Well, lets see. Im good against bubonic plague, yellow fever, small pox and whatever else is in the overseas package and the recruit package for the navy. I understand germ theory and can mandate assorted sanitation issues [and I know how to make soap from fat and lye …] so I dont worry about getting ill too much.
Figure I would like a small villa rustica in the southern area of Italy, on about 100 pr so acres. That would give me enough land for the villa itself, a small set of out buildings for slave housing, animal barns, storage barns. I would actually make a decent balnea so everybody could keep clean so that would take a woodcutter and a couple of boys to feed the furnaces, and a masseur and a strigilist inside for the nonslaves.
Hm, Id buy a good cook, and about 10 assorted sculleries. A really good major domo to run the house, 4 or 5 footmen to guard the house, at least 5 or 6 good maids and a secretary. I would need a good foreman for the farm crew, call it another 20 or so of both sexes to manage the plant farming and a small flock of chickens and geese, a small flock of sheep, a boar and several sows and a good bull and 3 or 4 cows. I would definitely want to plant olives, and grapes, and enough corn and pulses with assorted vegetables and at least 2 almond trees, and fruit trees. I would try for some rare limes from Judea, and some oranges from hispania. A blacksmith to make sure we had good tools, and making assorted other items we needed. A carpenter for making wooden items, casks and furniture. 3 good spinners and a good weaver, and someone with a good hand at dying. A dairy maid for the milking, and cheesemaking.
I think I would prefer not to travel, but a cart and oxen to pull it and the plow would be good enough. I dont think I would have much excess to sell, and I can keep the rare spices and unguents to a minimum. Salt, pepper, cinnamon are the real big three that I would spend the most on. Silphium was more or less extinct, but lovage was a substitute, and can be grown locally. I could press my own olives and grapes for oil and wine, and I know how to make garum, but there were a number of latifundia that produced garum very reasonably. I am not really into fish, so I wouldn’t really bother with fish other than dried for feeding the slaves.
So call it about 60 slaves, or so. Some of them would of course own their own slaves, and I would end up with children eventually expanding the number of slaves because I wouldn’t sell them off but keep them to replace the ones that got ill and died, or died of old age.
