Their summits were crowned with
groves of beech trees and oaks, and in the lower lands grew osiers and
other smaller varieties.
The earlier occupations of the Roman people were war and agriculture,
or the pasturage of flocks and herds. They raised grapes and made
wines; they cultivated the oil olive and knew the use of its fruit.
They found copper in their soil and made a pound (_as_) of it their
unit of value, but it was so cheap that ten thousand ases were required
to buy a war horse, though cattle and sheep were much lower. They yoked
their oxen and called the path they occupied a _jugerum_ (_jugum_, a
cross-beam, or a yoke), and this in time came to be their familiar
standard of square measure, containing about two thirds of an acre. Two
of these were assigned to a citizen, and seven were the narrow limit to
which only one's landed possessions were for a long time allowed to
extend. In time commerce was added to the pursuits of the men, and with
it came fortunes and improved dwellings and public buildings.
Laziness and luxury were frowned upon by the early Romans. Mistress and
maid worked together in the affairs of the household, like Lucretia and
other noble women of whom history tells, and the man did not hesitate
to hold the plow, as the example of Cincinnatus will show us.
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