Quotes from book
De Agri Cultura

Cato the Elder Original title De agri cultura (Latin)

De Agri Cultura , written by Cato the Elder, is the oldest surviving work of Latin prose. Alexander Hugh McDonald, in his article for the Oxford Classical Dictionary, dated this essay's composition to about 160 BC and noted that "for all of its lack of form, its details of old custom and superstition, and its archaic tone, it was an up-to-date directed from his own knowledge and experience to the new capitalistic farming." Cato was revered by many later authors for his practical attitudes, his natural stoicism and his tight, lucid prose. He is much quoted by Pliny the Elder, for example, in his Naturalis Historia.


Cato the Elder photo
Cato the Elder photo
Cato the Elder photo
Cato the Elder photo

“When you have decided to purchase a farm, be careful not to buy rashly; do not spare your visits and be not content with a single tour of inspection. The more you go, the more will the place please you, if it be worth your attention. Give heed to the appearance of the neighbourhood, - a flourishing country should show its prosperity. "When you go in, look about, so that, when needs be, you can find your way out."”

Of buying a farm; Cited in John Claudius Loudon (1825) An Encyclopædia of Agriculture. Part 1. p. 14
Loudon commented: In the time of Cato the Censor, the author of The Husbandry of the Ancients observed, though the operations of agriculture were generally performed by servants, yet the great men among the Roman continued to give particular attention to it, studied its improvement, and were very careful and exact in the management of nil their country affairs. This appears from the directions given them by this most attentive farmer. Those great men had both houses in town, and villas in the country; and, as they resided frequently in town, the management of their country affairs was committed to a bailiff or overseer. Now their attention to the culture of their land and to every other branch of husbandry, appears, from the directions given them how to behave upon their arrival from the city at their villas.
De Agri Cultura, about 160 BC

Cato the Elder photo
Cato the Elder photo

Similar authors

Cato the Elder photo
Cato the Elder 15
politician, writer and economist (0234-0149) -234–-149 BC
Julius Caesar photo
Julius Caesar 18
Roman politician and general
Tatian photo
Tatian 14
Syrian writer
Ennius photo
Ennius 23
Roman writer
Cyprian photo
Cyprian 7
Bishop of Carthage and Christian writer
Confucius photo
Confucius 269
Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher
Apuleius photo
Apuleius 15
Berber prose writer in Latin
Marcus Aurelius photo
Marcus Aurelius 400
Emperor of Ancient Rome
Antisthenes photo
Antisthenes 24
Greek philosopher
Menander photo
Menander 18
Athenian playwright of New Comedy