Mago

Who is Mago?

Mago was a Carthaginian writer, author of an agricultural manual in Punic which was a record of the farming knowledge of Carthage. The Punic text has been lost, but some fragments of Greek and Latin translations survive.

Mago's long work was partly based on earlier Greek agricultural writings but no doubt incorporated local north African and Phoenician traditional practices, Carthage being a Phoenician colony. It began with general advice which is thus summarized by Columella:

After Rome's destruction of Carthage in 146 BC, the Carthaginian libraries were given to the kings of Numidia. Uniquely, Mago's book was retrieved and brought to Rome. It was adapted into Greek by Cassius Dionysius and translated in full into Latin by Decimus Junius Silanus, the latter at the expense of the Roman Senate. The Greek translation was later abridged by Diophanes of Nicaea, whose version was divided into six books.

Extracts from these translations survive in quotations by Roman writers on agriculture, including Varro, Columella, Pliny the Elder and Gargilius Martialis. This is a partial list of surviving fragments:

If buying a farm, sell your town house.