De agri cultura

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De agri cultura (XV sec., Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana , pluteo 51.2)

De agri cultura (About agriculture) is the oldest preserved prose work in Latin . It was made around 150 BC. By Marcus Porcius Cato the Elder , called Cato maior.

object

Cato's writing is not a systematic textbook on agriculture , but rather contains his own experiences as a farmer or verbal communications from his contemporaries. For him, agriculture is essentially geared towards capital. Cato assumes in his work that the pater familias intends to buy a certain good. His further remarks now aim at how the highest possible return can be made from the capital employed. Cato describes two main courtyards that lie on ager privatus : the olivetum (olive planting) and the vinea (vine planting). The olive plantation measures 250 iugera , the vineyard 100 iugera. The cultivation is carried out according to Cato's profitability principles for cultivation and land use: In first place is viticulture, in second place follows garden products (flowers, fruit and vegetables) in third place willow plantations, in fourth place follows olive cultivation, in fifth place is meadow and therefore pasture farming and Livestock. Grain cultivation comes last. With these profitability principles it has the following reason: Viticulture and oil production constitute the main focus of Italian agriculture according to Cato. This statement is in no way contradicting the fact that Cato mentions olive cultivation only in fourth place. On marshy soil, grazing gives higher returns than olive planting on the same soil. In the vicinity of the city, horticulture proves to be of greater advantage, since the products (flowers, fruits and vegetables) are perishable and therefore required the shortest possible delivery routes. In terms of economic importance, however, neither product could keep up with wine and oil as sales items.

Agriculture in Italy until 200 BC Chr.

The beginning of Roman agriculture can probably be verified in animal husbandry, as the area around Lazio was primarily suitable for this type of agriculture. Latium was classified in 338 as civitates sine suffragio (citizenship without the right to vote, cf. allies , alliance war ) in the Roman community. Only after the Latin War (340–338 BC), when Rome with Campania and Etruria was able to conquer very fertile areas in the 2nd Samnite War (328–304 BC), did agriculture increase in the form of grain farming. Italy was until 200 BC BC thus largely arable land for growing grain. From the cultivation of grain as the first component of agriculture, a comprehensive, modified agriculture developed, in which the small farmer cultivated plots that initially measured between 2 and 10 iugera. After the Second Punic War , the number of small farmers thinned. Many returned safely from the war, but found their property neglected (during the war the 'scorched earth' tactic was followed). In the course of the intensification of the monetary economy (3rd century BC) and the associated enormous accumulation of capital, the aristocracy succeeded in buying up the indebted parcels in a kind of land consolidation and transforming them into garden and pasture land. Pasture farming had from 200 BC Chr. In Rome top priority after cheaper grain from other areas, especially from Africa, could get to Rome.

