ABSTRACT
Even the most cursory of surveys tells us the agricultural estates of Roman antiquity were economic institutions of the first importance. At what precise point these institutions reach their highest development is not at all clear, but something of a decline is implied in the growing use of the term latifundia, a word which was only used in the plural and is suggestive of both the mode of ownership and land use-K.D.White suggests the English parallel ‘broad acres’, and notes that implied in many usages of the term is the idea that production was less intensive because of the scale involved. 1 The real difficulty, however, is to determine more precisely what economic function these and related institutions had, and to characterize them in detail.
