File:Lectures on Roman husbandry, delivered before the University of Oxford; comprehending such an account of the system of agriculture, the treatment of domestic animals, the horticulture &c., pursued in (14594685809).jpg

Identifier: lecturesonromanh00unse (find matches)
Title: Lectures on Roman husbandry, delivered before the University of Oxford; comprehending such an account of the system of agriculture, the treatment of domestic animals, the horticulture &c., pursued in ancient times, as may be collected from the Scriptores rei rusticae, the Georgics of Virgil, and other classical authorities, with notices of the plants mentioned in Columella and Virgil;
Year: 1857 (1850s)
Authors: Daubeny, Charles,1795-1867
Subjects: Agriculture Agriculture
Publisher: Oxford, Printed by J. Wright (etc.)
Contributing Library: Yale University, Cushing/Whitney Medical Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Open Knowledge Commons and Yale University, Cushing/Whitney Medical Library

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Text Appearing Before Image:
It should be built also with an eye to elegance
and comfort as well as utility, in order to hold
out inducements not only to the owner himself,
but also to his wife, for passing her time there.
" Quamobrem amcenitate aliqua demerenda erit,
Uti patientius moretur cum viro. "
What the Romans understood by these expres-
sions, may be in some degree gathered from the
descriptions which other writers have given us
of the country-houses about the same period.
In the time of Valerius Maximus, the mansions
themselves are said to have covered more ground
than was on the estates of some of the ancient
Patricians. In the present age, that writer says,
" men think themselves crampt for room, whose
houses are not more extensive than the whole
property of Cincinnatus. "
Lucullus, Pliny informs us, fell under the
chastisement of the censors, because the ampli-
tude of his villa was such, as, compared with the
size of the estate annexed, that he had more
ground to sweep than to plough.
And Pliny the younger, in describing his Lau-
rentine villa¹, which lie praises as being well
^b Lib. 2. Ep. xvii.
Plate,I.
Text Appearing After Image:
PLAN OF PLINY'S LAURENTINE VILLA.
From Castell's Villas of the Ancient
Pliny, lib., 2*. Ep. 17

LECT. II.] ROMAN HUSBANDRY. 47

adapted for all purposes of use and convenience,
but, according to the ideas of that period, as
neither sumptuous nor extravagant, details a
suite of apartments of such extent as impresses
us with an exalted notion of Roman luxury in
this respect. The following are a few of the principal de-
tails. On entering, he says, you find yourself in a
plain but not a mean hall (Atrium); and from
this you proceed through ranges of porticos of an
oval form inclosing a small but cheerful court
(area), which affords a pleasant retreat in bad
weather, being screened by windows of tale or
glass (specularibus), and still more effectually by
the projection of the roof.
In the centre is a pleasant inner-court (cavæ-
dium); beyond which is a handsome banqueting
room (triclinium) that advances out upon the
shore, so that when the wind blows from the
S. W. it is gently washed by the spent waves.

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