§ 1. Agriculture holds first place among all arts, for the first-formed man was placed in Paradise to cultivate the garden, and Noah, a husbandman, began after the Flood to till the earth and planted a vineyard. The reason is that agriculture is the foundation of all arts. Πρῶτον μὲν οὖν, says Aristotle, Politics 7.8, ὑπάρχειν δεῖ τροφὴν, ἔπειτα τέχνας. Food must first be supplied, then arts.
He discusses it more explicitly in book 1, chapter 2 of the Oeconomica: “This, then, is the provision that must be made, and what its character ought to be. The first care concerning possessions is that which follows nature. In the order of nature agriculture is first, and those things which bring forth something from the earth hold the second place, such as the art of mining and any other of that kind. Agriculture is certainly especially just, for it does not depend upon men—either willing men, as do innkeeping and those who hire out their labor, or unwilling men, as does all warfare. Moreover, it is especially natural. For nourishment is naturally supplied to all by their mother, and therefore to men by the earth. In addition, agriculture contributes very greatly to courage.”
This part, therefore, must be cared for in every kind of state, whether it possesses fertile land or very little; for even sterile land becomes useful by cultivation and is loved by its own people. Therefore Ulysses, who is represented as prudent, loved rugged and rocky Ithaca. Agriculture must therefore be pursued because it is especially natural and just.
Aristotle, Politics 1.10: “Therefore that method of acquiring money which proceeds from fruits and animals is consonant with nature for all. Since it is twofold, as we have said, one part is commercial while the other pertains to maintaining the household; and since the latter is necessary and praised, while the former, which consists in the exchange of money, is deservedly censured—for it is not consonant with nature, but in it one man hunts profit from another—the method of lending at interest is with the best reason hated by all, because gain is made from money itself and it is not used for the purpose for which it was prepared. For it was created for the sake of exchange, but interest increases and multiplies it. Hence it also found this name among the Greeks—for τόκος derives from giving birth, which they call τίκτειν.”
Turkish barbarism has also judged thus. For although the Ottomans render life unlivable for farmers—concerning which error I shall speak later—they nevertheless value agriculture greatly. This is evident from the accepted custom that the emperors live from their garden. Leonicenus relates it thus, Turkish History 1.20:
In the emperor’s palace there is a very large and pleasant garden. Those who care for it are called Bostangieler, that is, gardeners, and there are two hundred of them, young men from their fifteenth through their twentieth year. Their office is to cultivate and irrigate the garden by digging and watering. They receive a daily stipend of three or four aspers and annual clothing. The first who offers to the prefect a fruit when it has ripened, to be presented to the emperor, is given one thousand aspers.
The prefect of the gardeners is called the Bostangi Bascia. His stipend is two hundred aspers each day. He is by no means equal in rank to the other eunuchs but is merely the emperor’s slave. The fruits collected from that garden are sold by the prefect of the gardeners; the money is offered to the emperor and is applied to no other use than that food for the emperor’s own table be purchased from it.
For the emperor judges profit received from the fruits of the earth honorable and divine, precisely because it is collected not from the burdens of subjects but from the divine blessing. Therefore he forbids food for his table to be purchased from the money acquired through revenues, tithes, and exactions.
§ 2. All who prudently established or governed a state gave first place to agriculture. I shall begin with those whose glory is secure. Joseph enriched Pharaoh through cultivation. David himself took the greatest care of this matter. For after Scripture enumerated his riches and power, it also described his care for rural affairs, 1 Chronicles 27:26:
Over rural labor and the farmers who tilled the earth was Ezri son of Chelub; over the cultivators of vineyards, Shimei the Ramathite; over the wine-cellars, Zabdi the Shiphmite. Over the olive groves and fig groves in the plains was Baal-hanan the Gederite; over the storehouses of oil, Joash. Over the herds that grazed in Sharon was Shitrai the Sharonite; over the cattle in the valleys, Shaphat son of Adlai; over the camels, Obil the Ishmaelite; over the asses, Jehdeiah the Meronothite; and over the sheep, Jaziz the Hagrite. All these were chiefs of the property of King David.
