De agri cultura [is] the only work of Cato, and the oldest literary Latin that time has saved. He gives detailed advice … on making cement and cooking dainties, on curing constipation and diarrhea, on healing snakebite with the dung of swine, and offering sacrifices to the gods. Asking himself what is the wisest use of agricultural land, he answers, “Profitable cattle raising.” The next best? “Moderately profitable cattle raising.” The third best? “Very unprofitable cattle raising.” The fourth? “To plow the land.”

—Caesar and Christ, by Will Durant, p. 104