It's the Entrance on History Hit. I'm Tristan Hughes your host and in today's

podcast where we're talking all about farming, how to farm lessons from the ancient world

shall we say, an ancient guide to rustic living, to living on the land. Because as you're

going to hear in this podcast there are many Greek and Roman authors, poets and the

like who eulogized, who praised the farming lifestyle of this life in the countryside. And

to explain all, I would like to get on the podcast a few months back. Dr. Mark Usher from

the University of Vermont. Mark is a brilliant classicist but he's also a farmer. So he

knows a lot about both and it was wonderful to hear him talking from his personal perspective

on farming but also how he brings that to his studies of the ancient world, of these

texts which refer to farming but also other aspects such as nature, such as animals,

wildlife and so much more. So without further ado, to talk all about farming in the Greco-Roman

world and the lessons we can take from these authors who commented on the rustic lifestyle

in antiquity in the ancient Mediterranean world. Here's Mark.

Mark, great to have you on the podcast this morning.

Great to be here. Thank you.

You're very welcome. Farmers are some of the best people to talk to in the world and

living the rustic life, how to be a farmer. We're going back to wisdom from ancient history

from the Greco-Roman world because Mark, Greek and Roman writers, they not only reflected

on country life and the benefits of country life, they openly praised it and eulogized it

too.

It sure did. Whether from a very practical standpoint like Ezean raises farming for the virtue

that it actually inculcates and the person who literally cultivates the practice, to later

...