Josiah seems to have been no less zealous for agriculture. He gave the people for a feast 30,000 head of small livestock and 3,000 oxen from the king’s property. The princes of the temple gave 2,600 head of livestock and 300 oxen. Then Conaniah and his other brothers gave the Levites 5,000 head of livestock and 500 oxen.
It is not lawful to doubt concerning Hezekiah, 2 Chronicles 32:28: “He also built for himself storehouses of grain, wine, and oil; stalls for every beast of burden; folds for livestock; and cities, for he possessed innumerable flocks of sheep and herds, because the Lord had given him exceedingly great substance.”
Uzziah also devoted himself to agriculture amid the cares of war, 2 Chronicles 26:10: “He also built towers in the wilderness and dug very many cisterns, because he possessed much livestock both in the plains and in the expanse of the desert. He also had vineyards and vine-dressers in the mountains and in Carmel, for he was a man devoted to agriculture.”
He was plainly an excellent king, to be compared with the best, had he not fallen through the arrogance familiar to powerful men and lost his kingdom while grasping at the priesthood. The Romans also were farmers from the beginning, for Romulus prescribed to them the laws of cultivation and warfare. Hence consular and triumphal farmers: the Cicerones, Fabii, Marcii, Dentati, Catones, Serani,
and even, among emperors, Diocletian and others.
§ 3. God himself commanded that land be divided among his people. He established laws lest possessions be confused, and made sacred the fiftieth year, in which they returned to their original owners, lest a few men seize great estates and the poor be driven out. For it is expedient that a field be divided into small parcels so that it may be cultivated better.
Aristotle, Politics 6.4, reports the praiseworthy custom of the Aphytans: “Now we must direct all these things by the law of the Aphytans. It is useful for what we are saying. For although they are numerous and possess narrow land, all are nevertheless farmers. Whole possessions are not assessed, nor do they report entire estates in the census, but divide them into so many parcels that even the poor can surpass the rich in assessments.” After that multitude which consists of farmers, that people is best in which there are shepherds and those who sustain life from livestock.
This was also the rationale of the agrarian laws among the Romans, by which they contended that public lands should be divided individually, both to assist the necessities of citizens and so that the fields might be cultivated more diligently. Lycurgus also divided fields among all, so that each might share in the labors and fruits of the earth; the Athenians followed the same method.
The Romans gave lands to their veterans as a support for life. Many used this occasion for sedition, and Caesar for stirring up the soldiers, when he complained that the lands which our veteran plows were denied, although Pompey the Great had given lands to conquered pirates:
Will pirates, Magnus, become better colonists?
Hence they also ordered conquered peoples to depart from their lands. There are innumerable examples. Cicero testifies concerning the Gauls in For Fonteius:
Marcus Fonteius—as I said—presided over this province, which consisted of such a variety of peoples. Those who had been enemies he subdued; those who had been near them he compelled to depart from the lands of which they had been deprived; from the others, who for this reason had often been conquered in great wars, so that they should always obey the Roman people, he demanded large bodies of cavalry for the wars then being waged by the Roman people throughout the whole world, large sums of money for their pay, and a very great quantity of grain for sustaining the Spanish war.
Colonies were established after lands were divided. We know only the Thracians and Thespians as haters of agriculture. Herodotus relates concerning the Thracians that among them it was considered praiseworthy to be idle and that the cultivator of fields was most despised. But it is evident that they were barbarians and robbers and possessed no state, but lived by slaughter and plunder.
§ 4. Beyond the fruit which the earth returns at great interest, the state should promote cultivation of fields and vineyards first by reward and punishment. Among the Romans, if anyone permitted his field to become squalid, he was made a treasury-class citizen. Gellius, book 4, chapter 12. I would certainly advise that fields, gardens, and vineyards be inspected twice each year; that praise and sometimes remission of part of the tribute be given to diligent cultivators; that the idle be censured; and that good but negligently cultivated land be burdened more heavily.
