ABSTRACT
Our knowledge of the animal husbandry of the Roman Empire is derived from two main sources, namely, written material and archaeology. The written sources fall into three categories: Roman works on agriculture and some sources in Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic and Arabic; epigraphic material, and papyrology. The Georgica of Vergil and the writings of the Scriptores Rustici (Cato, Varro, Columella, Palladius) deal almost exclusively with Italy, but occasionally refer to agriculture outside the peninsula. Pliny in his Natural History pays more attention to extra-Italian farming. The geographer Strabo has useful notes on stock-farming in various parts of the Empire. The Geoponica, written perhaps in the seventh century, has occasional useful observations. The Mishnah and the Talmud (late second and early fifth century AD respectively) have much to say on agriculture in Judaea. Epigraphy provides inscriptions here and there which illuminate fitfully the management of livestock (most of them belong to Asia Minor and Africa). The Edict on Prices of Diocletian contains important notices of food and materials derived from the livestock of the Empire. Papyrology furnishes a mass of information on the agriculture of Egypt for the Ptolemaic, Roman and Byzantine periods. The Arabic Kitab-al-Felaha (perhaps twelfth century) was very largely based on Roman work, much of it from the Geoponica.
