Agriculture. Fruits and cereals.
Agriculture is ever a distinguishing mark of civilization, and forms the main support of a people. It early occupied the time of the Latins, and was their chief pursuit. In the earliest ages arable land was cultivated in common, and was not distributed among the people as their special property, but in the time of Servius there was a distribution. Attention was chiefly given to cereals, but roots and vegetables were also diligently cultivated. Vineyards were introduced before the Greeks made settlements in Italy, but the olive was brought to Italy by the Greeks. The fig-tree is a native of Italy. The plow was drawn by oxen, while horses, asses, and mules were used as beasts of burden. The farm was stocked with swine and poultry, especially geese. The plow was a rude instrument, but no field was reckoned perfectly tilled unless the furrows were so close that harrowing was deemed unnecessary. Farming on a large scale was not usual, and the proprietor of land worked on the soil with his sons. The use of slaves was a later custom, when large estates arose.
Trades.
Trades scarcely kept pace with agriculture, although in the time of Numa eight guilds of craftsmen were numbered among the institutions of Rome—flute-blowers, goldsmiths, coppersmiths, carpenters, fullers, dyers, potters, and shoemakers. There was no yield for workers in [pg 409] iron, which shows that iron was a later introduction than copper.
Commerce.
Commerce was limited to the mutual dealings of the Italians themselves. Fairs are of great antiquity, distinguished from ordinary markets, and barter and traffic were carried on in them, especially that of Soracte, being before Greek or Phœnicians entered from the sea. Oxen and sheep, grain and slaves, were the common mediums of exchange. Latium was, however, deficient of articles of export, and was pre-eminently an agricultural country.
Measures and weights.
The use of measures and weights was earlier than the art of writing, although the latter is of high antiquity. Latin poetry began in the lyrical form. Dancing was a common trade, and this was accompanied with pipers, and religious litanies were sung from the remotest antiquity. Comic songs were sung in Saturnian metre, accompanied by the pipe. The art of dancing was a public care, and a powerful impulse was early given by Hellenic games. But in all the arts of music and poetry there was not the easy development as in Greece. Architecture owed its first impulse to the Etruscans, who borrowed from the Greeks, and was not of much account till the reigns of the Tuscan kings.