Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella (Gades in Hispania Baetica, 4 AD - ca. 70 AD) was a Roman writer on agriculture. After a career in the army (he was tribune in Syria in 35 AD), he took up farming. His 'de Re Rustica' in twelve volumes has been completely preserved and forms our most important source on Roman agriculture, together with the works of Cato the Elder and Varro, both of which he occasionally cites. A smaller book on trees (de Arboribus) has been preserved as well. This article is about the Spanish city. ... Octavian, widely known as Augustus, founder of the Roman empire The Roman Empire was a phase of the ancient Roman civilization characterized by an autocratic form of government. ... Tribune (from the Latin: tribunus; Greek form tribounos) was a title shared by several elected magistracies and other governmental and/or (para)military offices of the Roman Republic and Empire. ... While Roman civilization has a reputation for its many great accomplishments, Roman society itself had an economy based on advanced agriculture (which employed an estimated 40% of its total labor force, compared to only 1. ... Marcus Porcius Cato (Latin: M·PORCIVS·M·F·CATO¹) (234 BC, Tusculum — 149 BC) was a Roman statesman, surnamed The Censor, Sapiens, Priscus, or Major (the Elder), to distinguish him from Cato the Younger (his great-grandson). ... Marcus Terentius Varro ([[116 BC]–27 BC), also known as Varro Reatinus to distinguish him from his contemporary Varro Atacinus, was a Roman scholar and writer, who the Romans came to call the most learned of all the Romans. ...

In addition, Columella used many sources no longer extant, to which he is thus an important witness: Cornelius Celsus, the Carthaginian writer Mago, Tremellius Scrofa, and many Greek sources are included. His uncle Marcus Columella, 'a clever man and an exceptional farmer' (VII.2.30), had conducted experiments in sheep breeding, crossing colourful wild rams, introduced from Africa for gladiatorial games, with domestic sheep; he very likely influenced his nephew's interests. Columella owned farms in Italy — he refers specifically to properties of his at Ardea, Carseoli, and Alba (R.R. III.9.2)— and speaks repeatedly of his own practical experience in agriculture. Aulus Cornelius Celsus (25 BC—50) was a Roman encyclopedist and possibly, although not likely, a physician. ... Ruins of Carthage Carthaginian settlements in the western Mediterranean in the early 3rd century BC. The term Carthage refers both to an ancient city in North Africa — located on the eastern side of Lake Tunis across from the center of modern Tunis in Tunisia — and to the civilization which developed... Tremellius Scrofa (sometimes, less properly, spelled Tremelius and Scropha) was the name of several related Roman men, among whom: Lucius Tremellius Scrofa, quaestor in 143 BC, who served as a general in the war against Philip VII of Macedonia Gnaeus Tremellius Scrofa, quaestor in 73 BC, defeated by Spartacus Gaius... Species See text. ... Ardea, an ancient town and comune in the province of Rome, 41°37N 12°33E, 37 m (121 feet) above sea-level. ... Alba Longa (in Italian sources occasionally written Albalonga) was an ancient city of Latium, in the Alban Hills founder and head of the Latin Confederation; it was destroyed by Rome around the middle of the 7th century BC. // Legendary history According to legend Alba Longa was founded by Ascanius or...

The book is presented as advice to a certain Publius Silvinus. Structure of "On Agriculture":

• soils
• viticulture
• fruits
• olive trees
• 6: big animals: cattle, horses and mules
• 7: small animals: asses, sheep, goats, pigs, dogs
• 8: Fish and fowl: Chickens, doves, thrushes, peacocks, Numidian chicken and guinea fowl, geese, ducks, fish ponds
• 9: wild animals: enclosures for wild animals, bee-keeping, production of honey and wax
• 10: gardens
• personnel management
• calendars
• managing the household

Other Roman writers on agriculture include Cato, Varro, Palladius and Vegetius. Pliny the Elder's Natural History gives some information as well, as do the works of Vitruvius and Hyginus. Diocletian's edict informs us on prices for agricultural products in the later empire. A 20-book Byzantine collection, the Geoponica (Agricultural Matters), includes much Roman and earlier Greek material. Rutilius Taurus Aemilianus Palladius, usually called just Palladius, was a Roman writer of the 4th century AD. Palladius is best known for his book on agriculture Opus agriculturae (sometimes known as De Re Rustica). ... Vegetius (Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus) was a celebrated military writer of the 4th century. ... Pliny the Elder: an imaginative 19c portrait. ... Marcus Vitruvius Pollio was a Roman writer, architect and engineer, active in the 1st century BC. He was the author of De architectura, known today as The Ten Books of Architecture, a treatise in Latin on architecture, and perhaps the first work about this discipline. ... Hyginus can refer to: Gaius Julius Hyginus (c. ... Emperor Diocletian. ... 20-book collection of agricultural lore, compiled during the 10th century in Constantinople for the Byzantine emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus. ...

External links

• Complete text in Latin at The Latin Library
• Books I‑IV in English translation at LacusCurtius