Page 54 - Summer2008

Farm and Ranch

AGRIBUSINESS AND THE FALL OF ROME:
ANCIENT WISDOM FOR MODERN NATIONS
By John Moody

The horses’ feet clop upon the stone road as waiting dejectedly in the government-provided
the carriage rocks along, the sound of conversa- breadlines, or picking ghts with Roman sol-

tion echoing from its connes out into the quiet diers in the streets. The once productive and

countryside. It is 140 BC. The Roman nation self-sufcient farmers or workers in small local

is nearing the apex of its afuence and power. communities are now displaced and draining

Death, discouragement and defeat during a the resources and vitality out of the cities and
brutal series of wars are now a distant memory. country.
Conquest has brought wealth, luxury and ease to What they witness concerns and disturbs
the once hard-pressed Roman people, especially them. Small farmers are the backbone of the Ro-
the politicians and businessmen, transforming man nation, without which it stands little chance
the nation from an agrarian to a commercial of survival as a free republic. In peace and war,
society. more than any other factor, their love of land and
Two brothers, Tiberius and Gaius Grac- country has been the determining factor in the
chus, are traveling together through the Roman nation’s survival. What then is driving them from
countryside on their way to the capital, talking their homes and farms, from their vocations and
and taking in the mild Italian spring. They see communities?
1
many things as they travel along the Via Apia—

great Roman edices and aqueducts, passing ANCIENT AND MODERN NATIONS MEET
groups of Roman soldiers patrolling the roads, The similarities between Rome right before
couriers carrying messages to and from distant its fall into dictatorship and modern America are
cities, and rolling expanses of Italian land, fertile striking and disturbing—debt, political gridlock,
and inviting… yet seemingly empty of Romans. breakdown of the family, inability to deal with
Derelict homes dot the landscape, punctuated by external and internal problems—to mention just
the occasional massive mansion surrounded by a few. For us, the particular issue at hand is how
far less lavish, barracks-style buildings, housing the rise of ancient agribusiness, known as latifun-
for the slave gangs captured in wars with Spain, dia, from latus, “spacious,” and fundus, “farm or
Africa and other nations. The slaves mill about estate,” and the loss of the yeoman (that is, small)
the estates, planting and picking, but few Roman farmer contributed to the nation’s decline into
Author John citizens are to be found. At most, Tiberius and internal disarray and eventual dictatorship.
For centuries, the yeoman farmers served
Moody and Gaius glimpse an occasional Roman supervisor, as the backbone of the Roman economy, morality
a servant of some senator or patrician who has
his wife taken up residence and ownership of the vast and military. They sustained the nation’s people
Jessica are Roman countryside. A dark quiet falls upon their with food through hard work and wise husband-
WAPF chariot ride towards Rome. ry, steadied the populace with their virtue and
morals, and supplied the army with distinguished
When Tiberius and Gaius reach the capital,

chapter they nd the missing Romans. Hundreds upon and dedicated soldiers who kept the nation secure

leaders in hundreds of Romans—landless, purposeless and from internal and external threats.
Following the wars with Carthage and the
Louisville, unemployed. As they make their way through the subsequent wealth it brought to certain Romans,
city, the brothers see their fellow citizens hanging
Kentucky. around taverns and bars, drinking and gambling, more and more of Rome’s land was turned into
52 Wise Traditions SUMMER 2008