Walker - 1967 - A geography of Italy

ROMAN GEOGRAPHY
add their share to the social and economic instability o f the Empire, should not
be allowed to cloud the solid achievements o f the Romans in agriculture nor give
the impression that soimd husbandry was unknown. The relentless attack on the
forest was perhaps less completely beneficial than the drainage enterprises o f the
Romans. The temperamental Lake Fucinus was first drained to the Liri by
Claudius, while the Pontine Marshes received the attention in turn o f Appius
Claudius, Caesar Augustus, Nerva and Trajan, but their efforts were only partially
successful. In the Po Valley the Romans continued the work first begim by the
Etruscans. The area between the Po and the Apennines east o f Placentia was first
tackled by Aemilius Scaurus, the road builder, and later efforts in the rest o f the
valley must have been very successful to judge from the size and prosperity of
its many cities and from the wide distribution o f centuriation, that typically
Roman chessboard system o f fields, roads and ditches whose kinship with the
modern field pattern is revealed in air photos.
The Italians o f the Empire grew a wide variety o f crops, the chief gaps in the
ancient list o f products compared with the modern being maize, rice, oranges,
lemons, potatoes, sugar beet, silk and tomatoes. Wheat and barley were the
chief grain crops grown to a greater or lesser degree throughout the country where
altitude and drainage allowed; rye and millet flourished in the North; oats seems
to have been unimportant. Among the fibres, flax was the most important and
was grown chiefly in the Po Valley. The widespread growth o f tree crops, often
on terraces, was very sound in that it not only provided food but counteracted
to some extent the evil effects o f deforestation. The olive, then as now, was not
only useful in providing a crop for rundown stony areas, but because o f its small
leaf cover, allowed field crops to be grown in its shade in the better regions. O f
the fruits, apples (for which the Aquileia area was noted), pears and figs were
common from a very early date, and were later supplemented by the introduction
from South-east Asia o f the apricot, peach, plum, cherry, pomegranate and
citron. As today, Campania was famous for intensive irrigated fruit-growing. The
vine which the Greeks first popularized in peninsular Italy grew in importance
imtil its further extension was forbidden by the Emperor Domitian (c. AD 90),
probably in the interests o f grain cultivation. There were few areas in Italy
which did not produce some wines but those o f Campania (Vesuvian, Pompeian,
Faustinian, Falernian, Sorrentine), Latium (Alban Hills, Ardea, Cervetri, Fregellae)
and eastern Sicily were particularly renowned. Then as now the Mediterranean
climate o f the Peninsula presented the farmer with the twin problems o f moisture
conservation and the recuperation o f the soil. The technique widely adopted was
to leave arable land in fallow which was kept clear o f weeds and ploughed three
times in the winter to pulverize the topsoil and so prevent the loss o f moisture
beneath. The attendant dangers in a country so prone to erosion are obvious.
Oddly enough, unless the drainage was good, waterlogging often rendered the
soil cold and prevented the germination o f winter wheat. Fallowing assured a
minimum recuperation but for better yields manuring was vital, and that
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