“ GEOPONICI, [1] or Scriptores rei rusticae, the Greek and Roman writers on husbandry and agriculture. On the whole the Greeks paid less attention than the Romans to the scientific study of these subjects, which in classical times they regarded as a branch of economics. Thus Xenophon’s Oeconomicus (see also Memorabilia, ii. 4) contains a eulogy of agriculture and its beneficial ethical effects, and much information is to be found in the writings of Aristotle and his pupil Theophrastus. ”

“ He was followed by the two Sasernae (father and son) and Gnaeus Tremellius Scrofa, whose works are lost. The learned Marcus Terentius Varro of Reate, when eighty years of age, composed his Rerum rusticarum, libri tres, dealing with agriculture, the rearing of cattle, and the breeding of fishes. He was the first to systematize what had been written on the subject, and supplemented the labours of others by practical experience gained during his travels. ”

“ In the Augustan age Julius Hyginus wrote on farming and bee-keeping, Sabinus Tiro on horticulture, and during the early empire Julius Graecinus and Julius Atticus on the culture of vines, and Cornelius Celsus (best known for his De medicina) on farming. ”