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VARRO
ON FARMING
PLAN OF THE
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CASINUM
A Island
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D Ponds
£ Aviaries
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PREFACE
TuIs translation of Varro’s ‘Rerum Rusticarum’
is based on the ‘ Editio Minor’ of Keil, which is
the best text that we at present possess, and the most
accessible to students. The numerous passages
where I have ventured to adopt or propose a reading
differing from that given by the great scholar are
indicated and fully discussed either in the Com-
mentary or Excursus. In excuse for the many
alterations of his text which I have proposed, I
would point out that Keil himself professes only to
have restored the text of the Archetype, which is
avowedly corrupt, to have made certain indubitable
corrections, and to have cleared the ground for
further emendation.
In rendering the Latin, I have aimed, above all
things, at accuracy, and have tried to say in English
what Varro actually said in Latin, not what I
imagine he ought to have said, or might have said,
had he written in English. Graceful paraphrase —
would have been quite out of place in the case of an
author who has no graces of style, is valuable
principally for his matter, and is very difficult to
understand.
To other translations I am not at all indebted.
Those with which I am acquainted—the French of
Nisard, the Italian of Pagani, and the English of
Clarke (1800)—are not good, and were made by men
evidently unaccustomed to Varro’s peculiar and
archaic diction.
Vv
vi PREFACE
The Commentary proceeds from an independent
examination of the original sources used by Varro,
and of those authors who borrowed from him,
though, as will be seen, I have made free use of
both ancient and modern commentators. When I
have borrowed I have—in all cases, I hope—
acknowledged the debt.
The apparent superfluity of illustrative matter
will be forgiven if it be remembered that the book
is not only submitted to the criticism of the scholar,
but directed to the general reader, and even the
practical farmer. For the sake of those who possess
‘small Latin and less Greek,” I have translated
passages of general interest from Cato, Columella,
the Geoponica, etc.
In the Introduction and the first two Excursus I
have treated at length of the mzse en scéne of the
imaginary conversations in each of the three books,
and of the date at which they are supposed by
Varro to have taken place—matters which have
been undeservedly neglected, and have important
bearing on the text. In Excursus III certain con-
jectural emendations are proposed and discussed.
A plan is given of Varro’s famous aviary, described
by him in the third book. In 1794 the Prince de
Ségur published one, together with a voluminous
commentary on Varro, ili, 5, 9, but he introduced
many violent and arbitrary alterations into the
text, and his plan is demonstrably wrong in many
important particulars.
My thanks are due and are gratefully paid to the
reef Abbot of Monte Cassino for his hospitality
and gracious permission to use the magnificent
library of the Badia; to the Signore Padre Bene-
detto del Greco for his kindness in showing me the
PREFACE vii
remains of Varro’s villa and aviary at Cassino, and
for his valuable explanations of many topographical
difficulties; to the University Library of Aberdeen
for allowing me the use of books which I could
with difficulty or not at all procure elsewhere; and,
finally, to Messrs. G. Bell and Sons for everything
for which a generous and public-spirited publisher
may be thanked.
CONTENTS
BOOK I
AGRICULTURE
INTRODUCTORY
THE AIM AND SCOPE OF A diiccnr bie :
AGRICULTURE AN ART .
THE Four DEPARTMENTS p ;
BRANCHES OF THE SCIENCE OF AGRI-
CULTURE.
THE SOIL
THE SITE
ON VINE-TRAINING
Farm LAND.
MEASURES OF LAND
FARM BUILDINGS .
THE SITE OF THE FARM Howat
THE Farm YARD AND HOUSE
FENCES AND WALLS
TREES AS BOUNDARIES
ON THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF A Paki
FARM EQUIPMENT—SLAVES .
SIZE OF THE STAFF :
Or INSTRUMENTS OF Pxobuerion (Skut-
VOCAL) . ;
Or OXEN AND Decuuer Mitishars
Or Docs Anp Four-FootTep STock
Or INSTRUMENTS OF PRODUCTION (Mutt)
ix
CONTENTS ©
CHAP.
XXIII. Or Crops.
XXIV. Or OLIVES, AND Tous Pyandises
XXV. OF VINES.
XXXVI, OF VINEYARDS .
XXVII. Or TIMES AND SEASONS
XXVIII. Or DIVISIONS OF THE YEAR
XXIX. OF THE First DIvIsIon
XXX, THE SECOND PERIOD .
XXXI. THE THIRD PERIOD
XXXII. THE FourTH PERIOD
XXXII. THE FirtH PERIOD
XXXIV. THE SrxtH PERIOD
XXXV. THE SEVENTH PERIOD
XXXVI. THE EIGHTH PERIOD
XXXVII. THE Moon AND THE SIXFOLD ed
SION OF THE YEAR
XXXVIII. Or MANURING .
XXXIX. Or MopEs oF Paphaiat-uiae
XL. SOWING, PLANTING, AND GRAFTING
XLI. GRAFTS AND CUTTINGS
XLII. On SowinG LUCERNE
XLITI. CyTISUS
XLIV. Or Crops
XLV. OF THE GROWTH OF Borers
XLVI. OF THE HaBitTs OF PLANTS
XLVII. OF THE CARE OF CROPS
XLVIII. Or GRAIN
XLIX. THE Hay HARVEST
L. Or REAPING |
LI. THE THRESHING-FLOOR
LIl. Or THRESHING .
LIII. THE GLEANING .
CONTENTS xi
CHAP. PAGE
BOOK II
CONCERNING CATTLE
INTRODUCTION ‘ ? , I2I
Or SHEPHERDS 225
Or MILK AND WOooL 231
BOOK III
Or SMALLER STOCK
be INTRODUCTION AND DEDICATION 239
II. On Various KINDs OF VILLAS 245
III. Or ANIMALS FED WITHIN THE VILLA 257
IV. Or Birps IN GENERAL . 263
V. Or FIELDFARES 264
VI. Or PEAcocks 277
VII. OF PIGEONS 281
VIII. Or TURTLE-DOVES 287
IX. Or PouLTRY 289
X. Or GEESE 304
XI. Or Ducks 399
XII. Or WARRENS ; 312
XIII. Or Witp BOARS AND OTHER Quav-
RUPEDS 316
XIV. Or SNAILS 318
XV. Or DorRMICE : 321
XVI. Or BEES AND APIARIES 322
XVII. Or FISH-PONDS 345 E
CHAPTERI
INTRODUCTORY
My dear Fundania,' if I had leisure I would give
a better form to this treatise. As I have not, I
will do what a man may who has to bear in mind
the need of haste. Man is a bubble, they say; in
_ which case the proverb must be the more true of an
old man. And I am in my eightieth year, which
_ Warns me to pack up my baggage in readiness to
journey out of this world.
Well, as you have bought an estate, and want
_ to farm it to advantage, and as you ask me to give
| the matter my attention, I will try what I can do,
_ * Fundania, Varro’s wife. She is mentioned again in the
preface to the second book, § 6. Her father, C. Fundanius,
¢ of the interlocutors in this book—like Varro, of plebeian
ily—was a tribune of the people and curator viarum in
B.C. Possibly Cicero’s friend, mentioned in his letter to his
er (Ad QO. Cic., i, 3, 10), is this same Fundanius,
B
2 VARRO ON FARMING (BK.
in the hope that my instructions may serve you not
only during my life, but after my death as well.
3 The Sibyl’s oracles helped not only her contem-
poraries, but also generations of men to whom she
had never even given a thought; her books, after
so many centuries, are still consulted officially, when
some portent occurs and we need to know the proper
way to deal with it—so it shall not be said that I,
even during my lifetime, could do nothing to help
those near and dear to me.
4 Iam, accordingly, about to write three books for
your guidance, to which you can refer whenever, in
any particular case, you need a detailed knowledge
of the practice of farming. And since the gods, they
say, help those who pay them due observance, I
will begin by invoking not the Muses, as Ennius
and Homer did, but the twelve great gods who form
the Senate of Heaven. I do not mean those fine
city gods, six of either sex, whose statues stand in
the Forum,' all dressed in gold, but those twelve
deities who are the special guides of the farmer.
5 Firstin order, then, I call upon Jupiter and Tellus,
who by means of the sky and land maintain the
various fruits of farming, and this is the reason
1 Deos Consentis. Their names are given in two well-known
hexameters of Ennius, ‘‘ Juno, Vesta, Minerva, Ceres, Deiana,
Venus, Mars, ||Mercurius, Jovi’, Neptunus, Volcanus, Apollo.”
The court in which their statues stood, in the north-west
corner of the Forum, at the foot of the Capitoline Hill, was
discovered in 1834. In a.D. 367 Agorius Praetextatus, prefect
of Rome, restored these sacro-sancta simulacra to their ancient
state, as the inscription, still to be read there, declares.
1] INTRODUCTORY 3
1 why—as they are said to be the universal parents—
- Jupiter is addressed as ‘‘ Father Jove,” and Tellus
as ‘*Mother Earth.” Next the Sun and Moon,
_ whose seasons are observed for the sowing and
_ garnering of the crops. Thirdly Ceres and Liber,
_ as the fruits they send are specially necessary for
' subsistence: for it is through them that food and
6drink come from the farm. Fourthly Robigus* and
_ Flora, for by their grace blight does not ruin the
) various grains and trees, and these flourish in due
} season. For which cause the State appointed the
) festival of the Robigalia,? in honour of Robigus,
) and for Flora the games known as Floralia.* And
likewise I pay my respects to Minerva and Venus,
| the one of whom watches over the olive orchards,
_ the other over gardens. It is in honour of the latter
that the festival of the ‘‘ Country Vinalia” * was in-
‘stituted. And finally I pray to Lympha and Good
Speed, * since without water all husbandry is dry
_* Robigus, the god, and Robigo the goddess, of blight or
mildew (vobigo).
—-——
~~
>oe
‘‘ They were implored not to come near” the
- crops. Cf. Aug., C. D., iv, 21.
* Robigalia. ‘‘ A festival called after Robigus. Sacrifice is
_ made to this god near the corn-fields that mildew may not
_attack the crops” (Varro, L. L., vi, 16). Its date was 25th
April, **just before the ear aves its sheath (Pliny, N. H.,
“Xviii, 14). Red puppies were sacrificed.
i _* Floralia. 28th April to 2nd May.
i * Rustica vinalia. 19th August. ‘‘Then Venus’s temple
was dedicated—and on that day gardens are placed under the
protection of this goddess, and market-gardeners make holi-
day ” (Varro, L. L., Joc. cit.).
_ * Bonus Eventus. According to Pliny (N. H., xxxiv, 8) there
4 VARRO ON FARMING [BK.
and stingy work, and without good luck and good
speed it is a delusion and a snare.
7 And now that I have invoked all these deities,
I will reproduce those conversations in which I and
others lately discussed the practice of farming. You
will find in them the practical information you
need; but lest you should in the future require
guidance upon matters not contained in them, I will
mention those authors, Greek as well as Latin,
from whom you may getit.
g Of those who have written monographs in Greek
on different branches of the subject there are more
than fifty. These you will be able to summon
whenever you want a consultation on any point:
Hiero of Sicily and Attalus Philometer; amongst
the philosophers, Democritus, the natural philo-
sopher, and Xenophon, Socrates’ disciple; of the
Peripatetics, Aristotle and Theophrastus; Archy-
tas the Pythagorean, and also Amphilochus of |
Athens, Anaxipolis of Thasos, Apollodorus of ©
Lemnos, Aristophanes of Mallus, Antigonus of
Cumae, Agathocles of Chios, Apollonius of Per- ©
gamus, Aristandrus the Athenian, Bacchius of
Miletus, Bion of Solos, Chaeresteus and Chaereas »
of Athens, Diodorus of Priene, Dion of Colophon,
Diophanes of Nicaea, Epigenes of Rhodes, Euagon ~
of Thasos, the two Euphronii—the one of Athens, ©
the other of Amphipolis—Hegesias of Maronea, |
the two Menanders—one from Priene, the other
was a statue of this god in Rome, in the right hand of which
was a patera, while the left held an ear of corn and a poppy.
ia INTRODUCTORY 5
_ from Heraclea, Nicesius of Maronea, and Pythion
of Rhodes. |
9 Amongst the others, whose place of birth is
unknown to me, are Androtion, Aeschrion, Aris-
_tomenes, Athenagoras, Crates, Dadis, Dionysios,
_ Euphiton, Euphorion, Eubulus, Lysimachus, Mna-
seas, Menestratus, Plentiphanes, Persis, Theophilus.
All the above-mentioned wrote in prose. Some have
treated the same subject in verse, as for example
Hesiod of Ascra, and Menecrates of Ephesus.
le More famous than all these writers is Mago the
_ Carthaginian, who, writing in Punic, embodied
in twenty-eight books matter that was previously
attered here and there in different monographs.
Jf these twenty-eight books, Cassius Dionysius of
_ Utica made a Greek translation in twenty books
| which he dedicated to Sextilius the praetor, and in
these twenty volumes he introduced much matter
| taken from the Greek writings of those whom I
| have mentioned above, shortening at the same time
Mago’s work by eight books. Of these twenty
| books a useful abridgement to six books was made
{ by Diogenes in Bithynia, and presented by him to
| King Deiotarus. I mean to be briefer still than he,
treating the same subject in three books—the first
| On agriculture proper, the second on cattle, and the
| third on the fattening of farmyard stock, for I shall
| eliminate from this treatise such matters as I think
| do not come within the province of farming. And
. |‘80 I shall begin by showing what ought to be elimin-
| _ ated, and then proceed with the subject, following
]
| :
]
|
6 VARRO ON FARMING [BK.
its natural divisions. My observations will be
drawn from a threefold source; from personal ex-
perience on my own farms, from my own reading,
and from what I have heard from experts.
CHAPTER II
THE AIM AND SCOPE OF AGRICULTURE
-_ AT the Sementivae (Festival of Sowing)’ I was
in the temple of Tellus, on the invitation of the
Aeditumus (guardian of the temple), as our ances-
tors taught us to call him, though now our modern
men-about-town correct us, and would have us say
Aedituus.” There I fell in with Caius Fundanius,
my father-in-law, C. Agrius, a Roman eques of the
Socratic school, and P. Agrasius the tax-farmer.
They were looking at a map of Italy traced on the
wall. What are you doing here? I said to them,
surely the ‘‘Sementivae” haven’t brought you
gentlemen of leisure here as they used to do our
fathers and grandfathers!
1 Sementivae feriae. A village festival which took place
after the seed had been sown. Its date was announced by the
Pontifices. Sacrifice was made to Ceres and Tellus, and
prayers were offered for a good harvest (cf. Ovid, Fasti, i, 658).
? Aeditumus, the correct form, for which compare finitimus,
legitimus, etc. The form Aedituus rests on a false derivation
from aedes and tueri.
1] AIM AND SCOPE OF AGRICULTURE 7
Our presence has, I imagine, the same cause
as yours, said Agrius, an invitation from the Aedi-
_ tumus, and if I am right—as your nod would in-
dicate—you must wait with us until he returns,
| for the aedile who has charge of this temple sent
_ for him and he hasn’t yet come back, but he left a
request that we should wait for him. So, in the
meantime, while he is on the way, suppose we
apply the ancient proverb—‘‘ The Roman wins by
SE
| Comitium—by this implying the sovereignty of the people,
_ and denying that of the patricians. The Comitium was an
_ enclosure (unroofed) extending in a north-easterly direction
_ from the ancient Rostra. To face the Forum the orator would
__ have to turn right round, looking south. On its northern side
_ Was the Curia Hostilia, the ancient senate house. In the
12 VARRO ON FARMING [BK.
of the Plebs, 365 years after the expulsion of the
kings, was the first to lead the people, to hear the
laws announced, from the Comitium to the Forum,
their seven zugera of land.’
1o The other whom I see approaching is a col-
league of yours, one of the twenty commissioners
appointed to apportion the Campanian lands, Cn.
Tremelius Scrofa. Universally accomplished, he
is also considered the greatest Roman authority on
farming. And is he not rightly so considered?
said I; for his farms, owing to their fine cultiva-
tion, are a pleasanter sight to many than the palatial
buildings of others, since people come in his case
to see farmhouses, not picture-galleries as at Lu-
Comitium the ancient comztia had been held, and in the time
of the kings and during the early republic it was the centre
of government and the stronghold of the patricians. The
Rostra, a raised semicircular stone platform on the confines
of the Comitium and the Forum—so situated that a speaker
could be heard both by patricians and plebeians.
‘ In septem iugera forensia. According to Pliny (N. H.,
XViii, 3), Aaec mensura |t.e., seven iugera] plebei post exactos
reges assignata est. Columella also speaks of post reges
exactos Liciniana illa septena tugera quae plebi tribunus viritim
diviserat. Romulus had assigned two zugera to each man.
Varro here speaks of the Jopulus as one person, and the
Forum Romanum as its allotment of seven zugera.
The meaning, then, of this difficult passage would seem to
be that C. Licinius Crassus when proposing a democratic
measure (that election to the priestly colleges should be by
the people, not co-optative) addressed himself to the people in
the Forum. Those who were then in the Comitium naturally
quitted it for the Forum in order to hear him.
1} AIM AND SCOPE OF AGRICULTURE 13
cullus’s, but store-houses stocked with fruit. There
is a picture of our friend’s orchard, said I, at the
top of the Sacra Via,* where fruit is being sold for
gold.
} tt Meanwhile, the two of whom I was speaking
_ join us. We have not come too late for the
dinner, have we? said Stolo, for I don’t see
L. Fundilius, who invited us to it. Don’t be
uneasy, said Agrtius, for the egg* which marks
the last course in the four-horse chariot-races at the
games of the Circus has not yet been removed; we
have not even seen the egg which usually begins
W 2the solemn function of dinner.* And so, until we
can see the latter together, and while the Aeditumus
is on his way, tell us what is the chief end of farm-
ing—utility, or pleasure, or both; for they tell me
' Summa Sacra Via. The end of the first stage of the Sacra
Via, which went from the Sacellum Streniae (where the
Colosseum now stands) to the Velia. There, where is now
the Arch of Titus, it was called Summa Sacra Via. From
here the Sacra Via proceeded by the Arch of Fabius, the
temple of Castor, and the Basilica Iulia to the Capitol.
* Ovum illud. An allusion to the egg-shaped objects (usually
seven) on the sfina (a low wall which passed down the middle
of the course) of the circus which served to indicate to the
spectators how many heats remained to be run. As each heat
was concluded one of these ‘‘ eggs” was removed.
* Cenali pompa. A Roman dinner usually began with eggs,
salad, etc. Compare Horace’s phrase ab ovo usque ad mala—
“ from hors d’euvres to dessert.” Martial (Epig., x, 31, 4) calls
a mullet cenae pompa:
. Nec bene cenasti: mullus tibi quattuor emptus
pe Librarum cenae pompa caputque futt,
Cen
ecm
tytn
hase t VARRO ON FARMING [BK.
that you are now the great agricultural * expert, as
was Stolo before you.
We must first decide, said Scrofa, whether farm-
ing is concerned only with the sowing of land,
or with such things also as are brought on to the
13 land, such as sheep and cattle; for I find that those
who have written on agriculture in Phoenician,
Greek and Latin, have travelled too far afield.
It is my opinion, answered Stolo, that we are
not bound to imitate them in every particular,
and that certain writers have done better who have
kept within a narrower boundary and excluded from
it everything irrelevant to the subject. Thus the
feeding of stock in general, which most people
make a branch of farming, seems more the province
_140f the shepherd than of the farmer; and so the
headmen in éach case are distinguished by different
names, the one being called the bailiff (vz/zcus), the
other the flock-master. The vz/zcus was appointed
to cultivate the ground and was named after the
villa, as he conveys the produce into the farmhouse,
and out of it when it is being sold. Hence the
country-folk even to-day say vea for via (road)’
' Ad te enim rudem esse. Rudis was the wooden foil given
to a distinguished gladiator in token of his discharge. Such
a gladiator frequently became a /anista (fencing-master). Ad
te is perhaps an archaism for apud te, of which I can find no ex-
ample. The quotation given by Victorius from Cicero, guod ad
fratrem promiserat, has, of course, no bearing on the question.
2 Vea. The use of e for z (in hiatus) in rustic Latin was
common. Vea is found for via in Umbrian. Cf. Lindsay,
**The Latin Language,” p. 22.
' 1] AIM AND SCOPE OF AGRICULTURE 15
' owing to the conveyance (vectura) over it, and
- vella, not villa, for the place to and from which
_ produce is conveyed (vefz#). Carriers likewise are
_ said to follow the trade of conveying (velatura).
iB Certainly, said Fundanius, the feeding of stock
} is one thing, tilling the land is another, yet they
are related, just as the right-hand flute, though
_ different from the left-hand one, is yet in a sense
__ united to it since the song is the same, of which the
) one leads and the other accompanies the tune.
16 Yes, and you may add, said I, that the shep-
_ herd’s life is the leading part, the farmer’s takes the
} second—on the authority of the learned Dicae-
_ archus,’ who, in the picture he has drawn for us of
| primitive Greek life, shows that in former ages
_ there was a time when men led a pastoral life, with
no knowledge of ploughing, sowing, or pruning,
_ and that they took up agriculture a degree later in
_ point of time. Agriculture, therefore, plays second
_ to the pastoral life, in that it is lower, like a left-
hand flute in relation to the stops of the right-hand
CHAPTER III
AGRICULTURE AN ART
WELL, said Agrasius, seeing that we decided
what kind of things were to be kept apart from
agriculture, will you gentlemen tell us whether the
knowledge employed in farming is an art or other-
wise, and what is its starting-point, what its goal?
Said Stolo, after looking at Scrofa, It is for you
to tell us, as you are our superior in age, in rank,
and in knowledge of the subject. He, nothing
loth, began:
In the first place, it is not only an art, but an
art as important as it is necessary; it teaches us
what crops are to be sown and what methods adopted
on each and every soil, and what kind of land yields
continuously the greatest increase.
