Volume I. On Agriculture
Books 1-4

Columella's Res rustica is the fullest treatment of agriculture in Latin, and here we can learn a great deal about what life in the country was like in Italy in the first century A.D. Columella discusses the layout and staffing of a farm and the duties of the overseer and his wife as well as the care of barnyard animals and cultivation of vegetables, fruit trees, and grapevines. He draws on many previous Greek, Punic, and Latin writers, including Cato and Varro, but his personal experience is paramount. is written in stylish prose except for Book 10, on horticulture, which is written in hexameter verse.

Series No. 361 / 496 pages / ISBN 0-674-99398-5