During the early Roman Republic farmers began to spe-
cialize in particular crops and to run their farms as business-
es. Agriculture became even more widespread and productive
during the late republic and early empire. Large estates called
latifundia began to appear in the early second century b.c.e.
as wealthy Romans took over the ager publicus. Large vil-
las, with their wealthy landlords and body of slave laborers,
quickly became more prosperous than the smallholdings
owned by local residents. Wealthy owners had the money to
experiment with new crops and breeds of animals, and they
had the economic weight to dictate prices. As a consequence,
large numbers of small farmers lost their farms. Th e slaves
who worked the latifundia were oft en prisoners taken in war.
Conditions for these slaves were notoriously bad because
slaves were cheap and plentiful, so landowners had no reason
to treat them well.
Th e latifundia system was prominent until about 100 c.e.,
when slave labor became more expensive and landowners
moved toward a system that used tenant farmers, a precursor
of the medieval system of serfs tied to the land. Large farms
ceased to be profi table. Gradually the landowners broke them
down into smaller plots of land tilled by tenant farmers, peas-
ants who were bound to the land. During the heyday of large
estates, small farmers had made little technological progress
and continued to use ancient cultivation techniques, but
now landowners ensured that their tenants improved their
techniques to keep the farms productive. German and Asian
prisoners of war who worked Roman farms learned Roman
techniques and tooke them back to their home countries. Ag-
ricultural practices of the late empire laid the foundation for
the medieval system of tenant farming.
AGRICULTURAL PRACTICES
Almost all ancient agricultural work was performed manu-
ally, without even the use of oxen or mules. Farmers had to
till their fallow fi elds constantly to prevent the incursion of
weeds, and they did this work with hoes. Plots of arable land
in Italy were small and rocky. Large, fl at fi elds were quite rare,
so plows were impractical, though they did exist and were oc-
casionally used to break up rough soil.
Italy had a wide range of soil types, and Roman farmers
created a variety of diff erent tools to suit diff erent conditions.
Th ey invented hoes with multiple tines to make the soil fi ner;
footrest spades to help them till deeply; and several kinds of
sickles, such as the balanced sickle and the “spitted” sickle,
which helped the user collect harvested crops. Roman farmers
also made great improvements in devices to lift water. During
the empire farmers in Gaul began using a reaping machine
called a vallus, which was pulled by an animal and used to
cut off the heads of wheat stalks and drop them in a container.
Many of these tools were made of iron instead of the bronze
that was popular in earlier days, allowing Roman farmers to
produce many more crops than their predecessors.
Most threshing was done by hand, the farmers hitting
the grain with sticks to separate the grain from the straw.
Sometimes farmers had animals walk on the harvested stalks
to thresh them. Wealthier farmers occasionally used a device
called a tribulum to thresh grain; this device, also used by the
Greeks, consisted of a heavy board with fl ints or small wheels
on its underside and was dragged over the stalks to remove
the wheat kernels.
Th e Greeks had pioneered many agricultural techniques,
such as using manure for fertilizer, choosing crops based on
soil type, and rotating crops. By rotating two or three diff er-
ent types of crops, they managed to keep fi elds in continuous
cultivation without needing to let fi elds rest when they were
depleted of nutrients. Roman farmers adopted these practices
as well.IMPORTS AND EXPORTS
Rome depended on its many provinces to supply it with grain
and other crops. Sicily, Sardinia, North Africa, and Egypt all
produced vast amounts of wheat for Rome at diff erent times
in Rome’s history. Sicily and Sardinia were important sources
of grain throughout Roman history. Both islands are moun-
tainous but fertile; Sicily’s warmer climate makes it especially
suited to agriculture. Sicily was located near the center of the
Mediterranean, making it a crossroads for all ancient traffi c
and a magnet for conquest. Th e Greeks colonized it in the
eighth century b.c.e. and used it as a point of trade with
Corinth, Rhodes, North Africa, and Italy. Carthage gradually
claimed most of the island, but by 211 c.e. Rome had taken
all of Sicily for itself. Th e Romans decided that Sicily would
be best used for growing wheat. Much of Sicily’s land was
divided into latifundia worked by slaves on behalf of own-
ers back in Rome. Conditions were deplorable, and slaves re-
volted many times; some of the most serious revolts occurred
in 135–132 b.c.e. and 104–100 b.c.e. Under the empire the
latifundia system continued in Sicily even as it declined in
the rest of Europe, and Sicily remained an important source
of Roman grain.
Sa rd i nia was w i lder t ha n Sici ly. Th e Greeks seem never to
have colonized it. Carthage took it in the sixth century b.c.e.
but did not make any progress toward pacifying the natives.
Rome took the island from Carthage in 238 b.c.e. and turned
it into a colony together with nearby Corsica, which was less
fertile. Th e Roman government and people never thought
much of Sardinia or the Sardinians and looked on the island
purely as a source of grain. It continued to supply grain to
Rome until the end of the empire.
North Africa also supplied a vast amount of grain to
Rome’s tables. Rome took over much of Carthage’s territory
aft er the Punic Wars (a series of three wars fought between
Rome and Carthage between 264 and 146 b.c.e.), forming a
new province in northern Tunisia in 146 b.c.e. Th is province
encompassed some 5,000 square miles of the most fertile part
of North Africa. Th e land there became Roman public land,
and the government leased it out to grain farmers, who grew
wheat for export to Rome. North African estates were vast.
Most of the land was in the hands of a few large absentee land-agriculture: Rome 43