Cato - Marcus Porcius Cato (234 and 149 BC ) was a Roman statesman, orator, writer, and staunch Roman traditionalist. He wrote on of the earliest surviving works of Latin literature De Agri Cultura (On Agriculture) in 160 BC. De Agri Cultura includes detailed discussions of ancient olive oil practices and uses.

Columella - Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella (1st Century) was a native of what is now Cadiz, Spain. He passed most of his life in Italy. Although we know that he lived in the first century AD, the exact dates of his birth and his death are unknown. His work De Re Rustica was comprised of 13 books. It was a complete treatise on various phases of agricultural matters as well as gardening. It also gives a very detailed account on growing olives.

Pliny - Pliny the Elder (Gaius Plinius Secundis) (23­79 A.D. ) Pliny was a Roman historian, scholar, and writer. He wrote a 37 volume natural history, Historia Naturalis, which provides information on olive cultivation. He was in command of the fleet stationed at Misenum, under Titus, when Vesuvius erupted and covered Pompeii and Herculaneum in 79 AD He suffered from chronic asthma and suffocated from exposure to the sulfurous fumes from the Mt. Vesuvius eruption.

Varro - Marcus Terentius (116-27 B.C.) Varro was Roman naval officer, scholar, and encyclopedist who reputedly produced between 400 and 600 volumes, covering nearly every field of knowledge. Only two of those books survive, De Re Rustica and De Lingua Latina. De Re Rustica was written when Varro was 80 and was intended to provide his wife with the information necessary to continue farming after he died. The book is essentially a dialogue between Varro and some of his friends and covers general treatments of crops including discussions on cop rotations and other good agricultural practices.