Valentinian and Valens acted prudently when they established thus, Code, book 11, title 58:
Whoever shall have obtained deserted estates under a fixed immunity shall not be permitted to enter into possession of what has been granted before they have firmly secured by a suitable guarantee—either by giving suitable sureties at the risk of the decurions or by obligating the most productive lands of their own patrimony—that the possession undertaken by them will be relinquished with no public loss.
This latter provision arose from distrust. Formerly it was enough to be a cultivator, when farmers were publicly favored. Thus, to have cultivated a field well was held in great glory; to maintain a great household was royal. Abraham and the other patriarchs, and that rich Job, exemplar of patience, possessed pastoral armies of remarkable strength.
It was therefore a matter of great honor. Eumolpus Petronianus is said to have possessed so great a household scattered through Numidia, according to Roman custom, that it could capture Carthage. Why scattered? Was it not for agriculture and pasturage? The Romans assuredly plowed, grazed livestock, lent at interest, and traded. By these arts they sustained war.
§ 5. New fields, or newly broken lands, should be established by cutting down thorn-brakes, draining marshes, sometimes felling forests, and conducting streams and drainage channels. Formerly this was easy, when spacious land offered a choice of itself to few inhabitants; now, when the best places have been occupied, it is difficult to sweat upon sterile soil. But I exhort the prince to look about for what is neglected and what can be cultivated.
For through the sloth of cultivators and discontinued use, much fertile land lies uncultivated and rough. What was more cultivated than Egypt? Yet Augustus, by cleansing the channels of the Nile which had become silted, made it more fertile, so that he might possess a more certain grain supply at Rome.
Cultivated lands were not always assigned even to veterans. Thus the seditious soldiers in Tiberius’s time complained that swampy pools were assigned to them under the name of fields. In this way he should assign deserted fields with immunity, as Constantine did, Code, book 11, title 58, law 1:
Since the deified Aurelian, our father, ordered the councils of cities to be summoned concerning deserted possessions and, for those estates for which owners could not be found, commanded those who had received them under a three-year immunity from the same possessions to satisfy the customary obligations, we command that this rule be preserved: if it is established that the councils are insufficient to undertake those possessions, the burdens of those fields are to be divided among the possessions and territories accepted.
§ 6. Above all, let the prince himself do this: following Uzziah’s example, let him dig cisterns in the desert, build towers, raise flocks, and cultivate fields. Pertinax is a distinguished example among rare princes. Herodian writes thus concerning him:
At last, before two months of his rule had been completed, after he had already given an undoubted specimen of his integrity and raised all men to the best hope, evil fortune, which overthrew everything from its foundations, suddenly envied him, so that those excellent undertakings, which would have greatly benefited all, fell as it were in the middle of their course. For first he assigned to occupation and cultivation whatever uncultivated land lay vacant in Italy or among the other nations, even under kings, and granted farmers ten years’ immunity and perpetual liberty of ownership.
A golden law is that of Valentinian, Theodosius, and Arcadius, Code, book 11, title 58, law 8:
One who hastens to cultivate, for private and public advantage alike, fields deserted because their owner has ceased, fields lying far away, or fields situated along the frontiers, shall know that our rescript supports his will, yet on this condition: if a new cultivator has settled upon vacant and abandoned soil and the old owner wishes within two years to recall it to his own right, after first restoring what is established to have been expended, he shall obtain possession of his own place. But if the period of two years has elapsed, the man who kept silent shall lack every right of possession and domicile.
With such care good and prudent emperors insisted upon the cultivation of fields.
§ 7. Our Germany teaches how greatly it matters to be zealous for agriculture. Formerly rough in cultivation, it possessed neither cities nor bread; its people used porridge. Caesar, Tacitus, and Strabo, book 7, may be consulted.
Procopius writes that deserted regions are watered by the Danube. The Suebi regarded it as a source of praise that the regions all around should lie vacant for the greatest distance. Thus, in Caesar’s time, six hundred miles lay squalid without a cultivator—Caesar, Gallic War 4. Now, however, Germany is so thoroughly cultivated and possesses so many cities that it yields to no region.
