ploughshare when they became unable to work, because in like manner it would not have been good economy to retain them longer.  In earlier times religious considerations had here also exercised an alleviating influence, and had released the slave and the plough-ox from labour on the days enjoined for festivals and for rest.(9) Nothing is more characteristic of the spirit of Cato and those who shared his sentiments than the way in which they inculcated the observance of the holiday in the letter, and evaded it in reality, by advising that, while the plough should certainly be allowed to rest on these days, the slaves should even then be incessantly occupied with other labours not expressly prohibited.  On principle no freedom of movement whatever was allowed to them—­a slave, so runs one of Cato’s maxims, must either work or sleep—­and no attempt was ever made to attach the slaves to the estate or to their master by any bond of human sympathy.  The letter of the law in all its naked hideousness regulated the relation, and the Romans indulged no illusions as to the consequences.  “So many slaves, so many foes,” said a Roman proverb.  It was an economic maxim, that dissensions among the slaves ought rather to be fostered than suppressed.  In the same spirit Plato and Aristotle, and no less strongly the oracle of the landlords, the Carthaginian Mago, caution masters against bringing together slaves of the same nationality, lest they should originate combinations and perhaps conspiracies of their fellow-countrymen.  The landlord, as we have already said, governed his slaves exactly in the same way as the Roman community governed its subjects in the “country estates of the Roman people,” the provinces; and the world learned by experience, that the ruling state had modelled its new system of government on that of the slave-holder.  If, moreover, we have risen to that little-to-be-envied elevation of thought which values no feature of an economy save the capital invested in it, we cannot deny to the management of the Roman estates the praise of consistency, energy, punctuality, frugality, and solidity.  The pithy practical husbandman is reflected in Cato’s description of the steward, as he ought to be.  He is the first on the farm to rise and the last to go to bed; he is strict in dealing with himself as well as with those under him, and knows more especially how to keep the stewardess in order, but is also careful of his labourers and his cattle, and in particular of the ox that draws the plough; he puts his hand frequently to work and to every kind of it, but never works himself weary like a slave; he is always at home, never borrows nor lends, gives no entertainments, troubles himself about no other worship than that of the gods of the hearth and the field, and like a true slave leaves all dealings with the gods as well as with men to his master; lastly and above all, he modestly meets that master and faithfully and simply, without exercising too little or too much of thought,