Marcus Terentius Varro and his agronomic writing about Hispania

Abstract

The agronomic work of Marcus Terentius Varro is a point of reference for understanding Roman agriculture and animal husbandry at the turn of the era. Although we know a great deal about his life, of his profuse work we only have De Re Rustica and De Lingua Latina. We also know that he held important military posts in the civil wars in Hispania, to which he devotes many specific passages. In this article we will analyse these references as there are apparent contradictions in the quotations given, our main hypothesis being that Varro describes farming practices other than Roman ones, which had not been archaeologically verified, mainly because they refer to the south of the peninsula, coming from a Turdetan influence or Phoenician-Punic origin.