On the Land

The Romans shared with the rest of mankind an irresistible tendency to throw back into the past the golden age of agriculture; seasons were faultless, land fertile; labour was cheap, if indeed men did not gather of the bounties of the soil without the labour of plough and sickle. If slave-labour in agriculture is to be blamed for the decay of Italian farming—if that decay is true—then it must be proved that slave-labour preponderated on the land, and that it was inferior to free labour. Slave-labour came in to take the place of the decreasing country population, and was recommended to the landlord by its exemption from military service, and by the necessity imposed on it of remaining on the land. For work on the land the hardier type of slave was necessary, but it was also a less intelligent type.