ABSTRACT
‘This part of Europe has a more temperate climate than we find further inland. For the winter is almost continuous in the interior.‘ Thus Varro introduces his reader in his work Rerum Rusticarum (i,ii,2–5) to the climatic benefits of Italy, and his division of the European climate into the Mediterranean and the northern European is largely true for the Empire as a whole. Within this simple two-fold division, the lands of the Empire covered a variety of climate, soils and topography, and the Romans were, of course, as dependent upon these factors as anyone else. While various facets of Roman administration in the provinces could be standardized, in the field of agriculture, Roman practice tended to be heavily based on the pre-Roman, with its inevitable accumulation of wisdom in dealing with the physical characteristics of each area. Indeed it might be said that it was largely through the non-agricultural provisions, of urbanization, communications, peace, and incentive for producing a surplus, that Roman rule in the provinces made the major contribution toward agricultural development.
