L. Iunius Moderatus Columella

L. Iunius Moderatus Columella Gadibus in Hispania ineunte saeculo primo p.C.n. natus est. Rem rusticam a patruo M. Columella, agricola Baeticae peritissimo, didicit, et tribunus militum legionis sextae in Syria fuit, ut inscriptio Tarentina testatur. Etiam auctores rei rusticae priores perdidicit, a Catone et Varrone usque ad Magonem Poenum, cuius libros senatus in Latinum sermonem converti iusserat.

Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella was born at Gades (Cádiz) in Spain early in the first century A.D. He learned farming from his uncle Marcus Columella, a skilled farmer in Baetica, and served as a military tribune of the Sixth Legion in Syria, as an inscription found at Tarentum records. He also mastered the earlier writers on farming, from Cato and Varro to the Carthaginian Mago, whose work the senate had ordered translated into Latin.

Praedia in Latio, prope Ardeam, Carseolos, Albam, possedit, ubi vites experiebatur. Vineas Senecae Nomentanas fertiles laudavit, et ratione diligenter subducta docuit vineas bene cultas sumptum suum reddere. Claudio aut Nerone principe libros duodecim De Re Rustica scripsit, de terra, de frugibus, de vitibus, de oleis, de pecore, de apibus, de villa administranda, librumque decimum de hortis versibus composuit, ut Georgica Vergilii compleret.

He owned estates in Latium, near Ardea, Carseoli and Alba, where he experimented with vines. He admired the productive vineyards of Seneca at Nomentum and showed by careful reckoning that well-tended vines repaid their cost. Under Claudius or Nero he wrote On Agriculture in twelve books, on soils, crops, vines, olives, livestock, bees and the running of a farm, composing the tenth book, on gardens, in verse to complete Virgil's Georgics.

Docuit agros Italiae non terrae senectute sed dominorum neglegentia deficere, qui eos vilicis et servis permitterent. Probavit Magonis praeceptum, eum qui agrum paraverit domum urbanam vendere debere, ut in agro habitet. Liber eius brevior De Arboribus quoque superest. Quando mortuus sit, ignoratur.

He argued that Italy's farms were failing not because the earth had grown old but because their owners neglected them and left them to stewards and slaves. He quoted with approval Mago's rule that a man who buys a farm should sell his town house, so as to live on the land. A shorter work of his, On Trees, also survives. The date of his death is unknown.

1. c. 4 p.C.n.c. A.D. 4Gadibus nascitur.Born at Gades.
2. c. 35 p.C.n.c. A.D. 35Tribunus militum in Syria.Military tribune in Syria.
3. c. 60–65 p.C.n.c. A.D. 60–65Libros De Re Rustica scribit.Writes On Agriculture.