Nor can it be said that all the best places are occupied, for this also seemed to be the case formerly, when Germany was one single forest. What some have said concerning plants can even now be applied to Germany: the best are trodden upon. The best clods are trodden upon, not cultivated. I have seen private men, nobles, prelates, and others who, after clearing hills, planted vines or sowed crops and made luxuriant pastures. How great a wealth could a prince prepare for the state if he either caused such lands to be cultivated at his own expense or assigned them to private men for cultivation in exchange for tithes?
What prince is there who could not collect several thousand iugera in a territory of moderate size? Let him grant liberty to his subjects so that, if they occupy in suitable places land fit for cultivation, they may retain it for themselves and transmit it to their heirs after paying an annual rent to the state.
The ancient Germans did not pursue agriculture. Strabo, book 7: “The nation of the Suebi, as I said above, inhabits partly within and partly beyond the Hercynian forest, adjoining the nation of the Getae. The nation of the Suebi is exceedingly extensive, for it reaches from the Rhine as far as the River Elbe. A portion of them also grazes the places beyond the Elbe, as do the Hermunduri and Langobardi; but now those beyond the river have been driven into flight and destroyed.
“It is common to all who inhabit this region that they migrate readily elsewhere, both because of the scantiness of sustenance, because of their sloth in cultivating fields, and because of their poverty of money. Since they inhabit huts, they possess furnishings only for the day and draw most of their nourishment from livestock. Like nomads, carrying their household implements upon wagons after their manner, they turn with their herds wherever fortune and opinion have carried them. There are also other peoples of Germany suffering still greater want: the Cherusci, Chatti, Gambrivii, Chattuarii, and, reaching to the Ocean, the Sugambri, Chaubi, Bructeri, Cimbri, Chauci, Chaulei, Gampsiani, and very many others.”
They also changed fields every year, which supplied a cause of great negligence. Thus Julius, book 6: “The Germans do not pursue agriculture, and the greater part of their sustenance consists in milk, cheese, and meat. Nor does anyone possess a fixed measure of field or his own boundaries; but the magistrates and princes assign each year to peoples and kindreds of men who have assembled together as much land, and in whatever place, as seems good to them, and in the following year compel them to move elsewhere. It is the greatest praise for states to possess around themselves habitations as widely as possible with the borders laid waste. They consider this proper to courage: that neighbors driven from their fields depart and no one dare settle nearby.” Cultivated peoples must hold the contrary method, so that fields for cultivation are sought everywhere.
§ 8. We can readily see and enjoy what the diligence of earlier men accomplished. Caesar, book 3, speaks thus concerning our Belgians: “Where the Rhine approaches the Ocean, it flows into several branches and forms many immense islands, a great part of which is inhabited by wild and barbarous nations, among whom there are some who are thought to live upon fish and birds’ eggs.” But could one now find in the whole world a more cultivated place? Cultivation accomplished this. Formerly the whole territory of Fulda was forest; now it yields to no part of Germany except the regions of the Rhine and Danube.
Sustenance in Belgium and Germany was formerly most wretched, nor was it thought that another kind was possible. Tacitus, Germany:
In every household they grow up naked and filthy into those limbs and bodies which we admire. Each is nourished at his own mother’s breasts and is not delegated to maids and nurses. You could not distinguish master and slave by any delicacy of upbringing. They live among the same livestock, upon the same ground. The covering of all is a cloak fastened with a brooch or, if that is lacking, a thorn; otherwise uncovered, they spend whole days beside the hearth and fire.
I doubt whether I should assign the nations of the Peucini, Veneti, and Fenni to the Germans or Sarmatians. Although the Peucini, whom some call Bastarnae, act like Germans in language, cultivation, settlement, and dwellings, there is squalor and lethargy among all. Through mixed marriages of the nobles they are somewhat deformed into the appearance of the Sarmatians.
And soon afterward: “Among the Fenni there is astonishing savagery and foul poverty: no weapons, no horses, no household gods; grass for sustenance, skins for clothing, the ground for a bed.”
