GEOPONICI, or Scriptores rei rusticae, the Greek and Roman writers on husbandry and agriculture. On the whole the Greeks paid less attention than the Romans to the scientific study of these subjects, which in classical times they regarded as a branch of economics. Thus Xenophon's Oeconomicus (see also Memorabilia, ii. 4) contains a eulogy of agriculture and its beneficial ethical effects, and much information is to be found in the writings of Aristotle and his pupil Theophrastus. About the same time as Xenophon, the philosopher Democritus of Abdera wrote a treatise IlepL IT ewpyias, frequently quoted and much used by the later compilers of Geoponica (agricultural treatises). Greater attention was given to the subject in the Alexandrian period; a long list of names is given by Varro and Columella, amongst them Hieron II. and Attalus III. Philometor. Later, Cassius Dionysius of Utica translated and abridged the great work of the Carthaginian Mago, which was still further con densed by Diophanes of Nicaea in Bithynia for the use of King Delotarus. From these and similar works Cassianus Bassus (q.v.) compiled his Geoponica. Mention may also be made of a little work Rep' recopytia7o by Michael Psellus (printed in Boissonade, Anecdota Graeca, i.) .
of maintaining a
ous and thriving order of agriculturists, from very early times endeavoured to instil into their countrymen both a theoretical and a practical knowledge of the subject. The occupation of the farmer was regarded as next in importance to that of the soldier, and distinguished Romans did not disdain to practise it. In furtherance of this object, the great work of Mago was translated into Latin by order of the senate, and the elder Cato wrote his De agri culture (extant in a very corrupt state), a simple record in homely language of the rules observed by the old Roman landed proprietors rather than a theoretical treatise. He was followed by the two Sasernae (father and son) and Gnaeus Tremellius Scrofa, whose works are lost. The learned Marcus Terentius Varro of Reate, when eighty years of age, composed his Rerum rusticarum libri tres, dealing with agriculture, the rearing of cattle, and the breeding of fishes. He was the first to systematize what had been written on the subject, and sup plemented the labours of others by practical experience gained during his travels. In the Augustan age (to make no mention of Virgil's Georgics) Tulius Hyginus wrote on farming and bee keeping, Sabinus Tiro on horticulture, and during the early em pire Iulius Graecinus and Iulius Atticus on the culture of vines, and Cornelius Celsus (best known for his De medicina) on farming. The chief work of the kind, however, is that of Lucius Iunius Moderatus Columella (q.v.). About the middle of the second century the two Quintilii, natives of Troia, wrote on the subject in Greek. It is remarkable that Columella's work exer cised less influence in Rome and Italy than in southern Gaul and Spain, where agriculture became one of the principal subjects of instruction in the superior educational establishments that were springing up in those countries. One result of this was the prepa ration of manuals of a popular kind for use in the schools. In the third century Gargilius Martialis of Mauretania compiled a Geoponica in which medical botany and the veterinary art were included. The De re rustica of Palladius (fourth century), in fourteen books, which is almost entirely borrowed from Colum ella, is greatly inferior in style and knowledge of the subject. It is a kind of farmer's calendar, in which the different rural occupations are arranged in order of the months. The 14th book (on forestry) is written in elegiacs (85 distichs). The whole of Palladius and considerable fragments of Martialis are extant.
Scriptores rei rusticae is by T. G. Schneider
and the subject is treated by A. Magerstedt, Bilder aus der romischer Landwirtschaft (1858-63). See also H. Gummerus, Der romische Gutsbetrieb (Klio, ist suppl. vol., Leipzig, 1906) ; Ll. Storr-Best, Varro on Farming (1912) ; Roman Farm Management, by a Virginia Farmer (1913) ; T. F. Royds, The Beasts, Birds and Bees of Virgil (1918) ; L. B. Marshall, L'Horticulture Antique et le poeme de Columelle (1919) ; J. Sergeaunt, The Trees, Shrubs and Plants of Virgil (192o), and W. E. Heitland, Agricola; a study of agriculture and rustic life in the Graeco-Roman world from the point of view of labour (1921).
