Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
scheme of Caesar for the resettlement of southern provinces Capua and Campania.
However, he did not reach high political positions. On the contrary, he was in later
actions unsuccessful, he was accused of misappropriation on Sicily, and fi nally he
was lucky to gain Augustus' protection so that he could devote himself to studies
and writing. He was a highly productive writer and turned out more than 74 Latin
works on a variety of topics. It has been traditionally repeated that Varro had read so
much that it is diffi cult to understand when he found time to write, while on the
other hand he wrote so much that one can scarcely read all his topics. Varro recog-
nized about 100 soils and the criterion for defi ning each one was the yield of specifi c
plant.
One of the most important writers on agriculture in the Roman Empire was
Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella. With advice from his uncle and decades of his
own farming experience, he benefi ted by combining his practical knowledge with
studies of his predecessors Cato and Varro. However, many times he quotes the poet
Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro) - mainly his poem entitled Georgics (derived from
Greek, “On Working the Earth”). The structure of the completely preserved
De Re
Rustica
(About Agriculture) of 12 volumes contains one separate volume on soils.
Columella proceeded to a more substantial description of soils, as, e.g., “…the soil
and the climate of Italy and of Africa, being of a different nature, cannot produce the
same results.” Using modern-day language, the fi rst volume contains the principle
of soil protection from erosion and advocates that all organic leftovers from agricul-
tural production as well as sewage from herds of cattle should be brought back to
the soils. Next, we are quoting the translation on today's website belonging to Bill
Thayer in order to illustrate the style how the understanding the soil nature is com-
bined with practical procedures: “There should also be two manure-pits, one to
receive the fresh dung and keep it for a year, and a second from which the old is
hauled; but both of them should be built shelving with a gentle slope, in the manner
of fi sh-ponds, and built up and packed hard with earth so as not to let the moisture
drain away. For it is most important that manure shall retain its strength with no
drying out of its moisture and that it be soaked constantly with liquids, so that any
seeds of bramble or grass that are mixed in the straw or chaff shall decay, and not be
carried out to the fi eld to fi ll the crops with weeds. And it is for this reason that
experienced farmers, when they carry out any refuse from folds and stables, throw
over it a covering of brush and do not allow it to dry out or be burned by the beating
of the sun.”
All Roman writings have a common feature: they were factually written using
simple Latin terminology in the unvarnished style of technological manuals. Greeks,
on the other hand, wrote about agriculture in a lofty poetic style. With increased
time Roman knowledge of soil became much more close to scientifi c and objective
observations of nature's environment. Romans understood that plants took some
important substances from the soil and that those substances remain in plant rem-
nants as well in wastes of animals that are fed by plants. They were aware that these
substances participated in some sort of a cycle that should not be completely dis-
turbed. Knowing that soil was a natural object, Columella asserted that its profi le
was composed of two horizons - the top dark one and the lower subsoil. With the