There were scarcely any houses, but caves and caverns. Tacitus: “Each surrounds his house with an open space, whether as a remedy against accidents of fire or from ignorance of building. They do not even use rubble or tiles. They use rough material for everything, without appearance or delight. They coat certain places more carefully with earth so pure and shining that it imitates painting and outlines of colors. They are also accustomed to open underground caves and heap much dung over them, as a refuge from winter and a storehouse for crops.”
And Seneca: “The Germans wander with no fixed habitations. There are perpetual winters among them, infertile soil, and no houses; they live by hunting. Wherever night overtakes them wearied by labor, they lie beneath branches, or in caves and pits. They do not possess houses, but huts covered with leaves and stalks. The inhabitants are driven about in the manner of dancers upon the frozen sea, living on the flesh of wild beasts, a naked nation clothed only in the skins of beasts, and therefore cheap and despised by all.”
These things remained until Christian times, until Charles and Boniface, when cultivation showed that every soil is fertile. I have introduced these things so that we may learn that places for cultivation still remain. For just as those places which are now most cultivated and fertile were formerly thought unproductive, so even now there are remarkable fields which plows have not yet violated; there are marshes which the diligence of many has shown can be drained.
§ 9. Not only weather and war but chiefly civic burdens render fields sterile. In some places herds of deer graze them; in others, a friendly but extortionate soldier; in very many, tributes also, so that cultivation gives no pleasure. Indeed, compelled by the magnitude of tributes, the cultivators themselves feign sterility so that they may avoid exactors. We gather that this occurred from a law of Gratian, Valentinian, and Theodosius, Code, book 11, title 57:
Whoever has cut down a vine or damaged the growth of fruitful branches in order to evade the good faith of the census and feign the character of cunning poverty shall, as soon as he is discovered, be subjected to suitable indignation. That person, however, shall avoid accusation who is perhaps discovered to have labored for abundance and the restoration of the produce of the fields, and not to have procured sterility or poverty. Given the day before the Nones of January at Constantinople, in the consulship of Eucherius and Syagrius.
For what care will there be for fields if sterility is considered better than the cruelty of thieves who rage under evil but specious law? Hence by law Those Who Are Burdened and law Equalizers, assistance is kindly given to the wretched. In civil wars great care was also taken for farmers, but later times turned everything for the worse.
§ 10. The ancient law concerning the peace of farmers, which Xenophon attributes to Cyrus in book 5, must be recalled:
When he had considered that those who had defected to him, because they were neighbors of Babylon, would be afflicted by evil unless he himself were always present, he ordered all the enemies whom he released to tell the Assyrian, and he himself sent a herald to say this to him: that he was prepared to permit the farmers to cultivate the earth and afflict them with no injury, if the Assyrian likewise wished to permit the farmers of those who had defected to Cyrus to cultivate their land.
“Although you,” he said, “even if you could prohibit it, would prohibit only a few men—for the land of those who have defected to me is small—I shall permit a large region to be cultivated for you. As to gathering the fruit, if there is war, the one who is superior will gather it; but if there is peace, it is evident that you will gather it. If any of my soldiers carries weapons against you, or any of yours against me, we shall each take vengeance upon them to the extent of our strength.”
When he had commanded the herald to say these things, he sent him. When the Assyrians heard all of them, they urged the king to concede these things and leave as little of the war remaining as possible. The Assyrian, whether persuaded by his people or because he himself wished it, conceded them; and a treaty was struck so that there should be peace for those cultivating the earth, but war for those bearing arms.
The Belgians, at least by public counsel, also imitated this policy. For many farmers who lived upon the borders possessed the protection of both parties, but by public counsel; for they suffered losses from the soldiers of both. Indeed, kings used this humanity even before Cyrus. Nebuzaradan, prefect of the Babylonian king, left vine-dressers and farmers. Arrian, book 5 On the Deeds of Alexander, and Diodorus Siculus, book 2, chapter 10, are authorities that the Indians also possessed this custom. For the labor of farmers is necessary to victor and vanquished alike.
This class of men is now exposed first of all to plunder. Therefore, at the rumor of war, the dearness of grain increases. Farmers, compelled by necessity, take up war themselves or turn to robbery.
