Cato on Overseers

One who oversees or superintends other workers. A supervisor.

"Cato is much more precise than Xenophon. He calculates that thirteen people are necessary to work an estate of 240 jugera (150 acres) planted with olive trees: one overseer to supervise the work, a housekeeper, five agricultural labourers, three carters, one donkey driver, one swineherd and one shepherd. For a vineyard of 100 jugera, he suggests, apart from the overseer and the housekeeper, ten labourers, one carter, one man for the donkeys, one man to supervise the grape harvest, one swineherd--altogether eighteen people. This figure does not include the extra hands hired temporarily for the busiest periods, such as the grape-pickers, vindemiatores, who are mentioned in inscriptions. Thus the permanent labour force of the estate remains relatively small."

Claude Mossé, The Ancient World of Work (1969)

[Translated by Janet Lloyd].