Cato’s only extant work, De Agri Cultura is the oldest surviving book of Latin prose and is believed to have been written in c. 160 BC. Noted for his lack of form and penchant for old customs and superstitions, Cato was, nevertheless, revered by many later authors for his practical attitudes, his natural stoicism and his tight, lucid prose. The book is often characterised as a farmer’s notebook, written in a spontaneous fashion, appearing to be no more than a manual of husbandry intended for friends and neighbours, though its direct style and valuable depiction of rural life during the Roman Republic have won many admirers over the centuries.
The introduction to the book compares farming with other common activities of that time. Cato criticises commerce for the dangers and uncertainty that it bears and he complains of usury as, according to the Twelve Tables, the usurer is judged a worse criminal than a thief. Cato makes a strong contrast with farming, which he praises as the source of good citizens and soldiers, of both wealth and high moral values.
De Agri Cultura provides detailed information on the creation and caring of vineyards, including information on the slaves that helped maintain them. It is believed that the book inspired numerous landowners in Rome to produce wine on a large scale. Many of the new vineyards were sixty acres, as recommended by Cato, and because of their large size, even more slaves were necessary to keep the production of wine running smoothly. The book also contains a short section of religious rituals to be performed by farmers. The language of these is clearly traditional, somewhat more archaic than that of the remainder of the text.
The existing manuscripts of De Agri Cultura directly or indirectly descend from a long-lost manuscript called the Marcianus, which was once held in the Biblioteca Marciana in Venice and described by Petrus Victorinus as liber antiquissimus et fidelissimus (a book most ancient and faithful). The oldest existing manuscript is the Codex Parisinus 6842, written in Italy at some point before the end of the twelfth century. The editio princeps was printed at Venice in 1472 and Angelo Politian’s collation of the Marcianus against his copy of this first printing is considered an important witness for the text.