Introductory. from Iliad. Similes from nature sharpen the picture of strife / Homer --
from Works and days. The two kinds of strife / Hesiod --
A mass evacuation from country to town / Thucydides --
from Peace. The rustic hero and the delights of peace / Aristophanes --
from Characters. The boor / Theophrastus --
A boor of a poet / Catullus --
Trouble on Regulus' farm / Valerius Maximus --
from Roman antiquities. Cincinnatus / Dionysius of Halicarnassus --
A bad political gaffe / Valerius Maximus --
from On farming. The decline in farming standards / Columella --
from Life of Apollonius of Tyana. A famine relieved / Philostratus --
from The country salad (Moretum). Morning on an Italian smallholding / Anonymous --
from Corpus of Latin inscriptions. Excessive demands made upon imperial tenants.
Landscapes, real or imagined. from Iliad. Scenes on the shield of Achilles / Homer --
from Odyssey. The gardens of Alkinoos / Homer --
from Homeric hymn to Pan. An enchanted landscape --
from Idyll. Sicilian summer / Theocritus --
from On the nature of things. The man-made Italian landscape / Lucretius --
from On farming. In praise of Italy / Varro --
from Georgics. In praise of Italy / Virgil --
from Aeneid. A landscaped haven / Virgil --
from Letters. A Tuscan villa and its setting ; En route to a country estate / Pliny --
from The Moselle. River scenes / Ausonius --
from Miscellany. Squillace and its surroundings / Cassiodorus --
from On his return. A voyage along the Italian coast / Rutilius Namatianus.
The country through the eye of the townsman. from Oeconomicus. A day on a suburban Greek farm / Xenophon --
from The bad-tempered man. Ill temper on the farm / Menander --
from On farming. Farm management for the absentee owner / Cato --
from On old age. The pleasures of farming / Cicero --
from Epodes. Daydreams of a moneylender / Horace --
from Letters. Every man to his trade ; The poet addresses his town-loving farm manager / Horace --
from Satires. The tale of the town mouse and the country mouse / Horace --
from Odes. In the winter choose the pleasures of the town / Horace --
from Metamorphoses. Philemon and Baucis entertain the gods / Ovid --
from Letters. On the simple life / Seneca --
from Satires. The townsman looks at country life / Juvenal --
from Epigrams. Country preferred to town / Martial.
Farm management and the farmer's calendar. Letters from Roman Egypt : Fayum Papyri, 111 and 119 --
from Oeconomicus. On farm management / Xenophon --
from On farming. On agricultural economics ; Personnel management on the farm / Varro --
from Works and days. Watch for weather signs : keep active ; The rigours of winter ; Relax in the height of summer ; Leaves from a Boeotian farmer's almanack / Hesiod --
from Weather signs. Signs of stormy or sunny weather / Aratus --
A farmer's almanack : Corpus of Latin inscriptions --
from Georgics. Spring work on the farm ; Jobs for bad weather and for holidays ; Jobs for night-time and winter / Virgil --
Meleager's spring song : Palatine anthology.
Seasonal operations on the farm. from Works and days. On making a plough, and choosing a ploughman / Hesiod --
from On farming. On land drainage / Cato --
from Natural history. On ploughing / Pliny --
from On farming. On hoeing ; On manure ; On harvesting, threshing, and winnowing of grain / Columella --
from On farming. The threshing floor / Varro --
from Natural history. On haymaking ; How to train vines / Pliny --
from On farming. The vintage / Varro --
On treading the grapes / Geoponics --
from On farming. On gathering and processing olives / Varro --
from On farming. Contracts for harvesting grapes and for the sale of grapes and wine / Cato --
from Letters. A day on an imperial farm / Fronto.
Out on the range. from On farming. The shepherds and their life on the range / Varro --
from Georgics. Battle for leadership of the herd / Virgil --
from On farming. On sheep-shearing / Varro --
Trouble on a cattle ranch : Corpus of Latin inscriptions --
from Georgics. Animal husbandry in Africa and Scythia / Virgil --
from On farming. On flock management ; How to train oxen to the plough / Columella --
from On farming. On pig-rearing / Varro --
from Discourses. Transhumance in Euboea / Dio Chrysostom --
from Letters. Sheep on the public highway / Fronto.
The changing patterns of rural life. from Elegies. Land reform in sixth century Athens / Solon --
from Life of Solon. Solon's land reform / Plutarch --
from Constitution of Athens. The tax-free farm / Aristotle --
from Tiberius Gracchus. The land reform bill of Tiberius Gracchus : Plutarch's version / Plutarch --
from Civil wars. The background to land reform in Italy : Appian's version / Appian --
Depopulation in Latium / Livy --
from Pharsalia. Depopulation of Italy ; Devastation in Italy / Lucan --
from On farming. On luxury estates / Varro --
from Epigrams. A very productive estate / Martial --
from Letters. Farm tenancy problems / Pliny --
from Discourses (Euboicus). Neglect of land and depopulation in Greece / Dio Chrysostom --
The Maktar reaper : Corpus of Latin inscriptions --
from Reports. A severe famine in Italy / Symmachus --
from Duties of the clergy. A famine relieved / Ambrose.
Rural cults and festivals. from The Acharnians. A country feast / Aristophanes --
from The frogs. Procession of the Eleusinian initiates / Aristophanes --
from Idylls. On the way to a festival / Theocritus --
from On farming. Purification of the fields / Cato --
from Elegies. The cleansing of the fields / Tibullus --
from Calendar. Festival of the Terminalia ; Festival of Anna Perenna / Ovid --
from Elegies. The gods have transformed country life / Tibullus --
from Calendar. Prayers to the country gods / Ovid --
from Odes. A prayer to Faunus ; Bandusia's well / Horace.
Private pleasures in the countryside. from Peace. Peace returns to the farm / Aristophanes --
from Idylls. The harvesters / Theocritus --
from Letters. Scipio Africanus' bath house at Liternum / Seneca --
from On old age. The elder Cato on country pleasures / Cicero --
from Elegies. The poet dreams of farming with his mistress / Tibullus --
from Georgics. An old man's well-kept plot / Virgil --
from Elegies. Cynthia on the farm / Propertius --
from Elegies. The poet longs for a quiet life / Tibullus --
from Satires. A contented countryman / Horace --
from Epigrams. Views from an upland suburban farm ; A poet's invitation to dinner at his farm / Martial --
from Letters. An old man's country retreat / Pliny --
from Octavius. An excursion to the seaside / Minucius Felix --
from Letters. A two-centre holiday ; Holidaying in style / Sidonius.
Hunting and fishing. from On hunting. On hare-hunting ; Hunting the wild boar / Xenophon --
from On hunting. Trapping the lion / Oppian --
from On hunting. A humane view of hare-hunting / Arrian --
from Discourses (Euboicus). The seamy side of hunting / Dio Chrysostom --
from Letters. Hunting and reading combined / Pliny --
from Idyll. A dream of a fish / Theocritus --
from On the nature of animals. On fly-fishing / Aelian --
from The Moselle. Angling on the Moselle / Ausonius --
from Fisherman. An odd kind of angling / Lucian.
