Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella
A Bit of Roman Garden & Landscape History -
Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella, (c. 40–90 AD) On Agriculture (1st Century)
During this period, a villa was the locus of 2 separate & distinct activities – otium, meaning leisure time, but also time for study & reflection, & business. In the late 1st century BCE, Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella, building on the work of Cato the Elder & Varro, published De Re Rvstica, a 12-volume work on agriculture. In it, Columella defined the 3 main elements of the villa. These include the pars urbana, where the owner lived together with his familia; the pars rustica, where laborers, animals & farm tools were located; & the pars fructuaria, which held the equipment for processing & preserving the harvest. Columella uses the term circa villam to describe the surrounding area, thus emphasising that the villa was associated with agricultural lands. A villa rustica may be thought of as a simple farm, & a villa urbana as a manor – the master's residence.
Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella, On Agriculture
Book I
I am of the opinion, therefore, that land should be purchased nearby, so that the owner may visit it often & announce that his visits will be more frequent than he really intends them to be; for under this apprehension both overseer & laborers will be at their duties. But whenever the chance offers, he should stay in the country; & his stay should not be an idle one nor one spent in the shade. For it behooves a careful householder to go around every little bit of his land quite frequently & at every season of the year, that he may the more intelligently observe the nature of the soil, whether in foliage & grass or in ripened crops, & that he may not be ignorant of what may properly be done on it. For it is an old saying of Cato that land is most grievously maltreated when its master does not direct what is to be done thereon but listens to his overseer. Therefore, let it be the chief concern of one who owns a farm inherited from his ancestors, or of one who intends to buy a place, to know what kind of ground is most approved, so that he may either be rid of one that is unprofitable or purchase one that is to be commended. But if fortune attends our prayer, we shall have a farm in a healthful climate, with fertile soil, partly level, partly hills with a gentle eastern or southern slope; with some parts of the land cultivated, & other parts wooded & rough; not far from the sea or a navigable stream, by which its products may be carried off & supplies brought in. The level ground, divided into meadows, arable land, willow groves, & reed thickets, should be adjacent to the steading. Let some of the hills be bare of trees, to serve for grain crops only; still these crops thrive better in moderately dry & fertile plains than in steep places, & for that reason even the higher grainfields should have some level sections & should be of as gentle a slope as possible & very much like flat land. Again, other hills should be clad with olive groves & vineyards, & with copses to supply props for the latter; they should be able to furnish wood & stone, if the need of building so requires, as well as grazing found for herds; & then they should send down coursing rivulets into meadows, gardens, & willow plantations, & running water for the villa. And let there be no lack of herds of cattle & of other four-footed kind to graze over the tilled land & the thickets. But such a situation as we desire is hard to find and, being uncommon, it falls to the lot of few; the next best is one which possesses most of these qualities, & one is passable which lacks the fewest of them...
Let there be, moreover, a never-failing spring either within the steading or brought in from outside; a wood-lot & pasture near by. If running water is wanting, make a search for a well close by, to be not too deep for hoisting the water, & not bitter or brackish in taste. If this too fails, & if scanty hope of veins of water compels it, have large cisterns built for people & ponds for cattle; this rain-water is after all most suitable to the body’s health, & is regarded as uncommonly good if it is conveyed through earthen pipes into a covered cistern. Next to this is flowing water which, having its source in the mountains, comes tumbling down over rocks as on Mount Gaurus in Campania. The third choice is well-water which is found on a hillside or in a valley, if not in its lowest part. Worst of all is swamp-water, which creeps along with sluggish flow; & water that always remains stagnant in a swamp is laden with death. But this same water, harmful though its nature is, is purified by the rains of the winter season & loses its virulence; from this fact water from the heavens is known to be most healthful, as it even washes away the pollution of poisonous water, & we have stated that this is most approved for drinking. On the other hand, bubbling brooks contribute greatly to the alleviation of summer heat & to the attractiveness of places; & , if local conditions will allow, I think that they, by all means, should be conducted into the villa, regardless of the quality of the water if only it is sweet...
The size of the villa & the number of its parts should be proportioned to the whole inclosure, & it should be divided into three groups: the villa urbana or manor house, the villa rustica or farmhouse, & the villa fructuaria or storehouse. The manor house should be divided in turn into winter apartments & summer apartments, in such a way that the winter bedrooms may face the sunrise at the winter solstice, & the winter dining-room face the sunset at the equinox. The summer bedrooms, on the other hand, should look toward the midday sun at the time of the equinox, but the dining-rooms of that season should look toward the rising sun of winter. The baths should face the setting sun of summer, that they may be lighted from midday up to evening. The promenades should be exposed to the midday sun at the equinox, so as to receive both the maximum of sun in winter & the minimum in summer. But in the part devoted to farm uses there will be placed a spacious & high kitchen, that the rafters may be free from the danger of fire, & that it may offer a convenient stopping-place for the slave household at every season of the year. It will be best that cubicles for unfettered slaves be built to admit the midday sun at the equinox; for those who are in chains there should be an underground prison, as wholesome as possible, receiving light through a number of narrow windows built so high from the ground that they cannot be reached with the hand.