1} THE FOUR DEPARTMENTS 21
CHAPTER IV
THE FOUR DEPARTMENTS
ae
ee
ee
pa
2Sule
gees
ee
eer
Poe
7
ew
CHAPTER V
1 :>
—_
he
“i
BRANCHES OF THE SCIENCE OF AGRICULTURE
ry
CHAPTER VI )
THE SOIL :
|
THE SOIL 25
CHAPTER VII
THE SITE
CHAPTER VIII
ON VINE-TRAINING
= AN objection sometimes made to vineyards is
that their cost eats up the profit. It depends,
said I, upon the kind of vine, for there are many.
Some keep to the ground and need no supports, as
in Spain; others are trained up—the so-called
‘‘ yoked vines,” to which class Italian vines mostly
belong. In connection with the latter class, two
terms are used, viz., edamenta (props) and zuga EP
PEE
EL
AL
I
1
“unin
unintelligible.
i"
Of the emendations harundulatione aud arundi-
(Schneider), the former seems the better. Gesner, insup-
of harundulatione, suggests the translation here adopted,
,|’and quotes Pliny, N. H., xvii, 22: Saluberrima in iugo harundo
| connexaSasciculis. Portedeta suggests in harum iugatione.
32 VARRO ON FARMING [BK.
best that is brought into the vineyard—being of
oak or juniper, and is called vzdica; the second, a
bough made into a stake—the harder the better, as
it lasts longer. When the earth has rotted the
lower end, which crumbles away, the prop is turned
round and the bottom becomes the top. Failing
these two, a third kind is got from the reed planta-
tion. From it some reeds are taken and bound ©
together by strips of bark. These are then putinto |
earthenware tubes, of which the bottom has been
knocked out, so that superfluous moisture may be
able to run through. These bundles of reeds are
called cuspides. The fourth kind is a natural prop
of the same kind, when the vineyard consists of |
vines trained from tree to tree. Some people call
5 these traverses ruwmpt. The vine ought to be the
height of a man, and the props should be placed at
such a distance from one another as to allow a yoke
of oxen to plough between them. !
The least expensive vineyard is that which, with-
out supports, provides wine for the wine-jar. There a
CHAPTER IX
FARM LAND
‘tlt is important, as I said before, to know the
| ture of the land and for what it is good, or the
| reverse. The term ‘land ” is used in three senses—
CHAPTER X
MEASURES OF LAND
I Saip he: Different nations have adopted differ- j
4
ent measures for measuring their fields. Thus
in Further Spain the zugum, in Campania the ver- ;
et
ae,
oq MEASURES OF LAND 37
called a scripulum, that is, a square 10 feet by Io.
_ Taking this (¢ugerum) as the unit, land surveyors
_ sometimes when speaking of a bit of land which is
14 left over after they have reached the zugerum,’ call
_ itan ounce, or two ounces, or whatever it be, for
_ the zugerum has 288 scripula, which is what our
| ancient as weighed before the Punic war.* A couple
| of zugera, an allotment said to have been made first
a by Romulus to each man to descend to his heir,
|i}was called a heritage, herediwm. Afterwards these
n hundred ‘‘ heritages” (200 iugera) were called a
+centuria. A centuria (133 acres) is a perfect square,
| t each side of which is 2,400 feet long. Four centuriae,
1
CHAPTER XI
FARM BUILDINGS
1 By not paying attention to the size of the farm
many people have failed, some making the farm
buildings smaller, others larger than the size of the
farm required, and either mistake is bad economy,
and bad for the produce of the farm. For the larger
the buildings, the more they cost to build and the
more to maintain, and when they are too small for
the needs of the farm, the produce, as a rule, is
2 spoilt. For instance, it is clear that where there are
vineyards, the wine-store must be made large, but
where the land grows corn, large barns are required.
The farmhouse should be built preferably where it
may have water, either within its own enclosure,
or, failing that, as near as possible; there should be
first a natural spring, and secondly one that never
runs dry. Where there is no running water at all,
cisterns should be made indoors, and in the open
air a pond, the former to be used by people, the
latter by. cattle.
CHAPTER XII
THE SITE OF THE FARM HOUSE
1 You must be careful to place the farmhouse at
the base of a well-wooded mountain—the best situa-
tion—where there are wide pastures, and see thatit —
1] THE SITE OF THE FARM HOUSE
]
39
_ face the healthiest winds which blow in the district.
_ The farmhouse which faces the equinoctial East
‘ has the best aspect, for it has shade in summer, and
} in winter gets sunshine. If you should be obliged
} to build close to a river, you must be careful not to
} build your farmhouse to face it, for in winter it will
| become exceedingly cold, and in summer unwhole-
2some. Note also if there be any swampy ground,
_ both for the reasons given above, and because certain
' minute animals, invisible to the eye, breed there,
and, borne by the air, reach the inside of the body
_ by way of the mouth and nose, and cause diseases
which are difficult to be rid of.’ Said Fundanius:
What shall I do to escape malaria, if I am left an
} estate of such a kind? Why, said Agrius, even
/ 1 can answer that question. You must sell it for
as many pence as you can get, or if you can’t sell
_ it you must quit it.
|3 Scrofa went on: You must not allow your
| farmhouse to face a quarter from which an un-
wholesome wind commonly blows, nor must you
place it in a basin surrounded by hills, but its
Situation should rather be lofty than low. Sucha
place being wind-swept, if any evil thing should be
! Difficilis morbos. Columella, i, 5, 6, speaks of marshes
breeding infestis aculeis armata animalia, 1.e,, mosquitoes.
__ Schneider’s comment on this passage is amusing. ‘‘Am/ZJ to
_ believe that Varro attributed lingering diseases to these small
gnats? Never did any doctor ancient or modern make such
an assertion.” Varro, however, though he may appear to
speak of malarial microbes, does not connect them with
“small gnats” as their carrier.
40 VARRO ON FARMING [BK.
carried thither, it is easily blown away. Moreover,
as it gets the sun all day long, it is healthier, for |
arly small insects which breed or are carried there
are either blown away or quickly perish from
drought.
4 Sudden rainstorms and rivers in flood are dan-
gerous to those who have their dwellings on low-
lying ground or in hollows; there is danger also
from sudden bands of robbers who can more easily
surprise them. For both these reasons high ground
is the safer.
CHAPTER XIII
Bap
ee
_ there is no door-keeper. In particular you must see
_ to it that there be a kitchen adjoining the farmhouse,
for in the dark winter mornings before the sun is
_ up several things are done there, and food is cooked
and eaten in it. Moreover, for the wagons and such
| implements as fear a rainy sky, roofed buildings of
[ ufficient size should be made in the farmyard; for
these, if merely stored in the enclosure under the
| open sky, are only safe from thieves, but cannot
_ Stand against bad weather.
}3 Ona large farm it is better to have two yards:
one having in the middle a place where rain-water
| may collect; or, in case there is running water, a
|place inside the bases of the pillars that surround
| the yard, which may be made, if desired, into a half-
tank.’ For cattle returning from the plough-land in
- summer drink and bathe here, as well as geese, sows,
4
1} THE FARM YARD AND HOUSE § 43
_profitable as far as the buildings are concerned if in
building you aim at the thrift of the old-time farmers
rather than the extravagance of the moderns. For
the former built farmhouses to match the farm
produce, the latter to gratify their unrestrained self-—
indulgence. And, as we should expect, the farm-
houses of the ancients cost more than their suburban
villas, but nowadays they generally cost less. In
) old times a farmhouse was praised if it had a good
farm-kitchen, roomy stables, wine and oil store-
rooms of a size suitable to the farm, with a
paved runnel sloping to a vat; for often when new
wine is laid down, jars, as in Spain, and butts, as
in Italy, are burst by the fermentation of the must.
And they saw to it that in a farm of this kind there
should be everything else needed for working. But
mow on the other hand the size and decoration of a
man’s country-house is his main care, and he tries
_ to rival those country-houses of Metellus or Lucul-
lus, the building of which had the worst conse-
quences for the State. To-day people are anxious
that their summer suite of dining-rooms shall face
) the coolness of the East, and their winter suite the
West, instead of doing as the ancients, whose care
was the aspect of the windows in the wine or oil
|Store-rooms, since the produce of the grape seeks
comparatively cold air for its casks while the oil
_ Store-room needs hotter air. Again, if there is a
|) hill, see that your farmhouse be placed near it—
|| unless there is something to prevent your doing so.
Cc
CHAPTER XIV
FENCES AND WALLS E
S
e
¢
Zallicus, of sun-dried bricks as in the
or of earth and pebbles set in moulds, as
Sabine
i+:
see
1 Spain ‘and the parts about Tarentum.’
CHAPTER XV
TREES AS BOUNDARIES
ee
re
ee toon
e
Other, and the space between them was filled with concrete.
liny says that these walls were very durable. This mode of
) ction is still used in parts of England where chalk and
pebbles occur.
46 VARRO ON FARMING [BK.
Sabine country; others plant cypresses as I did
near Vesuvius, others elms, as many do in the
Crustumerian country; for where it is possible, as hyn
i a
CHAPTER XVI
ON THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF A FARM
1 THERE remains a second department of the sub-
ject, which has to do with what is outside the farm.
Now a farm’s immediate surroundings, owing to its”
Et sustinet saepe. So Keil for the MSS. reading. Zt sus-
tinet saepem, which would mean “‘ supports a fence,” in which
Schneider and the rest see no sense. But the elms might play
the part of the pali statuti crebri mentioned in the previous ~
chapter (xv). A row of trees ““ supporting a fence” is com-
_-mon enough in this country.
it
\ ‘ :
CHAPTER XVII
FARM EQUIPMENT—SLAVES
a1 HAveE treated thus far of the four conditions of
agriculture which are connected with the soil of the
| farm, and also of the second four which have to do
| with its external circumstances. I shall now go on
| to speak of the instruments of agriculture.
These are divided by some into two parts, namely
(1) men who work, and (2) men’s tools without
which they cannot work; others divide them into
E
50 VARRO ON FARMING [BK.
three classes, namely, (1) the class gifted with
speech, (2) that which has inarticulate voice, and
(3) that which is voiceless. To the first belong
slaves, to the second oxen, and to the third wagons.
2 Now in all agriculture human beings are used—
either slaves, or freemen, or the two together. Free-
men are employed either where the farmer himself,
helped by his family, tills the soil, as is the case
with most peasant proprietors, or where freemen are
hired, as when the more important agricultural N
ea
also obaeratus (from the word aes).” He was not a slave, but
could be imprisoned and kept at work by his creditor, from
whom the farmer might hire him. From the farmer’s point
of view he would thus be a mercenarius or hired labourer.
| Nexum was abolished by the Lex Poetilia, 326 B.c.
* Cassius. The Cassius Dionysius of Utica mentioned in
the first chapter of this book (i, 1, 1), who translated Mago’s
great treatise on agriculture.
1] FARM EQUIPMENT—SLAVES 51
_ who are able to stand hard work, who are not less
_ than twenty-two years old, and who will be quick
to learn the work of a farm. You may form an
_ opinion about this from the way they have performed
‘other tasks, or by asking those of them who are
_new to farm work what they have been accustomed
to do when with their former master. The slaves
4should not be timid nor yet of too high spirit. Those
‘set over them ought to know how to read and write
“and should have received some slight education;
they should be of good character and older than the
‘labourers mentioned above—for the latter obey them
“more readily than they do younger men. In addition
to this the one quality necessary in an overseer is
ypractical skill in farm work: for his duty is not
merely to give orders, but to set an example, that
those under him may imitate him as he works, and
realize that his superior position is not without cause,
5 but is the result of superior knowledge. Nor must
_an overseer be allowed to enforce his orders by the
whip rather than by words, provided that the same
result can be obtained equally well by the latter. It
well, too, not to have too many slaves of the
same tribe, for this is a principal cause of quarrels
_ in the household.
_ You should quicken the interest of the over-
_ Seers in their work by means of rewards, and should:
_ See that they have something of their own, and
)| women slaves to live with them and bear them
children, for this makes them steadier and ‘more
i attached to the estate. The slaves from Epirus are
52 VARRO ON FARMING |BK.
a case in point, for owing to these family ties they
are of better repute and fetch a greater price than
6 others. The goodwill of the overseers you should
win by an occasional mark of esteem, and you
ought to discuss, too, with the best of the labourers,
the farm-work that is to be done, for where this is
the case their sense of inferiority is lessened, and
they feel that they are held in some account by their
7master. Their enthusiasm for work is increased by
treatment more generous than usual, by better food
and clothing, by occasional exemption from work,
or the permission to graze a beast of their own on
the farm, and by other privileges of the same kind
—so that any who have been given too hard a task,
or too severe a punishment, may thus be consoled,
and their goodwill and kindly feeling towards the
master be restored.
CHAPTER XVIII
SIZE OF THE STAFF
CHAPTER XIX
OF INSTRUMENTS OF PRODUCTION (SEMI-VOCAL)
CHAPTER XX
OF OXEN AND DRAUGHT ANIMALS»
SEA
SSS
REOF all the quadrupeds, then, we will consider first
he oxen you are buying for the plough, and say
what kind is suitable for the purpose. These should
———
es
gt
=
—
pers
eo
Phe
unbroken when you buy them, and not less than
three, or more than four years old; they must be
trong and well-matched, lest in their work the
tronger wear out the weaker; they should have
wide horns, be black for choice, with broad fore-
| heads, flat noses, broad chests, and well-furnished
| quarters.
2 Those which have grown up in plains should
fot be bought for use in a mountainous and stiff
Country, and the converse is equally to be avoided.'
en you have bought unbroken heifers, if you
CHAPTER XXI
OF DOGS AND FOUR-FOOTED STOCK
Iris better to keep a few fine and active dogs than
many. These should be trained to watch by night
and to sleep shut up during the day. What is to
_bedone’ with four-footed stock not broken to harness
© Deindomitis...faciundum. This looks like the heading
_0f a section which has strayed. In the Latin “table of con-
_ tents” (certainly not by Varro as it stands, for Jdus Augustae
| ate there mentioned, and the month Sextilis was not ‘called
60 VARRO ON FARMING [BK.
and with cattle? If meadow-land form part of the
farm and a farmer owns no cattle of his own, he
must dispose of the pasturage, and graze and stable
other people’s cattle on his farm.
CHAPTER XXII
r
i}
1} INSTRUMENTS OF PRODUCTION 61
buying you consider usefulness more than beauty,
espe ially if you are careful to choose a market near
at hand where they can be had both good and
cheap. Of these different implements the choice
and number depend on the size of the farm, for
; more are needed if it be of wide extent. Thus Cato,
‘said Stolo, first takes as an example a farm of a
‘certain size, and then writes about such a one:
that the man who cultivates an olive plantation of
240 zugera should equip it with five complete sets
‘of apparatus for making oil,’ which he enumerates
in detail. Thus: coppers, pitchers, a pot with three
pouts,* etc., all of bronze: next, implements of wood
7and iron,
i such as three large wagons, six ploughs
ith their ploughshares, four crates for manure, etc.
| He mentions, too, the kind and number of iron tools
needed, as eight iron forks, the same number of
_ hoes, half as many shovels, etc. _ :
: ™ also gives another prescription for the equip-
{1
ment of a vineyard, stating that if it consists of 100
er it should have three wine presses with all
a
F
| R., 10 and 12) it seems clear that five ‘‘ vessels” of each
1} are here meant, for Cato (12, 1) mentions five presses,
by suculae, five funes lorei, and so on.
* Nassiterna. Usually derived from nasum and ter, a vessel
with three noses (spouts or handles). Juvenal, v, 47, speaks
ofa cup with four ‘‘ noses,” most probably handles. It may
_be that the word has no connection either with nasum or ter.
eon of Festus has nassiterna est genus vasis aquarit ausati
et patentis, a wide vessel for carrying water having a handle
@ handles).
62 VARRO ON FARMING [BK.
ee
i
the
CHAPTER XXIII
ON CROPS
are the best places to sow them in. For one soil is
| suitable for grass, another for corn, another for wine
or for oil. The same may be said of crops which
) serve as fodder, which includes ocimum,' mixed
ee (cut when green), vetch, lucerne, clover
(snail-clover) and lupins. For it is not everything
that can properly be sown on rich land, nor is
nothing to be sown on poor land, for it is better to | |
plant crops that do not need much nutriment on the
‘thinner soil; such are clover and all leguminous
plants with the exception of chick peas—for they,
too, come under the heading of leguminous plants,
being plucked from the ground, not cut. And these
‘plants are called /egumina, because leguntur—they
| are plucked. In rich land it is better to sow what
'' * Ocimum, Jarrago. For Varro’s definition of these words,
ef. cap. xxxi, §§ 4 and 5, of this book.
64 VARRO ON FARMING _s[BK.
needs more nourishment, cabbage, for instance, or
wheat, rye, or flax.- Some things should be sown
with a view’ not so much to present profit as to
next year’s crop, because when cut down and left
there they improve the soil. Thus lupins, before
they produce many pods—and sometimes bean-
stalks, if the podding stage be not so far advanced
that it is profitable to pull the beans—are usually
ploughed into poor land for manure.
4 We must not either, when we come to plant,
neglect the claims of those things which bring profit
through the pleasure they afford, as, for example,
what are called ‘‘orchards” and ‘‘ flower gardens”; | S
CHAPTER XXIV
OF OLIVES, AND TREE PLANTING
1 HE states also that in heavy and hot land, the olive’ »
for pickling, the ‘‘radius major,”? the Sallentine, _
the orchis,’ the ‘‘posea,” the Sergian, the Colminian, ~
the ‘‘ waxy,” should be planted—and of all these ,
varieties you should choose that which enjoys the |
_ best local reputation. Foran olive plantation no land |
_ ~ is at all suitable that does not face the west wind and
\2-get plenty of sun. In comparatively cold and poor ~
* soil the Licinian olive should be sown. If you put ©
it in heavy or warm land, the hostus * (yield) becomes H
worthless, and the tree dies from its luxuriant bear-_ :
3ing, and is infested by red moss. By hostus is if
meant the amount of oil returned at each ‘‘ making,”
by ‘“‘making” the amount of olives treated at one ©
time— which some place at 160 mod, others —
bring as low as 120, the number depending on the !
size and number of receptacles used in making the i
1 Oleam conditaneam, etc. In Italy, then, as now, there i
were many varieties of olive. In 1788 Giovanni Presta pub- yi
lished a memoir ‘‘ on the sixty-two samples of different olives—
‘ ;
presented to Ferdinand IV, King of the Two Sicilies.” ib
ig
CHAPTER XXV
OF VINES
CHAPTER XXVI
OF VINEYARDS
IN every vineyard great care is taken that the sup-
ports of the vines be protected towards the north,
and if live cypresses are planted to serve as vine- —
props in alternate rows with the vines, they are not ©
allowed to grow higher than ordinary supports, nor
are the vines planted close to them, for vine and |
cypress hate each other.’
' Miscellas. Cf. Hesychius: Mioxedoc" ebredyjc Kwai pérag
oivoc.
? Et st cupressos. It is strange that live cypresses should —
be used as supports for vines when there is an antipathy
between the two plants. Perhaps Varro’s statement ends—
with patiantur (or patiuntur), and a grammaticus, remember- —
ing the passage of Varro (i, 16, 6), where the violent dislike —
of the vine for cabbage (o/us) is mentioned, added, as a note,
neque propter olus, etc., which became neque propter eos, etc.
It is strange also that no other ancient writer has mentioned
the use of dive cypresses as supports, though Columella (iv, —
26, 1) speaks of the tapering prop made of laurel, juniper,
or cypress. .
a OF TIMES AND SEASONS _ 69
|Said Agrius to Fundanius: I am afraid the
temple-keeper will be here before our friend gets
|to the fourth act. I am waiting for the vintage.
Don’t be afraid, said Scrofa, but get ready the
baskets and the urn.’
CHAPTER XXVII
OF TIMES AND SEASONS
CHAPTER XXVIII
OF DIVISIONS OF THE YEAR
i CHAPTER XXIX
| OF THE FIRST DIVISION
CHAPTER XXX
THE SECOND PERIOD
CHAPTER XXXI
THE THIRD PERIOD
In the third period—between the rising of the
Pleiads and the summer solstice—the following
things should be done: dig or plough round the
young vines, then hoe, that is, break the soil, to
get rid of all clods. People use the word occare (to
hoe), because by hoeing they destroy (occzdunt) the
clods. The vines must be ‘‘ stopped,” but by a man
who knows his work, as this is an operation of
greater importance than pruning. It is to be per-
formed on the vine, not on the tree. ‘‘ Stopping”
means pinching off from the rod all but two, or occa-
‘sionally three, of the strongest shoots that spring
from it, lest, if all be left on, the vine-rod should
be unable to furnish sufficient sap. Accordingly,
in the vine nursery, when the vine first comes up
from the ground it is usual to cut it entirely back,
in order that on coming up again it may have a
Stronger stem, and greater power to produce shoots.
Fora poor stem is barren from its weakness, and
j
| * Si quae folia, etc. Cf. Geoponica, iii, 5: d4dov byrog wc
way guriv xpiv Lowijoa mpdc BrXdornow dexrumdy lor eig gureiay,
(Obdiv yap Bracrijoay Exak duvicerar pitcOat.
74 VARRO ON FARMING [BK.
incapable of producing the vine-shoot, which is —
called when comparatively small flagellus, and —
when larger and already beginning to bear grapes
a palma. The first word flagellus* is derived by ~
changing a single letter from /latus (the ‘‘ blowing
of the wind”), thus flabellum becomes flagellum. |
The latter, the palma, since it is a shoot destined ©
to bear (parere) grapes, seems first to have been —
pronounced farilema, from the word parere, to |
beget, then by a common. change of letter began _
4to be called palma. On the other side it bears a ©
tendril, which is a vine-twig twisted like a curl. —
It is by these tendrils that the vine grips that along ©
which it crawls, in order to reach a place, from ~
which word (capere) it is called capreolus. ty
Allfodder must be cut, first oczmum, then farrago, —
then vetches, and lastly hay. Ocinum is derived 4
from the Greek word axéws, which means ‘‘ quickly.” _
The same etymology applies to the garden ocumum i
(basil). It is further called ocimum, because it
speedily purges cattle, and is given to them fom
5 that purpose. It is cut green from a bean-crop —
before it produces pods. On the other hand it may ©
be that when barley, vetch, and leguminous plants
were sown mixed together, they were called Servagaa
CHAPTER XXXII
THE FOURTH PERIOD
CHAPTER XXXIII
THE FIFTH PERIOD
In the fifth period, between the rising of the Dog
Star and the autumnal equinox, the straw must
be cut down and stacked, the second ploughing
done, the trees cleared of superfluous leaves, and
the second crop cut on the meadows which are
irrigated.
