MEDIASTI´NI
MEDIASTI´NI the name given to slaves of all work
either in town or country, who are said by the Scholiast on Horace,
Hor. Ep. 1.14,
14, to be those “qui in medio stant ad quaevis imperata
parati.” They would therefore be those of whom Cicero speaks
(
Par. 5.2, 37), “qui tergunt, qui
ungunt, qui verrunt, qui spargunt.” In Ulpian they are spoken of
as equivalent to
vulgares servi. In Pliny
(
Plin. Nat. 29.4) the slaves of an
apothecary used for general purposes are so called to distinguish them from
skilled slaves employed as rubbers, &c.
[p. 2.152]But although Horace (
l.c.) seems to distinguish
the
mediastinus from the country slave, the
distinction is only found in the context, not in the word itself; for
Columella (2.13) gives the allowance of field labour for 200 jugera as two
yoke of oxen, two
bubulci and six
mediastini: he separates them from the special
labourers,
vinitores and
aratores (1.9), saying that, while the
arator should be tall, the
mediastinus might be any height provided he was industrious. To
be precise therefore, the low class general slaves would be distinguished as
mediastini urbani and
mediastini rustici (which is a disputed reading in
Cic. Cat. 2.3, 5).
[
W.S] [
G.E.M]
