Agricola : $b A study of agriculture and rustic life in the Greco-Roman world from the point of view of labour

AGRICOLA




                        CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
                           C. F. CLAY, MANAGER
                       LONDON: FETTER LANE, E.C. 4

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                       NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN CO.
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                TORONTO: THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD.
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                           ALL RIGHTS RESERVED




                                 AGRICOLA

                  A STUDY OF AGRICULTURE AND RUSTIC LIFE
                    IN THE GRECO-ROMAN WORLD FROM THE
                         POINT OF VIEW OF LABOUR

                                    BY
                             W E HEITLAND MA
                       FELLOW OF ST JOHN’S COLLEGE

                                CAMBRIDGE
                         AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS
                                   1921




      _‘Inspect the basis of the social pile:_
    _Inquire,’ said I, ‘how much of mental power_
    _And genuine virtue they possess who live_
    _By bodily toil, labour exceeding far_
    _Their due proportion, under all the weight_
    _Of that injustice which upon ourselves_
    _Ourselves entail.’ Such estimate to frame_
    _I chiefly looked (what need to look beyond?)_
    _Among the natural abodes of men,_
    _Fields with their rural works; recalled to mind_
    _My earliest notices; with these compared_
    _The observations made in later youth,_
    _And to that day continued—For, the time_
    _Had never been when throes of mighty Nations_
    _And the world’s tumult unto me could yield,_
    _How far soe’er transported and possessed,_
    _Full measure of content; but still I craved_
    _An intermingling of distinct regards_
    _And truths of individual sympathy_
    _Nearer ourselves._

                                        WORDSWORTH, _Prelude_, book XIII.




PREFACE


Very few words are needed here, for the book is meant to explain its own
scope. I have only to thank those to whose kindness I am deeply indebted.
Professor Buckland was so good as to help me when I was striving to
utilize the evidence of the Roman jurists. Chapter XLIX in particular
owes much to his genial chastisement. On chapters II and LXI Mr G G
Coulton has given me most valuable criticism. Yet I thank these gentlemen
with some reluctance, fearing that I may seem to connect their names
with errors of my own. Mr T R Glover kindly read chapter XXIX. Professor
Housman called my attention to the ‘Farmer’s Law,’ and kindly lent me
Mr Ashburner’s articles, to which I have referred in Appendix B. To all
these, and to the Syndics of the University Press for undertaking the
publication of this unconventional work, I hereby express my sincere
gratitude. My reasons for adopting the method followed in this book are
given on pages 5-6 and 468.

                                                              W E HEITLAND

CAMBRIDGE

_August 1920_




TABLE OF CONTENTS


                                                                     PAGES

                              INTRODUCTORY

        I. EVIDENCE                                                    1-7

       II. LAND AND LABOUR                                            7-15

                       AUTHORITIES IN DETAIL—GREEK

      III. THE ILIAD AND ODYSSEY                                     16-22

       IV. HESIOD, WORKS AND DAYS                                    22-24

        V. STRAY NOTES FROM EARLY POETS                              24-26

       VI. TRACES OF SERFDOM IN GREEK STATES                         26-28

      VII. HERODOTUS                                                 28-30

     VIII. THE TRAGEDIANS

             Aeschylus and Sophocles                                 31-33

             Euripides                                               33-37

       IX. THE ‘CONSTITUTION OF ATHENS’ OR ‘OLD OLIGARCH’            37-40

        X. ARISTOPHANES                                              40-48

       XI. THUCYDIDES                                                48-52

      XII. XENOPHON                                                  53-61

     XIII. THE COMIC FRAGMENTS                                       61-65

      XIV. EARLY LAWGIVERS AND THEORISTS                             65-70

       XV. PLATO                                                     70-80

      XVI. THE EARLIER ATTIC ORATORS                                 80-85

     XVII. ARISTOTLE                                                85-103

    XVIII. THE LATER ATTIC ORATORS                                 103-112

      XIX. THE MACEDONIAN PERIOD AND THE LEAGUES                   112-130

             Polybius etc—Theocritus—Plautus and
               Terence—Inscriptions—Letter of Philip V
               to Larisa—Evidence preserved by Plutarch,
               Diodorus, Livy, etc

                       ROME—EARLY PERIOD TO 200 BC

       XX.