CHAPTER XXXIV
THE SIXTH PERIOD
CHAPTER XXXV
7
THE SEVENTH PERIOD
CHAPTER XXXVI
THE EIGHTH PERIOD
Te
p CHAPTER XXXVII
THE MOON AND THE SIXFOLD DIVISION OF THE YEAR
CHAPTER XXXVIII
OF MANURING
CHAPTER XXXIX
OF MODES OF PROPAGATION
CHAPTER XL
CHAPTER XLI
GRAFTS AND CUTTINGS
_— WIrTH regard to the proper time of grafting we
must note in particular those plants which used
1 Est altera species. This method is described with his usual
clearness by Columella (v, xi, 13). By it, he says, ‘‘any kind
of shoot may be grafted on any kind of tree.” The possibility
of this is denied by modern horticulturists, but, according to
Columella, it was a seven-years business, so that the method
may not have been given a fair trial in modern times.
qj GRAFTS AND CUTTINGS 89
_ formerly to be grafted in spring, but are now
_ grafted at the summer solstice as well—the fig-tree,
_ for example, because of the looseness of its fibre and
it its consequent need of warmth. Hence in a cold
_ district the impossibility of having plantations of
_ fig-trees.
Rain* is harmful to the freshly-made graft, for it
2 quickly rots the small and delicate shoot, so the /
_ best time for grafting them (fig-trees) is thought to
_ be when the Dog Star rises. Again in the case of
such plants as are of less soft a nature, they tie
_immediately above the graft some kind of vessel,
_ from which water may drop slowly and prevent the
_ shoot withering before it unites with the tree. The
_rind of the shoot must be kept intact, and in sharpen-
ing it for insertion care must be taken not to lay
_bare the inner pulp. In order that the rains from
“without or excessive heat may not hurt it, it is well
to smear the graft with clay and bind it up with a
3Sstrip of bark. At the same time people cut a vine- ~
shoot three days before grafting it, that the super-
fluous moisture in it may run off before it is_ used,
or they make an incision in the tree, which is to
receive the shoot, a little below the point of insertion,
that the superabundant moisture may there escape.
On the other hand in the case of the fig-tree, pome-
* Aqua recenti. Nearly the whole of this chapter is taken
from Theophrastus (Caus, Plant., i, 6). But the latter dis-
tinguishes between grafting and ‘‘ budding ” (vopPadiopsce), and
it is to budding, according to him, that moisture is hostile
Td o tdwp rq piv tvopOadiopg Todepior k.7.X.
90 VARRO ON FARMING [BK.
granate, and others of their kind, which are of a
comparatively dry habit, one grafts at once. In
some cases the shoot to be transferred must be in
bud—as is the case with fig-trees.
4 Of these four methods of propagation, for slow-
growing things it is best to use cuttings, as is done
inthe case of fig plantations. For the true seed of —
the fig-tree iis enclosed in the fig which we eat—
tiny grains which owing to their small size can
hardly produce a paltry sprout. For in general, all
things that are fine and dry are slow to grow, whilst
things of looser tissue are also more fruitful—as
female than male; and this rule holds good for
plants also. Thus the fig, pomegranate, and vine, |
5 feminine in their softness, grow quickly—the palm;
cypress and olive slowly; since in the matter of
growth* moist things are quicker than dry. So it
pays better to plant cuttings from the fig orchard in
nurseries, than to bury in the ground seeds from the
fig: except indeed where one is forced to do the
latter, as for instance if at any time one wants to
CHAPTER XLII
ON SOWING LUCERNE
CHAPTER XLIII
CYTISUS
CytTisus* is sown in well-ploughed land, like
cabbage seed. Thence it is transplanted and set at
intervals of a foot and a half; or else small branches
are taken from the more hardened plant, and are
set out and planted in the same way.
CHAPTER XLIV
OF CROPS
CHAPTER XLV
OF THE GROWTH OF PLANTS
CHAPTER XLVI
OF THE HABITS OF PLANTS
CHAPTER XLVII
it CHAPTER XLVIII
va OF GRAIN
CHAPTER XLIX
THE HAY HARVEST
CHAPTER L
OF REAPING
CHAPTER LI
THE THRESHING-FLOOR
CHAPTER LII
OF THRESHING
| Ears of the finest and best crop should be taken to
the threshing-floor and kept separate from the rest,
so that the farmer may have the best possible seed.
The ears are threshed on the threshing-floor. Some
do this by means of yoked beasts and a threshing
sleigh, which is made of a piece of wood roughened
underneath with stones or iron, on which either the
driver stands, or a large weight is placed. It is then
drawn by the animals harnessed to it, and shakes
the grains of corn from the ears. Or it is made of
planks of wood furnished with teeth and little
wheels, and is then called the ‘‘ Punic wain.”” A man
must sit on it and drive the animals which draw it,
as is the practice in Hither Spain and other places.
2 With others the threshing is done by means of a
herd of beasts which are driven on to the threshing-
floor and are kept going by poles, the grains of
corn are thus rubbed out of the ears by their hoofs.
When the ears have been threshed they should be
tossed up from the ground with winnowing baskets!
1 Vallis for vannulis.: The vannus was a kind of basket or
sieve. Servius (ad Georg., i, 166, where he says Varro read
THE GLEANING | 105
or winnowing shovels' when there is a gentle breeze
blowing, so that the lighest part of them, called
acus or palea (chaff), may be blown away outside
the threshing-floor, while the heavy part, the grain,
comes clean of chaff to the basket.
‘ THE GLEANING
CHAPTER LIV
OF WINE-MAKING
1 In the vineyards, when the grapes are ripe, you
must proceed to the vintage, making up your mind ©
first on the kind of grape and the part of the vine-
yard with which you intend to begin. For the quick-
ripening and the common kind, called black, ripen
a good deal earlier than the others and should
therefore be gathered before them, and the sunnier
part of the plantation and vineyard ought to come
2 down before other parts. During the vintage a good
farmer not only gathers his bunches, he also selects
them. He gathers for drinking, he selects for eat-
ing. Accordingly, those gathered are taken off to .
the wine-yard* to go thence into the empty cask;
those selected are put into a separate basket to be
transferred into small jars and then thrust into
casks full of grape refuse; others to go down ina
pitch-coated amphora into a tank, others to go up to
a shelf in the larder. The stalks and skins of the
grapes that have been trodden must be put under
the press, that whatever ‘‘ must” remains in them
3may be squeezed out into the same vat. Some ht
el
i5Se
ce
So
CHAPTER LV
OLIVE PRODUCTS
t WE now come to the olive plantation. Such olives
as you can reach with the hand from the ground or
_ from ladders ' are better pulled than shaken from the
tree; for those which have been struck lose flesh and |
| give less oil. Those which are picked by hand are
better if gathered with the bare fingers, not with
‘pincers, for the hardness of the latter not only
2 nips the berry but barks the branches as well, and
leaves them unprotected against the frost. Those
branches that cannot be reached by the hand should
be beaten with a reed rather than a pole, for aheavy
blow demands a doctor. The man who beats must
3mot strike the olive directly, for often an olive so
Struck carries a green shoot away with it from the
branch, in which case the fruit of the next year is
lost ;and this is one of the chief reasons why they
Say that every other year olive plantations bear no
fruit or a diminished crop.
_' Scalis. The Geoponica (ix, 17) recommend tpiywva dva-
Barjpa—triangular steps.
108 VARRO ON FARMING [BK.
4 The olives go home the same two ways as do
grapes; some to be eaten, others to be turned into
a liquid, a lubricant for the outside as well as for
the inside of the owner’s body. And so it follows
him to the baths! and the gymnasium. The latter
5 kind of olives, from which oil is made, are generally
piled up in heaps (one heap for each day), on
shelves, to remain there until they become mod-
erately soft, when they are taken down heap by
heap in pails,’ in the order in which they were laid
down, to the oil vessels and presses. The latter are
mill-stones of a hard and rough stone used for
6 crushing olives. If the olives gathered have re-
mained too long in heaps they go soft through the
heat, and the oil goes bad. And so if it should be
impossible to make your oil in good time, you
must air them by frequent stirring. eeee
a
‘ CHAPTER LVI
OF STORING HAY
CHAPTER LVII
GRANARIES
CHAPTER LVIII
CHAPTER LIX
OF STORING APPLES
_
OF apples the kinds for keeping are the small’ and _
the large quince, the Scantian apple, the Scaudian, |
the ‘‘small rounds” and those which used to be
called ‘‘ sweet-wines,” and now go by the name of
‘‘honey-apples”;? all keep well, it is thought, if laid
on straw in a dry and cool place. And for this
reason those who build storehouses for their fruit
take care to put windows facing north, and to give —
free access to the wind from that quarter, adding, —
however, shutters, lest, if the wind blow persist- _
ently, the apples lose their juice and shrivel up. _
2 And for the, same reason—for greater coolness—
they do over the ceilings, walls, and floor with
marble cement. Some people even have a dining ©
table and couches made ready here. And, indeed,
when men are extravagant enough to do so ina
picture gallery, where art provides the pageant,
why should they not enjoy a gift of nature’s pro-
viding, in the shape of the beauty of fruits beauti-
1 Mala struthea, cotonea. Cf. Pliny (N. H., xi, 11), where
these are described. The strwthea was a smaller kind of —
cotonea. Cotonea (mala) was the Kuda of the Greeks, our ©
quinces (cotogna in modern Italian). -
2 Melimela. According to the Geoponica (x, 76) these were
produced by grafting apple on quince, |
ts
be
. a
CHAPTER LX
1 Punica mala, etc. Pliny (N. H., xv, 17) writes: ‘*M. Varro
recommends that they be kept in tubs of sand, or else be —
buried unripe in the ground—in jars of which the bottoms
have been knocked out; but you must keep the air out and ©
the branch must be smeared with pitch. They then grow toa —
greater size than they can on the tree.”
1] KEEPING AND CONSUMING 115
H CHAPTER LXI
Rh OF AMURCA
4% ! ;
_ Goop farmers store amurca in casks just as care-
4 fully as they do oil or wine. The method of storing
_is as follows: As soon as ever it has been squeezed
out by the press, two-thirds of it are boiled away,
and what remains is put when it has cooled into
vessels. There are also other methods of storing,
_as, for example, that in which ‘‘ must” is added.
CHAPTER LXIlI
KEEPING AND CONSUMING
As no one stores up produce save with the inten-
tion of bringing it out again, I must also give a
few words to this subject, which constitutes the
Sixth phase. People bring out what they have
Stored, either for its preservation, or for consump-
_ tion, or for sale. Now as these objects are unlike,
|different times must be chosen for preserving and
consuming different kinds of produce.
|
\
116 VARRO ON FARMING [BK.
CHAPTER LXIII
ON BRINGING CORN OUT OF STORE
CHAPTER LXIV
PREPARATION OF AMURCA
CHAPTER LXV
OF WINE
CHAPTER LXVI
OF WHITE OLIVES
CHAPTER LXVII
WALNUTS, DATES, AND FIGS
As for the walnut, the date, and the Sabine fig, the
quicker you bring them out the better the flavour,
for age makes the fig paler, the date rotten, and the
nut too dry.
CHAPTER LXVIII
|
HUNG FRUIT |
|
Fruits that are hung, such as grapes, apples, and
sorbs, show of themselves when they should be
consumed, as by the change of colour and\the
shrivelling of the berries they let you know that
they will come down to be thrown away if youdo
not take them away to be eaten. Ripe sorbs which —
have been stored when soft must be used pretty
quickly—those which have been hung when sour
may wait longer, as before mellowing they wantto
attain in the house the maturity which they cannot
hope to reach on a tree.
ON PRODUCE FOR MARKET 119
CHAPTER LXIX
ON PRODUCE FOR MARKET
| brought us from the provinces across the sea, and get our ‘|
Vintages in from the Cyclades, Baetica, and Gaul.” ag ae
124 VARRO ON FARMING [BK.
house, for from this latter also considerable profits
can be made. I mean from poultry-yards, hare-
6 warrens, and fish-ponds. And seeing that I have
written a book on the first of these," namely, agri-
culture, for the benefit of my wife Fundania who
has bought a farm, I write this short treatise on
the essentials of cattle raising for you, my friend
Turranius Niger,’ since you take so keen a delight
in cattle, if one may judge from the frequency with
which your feet bear you, on cattle-buying bent, to
the market at Campi Macri, with the object of thus
helping to provide for expenses which make many
demands on your purse. This I shall be able to do
without difficulty, having myself kept large flocks
of sheep in Apulia, and of horses in the country
about Reate. What I write will be drawn from
conversations that I had with the owners of large
flocks in Epirus, when I was in command of the
CHAPTER I
CATTLE-FARMING: ITS ORIGIN, REPUTE, AND
PRACTICE
eet
»~
a
130 VARRO ON FARMING (BK.
from him by Thyestes,* or like the ram in Colchis
in the possession of Aeetes, in quest of whose fleece ©
went the Argonauts of kingly race, so runs the
story; or like the golden mada,* that is, in the
ancient manner of speech, goats and sheep which —
were in the garden of the Hesperides in Libya, and
were brought thence from Africa to Greece by
7 Hercules. For the Greeks called these animals
mela from the sound they utter, while our fellow -
countrymen to express the same sound use much_
the same word, changing only the initial letter, (for
the sound which sheep make seems to. be rather
be* than me), and speak of sheep when they bleat
as making the sound de, bealare: and this word
bealare becomes balare by the excision of a letter, as
happens in many cases. Again, if sheep and goats,
etc., had not been highly esteemed amongst the an-
cients, then astrologers in mapping out the heavens
would not have given their names to constellations;
and this they not only did without hesitation, but
many of them even, in their enumeration of the
' Parilibus. 21st April. Varro, L. L., vi, 3, calls the festival —
Palilia—Palilia dicta a Pale quod et feriae. Cicero generally—
writes Parilia. For a full and interesting account of this
festival cf. Ovid, Fasti, iv, 721-82.
2 Multa. Cf. Pliny, N. H., xviii, 3; Aulus Gellius, xi, 1} |
Servius (ad Georg. , lii, 387), where it appears that one murder
cost a ram in the time of the kings!
° Aes antiquissimum. The as of Servius Tullius, cf. Pliny|
(xviii, 3): Servius rex ovium boumque effigie primus aes sige
navit. 4
. Qua essent muri. Cf. Servius (Aeneid, v, 755): “Which
Cato in his Origins says was the way. For the founders of a
city yoked a bull and cow together—the bull to the right
cow on the inside—and . . . held the plough-handle inclinec
so that all the clods fell on ‘the inside. And thus, by the euro
traced, they marked the position of the walls; lifting se
plough at the places where gates were to be.”
Varro, L. L., v, 32: Oppida condebant in Latio Etrusco vite
multt, id est higchis bobus, tauro et vacca interiore avatro circum-
agebant sulcum.
aul
ee?
’
' Olisifo, now Lisbon. Pliny (N. H., iv, 22) calls it: mue
nicipium civium Romanorum, Felicitas Julia cognominatum, |
* Monte Tagro. Columella (vi, 27, 7): Cum sit notissimum
etiam tn SACRO monte Hispaniae gut procurrit in occidentem
tuxta Oceanum, Srequenter equas sine coitu ventrem pertulisse, ,
Soetumque educasse, gui tamen inutilis est, quod triennio, prius |
guant adolescat, morte absumitur. a}
Pomponius Mela (iii, 1) mentions three promontories (1) —
Cuneus, (2) Sacrum (Cape St. Vincent), and (3) Magnum, A ||
he places Ulysippo on the last, near the mouth of the|
Tagus.
Pliny (N. H., iv, 22) writes: Oppida memorabilia: a Tage i
in ora, Olysippo equarum e Savonio vento conceptu nobile,
And again (viii, 42): Constat in Lusitania circa Olysiponem i
oppidum et Tagum Amnem . . .; and goes on torelate Varro’s |
story. |
It has been proposed therefore to read (1) on csi
authority Monte Sacro (now Sagres), which is obviously wrong,
as the Sacrum Promontorium is several hundred miles from
Lisbon, (2) Amne Tago, and (3) Monte Artabro. Solinus Poly-
histor (cap. xxvi) calls the Promontorium Artabrum Udysippo-
nense, so that the last conjecture seems the most plausible.
But then how account for the Monte Tagro of the text?
on] CATTLE FARMING: ITS PRACTICE 139
“the wind, just as hens frequently do with us, the
_ eggs of which we call ‘‘ wind-eggs.”' The foals,
"however, born of these mares do not live longer
_ than three years.
_ See to it that the young which are born at full
term or after have a clean and soft place to stand
upon, and that they be not trampled under foot.
_ Those lambs are called cordi which are born after
the regular time, having remained in the internal
membrane, which is called chorion,? whence the
name cordz.
The third section deals with the knowledge neces-
_ Sary in rearing animals, and tells you, in respect of
this, for how many days the young should be
| suckled by the mother, and the time when, and
place where, this is to be done. It instructs you, if
the mother has not milk enough, to put them to the
breast of another mother. Those with whom this is
done are called subrumz, for rumzs* was, I imagine,
the ancient word for ‘‘ breast.”
' Hypenemia, ixiyeua (Aristotle, Hist. A., v, 1). Pliny
(N. H., x, 60) calls them irrita, and says that they are sterile,
small, of poorer flavour, and more watery than good eggs.
* Chorion, Keil thinks that several words have here dropped
out from the text; the literal translation of which, as it stands,
is of course: ‘“ That from which they get the name of cordi is
called the chorion”—which was probably all the explanation
Varro meant to give.
a
“=
* Rumis. Cf. ii, 11, 5, and Pliny (N. H., xv, 18): dupa infan-
tibus praebens rumen (ita vocabant mammam), and Varro (Ant.
R. D. Agahd., p. 170): guia rumam dixerunt veteres mammam
(from Aug., De Civ. Dei, iv, 11). The goddess who -looked
_ after the suckling of children was called Rumina, and the fig-
140 VARRO ON FARMING [BK.
Lambs as a rule are not weaned until four
months old, kids until three, pigs until two. Of the ©
last-named those which are without blemish, and fit
for sacrifice, were once called sacres, a word em-
ployed by Plautus in the phrase, ‘‘ What price are —
porct sacres?”' Similarly fat beasts, fattened for :
public sacrifices, are called opimi. |
21. The fourth section deals with the health of the ead
Ceix
CHAPTER II
OF SHEEP
1 But, as we have now completed our task, and th a}
subject of cattle-raising has been sketched in out- _
line, it is the turn of you Epirot experts to fillin the
details and show the mettle’ of shepherds from Per-
gamis* and Maledos. Then Atticus, who was then :
2 Titus Pomponius, but is now called Quintus 4|
cilius Atticus,’ as he still keeps the cognomen Atti- ©
cus, said, I suppose I had better begin, for if lam—
not mistaken it was at me you looked when you ©
spoke just now. My topic shall be the most ancient ©
' Potis sint. Archaic, of course, for fossint. Varro, L. L.,
vii, 5, quotes Pacuvius: Vulla res neque ||Cicurare neque mederi-
potis est. The word fotis is generally considered to be an in:
declinable adjective or an adverb like magis. Varro, how-
ever, has Dit potes. Ennius has fotessunt for possunt. Lue
cretius (v. 1): Mec potis est cerni quod cassum lumine fertu.
‘‘Nor is it possible,” etc. Plautus (Poenulus, i, 2, 17): Pops
cut lubet, plus satis dare potis sunt. ah
* Pergamis and Maledos. Nothing seems to be kne i
about either. |. |
* Nunc Quintus Caecilius. In 58 B.c. Atticus was “—_opted
(testamento) by his uncle Quintus Caecilius. On 4th Oct
of the same year Cicero writes from Thessalonica to congra
late him. The letter is headed: ‘‘ Cicero S. D., Q. Cae
Q. F. Pomponiano Attico.” 7
Atticus’s full name after the adoption was thus: Quintu
Caecilius Pomponianus Atticus. So Caius Octavius becam
C. Julius Caesar Octavianus.
au] OF SHEEP . 145
_ kind of stock. F or, as you remark, sheep were the
_ first animals caught and tamed by mankind.
_ The first thing is to buy good ones, and such
_ they will be as regards age if they are not too old
on the one hand, nor on the other merely young
lambs, for as the latter cannot yet give increase, so
the former can no longer do so, but of the two, the
_age which is accompanied by hope is bettef than
3 that which is soon followed by death. As to type,
_a sheep should be big-bodied, with plenty of soft
wool, with the hairs standing high and thick over
the whole body, and especially about the shoulders
and neck. The belly also should be covered with
wool. Accordingly those which are without this
quality were called by our ancestors aficae,' and
were rejected as inferior. They should be short-
legged. As to tails, it is the practice in Italy to have
them long; in Syria, short.
4 Itis of great importance to see that your flock be
of a good breed. This can generally be determined
by two indications: the external characteristics and
the offspring. The best type of ram has the fore-
head well covered with wool, horns twisted and
inclined towards the muzzle, gray eyes, ears covered
with wool, broad breast, shoulders and hind-quar-
ters, and the tail broad and long. You must see,
* Apicae. Pliny (N. H., viii, 48): Zn ipsa ove satis generosi-
tatis ostenditur brevitate crurum, ventris vestitu;: quibus nudus
esset “‘ apicas” vocabant, damnabantque. Syriae cubitales ovium
| candae. The word is no doubt Greek, deco (drown), from
| ®béxog = fleece, Varro, ii, 2, 6, calls them minas,
L
146 VARRO ON FARMING [BK.
too, that he has not a black or parti-coloured tongue,
for those which have beget as a rule either black
or parti-coloured lambs. Again, the offspring will
prove the good quality of the breed if they be
shapely.
