Abstract

summary:

While recent readings of Varro’s De Re Rustica have emphasized a negative view of contemporary politics and mores across all three books, this article identifies an oppositional contrast between Rust. 1 and 3, set in the temple of Tellus and the Villa Publica, respectively. Arguing that Varro intentionally casts the Villa Publica—and its analogue, villatica pastio—as the more successful integration both of Rome’s rural past and urban present, and of its elite and non-elite citizens, it suggests that Varro took a more populist view—of the Villa Publica, villatica pastio, and the governance of the res publica itself.

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