Civilis_. Cod. Lib. I, tit. I, cap. 3, § I) to conceal St. Augustine's
plagiarism from them; yet the _De Civitate Dei_, which is largely
devoted to refuting Varro's pagan theology, is a perennial monument to
his fame. St. Augustine says (VI, 2): "Although his elocution has less
charm, he is so full of learning and philosophy that ... he instructs
the student of facts as much as Cicero delights the student of style."

Varro's treatise on farm management is the best practical book on
the subject which has come down to us from antiquity. It has not the
spontaneous originality of Cato, nor the detail and suave elegance of
Columella. Walter Harte in his _Essays on Husbandry_ (1764) says
that Cato writes like an English squire and Varro like a French
academician. This is just comment on Cato but it is at once too much
and too little to say of Varro: a French academician might be proud
of his antiquarian learning, but would balk at his awkward and homely
Latin, as indeed one French academician, M. Boissier, has since done.
The real merit of Varro's book is that it is the well digested system
of an experienced and successful farmer who has seen and practised all
that he records.

The authority from which Virgil drew the practical farming lore, for
which he has been extolled in all ages, was Varro: indeed, as a farm
manual the _Georgics_ go astray only when they depart from Varro. It
is worth while to elaborate this point, which Professor Sellar, in his
argument for the originality of Virgil, only suggests.[6]

After Philippi the times were ripe for books on agriculture. The Roman
world had been divided between Octavian and Antony and there was peace
in Italy: men were turning "back to the land."