5 In buying, we make’ use of the rights implied in
the form adopted. For in it some people make
more, others fewer, reservations. Some people, for
example, after settling the price per head of the
sheep, stipulatethat two lambs born after term should _
be reckoned as one sheep, and that where sheep —
have lost their teeth through age, two should count
for one. For the rest the ancient ‘‘formula” is
generally used: after the purchaser has said, Have | ~
‘Xs
Ernesti (Clavis Cicer. article /ex) remarks, Quid sunt nisi
Sormulae a Lito conceptae quibus uti in emendis vendendisque
rebus liceretP They were probably not laws in our sense of the
word, but forms—like our forms of agreement between land- —
lord and tenant—which it was prudent alike for buyers and
sellers to use.
2 Et expromisit nummos. Keil places a comma here, Schnei- —
der a colon. Either makes the sense obscure, whereas if the
comma be placed after emptor it is clear—et expromisit nummos —
emptor, 4 ¥
ut] OF SHEEP 147
genuinely sound in the sense in which a flock of
sheep is considered genuinely sound, excluding '
those blind of one eye, deaf, or mznae—that is,”
with belly devoid of wool—that they do not come
from a tainted flock, that possession is good in law,
and that this sale is legal? When this has been
done, the flock has still not changed owner unless
the money has been paid down; yet the buyer may
bring and win an action under the head of ‘‘bought
and sold”’* against the seller if he does not deliver
them, even though he may not have paid the money,
just as the seller may bring a similar action against
the buyer if he does not pay.
* Extra. Extra quam si, words which introduce an exception
in the text of an agreement. Cf. Cicero (Ad Atticum, vi, 1, 14):
Extra quam si ita negotium gestum est ut eo stari non oporteat
CHAPTER III
OF GOATS
1 Alsiosum. Aristotle (H. A., ix, 3): cioi Sai atyec dvope
yorepar roy diwy, ia
? Testa (Vitruvius, ii, 8)=Jateres cocli, kiln-baked bricks.
3 Sunt duo haedi...atauro, These words Ursinus, Gesner, ©
and Schneider would expunge from the text, thinking themt
have been taken by a commentator from ii, 1, 8. But Varrc
frequently repeats himself. |
uj OF GOATS 161
autumn (about toth November) the males are
_ driven from the flock which is on the plain to goat-
houses, as has been mentioned in the case of
rams.’ Those goats which have conceived are de-
_livered after the fourth month ’ in the springtime.
_ As to rearing: As soon as the kids are three
_months old, they are put into the flock and begin to
form a part of it.
_ What am I to say of their health, when they are
never healthy? I will just mention the one fact
that the guardians of a flock have certain written
‘directions as to what remedies to use against
some of their diseases and against wounds, which
are of frequent occurrence in their case, as they
fight with one another with their horns and feed
in thorny places.
_ There remains for discussion the question of num-
ber. This is smaller in the case of a flock of goats
than of sheep, as she-goats are full of mischief,’
and prone to scatter, whilst sheep are gregarious
in nature and huddle together into one place.
Hence in the Ager Gallicus‘ men keep many in
preference to large flocks, for in those which are
large disease often breaks out suddenly, and brings
4!
y CHAPTER IV
1” i
|4 OF PIGS
| 1 But who’ next sails out from an Italian port to
omPorn
| =
=
is
no
Gr
fi
164 VARRO ON FARMING [BK.
called Scrofa. He, being quaestor to Licinius
Nerva,' who was praetor in the province of Mace-
donia, had been left in command of the army until
the return of the praetor, whereupon the enemy,
thinking that they had a chance of victory, began
2 to assault the camp. My grandfather, as he urged
the soldiers to take up their arms and sally forth ©
against the enemy, said that he would scatter them
as a sow scatters* young pigs. And scatter them
he did, for in that battle he routed the enemy so
1 A. Licinius Nerva was one of the envoys (169 B.c.) sent
by the Senate to Macedonia to collect information about the
general state of affairs for L. Aemilius Paullus (Consul de-
signate) who was about to take the field against King Per-
seus (Livy, xliv, 18).
A. Licinius Nerva is mentioned by Livy (xlv, 44) as one of
the six praetors created 167 B.c., a year after the battle of Pydna
and the deposition of Perseus—so that Varro’s story does not
relate to the Macedonian war. Macedon, moreover, did not be-
comea Roman province before 148B.c. In 142 B.c. a pretender —
to the name of Alexander (a brother of Philip) headed a revolt
against the Roman power, which was promptly crushed. Prob-
ably Nerva was praetor for the second time in 142 B.c., and itwas
in this rising that L. Tremellius gained his cognomen Scrofa.
2 Disiecturum. Cf. Plautus (Truc. ii, 2, 13): Zam Hercle
ego hic te, mulier, guast sus catulos, pedibus proteram. Macro-
bius (Saturn. i, 6) makes Tremellius win his name of Scrofa
in a very different and much less creditable way. His slaves
had stolen and killed a neighbour’s sow. His house was
surrounded and restitution of the scrofa demanded. Tre-
mellius heard that the sow was hidden under his wife’s bed,”
she being in bed at the time. He gave permission for his house
to be searched, and when the bedroom was reached swore that
he had no other sow in the house save that under the bed-
ut] OF PIGS 165
decisively that the praetor Nerva was on that
account saluted as ‘‘Imperator,” and my grand-
father gained his nick-name, being thereafter called
**Scrofa.” Neither my great-grandfather, nor any
of the Tremellii before him, was ever named Scrofa,
and I am one of seven of my gens who were one
after another praetors. However, I do not shirk
3saying what I know about pigs, for I have loved
farming from my youth, and the subject, moreover,
will have an interest shared in common by you
gentlemen and myself, as we are all of us great
stock-breeders. For which of us farmers does not
keep pigs, and has not heard our fathers say that
that man is a lazy spendthrift who buys at the
butcher’s the flitch * hanging up in the larder, in-
stead of growing it on his own farm?
To continue, the man who wants a good herd
must firstly choose pigs of the right age, secondly
of the right type; that is, having large limbs,’ but
clothes. The searchers withdrew and Tremellius was ever
afterwards called ‘‘ Scrofa.”
* Succidiam. Cf. Varro (L. L., v, 32): Succidia ab suibus
caedendis; nam id pecus primum occidere coeperunt domini et
ut servarent sallere. Cato (Aulus Gellius, xiii, 24) makes use of
the expression succidias humanas facere=‘‘ to butcher men,”
and Cicero (De Senec., xvi) makes Cato say: lam hortum
ipsi agricolae succidiam alteram appellant. The farmers them-
selves call the garden their second flitch.
* Cum amplitudine membrorum. Cf. Geoponica (xix, 6):
Tag piv Ondsiag xoipove doxipdlover rag mapapnkearipag Kai meproxr)y
ixotoag cai peyhdag roig owpaat, ixrig ric Kepadig wai rév roddr.
Columella (vii, 9, 1) says that the boars should be
ea
in
(N. H., viii, 51) says that ‘‘ the pig is the stupidest of animals,
and it was thought, not without humour, that life was given —
to it instead of salt.”
a] OF PIGS 171
The Gauls make of them flitches of much excel-
lence and great size. Their excellence is shown by
the fact that at the present time there are brought to Car
Rome every year Comacine' and Cavaran hams and
tm shoulders. Touching the size of the Gallic flitches,
Cato writes in these terms: ‘‘In Italy (Lombardy),
the Insubres salt three or four thousand flitches;
the sow gets so fat than she cannot unaided keep
* Comacinae et Cavarae. Comaci(?) and Cavari were, prob-
ably, both tribes of Gallia Narbonensis, as the latter certainly
were (Pliny, N. H., iii, 4). But the text here is very doubtful,
and Schneider, Scaliger, and others have proposed many
emendations with little to support them. Strabo (bk. iv) says
that the best hams come from the Sequani, d@ev ai ra\\uora
rapixtias THY veiwy Kpewy cic riy ‘Popny caraxopiZovra. Schneider
proves conclusively that the fernae were the hind-legs, the
| petasones the fore-legs.
..
This is Cato’s (c. 162) recipe for salting hams: ‘‘ When you
have bought your hams, cut off the hoofs. Take half a peck
of Roman salt ground fine for each. Lay salt over the bottom
_of the tub; then put in a ham, the skin-side looking down-
wards. Cover it over with salt. Then put another ham on
_top, taking care that meat does not touch meat. So deal with
“them all. When you have got them all snug put salt over
i= so that no meat is visible, and make the surface level.
When they have been in salt five days take them all out, and
i the salt with them. Then put them in again in reverse order
) $0 that those which were before on top are now at the bottom.
Cover them over and make them snug in the same way as
|ore: After twelve days at most, take the hams out, rub off
“all the salt and hang them up in a draught for two days. On
ithe third day wipe them well over with a sponge and rub
them with oil. Hang them for two days in the smoke. Then
_ take them down, rub them well with a mixture of oil and
_~ and hang them up in the meat larder.”
+
A
Ft
ho
172 VARRO ON FARMING [BK.
her feet nor advance a step. And so if one wants
to move them from place to place, one puts them
into a wagon.” Atilius of Spain, a trustworthy ©
author of wide experience and much learning, used |
to assert that once when a pig had been killed in
Lusitania in further Spain, there were sent asa pre- _
ee
Po
CHAPTER V
OF COWS AND OXEN
Lal SucH was Scrofa’s contribution. At this point the
senator Lucienus,' a gentleman of extreme refine-
ment and great humour with whom we were all
well acquainted, came in and said, ‘‘ How do you
do, my fellow Epirots,* for Scrofa, and our friend
Varro, zopéva rad,’ I saw and greeted early this
morning. Some of us said, How do you do? to
him, whilst others scolded him for not keeping his
appointment more punctually. I will see you, he
or
186 VARRO ON FARMING [BK. —
6 Firstly, in the matter of horned cattle there are
four terms to denote differences of age—first, calves, —
secondly, bullocks; thirdly, young bulls; fourthly,
old bulls. Differences in sex are indicated in the
first case by the names calf, she-calf; in the second, |
bullock, and heifer; and in the third and fourth by|
the words bull and cow. A barren cow is called
taura, one in calf, horda.* Hence in the calendar
one day is termed hordicidia* because cows in calf
are then sacrificed. i
7 He who means to buy“a herd of cattle must first —
the two toes smooth and even. The skin must not‘| |
be harsh or hard to the touch. The best colour’
black, then red, then dun, then white—for oxen off|
the last colour are the most delicate, as those of the :
9 first mentioned are the hardiest. Of the two middle*
colours the first is more common than the second, —
both of them than either black or white.
The males as well ought to be (1) of a good ;
j
' Colore potissimum. Columella (vi, 1, 1) mentions the diffi- |
culty of laying down rules for the buying of cattle owing to |
the great number of breeds to be found, each of which has its —
own excellence—e.g., the Asiatic, Gallic, Epirot, and Italian ;
kinds. And the Italian kinds differ greatly. The Campanian —
ox is small and white, that of Umbria white and of huge size. |
There are also red Umbrians which are as good-tempered as —
they are big-bodied. The Etrurian and Latian oxen are close-
knit but strong; those bred on the Apennines are the hardiest _
of all, will indeed stand any amount of hardship, but are ugly ©
to look at. :
* De mediis duobus. Keil expunges the in eo prior of the ©
MSS. “
Zahlfeldt (Qu. Crit. in Varr., R.R., 32) conjectures crebrior,
which seems satisfactory. Something of the kind is needed,
else the construction is harsh even for Varro. |
In the Geoponica (Joc. cit.) the best colours are thought to
be the various shades of red (rd¢ roic ypiépacr avOLoboac);
cows with black legs are highly thought of (ra oxédn pédava
éyduoac). Pliny (viii, 48) says that both black and white oxen —
are bad workers.
11] OF COWS AND OXEN 189
breed and their shape must be carefully looked to,
as the progeny reproduce the qualities of the
parents, and (2) the place also where they were
born is a matter of moment. In Italy, for example,
those of the Gallic’ breed are mostly good workers,
owhile those of Liguria are of small account, and
_those of Epirus * across the sea surpass not only the
cattle of all Greece, but those of Italy as well. Some
_ people, however, use Italian cattle for sacrifice, and
reserve them for solemn supplications of the gods,
: for—so they say—these are more suitable than
others, owing to their great bulk. For religious
_functions they certainly are to be preferred, be-
cause of their majestic’ size and striking colour.
There is also another reason for keeping them for
sacrifice, white cattle being rarer in Italy than they
are in Thrace—near the Melanic* gulf—where few
of any other colour are to be found.
EGE
TO
When we are buying oxen which have been
_ broken in, the warrant required is as follows: ‘‘ Do
_ you guarantee that these oxen are sound and that
| * Gallici. 1.¢., Piceni et Circumpadant.
_ * Epirotici. Cf. Pliny (viii, 45): Zn nostro orbe Epiroticis laus
maxima. Aristotle (Hist. A., viii, 7) speaks of Botg ruppixag tv
_ 19 Hxeipy. The excellence, he says, of the breed was due to
the fact that they were kept from the bull for nine years.
* Dignitatem amplitudinis. Varro refers no doubt to the
_ white Umbrians; cf. Columella, vi, 1, 2: Umbria (progenerat)
_ vastos et albos. White bullocks were sacrificed on the occasion
of a triumph; cf. inter alios, Claudian, speaking of Clitumnus,
Candida quae Latiis praebent armenta triumphis.
* Mé\ava ké\rov. Now the Gulf of Samos.
190 VARRO ON FARMING [BK.
the buyer incurs no liability* for damage done by
them?” In buying them unbroken it is: ‘‘Do you
guarantee that these oxen are sound in the proper
sense of the word, come from a sound herd, and
that the buyer incurs no liability for damage done
by them?” Butchers who buy an ox for cutting up,
if they adopt the Manilian forms, use rather more
words than these, while those who buy for sacrifice
do not as a rule exact any guarantee as to the health
of the victim.’
Cattle are best pastured in clearings where there
are shrubs and leaves’ in abundance. When they —
' Noxisque praestari, Cf. note on ii, 4, 5. The -ce in zllosce
s ‘‘ deictic,” ‘‘ those before our eyes.”
* Non solent stipulari. Because the priests themselves ap-
plied tests ‘‘ offering the bulls barley, the he-goats pulse (épe- }
==
' Tabani. Tabanus, the popular name for the Greek oicrpoe,
| the proper Latin equivalent being asz/us. At least so says Isi-
| dore (xii, 8, last paragraph): Oestrum animal armentis aculeis
permolestum. Od0cstrum autem Graecum est, quod Latine
“asilus,” vulgo tabanus vocatur. The word is still in use in
Italian, tabéno meaning a ‘‘ back-biter,” and taféino a gad-
fly.
Crescentius, paraphrasing this passage (ix, 65, quoted by
Schneider) puts for the bestiolae minutae, Zentalos Muscas.
Zentalos is no doubt the modern Italian Zanzara, an onoma-
topoeic word meaning gnat. If the text, however, be correct,
Varro would seem to refer to the eggs laid by the éabanus
- under the tails of the oxen.
The Geoponica (xvii, 7) advise the sprinkling of the pastures
with a decoction of laurel berries as a means to get rid of the
gad-flies, ‘which run away because they hate it” (da rjv
dvrindeay).
oO
194 VARRO ON FARMING [BK,
for otherwise they are trampled on by them. They
should be taken to the mother early in the morning
and again when they come back from the pasture.
When the calves are grown big, keep up the strength
of the dams by giving them green fodder in their
stalls. In the case of these, as generally of all
stables, a flooring-of stone or some other material
must belaid down to prevent the hoofs from rotting.
From the autumnal equinox onwards they graze
17 with their dams. Bulls should not be castrated
before they are two* years old, as otherwise they do
not easily recover from the operation. Those which
are castrated after that age grow up hard to manage
and useless for purposes of work. Again, as is the
case in all other flocks of domestic animals, every
year a choice should be made of the cows to be kept,
and those which it is not desirable to keep * must be
got rid of, as they take up the room of those which
are able to yield increase. Should any cow have lost
a calf you must put under her calves whose mothers
give them too little milk. To six-months-old calves _
wheaten bran, barley-flour, and young grass is
given, and they are made to drink night and morn-
1i8ing. Many directions concerning their health |
1 Ante bimum. Aristotle (H. A., ix, 50) says: ‘“when they
are a year old,” évatoror.
Mago states, according to Columella (vi, 26, 1—where two
ways of performing the operation are described) vituli dum
adhuc teneri sunt.
* Reiculae. Cf. note on ii, 1, 24. The Geoponica (xvii, 10)
give as the equivalent of this word ‘‘the barren and weakly
cows and those of advanced age.”
11] OF ASSES 195
make my herdsman‘ copy out from Mago’s books,
and | take care that he reads one or more of them
frequently. You must so regulate the number of
bulls and cows as to have two of the former to sixty
of the latter—one a year old, the other two. Some
maintain either a greater or less proportion: for
example, at Atticus’s there are two bulls where there
are seventy breeding cows. Different people have
herds of different sizes; some, like myself, think a
hundred * a good average number. Atticus has 120,
as has Lucienus.
CHAPTER VI
OF ASSES
' De asinis. Pliny (N. H., viii, 43) says that they were a
source of very great profit: Ouaestus ex tis opima praedia ex-
superat, that they were useful for carting, sometimes even for
ploughing, but that they were especially valuable as the sires
of mules,
* Bona aetate. In Plautus frequently dona aetas means
youth, and mala aetas old age. Cf. Aulularia, i, 1, 4.
® Arcadia. Isidore (xii, 1) speaks of the asses found there
as alti et magni.
* Murenae flutae. Varro (quoted by Macrobius, Sat., iii,
15, 7) says that ‘‘ murenae flutae in Sicily can be caught by the
hand, as owing to their fatness they float on the surface of
the water.” They are the pupaiva mAwrai of Athenaeus. This
was the most esteemed kind of lamprey, cf. Col., viii, 17, 8:
Item flautas, quae maxime probantur, muraenas. They were
‘* preserved” by Roman epicures in artificial fish-ponds into
which the sea flowed. Pliny (viii, 55) tells how Hortensius,
11] OF ASSES 197
to be found in Sicilian waters, and the ‘‘helops’”’'
in the neighbourhood of Rhodes, that these fishes,
of the same quality and size, exist in every sea.
Of asses there are two kinds, the one wild, called
‘*onagri,” such as are found—many flocks of them
—in Phrygia and Lycaonia, the other tame, as are
—{=—
all those of Italy. The ‘‘onager’’* is suitable for
the great rival of Cicero, loved a lamprey so much that he
wept when it died!
' Helops. Pliny (ix, 17) says that this fish was the same as
the acipenser (sturgeon?), ‘‘ which was the most famous of all
fishes amongst the ancients,” and that it was the only one the
scales of which turned towards the head (unus omnium squamis
ad os versis). Varro (éxi rg rapy pvpdyv) calls it multinummus,
Nec multinummus piscis ex salo captus
helops ;
but in Pliny’s time it was not of much account, rare though
it was—nullo in honore est . . . cum sit rarus inventu (loc. cit.).
Columella (viii, 16, 9) says that it fed only in the depths of the
Pamphylian Sea (Gulf of Adalia), which is a couple of hundred
miles from Rhodes, though in the same latitude. Mon enim
omni mari potest omnis esse, ut helops qui Pamphilio profundo
nec alio pascitur.
* Onagrus. The Geoponica (xvi, 21) repeat this statement
of Varro. Columella (vi, 37), however, seems to contradict it
indirectly, for, speaking of the progeny of a he-ass and a mare,
he says: ‘‘ Neque tamen ullum est in hoc pecore aut animo aut
_ forma praestantius quam quod seminavit asinus. Posset hutc
aliquatenus comparari quod progenerat onager, nisi et indom-
itum et servitio contumax, silvestris more, strigosum patris
praeferret habitum.” He goes on to speak of the onager’s
swiftness and strength, and recommends the breeder to put
the male offspring of an onager and a mare to a mare, as in
198 VARRO ON FARMING [BK.
breeding purposes, as when wild he may readily be
tamed, and once tamed never becomes wild again.
As the offspring resemble their parents, both sire
and dam must be chosen carefully, both must be 4!
fine animals. In trading, change of ownership is
effected—just as in the case of other domestic
animals—by purchase and delivery; and a guar-
antee that their health is good and that they have
done no damage for which the purchaser may be
4 held responsible is usually required. Their proper
food is spelt and barley bran. The male is put to
the female before the solstice, that the latter may
foal the next year at the same time; for she-asses
reproduce their kind twelve months after conception.
During pregnancy they are relieved from work; for ns
A
LO
Pe
Tiga
pl
OE
OLLI
a
CHAPTER VII
OF HORSES AND MARES
1 Dentes brocchi. Cf. Columella (vi, 29, 5): Nec postea quot
annorum sit, manifesto comprehendi potest. Decimo tamen anno —
tempora cavari incipiunt, et supercilia nonnumquam canescere,
et dentes prominere.
Brocchus or broncus is defined by Nonius (Bk. i, ad verb.) as
producto ore dentibus prominentibus. He cites Lucilius, Bk. LIL:
Broncu’ Bovillanus dente adverso eminulo, hic est rinoceros. :
The word is found also in a fragment of Plautus, quoted by
Festus: Aut varum aut valgum aut compernem aut paetum aut
brocchum filium. In both these cases it describes persons,
while Varro here and ii, 9, 3 uses it of the teeth themselves.
Crescentius, not understanding it, translates brocchi by pl-
catt (bent !).
11} OF HORSES AND MARES 203
should choose big of body, shapely, with no part
5of the body out of proportion. You can guess
from the foal the kind of horse ' he is going to be—
_ [a good one] if his head is small, if he has well-
proportioned limbs, black eyes, well opened nos-
trils, ears leaning
* forwards, the mane abundant, in
colour leaning to dark, and slightly curling, with
_ rather fine hair falling to the right side of the neck,
the chest broad and full, broad shoulders, belly of
' moderate size, loins sloping downwards, broad
shoulder-blades, the spine, if possible, double,’
failing this not projecting,* tail abundant and curl-
ing slightly, the legs straight, symmetrical, and
turning rather inwards than outwards, the knees
round and small, and the hoofs hard. He should
have the veins visible all over his body, for a horse
of such a kind can readily be treated * when he is ill.