Land use at Cato

Horticulture on a smaller scale (including flowers, vegetables and fruit, but not olives and vines) could be carried out in the vicinity of the city without large capital. Wine and olive growing were, however, reserved for large-scale economy, as was meadow culture. If you look at Cato's profitability information (see under 'Object') and compare it with the model farms (vinea, olivetum) that he has made as an object, it is noticeable that meadow and pasture farming, given the small area of ​​the model farms of 240 and 100 iugera is out of the question on these villas. In his work, Cato deals with agriculture - it is not, as is often assumed in research, about information relating to agriculture and pasture management. At Cato, pasture farming is strictly separated from arable farming, whereby the term 'arable farming' is easily misunderstood as it implies a stronger reference to grain cultivation. Cato means the term 'agriculture' literally: the cultivation of the soil against the background of the best possible return in terms of the above profitability principles. KW Nitzsch claims in his article of the same name about Cato's book of farming (in: Zeitschrift für die Altertumswwissenschaft (1845), No. 62–64) that Cato refers to very specific farms when specifying his model farms. We know that Cato's circle of experience relates to central and southern Italy. Nitzsch now shows that Cato's estate consists of three parts, one of which includes our 'missing' via pasture management: The first two parts are the two vinea and olivetum located on ager privatus near Casinum, the second part would consist of Grain land cultivated by tenants and the third is a large piece of ager publicus , which is located between the vine and olive fields and is used for pastureland. Cato himself now gives us no indication of the verification of this thesis, so Nitzsch's conjecture must remain a hypothesis: Cato does not contain a coherent possession of olivetum, vinea and pasture land. In addition, it should be clear that overly large estates are not managed from a single estate, especially since the vine and olive culture was planned very extensively and small tenants are not yet mentioned in Cato. Brockmeyer (work organization and economic thinking in the estate economy of the Roman Empire (1968), p. 80.), however, wants to recognize an early form of colonialism in Catos' 'leases'. However, by the leases, Cato only meant the work hiring in the form of labor rent , namely the work carried out by the politor to cultivate grain fields, on which tree management was also carried out, as well as the cultivation of the vineyards by the so-called partiarius . Both could either represent freelance day laborers who exclusively had the function of harvest workers or - and in these terms Cato remains imprecise - small entrepreneurs who were assigned to help with the harvest with a certain number of workers or to tackle the harvest entirely . However, grain was also produced on the model farms, mainly on the vinea, since in Italy wine and grain (as well as fruit) thrived on the same field. Cattle were also kept on the two model farms - if only because of the fertilization, but also because of the expected sales products. About a third of the area was used for agricultural self-sufficiency.

Size of the farm

In contrast to Columella and his De re rustica, which appeared in the 1st century AD, Cato refers to small and medium-sized villa types: small businesses with a size of 10 to 80 iugera and medium-sized businesses between 80 and 500 iugera. The size of his model farms is only intended as an (actual) benchmark and is therefore a calculated average in view of the actual size of the agricultural estates of the 2nd century BC. Chr. Varros' work rerum rusticarum libri tres , published over 100 years later, for the first time addresses isolated large companies. Cato reckons 13 slaves for 240 iugera oil construction: 1 steward (vilicus), his wife (vilica), 5 common servants (operarii), 3 ox drivers (bubulci), 1 donkey driver (asinarius), 1 swineherd (subulcus) and 1 shepherd (opilio ). For 100 iugera viticulture he estimates 16 slaves: 1 vilicus, die vilica, 10 operarii, 1 bubulcus, 1 salictarius (for tying the vines), 1 asinarius and 1 subulcus. Slaves form the basis of the villa for Cato, although it should be noted that he also uses the service rent, where a small number of helpers is needed. At Cato, renting and hiring out works does not result from concerns about slave revolts, but is an economic motive. A capable slave at that time cost around 500 denarii, a specialized slave or house slave cost 1500 denarii (Cato never invested more for a slave) - for comparison: a simple legionnaire received at the beginning of the 2nd century BC. Around 120 denarii annual salary. True to the principle of selling as much as possible and avoiding excessive spending if possible, the slaves at Cato were therefore kept at the level described above (the issue price for a slave usually paid for itself after two, at the latest after four years). In Varro, on the other hand, we find the advice to prevent possible cohesion of the slaves by bringing together different nations. This was preceded by the three great slave wars: 135–132 BC. The uprising in Sicily, 104-101 BC. The second Sicilian uprising and 73–71 BC. The great slave revolt around Spartacus .

The women

Cato writes about three social groups:

  • The lower class of workers and slaves, i.e. the servants (familia)
  • Landlord and landlady who belong to the higher class of society
  • Caretaker (vilicus) and conductress (vilica), who also belong to the servants, but are somewhat distinguished

Women play no role in describing servants. For example, in Chapter LXV, a distinction is made between the allocation of food between hard and light physical workers. Women are not specifically mentioned here or elsewhere.

The role of the landlady also remains pale. Chapter CLII mentions that it too can order victims. We hardly learn more about them.

The portrayal of the conductress in Chapter CLII is surprisingly detailed and poetic. Cato allows her to take care of the physical well-being of the landlord and the servants a certain amount of independence and even waste.

expenditure

literature

Web links

Wikisource: De agri cultura  - Sources and full texts (Latin)