§ 11. It will also be an act of great prudence to preserve farmers immune from the injuries of courtiers, nobles, powerful men, and pettifoggers. Those injuries cause them neither to cultivate their fields diligently nor to consider increasing their property, like that man while
There was neither hope of liberty nor care for private property.
Therefore, let them not feel several masters in their villages, nor be dragged from the country into the city. Let provision also be made for their simplicity when they bring necessary goods into ungrateful cities. Clement V and Pius V thus established it; the latter forbade revenues to be exacted from farmers importing grain. Hence those excellent rules: that it is not lawful to take an ox used for plowing as a pledge, and that it is not lawful to molest farmers by way of reprisals.
Formerly powerful city-dwellers transferred their burdens to countrymen. Emperor Constantine prohibited this, Code, book 11, title 57: “Since the account-keepers of cities, through collusion with the more powerful, transfer the burden to their inferiors, we command that whoever proves that he has been burdened shall acknowledge only his former possession. Given on the fifteenth day before the Kalends of February at Rome, in the third consulship of Constantine Augustus and the consulship of Licinius.”
Farmers are also vindicated from the harassment of soldiers, Code, book 11, title 60:
It is pernicious or dangerous for the meadows of our provincials, and especially those of our private estate, to be wearied by the harassment of soldiers. Therefore, by a law promulgated to the most ample prefecture, we decree that this practice shall not be employed hereafter. Let your Magnificence not delay to summon all whom the matter concerns, and let it not permit possessors or tenants to be harassed by any importunity on account of their meadows. Given on the Nones of September, in the tenth consulship of Honorius Augustus and the sixth of Theodosius Augustus.
§ 12. It is very expedient that each person cultivate his own property and not another’s. Among the Romans the amount of field beyond which no one might possess was so often defined, yet those laws were always violated, even by the legislators themselves. For from this farmers are oppressed, and afterward, when farmers have been driven out, workhouses occupy all possessions; when servitude has been introduced into noble land, sterility follows, such as now exists among the Turks.
For there is so great a sterility and lack of cultivators throughout vast expanses of fertile land that their emperor can in no way sustain a war at home. Because the subjects of the Turks have been persuaded that all their property belongs to the emperor, and because he employs this right, the land is deprived of agriculture and therefore of people, that is, the foundation of strength. First, the Europeans are treated tyrannically and live in the greatest despair. Nothing except an opportunity is lacking to stir them to rebellion against so great a tyranny. This empire, therefore, is uncultivated, waste, solitary, and weak. It is said in a proverb that where the Ottoman horse plants its foot, grass never grows. There are many causes, but the principal one is that either the people are removed from their estates or the estates from them, at the judgment of those who rule.
§ 13. Pasturage is simpler and easier than agriculture; shepherds lead the easiest life. Aristotle, Politics 1.8: “For sustenance comes to them without labor from tame animals, even while they rest. Since it is moreover necessary for livestock to change place because of pastures, they themselves are compelled to follow with them, as though devoting their labor to living agriculture. Others live from hunting, but in different ways. For example, some from robbery, others from fishing—those who dwell near lakes, marshes, rivers, or a sea suitable for fishing—others from fowling or the capture of wild beasts. But most men live from the earth and from cultivated fruits.”
This received the greatest care among eastern peoples and is plainly royal. It is now most despised; but the prince will add dignity to it if he desires to become rich easily and without injury.
§ 14. It is suitable for rural peace and pertains to security that people in farms and villages possess their own judges. Many advantages arise from this: they are not compelled to go into cities, are not called away from labor, settle a dispute more easily, and justice is administered by a shorter course. Nor can inexperience be objected. Their lawsuits are not intricate, and they possess few laws from which they pronounce sentence; but if a more difficult matter is agitated, it is sent to neighboring cities for counsel.