* Oualis equus. Compare with this description of the perfect
horse Columella’s (vi, 29, 2), Vergil’s (Georg., iii, 75-88),
that of the Geoponica (xvi, 1)—all of which follow Varro
closely.
* Auribus adplicatis. Adplicatus: replicatus: : aduncus; red-
uncus. Columella (Joc. cit.) has brevibus auriculis et adrectis,
the Geoponica (loc. cit.) ra Gra mpootoradpiva, Palladius breves
et argutas (flickering—mobile).
* Spina duplici. Cf. Georg., iii, 87: At duplex agitur per
lumbos spina. 1n a well-conditioned muscular man or horse
the spinal vertebrae are not visible, as the spine lies between
two ridges formed by the dorsal muscles, and is covered by
their muscular attachments.
* Non exstanti. Cf. ne gibberae of ii, 5, 7.
* Ad medendum. In the treatment of sick animals ‘bleeding
was as much used by the ancients as it was in the Middle Ages
204 VARRO ON FARMING [BK.
6 The stock they come from is of great importance,
for the breeds.are many. So it comes about that
famous horses are called after their districts, as in
Greece, the Thessalian horses from Thessaly; in
Italy the Apulian from Apulia, and the Rosean
from Rosea. It is a sign that a horse will be a
good one if he strives with his fellows in the herd
for supremacy in running, etc., or if, when the
herd has to ford a river, he is among the first’ to
advance, and does not keep looking’ back at the
others. The buying of horses is much the same as
that of asses and oxen, change of ownership being
effected with the same forms as those. contained in
the Manilian Actions.
The best food for horses is grass when they are
on the meadows, and hay when they are in stables
or stalls. After they have foaled, barley should be
added to the food of the mares, and water given
them twice a day. In breeding horses the male
should first be put to the mare some time between —
for sick men. Blood was let from veins. It was therefore an
advantage if they were visible and so readily found.
' In primis. Cf. Georg., iii, 76:
Continuo pecoris generost pullus in arvis
Altius ingreditur, et mollia crura reponit:
Primus et tre viam et fluvios tentare minaces
Audet, et ignoto sese committere.
Columella (vi, 28) says that the colt should be ‘‘ bright and
full of fun, unafraid, not frightened by unaccustomed sights
and sounds. He should run in advance of the herd and some- —
times romp and race with his companions and beat them, or
jump a ditch, or cross a bridge or river without hesitation.”
11] OF HORSES AND MARES 205
the vernal equinox and the solstice, so that birth
_may occur at a suitable‘ season—for they say it
takes place on the tenth day of the twelfth month.
Foals born after term * have generally some defect,
8and prove useless. When the time of year has
_come the horse should be put to the mare twice a
day, morning and evening, by a groom—so the
man who has this duty is called—for when he helps,
the mare having been tied up, the operation is more
quickly performed, and the horse does not, through
_ too great excitement, emit his seed to no purpose.
_ The point of sufficient intercourse is indicated by
_ the mares themselves, as when it is reached they
repulse the male. If a distaste is shown for his
__ work, the heart of a squill is pounded in water until
|
q it has the consistency of honey, then with this the
natural parts of the mare are touched at the time
of the menstrual flow, while on the other hand the
stallion’s nostrils are touched with what comes
9 from the parts of the mare. Though incredible, the
/
_ following fact® deserves to be recorded: A stallion
| ' Idoneo tempore. J.e., in spring or early summer, when
_ there is abundant pasture, and the mares can supply their
young with plenty of milk.
* Post tempus. Cf. ii, 1, 19: Dicuntur agni cordi qui post
tempus nascuntur.
In the Geoponica (xvi, 1) this seems to have been misunder-
Stood: Td d% perd rpomdg Oepwdg Kitoxdpeva dvoyeviy yivera cai
dxypua. ‘‘ What are conceived after the summer solstice are
useless.” Unless, indeed, post id tempus should be read in
Vasro'$ text.
* Quod usu venit. The same story is told by Aristotle (H. A.
206 VARRO ON FARMING _ *[BK.
have conceived you must see that they are not even
a little over-worked, and do not stay in any cold
place, for cold is particularly hurtful to them when iee
;-
CHAPTER VIII
OF MULES AND HINNIES
1 AS we were talking thus a freedman came from
_ Menas’ to say that the cakes (ba) were ready and
' trriarpo.=veterinarit, those who treated veterina animalia.
Veterinus.. Festus and Nonius derive from veho, and trans-
late ‘‘beasts of burden,” omnia quae vehere quid possunt.
Nonius quotes Lucretius, v:
Et genus omne quod est veterino semine partum.
2 Menate. Cf. ii, 1, 1, and for fertium actum below cf. ii,
I, 12.
One would like to know what Menas was doing all this
time! Was he cooking the 4da? It seems pretty certain, as
this book was written for shepherds, and the interlocutors are
pecuarit, and as sacrifice was now to be made with /zba, that
all
a
CHAPTER IX
OF DOGS
e
=
1] OF DOGS 215
mules of their own accord have surrounded him and
trampled him to death with their hoofs; and that
bulls will stand flank to flank, opposing an unbroken
front’ against wolves, and easily drive them off
with their horns.
About dogs then: there are two kinds, one for
hunting* connected with the wild beasts of the
woods, the other bought for purposes of defence,
and used by the shepherd. Iwill discuss the latter,
entur, etc. So that hic clearly refers to dogs. But then pecoris
cannot mean ‘‘sheep”; it must mean cattle in the sense of
oxen, in the case of which these exceptions were not made.
Cf. ii, 5, 10. Pecus, of course, as a legal term, included oves,
boves, equos, capras, and even sues, but generally meant oxen
and cows. Aliguando bonus dormitat Homerus!
' Edulits. Fulgentius defines edulium as praegustativa
comestio=‘*a snack.”
* Proverbium. Canis caninam non est (‘‘Dog doesn’t eat
dog”). Cf. Varro, L. L., vii, cap. 3 (§ 87, Spengel): Mam
wlem quod rapoypiay vocant Graect, ut est ‘‘ Auribus lupum
teneo,” ‘‘ Cants caninam non est.”” Many proverbs, all more or
less irrelevant, had been suggested by the commentators,
when Keil, by indicating this, made the whole passage clear.
3 Nec non ...non. The second non is, of course, incorrect.
Varro’s careless use of negatives (Keil gives many examples
in his note to i, 2, 23) reminds one strongly of the practice in
nD
eg
idem, which seems pure Varro (cf. i, 23, 6). The same dog S
a-a
CHAPTER X
OF SHEPHERDS
1 Atticus looked round as though to ask whether
he had omitted any point, and I remarked: This
silence calls another actor on to the stage, for in
this act the only part left is to determine the number
and nature of the shepherds to be kept. Then said
Cossinius: For the larger cattle you need older men,
for the smaller even boys will do, but either men or
boys whose life is spent in forest tracks must be
stronger than those who return home every day to
the farmstead. Thus in forest glades one may see
men in the prime of life, and armed as a rule, while
on the farm even girls as well as boys look after the
2 flock. You must make your shepherds feed their
flocks throughout the day, letting the flocks graze
all together, but at night they must separate and
each shepherd stay with his own. They must all be
under one flock-master who should be older than
Est ut viro vir latius ordinet, etc., and resembles the Greek
forw wore. Cf. Soph. (Phil., 6, 56): dp’ forw wore nayybOev Oiav
haBeiv. One would have expected, however, est ut non (or ut
ne)... sit. And perhaps ut ne... sit was written.
Q
226 VARRO ON FARMING [BK.
the others, and more skilful than them all, for he a
hard work. For both the aged and the very young
bear with difficulty the hardships of travel through
forest paths and up steep and rugged mountains,
and these hardships are inevitable for those who | ao
>a
aa
—
11} OF SHEPHERDS 227
from a person who had the right to sell; (3) by
legal surrender’ before the praetor by the proper
person at the proper time; (4) by right of undis-
_ turbed possession; (5) by purchase at a public
auction of goods captured in war; (6) by buying
him among the goods or at the sale of the property *
5 of a proscribed man. When a slave is bought the
peculium goes as a rule with the slave (or a reserva-
tion of it is made), and a guarantee is inserted that
he is healthy, and has committed no thefts or
damage; or that where the transfer is not effected
by mancipation,’ either double the purchase money
scales.” He then struck the scales with the piece of money
and gave it to the selleras a symbol of the price (Gaius, Inst.,
i, 119).
* Si in iure cessit. A process resembling ‘‘ conveyance by
fine and by common recovery ” which was in use in England
a hundred years ago. It was a kind of fictitious suit, the
parties to which were the dominus qui cessit, the person cuz
cedebatur, and the magistrate (usually the praetor) guz addixit.
The real owner and the purchaser appeared before the magis-
trate, the latter claimed the thing in question as his own; the
magistrate asked the owner if he had any defence, the latter
replied that he had not; whereupon the magistrate adjudged
the thing to the claimant.
For this cf. Gaius, Inst., i, 2, De Nexu faciendo,
* In sectione. When a man was proscribed his property was
confiscated to the State and was sold by auction—not in lots,
but the whole to one person. This sale was called sectio and
the purchaser sector.
* Si mancipio non datur. A vendor who had a doubtful title
would not sell by mancipation, for the law bound him to war-
ranty in double the amount or value of the thing sold. He
might instead simply deliver the thing, leaving the purchaser
228 VARRO ON FARMING [BK.
is to be paid (in case of eviction), or, if such has
been the agreement, only the amount paid.
In the day time the shepherds of each separate
flock should feed by themselves, in the evening all
those who are under one chief shepherd should eat
together at the evening meal. The chief must see
that all the implements needed by the flock and
shepherds accompany them, especially those which
are necessary for the feeding of the men and for the
medical treatment of the sheep. For this purpose
owners keep pack animals, some using mares,
others some other animal instead, which can carry
a load on its back.
6 As to the breeding of men: there is no difficulty
with the shepherd who remains permanently on the
farm, as he has a female slave as mate in the farm-
buildings, for the Venus of shepherds looks no
further afield than this. Those however who feed
their flocks in forest glades and places in the woods,
and find shelter from storms not in a farmhouse but
in hastily built huts, are with advantage, as many
people think, given women who can follow the
flocks, prepare the shepherds’ victuals and keep the
7 men from roving. But these women must be able-
bodied and not uncomely. In many districts they __
to acquire legal ownership by wsucapion (undisturbed posses-
sion for a year).
But, in case the title was bad, the purchaser, before the year
was out, might be compelled to cede the thing to the proper
owner, and would have no immediate legal remedy against the
vendor. Hence the necessity when a slave was not sold by
mancipation for the stipulation given here by Varro.
11] OF SHEPHERDS 229
are as good workers as men—a fact which you may
observe everywhere in Illyricum where they can
either shepherd the flock, or carry logs to the fire
and cook the food, or look after the farm imple-
8ments in the huts. As to the suckling of the
young, I may mention that the mothers in nearly
all cases suckle their own. And here, looking at
me, he said: I have heard you say that when you
went to Liburnia (Croatia) you saw there Liburnian
house-wives carrying logs, and at the same time
children, whom they were suckling; thus proving
how feeble and contemptible are our modern newly-
delivered mothers, who lie for days inside mosquito '
g nets. True it is, I replied, and here is an even more
striking illustration. In Illyricum * it often happens
that a pregnant woman when the time of delivery
has come, retires a little distance from the scene of
her work, is there delivered, and comes back with
a child whom you would think she had found, not
' Conopiis. The use of mosquito nets (cwvwxeia—xovo), a gnat)
is very ancient. Herodotus, ii, 94, describes how the Egyptian
fisherman used his net (duiSAnorpor) in the day for fishing, and
at night arranged it round him in the form of a tent—and the
mosquitoes didn’t even try to get in!—déd dé rov ducrbou dudé
repavra aoxnv. When Judith was introduced to Holofernes in
his tent, he was “lying on his bed inside the mosquito curtain
which was of purple and gold, with emeralds and other precious
stones inwoven ” (Judith, x, 21): dy rq@ cwyw7eiy, d iy te roppipac
rai xpvoiov kai cpapdaydov Kai MiOwy roduTeduv rabvpacpivwr.
* Iilyrico. The same story is told of Ligurian women by the
author of the book epi Oavpaciwy deovopdrwy, cap..93. ‘The ~-
women bear children in the midst of work, and as soon as they
have washed the baby dig and hoe,” etc.
mel
CHAPTER XI
OF MILK AND WOOL
1 Now, said Cossinius,’ that we have finished what
we set ourselves to do, let us go. Yes, said l,
after you have added a word or two, as it was pre-
viously agreed, about the supplementary * products
from sheep—milk and wool to wit. Of all liquids
taken as food, milk is the most nutritious; first
sheep’s milk, then that of goats. Mares’* milk is
the most strongly purgative; next in order comes
that of asses, then that of cows, and last that of
2goats. These different milks, however, present
certain differences, depending on the pasturage, the
nature of the animals, and the birth of the young
| one; on the pasturage, for milk is especially nu-
tritious which is got from an animal that has been
| fed on barley and straw, or, in general, on dry and
| solid food, while that is most purgative which comes
from one that has fed on green fodder, especially if
' It is obviously Cossinius who speaks. Twice later in this
chapter Varro interrupts him, § 5 and § 10. In § 11, Suscipit
Cossinius.
* Extraordinario. Cf. ii, 1, 28.
* Equinum. It would seem from Aristotle (H. A., iii, 20)
that the thinner the milk the more purgative it is. The thinnest
milk is camel’s—then comes mare’s milk, then -ass’s, while’
cow’s is the “‘ thickest” of all.
PE
2,
ee
ree
BOOK Ill
OF SMALLER STOCK
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION AND DEDICATION
e_
CHAPTER II
ON VARIOUS KINDS OF VILLAS
Ir was at an election of aediles and the sun was
hot, when I and Q. Axius the senator, who be-
longed to my tribe, having recorded our votes, were
of any literary work bearing his name. But, if the text be
sound, these words must refer to works written by Pinnius.
Gesner conjectures ¢uz, and considers the meaning of the pass-
age to be ‘unless your walls were also adorned with literary
works,” z.e., unless there were a library in the villa. But the
=e
-
position of the enclitic guogue would still emphasize the word
tui, One suspects the genuineness of ¢uzs.
Perhaps ni nitidis quoque litteris was written by Varro, ‘‘ un-
less its walls were adorned with beautifully bound literature
also.” Nitidus would be no bad epithet for the novi libri of a
Suffenus.
Novi umbilici, lora rubra, membrana
Directa plumbo et pumice omnia aequata.
The syllable nz in nitidis might have dropped out of the text
owing to the mi immediately before it. The general sense of
ee
ee
the passage is clear: Just as the inside of a villa is improved
-ove
a
by a library, so is the outside by cocks and hens, doves, pea-
cocks, etc., which are the subject of this third book dedicated
to Pinnius.
246 VARRO ON FARMING [BK.
waiting to attend on his way home the candidate
whom we supported. Said Axius to me: Suppose
while the votes are being counted’ we make use of
the shelter of the Villa Publica* (People’s Hall)
instead of making one for ourselves with the bench °
» Diribentur. Literally, ‘‘ shall be divided.” The diribitores
divided the votes (¢ade//ae) as they were taken out of the chests
(cistae), and handed them over to the custodes, who checked
them off by dots made on a waxed tablet.
* Villa Publica. Cf. Livy, iv, 22: Ho anno (434B.c.) C. Furius
Pacilus et M. Geganius Macerinus Censores Villam publicam
in Campo Martio probaverunt: ibique primum census populi est
actus. The purposes for which it was used are stated in the
next chapter, §4. Some remains of it still exist, cf. Middleton’s
Rome.
At the time of these conversations (54 B.c.), Cicero and ‘‘ the
friends of Caesar” were about to build marble saepta for the
Comitia Tributa, and a new Villa Publica (Ad Atticum, iv, 16).
* Tabella dimidiata, The text here is assuredly corrupt, and
the emendations and explanations of Jucundus, Ursinus,
Gesner, Scaliger, and the rest are merae nugae. I have trans-
lated as best I could, taking wmdrvam which is understood here
in the sense given to it by Festus (ad verbum): Umbrae vocantur
Neptunalibus casae frondeae pro tabernaculis. The rustics, at
the festival of Anna Perenna (Fasti, iii, 523), made themselves
shelters against the sun with boughs of trees, or by sticking
reeds into the ground and stretching their togas over them.
Sub Jove pars durat, pauci tentoria ponunt
Sunt guibus e ramis frondea facta casa est
Pars ubi pro rigidis calamos statuere columnis
Desuper extentas tmposuere togas.
Perhaps the ¢adel/a (whatever it was) might have been used
together with leafy boughs as a protection against the sun.
Instead of ¢abella, taberna has been proposed in the sense of
tabernaculo, And it is quite likely that a candidate used to
11] ON VARIOUS KINDS OF VILLAS 247
mcnleg
ees)
PPP
euerne
| which we share between us, provided by a private
aN,
i
candidate. Well, I answered, I am of opinion that,
true as is the proverb ‘‘ bad’ advice is worst for the
adviser,” it is equally true that good advice must
be considered good both for the adviser and the
advised. And so to the People’s Hall we went.
2 There we found the augur* Appius Claudius sitting
on one of the benches, ready for the consul in case
any circumstance should call for his services. On
his left sat Cornelius Merula (Blackbird), belonging
to a consular house, and Fircellius Pavo (Peacock)
provide some sort of shelter for his personal friends who were
there to support him. But then what is to be made of aedifi-
cemus? and dimidiata? Viderint doctiores!
* Malum consilium, etc. In explanation of the proverb
Gellius (iv, 5) tells a story which, he says, he found in the
Annales Magni: A statue of Horatius Cocles had been
struck by lightning—a prodigy concerning which the Etruscan
haruspices were consulted as usual. But at that time the
Etruscans were bitterly hostile to Rome, and the haruspices
purposely gave bad advice to the Romans. The former were
ae
ae
arrested, confessed the crime, and were executed. Whereupon
this witty verse was composed and sung by boys all over
the city: Malum consilium consultori pessimumst, Gellius also
notes that the verse is a translation of Hesiod’s 1 dé wax1) Bou)
T@ Bovreboayrt kaxiorn (Epywv Kai hpepwrv, i, 264).
* Augurem. An augur, or augurs, was always present at
the Comitia to take the auspices, etc. For an excellent account
of their duties cf. Alexander ab Alexandro, v, 19. Varro, at
the end of Bk. vi (L.L.) speaks of the augur attending on the
Consul at the Comitia Centuriata: Hoc nunc fit aliter atque olim,
quod augur consuli adest tum cum exercitus imperatur (when the
ee
ee
a
a
a
CHAPTER III
OF ANIMALS FED WITHIN THE VILLA
1 MERULA began without demur.
In the first place the owner should have a know-
ledge of those things which can be reared and fed
in and about a villa with a view to the master’s
profit or pleasure. Of this art there are three sec-
tions, concerned respectively with aviaries, warrens,’
1 Leporaria. Gellius (ii, 20), who quotes this passage, says
that in his own time they were commonly called vivaria—‘‘a
word which has not the support of any ancient writer”; in
Scipio’s, roboraria, from the oaken planks with which they
were fenced,
Ss
258 VARRO ON FARMING [BK.
and fish-ponds. The word ‘‘aviary,” in the sense
in which I now use it, covers all winged things
which are fed within the walls of thevilla. ‘‘Warren”
21 want you to understand not in the sense our
grandsires used the word—as a place in which were
only hares \—but as any enclosure attached to the
villa which contains shut up in it animals to be fed.
In the same way I mean by fish-pond any pond, be
the water fresh or salt, which has fish confined in it
3 close to the villa. Each class of the things men-
tioned may be subdivided into at least two divi-
sions: those animals which are content with dry
land alone—peacocks for example, together with
doves and fieldfares—belong to the first, while
under the second division come those for which dry
land alone is insufficient, as they need water as well;
such as geese, teal, and ducks. In the same way
the second division I mentioned above as connected hg
Ne
ate
Le
|=
CHAPTER IV
OF BIRDS IN GENERAL
11, REPLIED Axius, should like you to begin with
the ‘ post-principia,”’ as they say in camp—with
modern times, I mean, rather than with remoter
ages, for more profit is made out of peacocks than
out of hens. And what is more, I will not conceal
my wish to hear first about the ‘‘ ornithon,” since
fieldfares have made it a term synonymous with
** sain,’ for the 60,000 sesterces (£480) of Fir-
cellia* have wonderfully stimulated my desire.
2 Said Merula: There are two kinds of aviary.
One (and it has many admirers) made for pleasure,
' A postprincipiis. Cf. Plautus (Persa, iv, 1, 4):
Atgte edepol ferme ut quisque rem accurat suam
Sic t procedunt postprincipia denique
Si nalus aut nequamst male res vortunt quas agit.
And Gellits (xvi, 18): Sed haec, inguit M. Varro, aut omnino
non discimts aut prius desistemus quam intelligemus cur discenda
sint. Volwtas autem inquit vel utilitas talium disciplinarum in
postprincipis exsistit cum perfectae absolutaeque sunt, in prin-
cipiis vero ipsis ineptae et insuaves videntur.
Barn-door fowls were the principia, peacocks the postprin-
cipia. The word, used metaphorically, is fairly common. Cf.
Cicero (Pro Sestio, 55): postprincipia vitiosae vitae; but of its
use in theliteral sense 1 can find no trace. It is not noticed
in Kempf’: Sermonis Castrensis Reliquiae.
* Fircelina. Cf. iii, 2, 15. Varro’s maternal aunt must
therefore lave been called Fircellia.
264 VARRO ON FARMING [BK.
such as that of our friend Varro here, who has built
one close to Casinum; the other for profit, to which
kind belong the enclosures which certain people
who supply the market possess in Rome and in the
country—the latter being generally let to tenants in
the Sabine district, as there, owing to the nature of
the soil,’ fieldfares are to be found in large num-
3 bers. Lucullus claimed that the aviary on his/Tus-
culan estate made by combining these two kinds,
formed a third kind. It was built so as to have in
the same building—in the ‘‘ornithon,” thet is—
a dining-room, where he could dine delicately and
see fieldfares, some lying cooked in the dish, whilst
others fluttered about the windows of their prison.
