GEOPONICI GERARD, ETIENNE MAURICE
GEORGE, SAINT GERARD, FRANCOIS
GEORGE I. GERARD, JEAN IGNACE ISIDORE
GEORGE II. GERARD, JOHN
GEORGE III. GERARDMER
GEORGE IV. GERASA
GEORGE V. (of Great Britain) GERAULT-RICHARD, ALFRED LEON
GEORGE V. (of Hanover) GERBER, ERNST LUDWIG
GEORGE I. (of the Hellenes) GERBERON, GABRIEL
GEORGE (of Saxony) GERBERT, MARTIN
GEORGE OF LAODICEA GERBIL
GEORGE OF TREBIZOND GERENUK
GEORGE THE MONK GERGOVIA
GEORGE THE SYNCELLUS GERHARD, FRIEDRICH WILHELM EDUARD
GEORGE, HENRY GERHARD, JOHANN
GEORGE PISIDA GERHARDT, CHARLES FREDERIC
GEORGE, LAKE GERHARDT, PAUL
GEORGE JUNIOR REPUBLIC GERICAULT, JEAN LOUIS ANDRE THEODORE
GEORGETOWN (British Guiana) GERIZIM
GEORGETOWN (Washington, U.S.A.) GERLACHE, ETIENNE CONSTANTIN
GEORGETOWN (Kentucky, U.S.A.) GERLE, CHRISTOPHE ANTOINE
GEORGETOWN (South Car., U.S.A.) GERMAN BAPTIST BRETHREN
GEORGETOWN (Texas, U.S.A.) GERMAN CATHOLICS
GEORGIA (U.S.A.) GERMAN EAST AFRICA
GEORGIA (Transcaucasia) GERMAN EVANGELICAL SYNOD OF N. AMERICA
GEORGIAN BAY GERMANIC LAWS, EARLY
GEORGSWALDE GERMANICUS CAESAR
GEPHYREA GERMANIUM
GERA GERMAN LANGUAGE
GERALDTON GERMAN LITERATURE
GERANDO, MARIE JOSEPH DE GERMAN REED ENTERTAINMENT
GERANIACEAE GERMAN SILVER
GERANIUM GERMAN SOUTH-WEST AFRICA
GERARD (archbishop of York) GERMANTOWN
GERARD (Tum, Tunc, Tenque) GERMANY (part)
GERARD OF CREMONA
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. About the same time as Xenophon, the philosopher
Democritus of Abdera wrote a treatise [Greek: Peri Georgias], frequently
quoted and much used by the later compilers of _Geoponica_ (agricultural
treatises). Greater attention was given to the subject in the
Alexandrian period; a long list of names is given by Varro and
Columella, amongst them Hiero II. and Attalus III. Philometor. Later,
Cassius Dionysius of Utica translated and abridged the great work of the
Carthaginian Mago, which was still further condensed by Diophanes of
Nicaea in Bithynia for the use of King Deiotarus. From these and similar
works Cassianus Bassus (q.v.) compiled his _Geoponica_. Mention may also
be made of a little work [Greek: Peri Georgikon] by Michael Psellus
(printed in Boissonade, _Anecdota Graeca_, i.).
The Romans, aware of the necessity of maintaining a numerous and
thriving order of agriculturists, from very early times endeavoured to
instil into their countrymen both a theoretical and a practical
knowledge of the subject. The occupation of the farmer was regarded as
next in importance to that of the soldier, and distinguished Romans did
not disdain to practise it. In furtherance of this object, the great
work of Mago was translated into Latin by order of the senate, and the
elder Cato wrote his _De agri cultura_ (extant in a very corrupt state),
a simple record in homely language of the rules observed by the old
Roman landed proprietors rather than a theoretical treatise. 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. The chief work of the kind, however, is
that of Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella (q.v.). About the middle of
the 2nd century the two Quintilii, natives of Troja, wrote on the
subject in Greek. It is remarkable that Columella's work exercised less
influence in Rome and Italy than in southern Gaul and Spain, where
agriculture became one of the principal subjects of instruction in the
superior educational establishments that were springing up in those
countries. One result of this was the preparation of manuals of a
popular kind for use in the schools. In the 3rd century Gargilius
Martialis of Mauretania compiled a _Geoponica_ in which medical botany
and the veterinary art were included. The _De re rustica_ of Palladius
(4th century), in fourteen books, which is almost entirely borrowed from
Columella, is greatly inferior in style and knowledge of the subject. It
is a kind of farmer's calendar, in which the different rural occupations
are arranged in order of the months. The fourteenth book (on forestry)
is written in elegiacs (85 distichs). The whole of Palladius and
considerable fragments of Martialis are extant.
The best edition of the _Scriptores rei rusticae_ is by J.G. Schneider
(1794-1797), and the whole subject is exhaustively treated by A.
Magerstedt, _Bilder aus der romischen Landwirtschaft_ (1858-1863); see
also Teuffel-Schwabe, _Hist. of Roman Literature_, 54; C.F. Bahr in
Ersch and Gruber's _Allgemeine Encyklopadie_.