It is just that, as merchants’ cases are entrusted to merchants, so countrymen’s should be entrusted to countrymen and craftsmen’s to craftsmen, provided that they are directed by a skilled person so that they do not depart from the common law. For in truth many now shake down the wretched διασείσει, by extortion, and terrify them by the authority and threats of magistrates. Formerly governors, tax-farmers, their staff, and soldiers, when they could not openly plunder peaceful soil, customarily oppressed people through calumny. This was formerly the cause of the Varian disaster, when the Germans accepted Roman rule but could not endure Roman customs. They raged especially against advocates. Holding the tongue cut from one of them in his hand, a German said, “Aha, viper, even now you hiss.”
§ 15. The fertility of all fields would indeed be desirable; but because God for a just cause was unwilling to give it, even dry land must be plowed. Every state would choose for itself land such as Aristotle describes in Politics 7.5: “The reasoning is similar concerning the nature of the land. As to what character it ought to possess, certainly all would praise land which is filled and furnished with an abundance of all things and is content with its own goods. Such land must be productive of all things. For to abound in all things and lack nothing is to be content with one’s own goods and to be filled and furnished with an abundance of all things. In population and size, however, let it be such that those who inhabit it can live liberally and at the same time temperately while free from every labor.”
But land of this kind is rare; not every soil bears everything, and some bear very few things. Therefore the laws which established agriculture commanded that lands be mixed, so that one who disdained infertile land should be deprived of fertile land. Thus the laws concerning public lands, Code, book 11, title 58:
Whoever is found to be the lessee and possessor of a fertile estate which descends from public or temple ownership shall have a less useful field joined to it. But if he thinks that he must resist this, let another possessor be sought under the same payment. Or, if no voluntary lessee is found, then let the places of the aforesaid ownership, with the useless parcels attached, return to their ancient possessors—that is, the decurions or any others—after suitable sureties have been furnished.
§ 16. Indeed, sagacious antiquity also provided that the borders could be fortified and cultivated lest the fields lie uncultivated. If soldiers wished to cultivate them, the law ordered them to be immune. Thus Theodosius and Valens, Code, book 11, title 59:
We will that all frontier lands, together with marshes and every right, which frontier soldiers under the ancient arrangement were accustomed to tend and plow for their own advantage, free from every service, shall, if they are cultivated at present, be firmly retained by them without any burden from an extortioner; and, if they are possessed by others—with prescription from any lapse of time ceasing—shall be reclaimed from all possessors and assigned to the same soldiers without any burden whatever of contribution, as was anciently established. Against those who attempt to oppose our commands, the penalty of proscription shall also prevail. For if anyone perhaps possesses the lands of the aforesaid right under a title of purchase—a thing he ought by no means to have dared—his competent action against the seller shall be preserved unimpaired.
Imitate this with spirit, Prince; you will strengthen your wealth and kingdom. Behold, the masters of nations cultivated through soldiers the frontier lands exposed to incursions by enemies. Nor were veterans then ashamed of plowing: they awaited fields as their final reward and knew that the greatest emperors had returned after the trabea to the triumphal plow-handle. In short, act so that everywhere the field and livestock may appear yours.
I marvel at Roman diligence. In the reign of Augustus, when Gaius Asinius Gallus and Gaius Marcius Censorinus were consuls, Gaius Caecilius Claudius Isidorus declared in his will, as Pliny says in book 33, chapter 10, that although he had lost much in the civil war, he nevertheless left 4,116 slaves, 3,600 yoke of oxen, 250,000 head of other livestock, and in ready money six hundred fifteen hundred-thousands of Philippei, according to Lipsius’s calculation. These were the possessions of a private man who had suffered war. Why could a prince not attain the same if he sought every opportunity?
I refer to agriculture fishponds, forests, and everything produced by earth and water. If the prince pursues their fruits, there will be no need to impose new revenues and new tributes every day. The earth itself will be fertile enough to maintain dignity and repel an enemy. If the Turk, who possesses so much deserted and fertile land, undertook seriously to cultivate even some thousandth part in Greece, Asia, or Palestine, he could readily raise such flocks as Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, and Jonah possessed for the expense of his army. But God was unwilling to add political prudence to so great a savagery, lest through his strength he occupy the whole world.