The ancients knew nothing about global warming, but they still reflected on the relationship between man and nature.
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David Butterfield
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In the absence of modern technology and with few sources of power (men, animals, wind and water), the ancients were limited in the use they could make of natural resources. Fire brought about the most radical change to nature’s offerings (cooking, pottery, smelting), with weaving, wood- and stone-working a close second. This could provide the farmer with all he needed, as Cato the Elder tells us: tunics, togas, blankets, shoes, iron tools, scythes, spades, mattocks, axes, carts, sledges, storage jars, pots, tiles, oil-mills, nails, buckets, oil-vessels, water-carriers, wine-urns, bronze vessels, etc.
Cicero painted the bigger picture, pointing out that cities and so civilisation — society, laws, customs — developed only on the back of man’s use of natural resources combined with his ‘manual labour and skills’.
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