But the experiment failed because the sight of birds
fluttering on the inside of windows does no! please
the eye as much as the disagreeable smell which
fills one’s nostrils offends the nose.
CHAPTER V
OF FIELDFARES |
——
266 VARRO ON FARMING [BK.
3 the birds be harmed by the mud. The aviary should {
have a door low and narrow, and preferably of the
kind called ‘‘coclia”* (rotating cage), such as is
usually found in the amphitheatre where bulls _
fight. It must have but few windows, through |
which the trees and birds outside cannot be seen, __
for the sight of these and the longing for them
make the imprisoned birds pine away. The place
should have just enough light to let them seewhere
to perch and where to find their food and water. __
About the doors and windows there should be a
coating of smooth plaster, that no mouse or other
4animal may anywhere enter. Around the walls of e
Oee
e
7
272 VARRO ON FARMING [BK.
wing), in the middle of which are bird-cages where
the entrance to the quadrangle is placed. At the
threshold and along the sides right and left colon-
nades are arranged, the front columns being of
stone, and instead of columns between them and
the wall there are dwarf trees, while from the
top of the wall to the architrave the colonnade is
covered by a hempen net which is continued also
from the architrave to the stylobate. These colon-
nades are filled with all kinds of birds which are
fed through the net, and water flows to them in a
12 tiny stream. Adjoining the inner side [z.e. facing the
area] of the stylobate at the upper end of the quad-
rangular space, two separate narrow oblong ponds
stretch from the middle of the quadrangle in the
direction of the colonnades. Between these ponds
is a path, the only means of access to the ‘tholus
beyond, which is a rotunda supported by pillars, as
where the entrance to the quadrangle stands, are many bird-
cages.” I am aware that such conjectures without some further
support are not valuable; but the passage seems to need strong
medicine, and the copyist has been very careless throughout.
this description. For example, five lines further down he has
artibusculis for the obvious arbusculis, and (10) ad stylobate for
stylobaten. In limine, too, I believe to be an explanation, inter- _
polated in the text, of the previous clause; for, it will be re-—
membered, the aviary is enclosed by walls only on two sides,
so that the arrangement described in lines 6-9 could not have
been ix limine.
This second ambulatio may have been either the usual
‘alley ” of clipped box, etc., or a covered colonnade. Cf. Cicero,
Ad Q. F., iii: Zta omnia convestit hedera, qua basim villae qua”
intercolumnia ambulationis,
111] OF FIELDFARES 273
is the case with Catulus’s’ hall if you put pillars
instead of walls. Beyond these pillars is a wood of
great trees planted by hand, which admits light
_ only at the lower part, and the whole is shut in by
I3high walls. Between the outside pillars of the
domed building, which are of stone, and the slender
inside ones, the same in number, which are of fir, is
a space five feet in width. The outside columns are
joined together by a net made of gut, which serves
as a wall, so that it is possible to look out into the
wood and see what is there, without a bird being
able to getthrough. The inner pillars are connected
by a fowling-net thrown over them, instead of a
wall. Between the inner and outer pillars there has
been constructed, as it were, a little bird-theatre,
with seats rising tier by tier, since on all the pillars
many brackets have been placed as ‘‘seats”’ for the
14birds. Within the net are birds of all kinds, mostly
songsters, such as nightingales and blackbirds,
which are served with water by means of a small
gutter, while food is thrown to them under the net.
Under the stylobate of the pillars is stone-work one
foot nine inches high above a platform,’ which is
CHAPTER VI
OF PEACOCKS
Axius remarked on this: Now that Fircellius has
gone you may speak freely about peacocks, for had
* Parra. A bird of evilomen. Cf. Horace (Odes, iii, 27, 1):
Impios parrae recinentis omen
Ducat et praegnans canis...
and the Eugubine Tables (beginning). .
* In loculum. For the more common cistam. It is inter-
esting to find that in this year, 54 B.c., a determined effort
was made by Cato to check bribery at elections, and Plutarch
(Life of Cato, about the middle) tells us that he greatly em-
barrassed the candidates, so much so that ‘‘ they decided to
deposit 500 sestertia (cf. Cicero, Ad Att., iv, 15, which fixes the
date) each, and then to canvass in a fair and legal manner.
If any one were convicted of bribery he was to forfeit his
deposit.” A few paragraphs further on he writes: ‘‘ This
Favonius stood for the office of Aedile and apparently lost it; -
~ but Cato upon examining the votes, and finding several of
278 VARRO ON FARMING [BK.
you said anything disrespectful’ of them in his
presence he would probably have had a bone’ to
pick with you for the honour of his clan. To him
Merula answered: As to peacocks, why I remember
the time when people first began to keep flocks of.
them and sell them at a big price. M. Aufidius
Lurco’ is said to make more than 60,000 sesterces
(4480) a year out of these birds.
If profit be your object there should be consider-
ably fewer cocks than hens, if pleasure, it is the
other way about, for the cock is the handsomer of
the two.
They should be fed on the farm in flocks. It is
said that beyond the sea they are reared on islands,
as, for instance, at Samos in the grove of Juno, and
on Planasia,‘ an island which belongs to M. Piso.
—‘
280 VARRO ON FARMING [BK.
peacocks. This building should be made of a
size proportionate to the number of peacocks kept
in it, and should have separate sleeping places
having a smooth coating of plaster to prevent any
5 serpent or other animal from getting in. It should
also have a space in front of it, where the chickens —
may go out to be fed on sunny days. These birds
require both places to be clean; and so their keeper
must go round with a shovel and remove the
droppings, which he will keep carefully, as they
are useful for tillage and as litter for the chickens.
6 It is said that these birds first appeared on the table
at a dinner-party given by Q. Hortensius to cele-
brate his election as augur, an extravagance which ©
was at that time commended only by the luxurious, __
not by men of virtue and prudence. His example \
was speedily followed by many, and the price paid
for them went up in consequence, so that their eggs
sell now for 5 denarii’ (3s. 3d.) apiece, while the
birds themselves fetch without difficulty 50 denarii
(41 12s.) a head, and a flock of one hundred easily
makes 40,000 sesterces (£320), and Abuccius indeed
used to say that by requiring three chickens to
each hen, 60,000 sesterces (4480) might be made.
+ Denarits guinis. Macrobius (ii, 9), writing about the be-
ginning of the fifth century A.D., quotes this passage, adding:
Ecce res non admiranda solum sed etiam pudenda ut ova pav-
onum guinis denariis veneant,; quae hodie non dicam vilius sed
omnino non veneunt.
The sum of 60,000 sesterces is made up thus: roo hens pro-
duce 300 chickens, which fetch each 50 denarii or 200 sesterces ;
300 X 200= 60,000.
lt] OF PIGEONS 281
CHAPTER VII
OF PIGEONS
1 MEANWHILE Appius’s servant came from the
Consul, and said that the augurs were wanted.
Appius went out from the Hall, and at that
moment there fluttered into it a flock of pigeons,
giving Merula occasion to say to Axius: Now
if ever you had set up a pigeon-house, you
might have imagined these birds to be yours, wild
though they are. For in a pigeon-house there are
usually the two kinds, one wild pigeons, or rock-
pigeons as some call them, kept in turrets and
gable-ends (columen) of the farmstead—it is from
columen they get the name columbae—and seek-
ing the highest places on buildings through their
inborn timidity. Hence the wild kind mostly haunt
turrets, flying up to them from the fields and back
2again as the fancy takes them. The other kind of
pigeon is less shy, for it feeds contentedly at home
about the doorstep. This is generally white,' while
the other, the wild kind, is of different colours, but
not white. From the union of these two stocks
' Colore albo. Cf. Columelia (viii, 8, 9): ‘‘ The white kind,
which is commonly seen everywhere, is not much approved
of by some people, though the colour is well enough for
pigeons which are kept in confinement. For those which fly
about freely it is the worst possible, as it is most easily espied
by the hawk.”
282 | VARRO ON FARMING [BK
comes a third mongrel kind which is bred for profit.
These are put into a place called by some a fer-
wteron, by others a peristerotrophion, in which
often as many as five thousand birds are confined.
3 The peristeron is built in the shape of a large
testudo with a vaulted roof. It has a narrow en-
trance and windows latticed in the Carthaginian’
fashion, or wider than these are and furnished
with a double trellis, so that the whole place may
be well lit and no snake or other noxious animal
may be able to get in. Inside every part of the
walls and ceilings is coated with the smoothest
possible cement made from marble; outside, too,
the walls in the neighbourhood of the windows are
plastered over to prevent a mouse or a lizard creep-
ing by any way into the pigeon cotes. For nothing
4is more timid than a pigeon. Many round niches’
are made in a row, one for each pair of pigeons,
and there should be as many rows as possible from —
ground to ceiling. Each niche should be made so
that the pigeon may have an opening just big
enough for it to come in and out, and should have ©
an inside diameter of three palms (one foot). Under
each row of pigeon-holes a shelf, eight inches —
| Punicanis. The Carthaginians gave their name to many
things made of wood, as for example the plostellum Poenicum
(Varro, i, 52, 1), the /ectus Punicanus (Isidore, xx, 11), Punt-
cana coagmenta (Cato, xviii, 2), etc.
* Columbaria. The writer of the article ‘‘ Pigeon” in the
‘* Encyclopaedia Britannica,” after criticizing severely modern
dove-cotes, in his description of the properly constructed pigeon-
house unconsciously plagiarizes from Varro.
1] OF PIGEONS 283
broad, should be attached to the wall, which the
birds can use as a landing, and walk on to it when
5 they like. There should be water flowing’ in for
their drinking and washing, for pigeons are very
clean birds. The pigeon-keeper should, therefore,
sweep the place out several times a month, as the
dirt made there is an excellent manure, so much
so that some authors speak of it as the best of all.
If any pigeon has come to any harm the keeper
must look after it, if one has died he must remove it,
and if any young birds are fit for sale he must bring
6them out. He must also have a fixed place, which
is shut* off from the others by a net, to which the
hen-birds that are sitting may be transferred, and
* Quae influat. The reading of the Archetype is guo influat,
which is supported by the Geoponica (xiv, 6): ‘‘ A fairly large
bathing place should be dug in the pigeon-house for the birds
to bathe and drink in, so that the keeper may not have to
disturb the birds frequently in order to give them water.”
Columella, however (viii, 8, 5), says that ‘‘the drinking ves-
sels should be similar to those used for hens, should admit
only the necks of the birds, and should be too narrow to allow
of their bathing, which is bad for the eggs or chickens on
which they are sitting.”
* Disclusum ab aliis. Cf. Columella (viii, 8, 4): ‘On the
outside, too, the walls should have a coating of smooth
plaster—especially about the window. This must be so situ-
ated as to admit the sunlight for the greater part of the
winter’s day, and it should have appended to it a fairly large
house protected by nets in order to keep out the hawks, to
admit the pigeons that are going out to sun themselves, and
to let the mother birds, sitting on eggs or chickens, out to
the fields, lest saddened by the slavery of continuous confine- ~
ment they fall sick, When they have flown about the build-
284 VARRO ON FARMING [BK.
it must be possible for the mothers to fly out of it
away from the pigeon-cote. For this there are two
reasons: (1) because, in case they are losing appe-
tite and are growing feeble in captivity, a flight into
the country and the free air brings back their
strength; (2) because, they act as a decoy; ‘ for they
themselves in any case come back to the pigeon-
cote because of their young ones, unless they are —
killed by a crow or caught by a hawk. These latter
7 pigeon-keepers generally kill by means of two limed
twigs, which are stuck in the ground and then bent
so as to touch each other. An animal of the kind
on which hawks prey is then tied between them,
and so, smearing themselves with the birdlime they
are beguiled. That pigeons do return to a place is
shown by the fact that people often let them fly
from their laps in the theatre, and they return
home, and unless they did so they would never be
8 let loose. Food is given them in small troughs
placed round the walls, which are filled from out-—
side by means of pipes. They are fond of millet,
wheat, barley, peas, kidney-beans, and vetch. Much
the same methods must be adopted—as far as pos-
sible—by those who keep wild pigeons in turrets
and on the roof of the farmhouse.
ings for a little while they come back cheered and refreshed
to their young ones.”
1 Propter inlicium. The Geoponica (xiv, 3) state that if you
anoint your pigeons with myrrh, or add cummin or old wine
to their food, ‘‘all the neighbouring pigeons noticing the
sweetness of their breath will come to your dove-cote.”
Wi} OF PIGEONS 285
_. For your pigeon-house you must get birds of the
_ right age—not young chicks and not old hens—and
gas many cocks as hens. Nothing is more prolific
than the pigeon. Thus within the space of forty days
a hen-bird conceives, lays, hatches, and rears its
young. And this is continued all the year round,’
the only interval being from the winter solstice to
the spring equinox. They have two young ones at
a time, and when they have grown up and come to
their strength these go on breeding at the same
time as their mothers. Those who fatten young
pigeons to increase their market value keep them
apart from the others as soon as they are covered
with down. Then they stuff them with chewed’
white bread; in winter twice a day, in summer
19 three times, morning, noon, and evening; in winter
the middle meal being cut off. Those which are
beginning to get their wing feathers have their
legs broken,’ and, left in the nest, are given over
to their mother’s care, for so she feeds them and
‘ Totum annum. Cf. Columella (viii, 8, 9): Mam et octies
anno pullos educat si est bona matrix.
* Manducato. From a curious passage in Columella (viii,
10, 4) it appears that men were hired to do this chewing, and
that they got a good price for the work. Hanc guidam man-
dunt et ita obiciunt. Sed istud in maiore numero facere vix
expedit, quia nec parvo conducuntur qui mandant et ab iis
ipsis aliquantum propter iucunditatem (he is speaking of a
mixture of figs and flour) consumitur.
* Inlisis cruribus. Columella (viii, 8, 12) repeats this, add-
ing: ‘‘the broken legs cause them pain for not more than _
two days or at most three”!
bn
|
ee
CHAPTER VIII
OF TURTLE-DOVES
Sarp he: For turtle-doves, as for pigeons, you
must build a place of a size proportionate to the
number of birds you mean to rear, and it, too, as
we said when speaking of pigeons, must have an
entrance, windows, pure water, and walls and ceil-
ings protected with plaster; but instead of pigeon-
holes * along the wall, shelves or poles placed in a
' In tegulis. Cf. Columella (viii, 11, 3): /iunt arundinea
septa in modum cavearum qualia columbaria tectis superpon-
untur.
* Aedificas does not seem to be Latin; aedifices should be
read,
” Assem semissem. Victorius (p. 120) says in regard to this
passage: Antiquorum librorum lectio. In excusis “‘ Ex asse
semissem” antea legebatur. This would mean “the big profit
of 50 per cent. a day.”
* Pro columbariis. Because the turtle-dove did not breed in °
captivity. Cf. Columella (viii, 9, 1): Turturum educatio super-
288 VARRO ON FARMING [BK.
row, on which little mats made of hemp are placed.
The lowest row should not be less than three feet
from the ground, between the other rows there
should be nine inches, and between the top row
and the ceiling six inches; the row should be of the
breadth the shelf can be made to project from the
wall, and upon these shelves the birds feed! day and
night. For food they are given dry wheat, about
half a peck a day for every 120 turtle-doves. Their
quarters are swept out daily lest they suffer harm
from the dung,” which is, moreover, kept for tillage.
The best time for fattening them is near the time ot
harvest,’ for the mother-birds are then at their best
vacua est, guoniam id genus in ornithone nec parit nec excudit.
He goes on to say that they are fattened as soon as caught,
and that the best time to do so is in summer, as it is difficult
to fatten them in winter, and the price obtained for them
is lowered by reason of the abundance of fieldfares at that
season.
' Pascuntur. Columella (viii, 9, 3) closely follows Varro,
but enters into greater detail: ‘‘The places made for turtle-
doves are not boxes or little chambers hollowed out in the
walls as is the case for pigeons. Instead shelves (brackets)
are fastened to the walls in a straight line, and. these are
covered with little hempen mats. Nets are thrown over them
to prevent the birds from flying, as they lose flesh if they do.
On these shelves they are diligently fed with millet or wheat,
which must not be other than dry.”
* A stercore. Columella (loc. cit.) continues: ‘‘The mats
must be carefully cleaned lest the dung burn the feet of the
birds.”
* Circiter messem. Columella (loc. cit.) says: ‘‘About har-
vest time when the young broods have now grown strong.”
The practice of fattening turtle-doves in large numbers was
ut] OF POULTRY - 289
when most chicks are being born, and the latter are
more easily fattened at this time. Thus they are
especially profitable at this season of the year.
CHAPTER IX
OF POULTRY
I miss, said Axius, two branches of the art of
fattening’ birds, those connected with wood pigeons
and hens, I mean, and I shall be glad if you, Merula,
will now speak about them—then if anything in
the other branches remains proper to be discussed
we can discuss* it. Well [said Merula] the term
common in the thirteenth century in Italy. Crescentius (late
thirteenth century) writes: ‘‘ The fowlers of Lombardy, espe-
cially at Cremona, net wild turtle-doves all through the summer
and shut them up in a small well-lighted building. They give
them clean water and as much millet seed as they will eat,
and keep them until winter or well into the autumn. As many
as fifteen hundred of them are kept in one place, and grow
ineffably fat!”
' Farturae. The reading of the Archetype was sarsurae
assurae, It seems probable that the second word is a careless
repetition of the first, and that sarsurae is for farturae, though
the latter corruption is difficult to account for. In the next
line Keil brackets pa/umbis—wrongly I think, for (1) the
plural membra implies at least two branches, and (2) after
hens have been discussed, a few words are actually given to
wood-pigeons—falumbis (9, 21). Perhaps the original words
were de palumbis et gallinis.
* Ratiocinari. Properly a book-keeper’s word, meaning to
“audit an account,” to ‘‘reckon.” Cf, Cicero (Phil., ii, 22):
U
290 VARRO ON FARMING [BK.
poultry includes fowls of three kinds—barn-door,
2wild, and African. Barn-door’ fowls are those
which are commonly kept at farmhouses in the
country. With regard to these, he who means to
set up a poultry-farm—with the object, that is, of
making large profits by the application of skill and
diligence, as the Delians* in particular have ever
done—must give heed to these five points: (1) buy-
ing: the kind and number to be bought; (2) breed-
ing: the conditions to be observed for mating and
laying; (3) eggs: the sitting and bringing off;
(4) chickens: the method of rearing and the birds
Omnia denique quae postea vidimus. Si recte ratiocinabimur,
unt accepta referemus Antonio. The passage in the text might
perhaps run: ‘‘If there is any useful calculation to be made
about the other branches we can then make it ”—with a hit at
the commercial spirit of Axius.
' Gallinae villaticae. Cf. Columella (viii, 2, 2): Cohortalis
est avis quae vulgo per omnes fere villas conspicitur. Deinceps
in the next line is unintelligible, and I am inclined to think
that it has strayed from the passage three lines higher: Zum
de reliquis. Siguid, etc., the sense of which would be improved _
by the insertion of deinceps after reliquis. :
Deliacit. Cf. Columella (viii, 2, 4): Huius igitur villaticé
generis non spernendus est reditus si adhibeatur educandi
scientia quam plerique Graecorum et praecipue celebravere .
Deliact. He goes on to say, however, that the Delians bred
principally fighting-cocks (Tanagrian, Rhodian, Chalcidic,
and Median), and that he prefers the native Italian breed (of
which he gives a detailed description) ‘‘as a source of revenue
for the hard-working pater familias.” He strongly disapproves
of cock-fighting, ‘‘as often a man’s whole patrimony is staked
on a match and is carried off by the victorious boxer (fyctes).”
Cf. Pliny (x, 50): Gallinas saginare Deliaci coepere,
1] OF POULTRY 291
weather (x, 54), ‘‘ for eggs are hatched more quickly in warm
weather. Thus in summer eighteen days only are needed, in
winter twenty-five.”
' Vitales venas. Pliny, who gives all three tests (/oc. cit.),
uses this expression (cf. x, 54): Concuti vero experimento
vetant, quoniam non gignant confusis vitalibus venis. These
venae vitales formed what Pliny, following Aristotle (vi, 3,
H. A.), calls parva velut sanguinea gutta, quod esse cor avium
existimant, primum in omni corpore id gigni opinantes: in ovo
cerle gutta salit palpitatque (x, 53).
The Geoponica (xiv, 7) call these venae vitales. rb Curixiy, -
also ivadeg re wai bpapor.
298 VARRO ON FARMING [BK.
lightand findsitis uniformly clear, it should bethrown
away, it is thought, and another put in its place.
13. The chickens’ that are hatched should be taken ©
from the several nests and put under a hen hav- —
ing few chickens, and the few remaining eggs she
may have should be taken from her and put under ©
other hens that have not yet hatched their eggs.
They must have less than thirty chickens, for no ©
batch should exceed this number. or
For the first fifteen days after hatching you must ©
give the chicks in the morning a mixture of barley-_
meal’® and cress seed, to which has been added
' Excusos pullos ... et minus habent triginta pullos. The
difficulties of this passage lie in the words ab eague and in the ©
last clause, which is sheer nonsense as it stands. Fortunately,
however, there is an almost exact translation in the Geoponica __
(xiv, 7): rd dé éxcodatropeva vedrria ebOiwe brooracrioy i& éxdoTng
bprOoc Kai droBdyrtov ry dyapKkoboy. Ta dé wap’ abry pur) KohagOévTa —
a Karapepistéoy sic Tac ert Oadrobcac iva per ixcivwy Oadmipeva
fwoyovara. Ty dé ddAcyapKotoy X' pévoy pu) wréoy roBAnTréov. Now
Schneider considers ab ea to mean ab unaquaque matre, implied
in the words ex singulis nidis, and quotes the passage above
from the Geoponica to support his view. But obviously zap’ —
airy must refer to r7 ddtyapxotcy, not to éxdorne dprHo¢, and the
sense of the passage must be that which I have given to
Varro’s words, though it is possible, of course, that the Greek
is a mistranslation.
