Roman Farm Management: The Treatises of Cato and Varro

by Marcus Porcius Cato

Roman Farm Management contains the two oldest surviving Latin works on agriculture: Cato the Elder's De Agricultura, from the second century BC, and Varro's three books on farming, written in the first century BC. They were translated into English by Fairfax Harrison, an American railway executive and Virginia landowner, who first met them at a bookstall in Paris and was struck by how familiar their advice seemed to a farmer of his own day. Cato gives terse instructions on buying a farm, managing slaves, vines, olives and livestock, along with recipes and religious rites, while Varro's dialogues are more learned and wide-ranging. Together they offer a vivid view of rural life in Roman Italy. The full text is available to read online in your browser on Vinteuil, and the first chapter is free.