mpania, or opulent Bruttii, or
cattle-breeding Calabria[571], or strong Apulia produces, is there to
be found exposed for sale, on such reasonable terms that no buyer goes
away dissatisfied. It is a charming sight to see the broad plains
filled with suddenly-reared houses formed of leafy branches
intertwined: all the beauty of the most leisurely-built city, and yet
not a wall to be seen. There stand ready boys and girls, with the
attractions which belong to their respective sexes and ages, whom not
captivity but freedom sets a price upon. These are with good reason
sold by their parents, since they themselves gain by their very
servitude. For one cannot doubt that they are benefited even as slaves
[or servants?], by being transferred from the toil of the fields to
the service of cities[572].

[Footnote 571: 'Calabri peculiosi.']

[Footnote 572: 'Praesto sunt pueri ac puellae, diverso sexu atque
aetate conspicuo, quos non facit captivitas esse sub pretio sed
libertas: hos merito parentes vendunt, quoniam de ipsa famulatione
proficiunt. Dubium quippe non est servos posse meliorari qui de labore
agrorum ad urbana servitia transferuntur.' With almost any writer but
Cassiodorus this would prove that in the Sixth Century free Italians
were selling their children into actual slavery. But I doubt whether
he really means more than that the children of the country people were
for hire as domestic servants in the cities. If so, the scene is not
unlike our own 'statute fairs' or 'hirings' in the north of England.
It appears from Sec. 94 of the Edictum Theodorici that parents could sell
their children, but that the latter did not lose their _status
ingenuus_. Must they then claim it on coming of age? 'Parentes qui
cogente necessitate filios suos alimentorum gratia vendiderint
ingenuitati eorum non praejudicant. _Homo enim liber pretio nullo
aestimatur._' Cf. also Sec. 95: 'Operas enim tantum parentes filiorum
quos in potestate habuerint, locare possunt.']

'What can I say of the bright and many-coloured garments? what of the
sleek and well-fed cattle offered at such a price as to tempt any
purchaser?

'The place itself is situated in a wide and pleasant plain, a suburb
of the ancient city of Cosilinum, and has received the name of
Marcilianum from the founder of these sacred springs[573].

[Footnote 573: Marcilianum is now Sala, in the valley of the Calore
(Tanager). Padula is thought by some to mark the site of Cosilinum.
Th