To meet the second difficulty I would propose to place a
full-stop after excuderunt, and then read £¢ (or Ut) minus
habeant triginta pullos (‘‘ And hens must have less than thirty
chickens”), which would then be represented by the last sent-
ence of the passage quoted from the Geoponica.
2 Polentam. Pliny (xviii, 7) describes the various ways of
making this.
m1] OF POULTRY 299
1
15 not only the chickens, but the whole poultry-yard — '
should be taken out both in summer and at all times —
~
topics.
Wild* hens are of rare occurrence in the city and
CHAPTER X
OF GEESE
-_ Now, said Axius, pass on to the kind which is
not satisfied with the farm-house and dry land?
only, but needs ponds as well. This kind you
Graecophiles call amphibious (augifiov) while to the
' Signis. Columella (viii, 7, 3): ‘‘ Nor must you give them
a second meal until you are sure by feeling the crop that
nothing of the first remains.”
* Terra. Cf. iii, 3, 3: In altera specie sunt quae non sunt —
contentae terra solum sed etiam aquam requirunt, ut sunt —
anseres, querquedulae, anates.
111] OF GEESE 305
place where geese are fed you give the Greek name
chenoboscion’ (xnvBocxciov). Of these geese Scipio
Metellus* and M. Seius have some large flocks.*
Said Merula: Seius in making his flocks of geese
was careful to attend to the following five points,
which I mentioned when I spoke of hens‘: (1) the
choice of a stock, (2) breeding, (3) the eggs, (4) the
2 chickens, (5) fattening for market. In the first place
he ordered the slave to see when choosing the stock,
that they were big and white, as in most cases the
goslings resemble their parents. For there is a
second kind with variegated plumage—they are
called wild geese—which do not willingly associate
3 with the first, and do not become so tame. For
geese the best time for mating begins with the
winter solstice, for laying and sitting it extends
' Chenoboscion. Described in detail by Columella (viii, 14).
It was a courtyard enclosed by a nine feet wall and had porticoes
all round it. Under these were the fens, built of cement or
brick, each three feet in every dimension and having a stout
door. If there was no river or pond near, a tank was made for
them to dive in.
* Scipio Metellus. Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius Scipio,
_ father-in-law of Pompey, and his colleague in the Consulship
for part of the year 52 B.c. He committed suicide at the close
of the civil war.
* Greges magnos. Pliny (x, 22) mentions Metellus and Seius
together in connection with foie gras, and says that it was
doubtful which of the two first discovered its goodness. Nec
sine causa in quaestione est quis primus tantum bonum in-
venerit, Scipio Metellus, vir Consularis, an M. Seius eadem
_ aetate eques Romanus.
* Gallinis. Cf. iii, 9, 2.
I
ee
306 VARRO ON FARMING [BK.
from ist February or 1st March to the summer
solstice. Coupling generally takes place in the
water, for which purpose they are driven! intoa
river or a pond. A goose does not lay more than
three times in the year. They must each havea pen
made in which to lay their eggs, two and a half feet
square, which must be strewn with straw. You must
put some mark on their eggs, as they do not hatch
those of other geese. Asarule nine or eleven are
put under the hen-bird to be hatched, if less, five,
if more, fifteen. Hatching takes thirty days; when
the weather*® is comparatively mild, twenty-five.
' Iniguntur. Scaliger’s emendation for the znunguentur of
the Archetype. Schneider supports the reading merguntur from
** the nature of things,” and from Aristotle (H. A., vi, 2): ot xijvec
dxevbevrec KarakohupBwot.
Columella (viii, 14, 4): Zneunt autem non... tnststentes
humi: nam fere in flumine aut piscinis id faciunt.
* Tempestatibus. This word seems to have strayed from its
place. I would read: Jncubat dies triginta, tempestatibus tept-
dioribus xxv,” for it is much to be doubted if tempestatibus
can, unqualified, mean ‘‘in bad weather,” or even ‘‘in stormy
weather,” and, supposing the word to have that meaning
here, then it is unsuited to tepidioribus. The Geoponica (xiv,
22) say: ‘‘ Hatching takes generally twenty-nine days, in cold
weather thirty.” Columella (viii, 14, 7) has: triginta diebus
opus est cum sunt frigora, nam tepidis xxv satis est,” cf. Pliny
(x, 59): JZncubant tantum tricenis diebus, si vero tepidiores
stint xxv, which supports the proposed change.
In the chapter quoted above Pliny gives many interesting
facts about geese, e.g., ‘‘the first thing contracted for by the
censors is the food of the sacred geese. Geese walk all the
way from Brittany to Rome. White ones provide a second
source of income in the shape of down, the best of which
m1] OF GEESE 307
4 When a goose has brought off her chicks, they are
left with the mother for the first five days. After-
wards every day when it is fine they are taken to the
meadows and also to ponds or marshes, and pens
are made for them above or under the ground, where
not more than twenty chickens at a time are put;
care being taken that the floors of these chambers
are not damp, that they are provided with a soft bed
of straw or something else, and that weasels cannot
get at the chickens or any other animals harm them.
5 Geese are fed in damp places, and for their food a
crop is sown’ on which the farmer may make some
profit [apart from these birds] while [especially] for
_ them is sown the herb called serzs (endive), for
even when dried up, if it is moistened with water it
grows green again. The leaves are plucked off and
given to the geese, as there is danger, if you drive
them to where it is growing, that they will ruin it by
trampling it under foot, or themselves die of a sur-
feit—for they are gluttons by nature. And so you
must restrain them, for often when feeding if they
have got hold of a root they want to pull out of
comes from Germany where the geese are smallish and are
called ganzae. This down is worth five denarii (3s. 3d.) a
pound. And so luxurious have we become that not even men
can do without it under their necks,” etc.
' Serunt. Varro is here even more elliptical than himself;
but the meaning of the passage is fixed by Columella (viii, 14,
2): ‘A marshy but at the same time grassy piece of land
should be assigned them, and various crops should.be sown
such as vetch, trefoil, and fenugreek, but especially a variety
of endive called by the Greeks cipic.
308 VARRO ON FARMING [BK.
the ground, they break their necks.’ For this part
of them is very weak, as the head is soft. If you
have not this kind of grass, give them barley or
some other grain. When there is green fodder you
should give it in the manner prescribed for serzs.
6 If they are sitting let them have barley steeped in
water. The goslings just hatched are served for two
days with barley meal or barley, for the next three
with cress chopped up fine and mixed with water
and then put into some kind of vessel. And when
they have been shut up in their pens or under-ground
chambers—twenty together, as Isaid—they are given
barley meal or green fodder or some tender grass
7 chopped up. For fattening, goslings are chosen
about six months’ old. They are shut up in the
fattening house, where their food is barley meal
and fine flour *steeped in water, of which they have
' Abrumpunt collum. This statement is repeated by Colu-
mella (viii, 14, 8) and by Pliny (x, 59) and the conclusion is not
unnatural, for a goose when struggling with a tough root
certainly looks as though it wou/d break its neck!
* Sesquimensem. As the reading of the Archetype was cir-
citer sex qui mense gui sunt nata, and as no one would think
of fattening goslings of 14 months old, Keil’s emendation,
circiter sex menses qui sunt nati, seems fairly certain, despite
the fact that Columella (viii, 14, 10) gives four months as the
best age at which to begin fattening.
° Pollinem. Cato (157, 9) has follinem polentae. Pollen was
the fine dust produced as the grain was ground. Cf. Colu-
mella (vili, 14, 11): ‘‘ These birds are easy to fatten, for
they need nothing but barley meal and fine flour three times
a day provided always that they have plenty to drink and
are not allowed to stray,” and the Geoponica (xiv, 22):
111} OF DUCKS 309
as much as they can eat, three times a day. Immedi-
ately after a meal they are allowed to drink copiously.
Thus treated, they become fat in about two months.
After every meal the place should be cleansed, for
they like a clean place, though they themselves
never leave a place clean where they have been.
CHAPTER XI
OF DUCKS
_ THOSE who intend to keep flocks of ducks and to
set up a nessotrophion (duck-nursery)' should in
‘* They eat three times a day and at midnight, and are great
drinkers.”
' Nessotrophion (ynsoorpoptiov). This is described in detail
and with delightful clearness by Columella (viii, 15): a level
piece of ground was chosen and enclosed by a wall fifteen feet
high. The roof was of lattice work or nets with wide meshes,
The wall was coated with smooth plaster to prevent pole-cat
or ferret from getting in, and in the middle of the duck-house
a pond was dug two feet deep, the margin of which was
made of cement (signino, ‘‘a plaster-composed of powdered
tiles mixed with mortar) and descended in a gentle slope to
the water. The pond had a stone bottom covering two-thirds
of its area, to prevent weeds rising to the surface; the centre
was uncovered and planted with the Egyptian bean and other
green water plants. For twenty feet all round the pond the
banks were clothed with grass, and beyond this piece of
ground was the wall in which were the nesting-places, each a
foot square. These were covered by bushes of box or myrtle,
planted between them, which bushes did not overtop the
310 VARRO ON FARMING [BK
the first place choose a marshy place, if that be
possible, as ducks prefer such a one to any other.
Failing that, the best place is where there is a
natural pool or pond, or an artificial tank, to which
2 they can go down by steps. The enclosure where
they live should have a wall as much as fifteen feet
high, like that you saw at Seius’s country-house,
and it should have but one entrance. All round the
wall on the inside is a wide ledge, on which close
to the wall should be covered nesting-places, and in
front of them the outer landing of the ducks—a level
floor of cement made of broken pottery. In it there
is a gutter running the whole length, where foodis _
set for them, and into which water runs. For so ~
3 they take their food. All the walls should be smoothly —
plastered to prevent pole-cats or other animals enter-
ing to harm the birds, and the whole enclosure is |
covered over by a net with wide meshes, to prevent .
a hawk from flying in, or a duck from flying out.
The food given them is wheat, barley, or grape-refuse
—sometimes also river cray-fish* and certain other
wall. A gutter was let into the ground and down it ran the
birds’ food mixed with water.
‘ Cammari. The precise meaning of this word is not
known, but it seems to have meant a sort of crab. That it
was red when cooked. and was a cheap and little esteemed
food appears from Martial (ii, 43, 11):
Immodici tibi flava tegunt chrysendeta mulli
Concolor in nostra, cammare lana rubes.
Columella (viii, 15, 6), @ propos of the feeding of ducks, says:
Ubi copia est, etiam glans ac vinacea praebentur. Aguatilis
uy] OF DUCKS 311
aquatic animals of the same kind. Abundance of
water must flow into the ponds in the enclosure so
_4that it may be always fresh. There are also other
species not unlike ducks, such as teal and moor-hens
and partridges,* which, as Archelaus writes, conceive
on hearing the voice of the male bird. These, though
they are not fattened as are ducks and geese because
of their fertility or good flavour, do yet become fat
if fed in the same way. This is what I have to say
about what in my opinion belongs to the first act of
farm-yard feeding.
autem tibi si sit facultas, datur cammarus et rivalis alecula, vel
st qua sunt incrementi parvi fluviorum animalia, Plutarch
_ (Quaest. Nat., towards the end) says that river crabs are
good for sows suffering from headache! ai dé tec émi roic¢
mworapiow Kapkivowe pépovrat, BonPovyrar yap écPiovoa mpdc Kepadad-
yiay. ;
The Geoponica (xiv, 23) mention as food for ducks: ‘‘ Wheat,
millet, barley, grape refuse, and occasionally locusts or prawns
(or any other similar animals, found in lakes or rivers, which
they are accustomed to eat.”
* Perdices. \n Martial’s delightful description of a Roman
farm (iii, 58) occur nearly all the birds mentioned by Varro:
Vagatur omnis turba sordidae chortis
Argutus anser gemmeique pavones
Nomenque debet quae rubentibus pinnis (the flamingo)
Et picta perdix Numidicaeque guttatae
Et impiorum phasiana Colchorum
Rhodias superbi feminas premunt galli
Sonantque turres plausibus columbarum
Gemit hinc palumbus, inde cereus turtur, etc.
The perdix in the text is probably the red-legged partridge—
the picta perdix of Martial.
312 VARRO ON FARMING [BK
CHAPTER XII
OF WARRENS
1 MEANWHILE Appius returned, and after mutual in-
quiries as to what had been done and said, he spoke LP
RE
CHAPTER XIII
CHAPTER XIV
OF SNAILS
CHAPTER XV
OF DORMICE
Lal
Tue place where dormice are kept is of a different
kind, as it is an enclosure bounded not by water,
but by a wall the whole of which is faced on the
inside with smooth stone or plaster, to prevent the
dormouse from crawling out. In it should be small
acorn-bearing’* trees. When these are not bearing,
acorns and chestnuts should be thrown inside the
wall for thedormice to eat their fill. Fairly wide holes
are to be made for them in which they can bring forth
their young. There should not be much water, as
they take but little of it, and like a dry place. They
are fattened in jars, which many people keep inside
the villa. These jars made by the potter differ
greatly in their construction from others, as grooves
(paths) are made in their sides, and a hollow in
which to place food. Into this jar are put acorns,
walnuts, or chestnuts. A lid is put on the jars, and
in the darkness the dormice grow fat.*
1 Quae ferant glandem. Pliny (xvi, 6) mentions beech nuts
(fagi glans) in this connection: Fag? glans muribus gratissima
est. . . glires quoque saginat, expedit et turdis, so that the
word is probably not used here by Varro in the special sense
as given by Pliny (/oc. cit.): glandem, quae proprie intellegitur,
ferunt robur, quercus, esculus, cerrus, tlex suber.
* Saginantur. Cf. Pliny (viii, 57): Semiferum et ipsum
animal, cui vivaria in doliis idem qui apris (Fulvius Lippinus)’
instituit. Qua in re nolatum non congregari nisi populares
Y
322 VARRO ON FARMING [BK. ||
CHAPTER XVI
OF BEES AND APIARIES
1 AND so, said Appius, in the matter of farmyard |
feeding we come to the third act, which is about —
fishponds. Third act be hanged! said Axius, do
you suppose, because you were so very economical
when a young man as not to drink wine and honey
at home, that we are going to neglect honey? Axius
2 speaks the truth, said he, turning to us, for I was
left with scanty means, and two brothers and two
sisters‘ to keep. One of the latter’ I married with-
out a portion to Lucullus, and it was only when he
etusdem silvae: et st misceantur alienigenae, amne vel monte
discreti, interire dimicando. Genitoris suos fessos senecta alunt
insigni pietate.... In Moesia silva Italiae—non nisi in parte—
reperiuntur hi glires. Albertus Magnus (quoted by Schneider)
gives an excellent description of the dormouse, and states that
in his time (circa 1250) they were fattened in large numbers by
the rustics of Bohemia and Carinthia.
* Duabus sororibus. Schneider points out that Appius had
three sisters. Probably one of these was married in the life-
time of her father. The sister married to Lucullus was said
by Cicero to have been treated with as little respect as was
the Bona Dea by her brother P. Clodius whom Cicero (Pro
Dom. 34) calls on that account Jove: Sed vide ne tu te debeas
Jovem dicere quod tu ture eandem sororem et uxorem appellare
possts.
° rum. In view of the anacoluthon Scaliger conjectured
earum,’Gessner duarum. Neither is necessary, for, as it has
been shown, Varro frequently has such anacolutha.
nu] OF BEES AND APIARIES 323
first gave up an inheritance’ in my favour that
I myself began to drink mulsum at my house,
though it was given almost every day on the occasion
3 of a banquet’ to all. Besides it has been more my °*
business than yours to know the habits of these
winged creatures, to whom Nature has given the
greatest talent and skill. And so as a proof that I
have a better knowledge of them than you, let me
tell you about their amazing and untaught ability.
Merula must then relate to us, as before, the usual
practice * adopted by melztturgoe (as those who keep
apiaries are called).
' Hereditate me cessa for concessa. Keil seems to think
that Appius was Lucullus’s heir, cwm hereditatem Luculli accep-
isset. Is not the meaning rather that Lucullus waived a prior
claim to an inheritance? Cf. Cicero (Pro Flacc., 36): Communem
hereditatem quae aequaliter ad utrumgue venisset, concessit
adulescenti. Me is for mihi. Cf. Festus, ‘‘me” pro ‘‘ mihi”
dicebant antigui, who quotes from Lucilius, guae me impendet.
i Vae te is found in Plautus. Lindsay, however (Lat. Lang.
| p. 422), thinks these are old uses of the accusative. Quintilian
(i, 5) seems to say that mehe was an ancient form of mzhz, but
the reading is doubtful. The evidence for the use of me for mihi
is certainly slender.
* In convivio . . . daretur. The reading of the Archetype
was darem. If this be kept the meaning is that Appius did
not drink mulsum himself, though he gave it all the same to
all his guests when there was a dinner party, and that there
was one nearly every day at his house. And this reading seems
to present fewer difficulties than Keil’s emendation.
* Meum, an allusion to the name ‘‘ Appius” connected by
Varro with apis.
* Historicos, ioropixwic. In ii, 1, 2, historicon has precisely
ee the meaning of the English word ‘‘historical,” for Varro
"324 VARRO ON FARMING [BK.
1 Cyperum. Pliny (xxi, 18) describes the plant and the uses —
made of it in medicine.
* In villae porticu. Cf. iii, 3, 5.
° Rutundas, supply alvos. Columella (ix, 6) follows Varro —
closely: “If the district produces cork trees in abundance there ~
is no doubt that the most useful hives are made out of thin
cork, as such hives are neither bitterly cold in winter nor —
stifling in summer; fennel stalks also, as they resemble cork
in nature, will do equally well; if neither material is at hand
wicker work may be used, failing this, the wood of a tree _
hollowed out or cut into planks. The worst hives are those of —
earthenware, as they become furnaces in summer and ice-
ut] OF BEES AND APIARIES 331
by some people and of osiers where these are to be
found; by others of wood or bark, or of a hollow tree
or earthenware, while others make them rectangular
of fennel stalks, and about three feet long and one
foot broad, making them, however, of smaller
dimensions in cases where there are too few bees to
fill them, lest, being in a big empty space, the bees
_ lose heart. All these constructions are called, from
the nourishment (a/imonium) which honey sup-
plies, a/vz (bellies), and when’ people constrict their
waists, it is, I imagine, in imitation of the shape of
6 the bees. Those hives which are made of withes are
smeared inside and out with cow-dung, lest the bees
be frightened away by their roughness. Hives are
arranged on brackets projecting from the wall, in
such a way that they do not shake, and do not
touch one another when placed in a row; then,
with a space between, a second and third row is
made below the first, and they say it is better to
have fewer rows rather than to add a fourth. In the
middle of the hive small holes are made, right and
houses in winter. Two kinds remain; one fashioned with
dung, the other built of brick. The first was properly con-
demned by Celsus owing to the danger of fire, the second
had his approval though he did not hide the disadvantage of
its not being portable.”
* Quas, etc. It is improbable that the hives were ‘‘ wasp-
waisted,” so that guas must refer to a/vos in the primary sense
of ‘‘ belly.” Aristophanes (Plutus, 561) speaks of men being
opnxwdec, and Festus says that such were called cinguli: Cin-
gulos appellabant homines qui in his locis ubi cingi solet satis
sunt lenues.
332 VARRO ON FARMING [BK.
17 left, for the bees to go in by, and at theend'a lidis —
put on the hives so that the bee-keepers can get the _
honey out. The best hives are made of bark, the |
worst of earthenware, for the latter are most power- |
fully affected by cold in winter and heat in summer.
The bee-keeper must inspect them in spring and |
autumn about three times a month, using moderate
fumigations, and should cleanse the hive from dirt |
18 and expel any vermin. He should also see that
there are not several kings in the same hive, as
these do harm by reason of the quarrels they make.
Some’ people assert, as there are three species _
of kings amongst bees—the black, the red, and the _
striped, or according to Menecrates* two, the black
' Extrema, i.e., at the back. Cf. Pliny, xxi, 14, Utilissimum .
operculum a tergo esse ambulatorium, sqq. :
2 Et quidam dicunt, etc. This sentence, monstrum, hore
dum, informe, ingens though it is, was probably thus written by
Varro. The interminable parenthesis éria genera—nigrum, and
the general confusion and clumsiness of the whole period is
characteristic of him at his worst. In this passage, moreover, ©
he is translating Aristotle, and does not seem to have under- —
stood him, as he failed occasionally to understand Theophrastus
in Book I. Aristotle (ix, 40) writes as follows: isi dé yevn rav
pehirrov wrsiw . . . dbo piv nyepdvwy, Oo piv Bedriwy muppdg, 0 dF
trepoc péAac Kai mouwdwrepog . . . 1) 8 Gpiorn puxpd oTpoyybdn Kal
mouidn, GAn paxpd dpoia TZ avOphry. FErepoc 6 pwp Kadodbpevoc pédag
mharvydorwp «.7.r. It will be noticed that Aristotle gives two
varieties; one reddish, the other black and striped, and that
Varro takes the words ‘‘ black and striped” as referring to-
two separate species. c
° Menecrates. Cf. i, 1,9: Easdem res etiam quidam versibus, —
ut Hestodus Ascraeus, Menecrates Ephesius, and Pliny, xi, 7.
111] OF BEES AND APIARIES 333
and the striped (which is also the better one)—that
if there is another king with him he quarrels with
him and spoils the hive, as he either drives the other
away or is himself driven away, taking with hima
large number of bees. And soif there are two kings
in the same hive it is better for the bee-keeper to
19 kill the black one. Of bees which are not kings the
best are the small, round, striped kind. The thief,
called* by others the drone,* is black and broad-
bellied. The bee which resembles the wasp” does
not join in the work, and has a habit of stinging,
and the bees separate it from their company. Bees
differ in being wild and tame—and here I mean by
‘* wild” bees those that feed in woodland places, by
‘*tame”’ ones those that do so on cultivated land.
The wild * ones are smaller in size and covered with
hairs, but are the better workers.
' Vocabitur. Keil suggests vocatur, which I have translated.
* Fucus. Aristotle distinguishes between the ‘‘ drone ” and
the ‘‘ thief” (Joc. cit.): trepocg 5 pwp Kadodpevoc, pédac Kai mdarv-
yaorwp. inc d i xngony. obrog piyorog mavrwy dxevrpog dé Kai vwOpdc.
