DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16632#0113
The Roman Empire
85
very common; and Columella says that a complete estate requires a third department,
the ''villa fructuaria," in order to include the different kinds of storehouses. But we shall
find from the description of Laurentinum by the younger Pliny that these useful granaries
were occasionally to be found associated with elegant villas, and close to the living-rooms.
A striking feature about Roman property is the way in which a man's belongings were
scattered about. Cicero, in addition to what he inherited, bought in his lifetime seventeen
other estates, which were partly made by uniting smaller garden grounds into one whole;
and in this he was by no means exceptional. We may find different reasons for it: the chief
estate of a Roman, originally his only estate, was still the one place of importance; and to
statesmen it seemed so fundamentally important for the welfare of the people, that when
it was not adequately cared for by the owner it had to be protected by a decree of the
senate. Rich men bought such scattered properties partly so that their revenues might
not be affected by bad weather, partly to get for each product the place that suited it
best. But there was another reason, and not least in importance—that they might enjoy
the various beauties of mountain, undulating lands, and sea. They wanted, moreover, to
be sure (when they were travelling) of finding at certain stages a roof of their own under
which they could spend a night. It came about, that with all this scattered property the
owner could not himself look after the farms, still less work them; and so the whole
management of the villa rustica was entrusted to a villicus, or bailiff, and the owner could
live at the villa urbana undisturbed.
The Romans had seen from the beginning, and with a sore conscience, that this
turn of affairs could not last long; the feeling was very deep-rooted in the best of them,
that the dislike of agricultural life was the beginning of the end for the Roman people.
Quite endless are the warnings, the moral teachings, the satires, that are levelled against
luxury in houses, gardens, and villas. It was not everyone who could boast, as Cato
could, of personal renunciation; but everyone was eager to put forward that view which
Pliny condensed in the famous phrase, "Large estates have ruined Italy." Whether he
was a writer about farming, like Varro and Columella, or a naturalist like Pliny, or a
poet like Horace, or a moralist like Seneca, every man was a laudator temporis acti, and all
preached on the common theme, "Greatness and Simplicity dwell together."
We learn, however, from this contemporary picture of superabundant luxury, that
horticulture, from the later republic onwards, advanced with giant strides, and once
more the name of Cicero is associated with the first stages of this development. We do not
indeed possess a detailed description of any particular villa of his, but many of his dialogues
have for background his own or a friend's villa with the garden, and in this way a mental
picture may be arrived at. A garden such as Cicero's was quite different from the kitchen-
garden of the villa rustica; and what we find is an ornamental site and park land, where
he and his friends stroll about, plunged in philosophical discourse, as in the days of old.
For Cicero, who was so eager to bring back a philosophical Renaissance in the Greek
style, and to prove himself the immediate heir of the great thinkers, betrayed more con-
spicuously than any other writer that what we have to do with here is the conversion
of a Greek gymnasium site into a Roman villa-garden.
It is not only from Pliny that we learn that Cicero had a villa at Puteoli which
was specially famous for its portico and park, and which he named Academy after the
Athenian model; Cicero himself is continually talking of places so named, which evidently
85
very common; and Columella says that a complete estate requires a third department,
the ''villa fructuaria," in order to include the different kinds of storehouses. But we shall
find from the description of Laurentinum by the younger Pliny that these useful granaries
were occasionally to be found associated with elegant villas, and close to the living-rooms.
A striking feature about Roman property is the way in which a man's belongings were
scattered about. Cicero, in addition to what he inherited, bought in his lifetime seventeen
other estates, which were partly made by uniting smaller garden grounds into one whole;
and in this he was by no means exceptional. We may find different reasons for it: the chief
estate of a Roman, originally his only estate, was still the one place of importance; and to
statesmen it seemed so fundamentally important for the welfare of the people, that when
it was not adequately cared for by the owner it had to be protected by a decree of the
senate. Rich men bought such scattered properties partly so that their revenues might
not be affected by bad weather, partly to get for each product the place that suited it
best. But there was another reason, and not least in importance—that they might enjoy
the various beauties of mountain, undulating lands, and sea. They wanted, moreover, to
be sure (when they were travelling) of finding at certain stages a roof of their own under
which they could spend a night. It came about, that with all this scattered property the
owner could not himself look after the farms, still less work them; and so the whole
management of the villa rustica was entrusted to a villicus, or bailiff, and the owner could
live at the villa urbana undisturbed.
The Romans had seen from the beginning, and with a sore conscience, that this
turn of affairs could not last long; the feeling was very deep-rooted in the best of them,
that the dislike of agricultural life was the beginning of the end for the Roman people.
Quite endless are the warnings, the moral teachings, the satires, that are levelled against
luxury in houses, gardens, and villas. It was not everyone who could boast, as Cato
could, of personal renunciation; but everyone was eager to put forward that view which
Pliny condensed in the famous phrase, "Large estates have ruined Italy." Whether he
was a writer about farming, like Varro and Columella, or a naturalist like Pliny, or a
poet like Horace, or a moralist like Seneca, every man was a laudator temporis acti, and all
preached on the common theme, "Greatness and Simplicity dwell together."
We learn, however, from this contemporary picture of superabundant luxury, that
horticulture, from the later republic onwards, advanced with giant strides, and once
more the name of Cicero is associated with the first stages of this development. We do not
indeed possess a detailed description of any particular villa of his, but many of his dialogues
have for background his own or a friend's villa with the garden, and in this way a mental
picture may be arrived at. A garden such as Cicero's was quite different from the kitchen-
garden of the villa rustica; and what we find is an ornamental site and park land, where
he and his friends stroll about, plunged in philosophical discourse, as in the days of old.
For Cicero, who was so eager to bring back a philosophical Renaissance in the Greek
style, and to prove himself the immediate heir of the great thinkers, betrayed more con-
spicuously than any other writer that what we have to do with here is the conversion
of a Greek gymnasium site into a Roman villa-garden.
It is not only from Pliny that we learn that Cicero had a villa at Puteoli which
was specially famous for its portico and park, and which he named Academy after the
Athenian model; Cicero himself is continually talking of places so named, which evidently