As we shall see later on, they were constantly in debt, and in the hands of the money-lender; and against his extortions their judicial remedies were most precarious.

But all this is hidden from our eyes: only now and again we can hear a faint echo of their inarticulate cry for help.
2.

The needs of these poorer classes in respect of food and drink were very small; it was only the vast number of them that made the supply difficult.

The Italians, like the Greeks,[50] were then as now almost entirely vegetarians; cattle and sheep were used for the production of cheese, leather, and wool or for sacrifices to the gods; the only animal commonly eaten, until luxury came in with increasing wealth, was the pig, and grain and vegetables were the staple food of the poor man, both in town and country.

Among the lesser poems ascribed to Virgil there is one, the _Moretum_, which gives a charming picture of the food-supply of the small cultivator in the country.