Tips on agricultural cultivation. Cato (M. Porcius Cato) the Elder (234–149 BC) from Tusculum, a politician and soldier, was the first significant writer in Latin prose. Although his speeches, his works on jurisprudence and the art of war, his exhortations to his son, and his great historical work on Rome and Italy have been lost, De Agricultura remains. His rules on various aspects of farm economy include even medical and culinary recipes, revealing interesting details of domestic life.
Varro (M. Terentius) from Reate (116–27 BC), known for his vast knowledge, was an archaeologist, historian, philologist, scholar of science, agronomist, and poet. He had agreed with Julius Caesar and was chosen by him to supervise a planned national library. Of his more than seventy works, which include hundreds of volumes, only one on agriculture and rural affairs (Rerum Rusticarum) and a part of his work on the Latin language (De Lingua Latina; LCL 333, 334) survive. Each of the three books on rural affairs begins with an effective mise en scene and uses dialogue. The first book refers to agriculture and the management of fields, the second to sheep and oxen, while the third to poultry and the care of other animals, large and small, including bees and fish farms. There are lively interspersed scenes and a vivid depiction of political events.
