Columella: On Agriculture, Vol. I (Loeb)

earliest editions as the fourth, and so on.1 Mention is made of a work Adversus Astrologos Against Astrologers2 and to a treatise proposed, but possibly not written, on the religious ceremonies connected with agriculture.3

The Res Rustica On Agriculture, addressed to a certain Publius Silvinus,4 is the most comprehensive and systematic of all treatises by Roman writers on agricultural affairs. The first book contains general directions regarding the choice of land, the water supply, the arrangement of farm buildings, and the distribution of various tasks among the farm staff. The second deals with agriculture proper: the ploughing and enrichment of the soil, and the care of various crops. The third, fourth, and fifth books are devoted to the cultivation, grafting, and pruning of fruit trees and shrubs, the vine, and the olive. The sixth contains instructions for selecting, breeding, and rearing cattle, horses, and mules, together with a discourse on veterinary medicine. The seventh continues the subject with reference to smaller domestic animals: sheep, goats, swine, and dogs. The eighth has to do with the management of poultry and fish-ponds. The ninth treats similarly of bees. The tenth, an experiment in hexameters to satisfy the request of Gallio and of Silvinus for “a taste of

1 That the book on trees does not belong to the larger work is evident from the fact that it is not addressed to Silvinus, as are the other twelve, and from statements in later books of the Res Rustica giving an exact accounting of the number of books preceding, e.g. X. Praef. 1; VIII. 1. 1; XI. 1. 2; XII. 13. 1. Iucundus, editor of the first Aldine edition (1514), was the first to set the misplaced De Arboribus at the end, as a thirteenth book, and all later editors have followed his example.
2 XI. 1. 31.
3 II. 21. 5-6.
4 Known only from Columella’s numerous references to him, but obviously a countryman and a neighbour of the author.