's essays in Texts and Transmission: A Survey of the Latin Classics, edited by L.D. Reynolds (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983), pp. 40–42.
Further reading
- ISBN 0-19-514413-9
- K. D. White, "Roman agricultural writers I: Varro and his predecessors" in Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt ed. H. Temporini. Part 1 vol. 4 (Berlin: De Gruyter, 1973) pp. 439–497.
External links
- Latin text and translation
- (in Latin) De Agricultura public domain audiobook at LibriVox