‘The second kind, the so-called ‘thief’ is black and broad-
bellied. And again there is the drone; this is the biggest of
all, but stingless and stupid.” Did Varro mistranslate ér 3 6
eno ovrog, ‘and again this drone,” etc., and so identify it
with the “ thief” ?
* Vespa. 1 have adopted Schneider’s emendation, vespae,
which accords well with Aristotle’s d\n paxpd dpoia rZ dvOqvn,
and Pliny’s (xi, 18) deteriores longae et quibus similitudo ves-
parum.
* Silvestres. Cf. Aristotle (doc. cit.): eiai yap ai amd ray bdovépwy
dacirepa wai dharrove Kai ipyaruwrepa Kai yaderorepa. Further on
in the same chapter he says: ‘‘ the little ones are better workers
334 VARRO ON FARMING [BK.
In buying bees, the buyer must see whether they
20 are in good or bad health. Indications of good
health are: thick swarms, sleekness, and the smooth-_
ness‘ and uniformity of the work accomplished. I
is significant of ill-health if they look hairy and)
covered with bristles, dusty *as it were; unless, ins
deed, the time of hard work is upon them, for thet
toil makes them rough and in poor condition. |
21 If you have to move the hives elsewhere, yot
must do so with care, noting the times to be pre
ferred, and providing suitable places to move them
to. For example, spring-time is better than winter,
for if moved in winter they do not easily get used
to their surroundings, and so generally fly away.
than the big; the edges of their wings are frayed and they look
black and burnt, while the sleek and bright-looking bees z
like idle women.” y
1 Leve. Aristotle (Joc. cit.) says that roughly fashioned cellS_
are the work either of a ‘‘ bad bee ” or an inexperienced young=
ster.
* Ut pulverulentae. Cf. Vergil, Georg., iv, 95:
Ut binae regum facies ita corpora plebis
Namque aliae turpes horrent; ceu pulvere ab alto
Cum ventt et sicco terram spuit ore viator
Aridus; elucent aliae, et fulgore coruscant
Ardentes auro et paribus lita corpora guttis.
Haec potior soboles.
It is often difficult to determine whether Vergil is paraphrasing
Varro or merely using the same sources. As to the passagé
quoted, Columella (ix, 4, 2) states that Vergil followed the
authority of Aristotle. Columella himself used principally for
his treatise on bees the writings of Hyginus, Celsus, and
Vergil, and very often quotes from the last named.
111] OF BEES AND APIARIES 335
If you move them from a good situation to one
where there is no suitable food, they desert. Again
if you would transfer them from one hive to another
VX
in the same place, certain precautions must be
22 taken: the hive to which you mean to transfer them
_ should be rubbed with apzastrum as this attracts
| them strongly, and you must place inside, not far
from the entrance, some combs with honey in them,
_ lest when they notice that there is nothing to eat’
C5
CSRS
Rt
Ee
ali
111] OF BEES AND APIARIES 341
around them, while the place, which should not be
far away, to which it is wished to bring them is
smeared ’ with erithace, apiastrum, and other things
of which they are fond. When they have settled, a
hive is brought there, smeared inside with the en-
ticing substances I have mentioned. This is placed
close to the swarm, which is then forced by a gentle
fumigation to enter it. When once the bees have
entered the new colony they remain there with such
goodwill that, even if you place next to them the old
hive from which they came, they still prefer the new
home.
Having stated what I considered to be of import-
ance in the matter of bee-feeding, I will now pro-
ceed to discuss its object—the produce.
The time for taking * the honey-combs is indicated
‘ Oblinunt. For this some such object as ramum seems to |
be required, but it is quite possible that Varro disdained to be
more explicit.
* Eximendorum favorum, As | have translated this passage,
I had better perhaps say here what I have translated. This is
the reading of the Archetype as given by Victorius: Signum
eximendorum favorum sumunt ex ipsis viris alvos habeat nem
cégerminarit coniectura capiunt si intus faciunt bombum et, cum
intro eunt ac foras trepidant et si opercula alvorum cum remoretsst
JSavorum foramina obducta videntur membranis, cum sint repleti
melle, Scaliger’s remark on this is: Non est locus inquinatior
isto, et sane eum emendandi omnem prorsus spem abieci. And
so say Victorius and Keil. In order to get something to trans-
late | have supposed this to have been written: Signum eximen-
dorum favorum sumunt ex ipsis (fures alvos habeatne an contra
exterminarit coniecturam capiunt si intus faciunt bombum et,
cum intro eunt et foras, trepidant) et opercula alvorum cum
342 - VARRO ON FARMING [BK.
by thestateofthe honeycombsthemselves, foryoumay
know that it has come, if, on removing the lids of
the hives, the cells are seen to be covered with a
thin skin, being then full of honey; (one guesses
whether the hive still contains drones or has
already expelled them by the loud buzzing the bees
make inside the hive, and by their rushing in wild
33 excitement in and out of it). When the honey is re-
moved, some say that nine-tenths should be taken
and a tenth’ left, for if you take away the whole the
bees will desert the hive. Some people leave more
remoris (Keil) st favorum foramina obducta videntur membranis
—cum sunt repleti melle, and I have translated the parenthesis
last. As to fures for viris: Varro has already mentioned fur as
a name given to drones (iii, 16, 19), and the killing of them
seems to be indicated by what follows. Adwos (here, of course,
nominative) is frequently used by Pliny and Columella for the
bees in the hive. For xem I have written ne an. The altera-
tion of congerminarit to contra exterminarit is violent, but Colu-
mella (ix, 15, 3) uses exterminare in this relation: Hos guidam
praecipiunt in totum exterminari oportere. In the phrase et sz
Javorum ...cum remoretssit Keil obviously deletes the wrong
sz, and in the last clause sunt instead of sinmt seems to be
necessary. To the reading proposed much support is given by
Columella (ix, 15, 4): Azgo cum rixam fucorum et apium saepius
committi videris adapertas alvos inspicies ut, sive semipleni
Jfavi sint differantur: sive iam liquore completi, et superpositis
ceris tamquam operculis obliti demetantur, and Palladius (June
vii): Ztem cum fucos a sedibus suis, gui sunt apes maiores, grandi
intentione deturbant matura mella testantur.
1 Decumam. Columella (ix, 15, 8) says: ‘‘ In summer time
a fifth, and on the approach of winter, a third of the honey
should be left; but on this point ancient authorities dis-
agree.
111] OF BEES AND APIARIES 343
than the amount stated. Asin the case of ploughed
lands those who have yearly‘ crops from them get
more corn after intervals of comparative rest, so with
hives, if you do not take the honey every year, or
take less of it, your bees are busier and pay better.
34 The honey should first be taken, it is thought, at
the rising of the Pleiads, next when summer is over,
before Arcturus has fully risen, and for the third time
after the setting of the Pleiads; and at this time,
even if the hive be fertile, not more than a third of
the honey should be taken, and the rest should be
left for their winter supply, while if the hive be not
fertile none at all should be removed. Whena large
amount is to be taken, it should not be removed all
at once or in sight of the bees, lest they lose heart.
If any part of the honey-combs which have been got
has no honey in it, or if what it has is dirty, that
35 part must be cut off with a knife. Care should be
taken to prevent the weaker bees from being bullied
by the stronger, for so the yield is decreased. Ac-
cordingly the weaker are generally separated from
the rest and given another king.
Those who will continually fight together should
be sprinkled with water sweetened with honey, when
they not only leave off fighting, but crowd together
and lick one another. The effect is more marked if
wine and honey is used, the smell of which makes
| Restibiles. Cf. i, 44, 2 and 3, a passage which fully ex-
plains this, and makes unnecessary the insertion of mon before~.
restibiles as proposed by Ursinus and others. Compare also
i, Jy Bs
344 VARRO ON FARMING [BK
them come to it with great eagerness and drink
until they are stupefied.
36 ©If too few come out of the hive, and some con-
stantly remain behind, recourse must be had to
fumigations, and near by some _ sweet-smelling
herbs’ should be placed, in particular apiastrum
37 and thyme. The utmost care must be taken to pre-
vent their dying from extreme heat or cold. If ever
they have been surprised while feeding by a sudden
shower or fall of temperature, which even they had
not foreseen—for it rarely happens that they are
deceived—and the big drops have struck them to
the earth where they lie as dead, you must put’
them together into some vessel, and place them out
of the way in a sheltered and moderately warm spot,
and the next day when the weather is at its best,
bits of fig-wood should be burned to ashes, and
these, when they are a little hotter than lukewarm,
1 Herbarum. A use of the genitive rare in Latin, quite com-
mon in Greek, as in such phrases as oivov rive, rijg yg Tépvey,
etc. Cf. Varro, iii, 17, 7.
* Colligendum. It is remarkable that both Columella (ix,
13, 4) and Pliny (xi, 20) speak of this practice as adopted for
the resuscitation in the spring of bees that have died on the
approach of winter. Pliny says: ‘‘ Some people think that the
dead bees revive if they are kept in the house during the
winter, and then, when the spring comes are warmed in the
sun and kept hot fora whole day in fig-wood ashes.” Columella
(Joc. cit.) makes substantially the same statement about bees ;
which have died from disease, taking Hyginus as his authority,
‘‘who himself followed ancient authors and dared not assert
the truth of the story.” In any case, Columella says, the best
thing is to prevent them from dying.
ie
SE
Sith
.
111] OF FISH-PONDS 345
should be sprinkled over the bees, which must
then be gently shaken, vessel and all—so that you
do not touch them with the hand—and placed in
Is8 the sun. Thus thoroughly warmed they are re-
_ stored and come to life again, just as it happens in
the case of drowned flies. This treatment is to be
_ carried out close to the hives, so that when won
back to life, each bee may return to his own work
and home.
CHAPTER XVII
OF FISH-PONDS
MEANWHILE Pavo' came back to us and said:
Suppose we weigh anchor; the votes? have been
given, and the tribes are casting * lots, and the crier
is beginning to shout out* the name of the aedile
chosen by each tribe. Appius at once jumped up;
meaning to greet his candidate on the spot, and
' Pavo. See iii, 5, 18.
* Latis tabulis, i.e., suffragiis. Cf. Cicero, Pro Plancio, 20:
Vocatae tribus \atum suffragium, descriptae, renuntiatae.
* Sortitio tribuum, to decide, in the case of competitors who
had received an equal number of votes, which should be
chosen. Cf. Pro Plancio, 22: Negue enim umquam maiores
nostri sortitionem constituissent aedilitiam, nist viderent accidere
posse ut competitores pares suffragiis essent, This speech throws
much light on the comitia aedilitia.
* Recini. The verbum solenne is arene Keil thinks there
| is here a reference to the ‘‘ sing-song ” utterance of the crier.
346 VARRO ON FARMING [BK.
then go on to his country house.’ Whereupon ©
Merula remarked: Some other time, Axius, I will—
give you the third act* concerning farm-yard feed-—
ing. They (Merula and Appius) rose, and Axius |
and I stood looking back at them as they went, for |
we knew our candidate would come that*® way. |)
Said Axius to me: I am not sorry that Merula
has left us at this point, for I know pretty well |
2 what remains to be said. Thus: there are two sorts |
of fish-ponds, those of fresh water and those of salt. |
t
if
ny
7
a
111] OF FISH-PONDS 351
it into his ponds, when the sea was stormy, and’
when, owing to the weather, the market that supplies
the fish-ponds (the sea, that is) refused its food, and
the live food, the fish eaten by the common people
for supper, could not be got to shore with a net.
You would sooner, said I, have got Hortensius’s
consent to your taking his carriage-mules from the
stable and keeping them for your own, than a
8 bearded mullet from his fish-pond. And, Axius
went on, he was as much troubled about a sick fish
as about a slave who was not very well, and so took
less pains to prevent a slave who was ill from drink-
ing cold water than to see that his fish had it fresh.
For neglect in this matter he used to blame Marcus
Lucullus,* and thought little of his fish-ponds, as,
he said, Lucullus had no proper tidal basins, and
as the water was stagnant his fish lived in an un-
9 healthy place, whereas Lucius Lucullus, who near
AA
EXCURSUS I
ON THE TIME AND PLACE OF THE DIALOGUE IN
BOOK II
ee
eee
OG
ae
366 VARRO ON FARMING
the rain water would fall into an ‘‘impluvium,” which ~
might be used as a pond—the ‘‘lacus sub dio” of ; |
Chapter XI—while, if running water were at hand (for
‘‘aqua saliens” opposed to ‘‘putei” or ‘‘fontes,”
cf. Pliny, —
Ep., ii, 17, 25), it was to be directed into a pond in the |
yard, probably into the portico where it would form a ©
semt-piscina, having the stylobates on two sides (a piscina ~
had usually masonry on all four sides). I suggest there- —
fore: ‘‘ Cohortes in fundo magno duae aptiores: una ut |
interius (having inside it) compluvium habeat, au¢lacum |
ubi aqua saliat quae (Schneider) intra stylobatas cum >
venit (Merula, approved by Keil) sit semipiscina.” One
may regard the omission of ‘‘aut”’ as a case of haplo-
graphy, of which we have many examples in these books.
‘‘ Qui” improperly written for ‘‘ quae’’ occurs very many
times (cf. II, 1, 27, etc.).
I, 15, 1. ‘f Praeterea sine saeptis fines praedii sationis
notis arborum tutiores fiunt.” Schneider, followed by
Keil, cuts the knot by deleting ‘‘ notis” and writing ‘‘ sa-
tione”’ for ‘‘ sationis.” If the text may not stand—and
I do not feel sure that it may not—‘‘ farm boundaries if
unfenced are made safer by the indications given by the
sowing of trees,” though the double genitive is terribly
harsh, perhaps might be read: ‘‘ Praeterea sine saeptis
fines praedii, satione si noti (or notati), tutiores fiunt.”
For the form of the expression ‘‘ si noti” cf. 1, 13, 1: *‘ Si
fessi opere ”; II, 4, 20, ‘‘ siin acervo positum ”’; III, 5, 2,
‘si enim late ibi diffusa aqua . . . bibitur inutilius.”
I, 10, 2. ‘‘Is modus acnua latine appellatur.” The
use of the word ‘‘latine” here and in II, 1, 5, ‘‘in Samo-
thrace Caprarum quas /atine rotas appellant,” is perhaps
due to the ignorance of the scribe. Pontedera (Cur.
Sec.) points out that Varro’s usual formula in such cases
EXCURSUS III 367
is ‘nostri appellant,” ‘‘a nostris appellatur.” With re-
gard to the first passage Columella (v, 1, 5) has: “ Sed
hunc actum provinciae Baeticae rustici acnuam vocant,”’
and compares the Baetic ‘‘ acnua” with the Gallic ‘‘are-
pennis” (Fr. avpent). Columella’s uncle, on whose au-
thority the statement is made, was a native of Gades,
and had probably first-hand knowledge of the fact.
Varro also, who once stayed for a long time in Spain
(cf. III, 12, 6), was likely to know the local term. Per-
haps ‘‘ Baetice” was originally written and ‘‘latine”
put instead of it by a scribe who did not understand the
former word. In II, 1, 19 ‘‘b” and ‘‘1” are confused,
‘*Obsippo” for ‘‘Olisippo.” In the-second passage,
‘*in Samothrace caprarum quas /aéine rotas appellant,”
I would adopt Turnebus’s emendation approved by Sca-
liger—‘‘ platycerotas” (r\arvxépwrac), cf. Pliny, xi, 37.
A few lines before the copyist had written ‘‘la” for
‘* pla” (‘‘ laciditatem ” instead of ‘‘ placiditatem”). Per-
haps he read here ‘‘latyce rotas,” and not knowing
what to do with ‘‘latyce” wrote instead a word he did
know—‘‘ latine.”
II, 1, 1. ‘‘ Insta an quid ille, quae coeperat hic dis-
serere quae esset origo, quae dignitas, quae ars cum t
poetam sesum visere venissemus ne medici adventus
nos inredisset.”” The copyist of the earlier part of this
book seems to have been extremely unintelligent, not
in the least understanding what he was copying; any
vowel is written by him for any other, letters and whole
syllables are omitted or interpolated, and letters are often
absurdly grouped—for instance, nine lines further on, for
the obvious ‘‘ pecuariae athletae remuneremini nos,” the
Archetype has ‘‘ pecuariathietae remune remininos.” So —
perhaps some boldness in emendation is permissible.
368 VARRO ON FARMING
Most of the passage above was easily and soon cor-
‘rected. Obviously ‘‘insta”=‘‘ista,” ‘‘an quid”=
‘finquit,” ‘‘ne”=‘‘ni” (or ‘‘nisi—n“”), and ‘‘inre-
disset”’= perhaps ‘‘impedisset’’; but for ‘‘ poetam se-
sum” no convincing emendation has been proposed.
Ursinus gave ‘‘ Paetum’”’ (Aldus ‘‘ Petam”’), ‘‘ fessum ”
taking ‘‘fessum” to mean ‘‘ill.”” But no example is to
be found of the word having this meaning absolute.
Scaliger proposed ‘‘ad portam vis (for ‘‘ vix””) e re,” etc.,
which needs no comment. In Excursus I I have given
reasons for supposing that the scene of these conversa-
tions was at some port in or near Epirus. I would
therefore propose—with extreme diffidence—to read as
follows: ‘‘Ista, inquit ille, quae coeperat hic disserere
. . cum eum, portum ingressum, visere venissemus
ni medici adventus,” etc. One would then take ‘‘ni...
impedisset”’ closely with ‘‘coeperat disserere,” trans-
lating: ‘* Precisely, answered Cossinius, I mean the dis-
course which Varro here was beginning . . . when
we had come to call on him after he had entered the
harbour (Cassiope or Corcyra), only the arrival of the
doctor prevented our further conversation.” The omis-
sion of ‘‘eum” might be explained as a case of haplo-
graphy. ‘‘Portum” would be written ‘‘ porta,” while
the ‘“‘in” of ‘‘ingressum” might have been taken (as
often) for ‘‘m”; but how ‘‘sesum” could have arisen
from ‘‘gressum” I do -“ pretend to explain—unless
one may assume that ‘‘g” was simply omitted. In II,
2, 12, ‘‘inigere est utile’ (Ursinus) is given by all editors
for the meaningless reading of the Archetype ‘‘ interest
utile.” The general sense seems here to compel the
correction, and ‘‘i” and ‘‘t” are frequently confused;
but how is the ‘‘g” to be justified? If one might
EXCURSUS III 369
assume that ‘‘ingressum” was abbreviated, the diffi-
culty would be less, for ‘‘gr’*in the abbreviated ‘‘in-
greditur”’—as given by Prou in his dictionary of Latin
abbreviations—is very like an ‘‘S”; but I can find no
indication anywhere as to the date of the MSS. in which
this abbreviation is used.
II, 1, 21. ** Et quae quemque morbum curatio curandi
sequi debeat.” Keil deletes ‘‘curandi.” Jucundus’s
conjecture, “‘ ratio curandi,” seems preferable.
II, 4, 17. ‘‘ Fructuariam idoneam non esse.” ‘‘ Fruc-
tuariam ” is probably a gloss explicative of ‘‘idoneam.”
II, 4,17. ‘‘In eorum petu (‘‘pecu” in Victorius’s semi-
vet. MS.) scrofae bis die ut bibant curant.” Victorius
suggested ‘‘foetu”; Keil prefers ‘‘ partu,” which suits
‘feorum” better. In this book “‘p” and ‘‘f” are
several times confused (e.g., II, 1, 17, ‘‘fastor” for
** pastor,” etc.). So perhaps here ‘‘in earum fetu”’ was
originally written. Cf. Cicero, De Fin., iii, 19: ‘‘ labo-
rum bestiarum in fetu et in educatione.”’
II, 5, 1. *‘Tu vero, Murri, veni mi advocatus dum
asses solvot Palibus, si postea a me repetant ut testi-
monium perhibere possis.” For ‘‘ Palibus” Keil gives
‘** Laribus,” referring to a passage of Varro’s cited by
Nonius, to prove that asses were paid to the Lares. But
this fact is stated by Varro only in relation to newly
married brides. Aldus conjectures ‘‘ Palilibus.” It is
nearly certain that these conversations took place at the
Palilia, and probably that the place was an ‘‘aedes
Palis” (cf. Excursus I). Instead of ‘‘ Palibus” I would
suggest ‘‘ Pali bis”—‘‘dum asses solvo Pali, bis si
postea a me repetant,” etc.
Il, 5, 4. ‘‘ Praeterea scio hunc esse... et hunct
Plautium locutum esse latine quam Hirrium: praetorem
BB
370 VARRO ON FARMING
renuntiatum Romam in Senatum scriptum habemus.”’
This passage seems hopelessly corrupt, no emendation
in the least plausible has ever been proposed, and no
story is related by Cicero, Livy, Pliny, Valerius Maxi-
mus, Julius Obsequens, etc., about Plautius, Hirrius,
or a speaking ox, which seems to apply even remotely
to anything in this passage. But Pliny, I think, gives
a clue. In viii, 45 (last sentence), he says: ‘‘ Est fre-
quens in prodigiis priscorum bovem locutum: quo nun-
tiato Senatum sub dio haberi solitum.” For this state-
ment of Pliny I have been able to find no authority; the
commentators are unanimously silent with the exception
of Dalecampius, who does but refer one to Alexander
ab Alexandro (v, 7; sub jin.)—a contemporary of Lau-
rentius Valla. Alexander repeats Pliny. And here again
all the commentators are silent. It seems to me prob-
able that this very passage of Varro is the authority
used by Pliny—who never quotes Varro’s exact words—
and that Varro’s actual words were: ‘‘ Et hunc Plautum
locutum esse latine; quo miro praetori (z.e., ‘urbano,’
cf. Suetonius, Claud., 22) nuntiato Romam, Senatum
sub dio habemus ”’—‘‘ And that this ‘ Plautus’ has been
known to speak good Latin—on the announcement of —
which portent to the praetor at Rome we hold the Senate
in the open air.” The joke seems exactly in Varro’s ~
manner. Plautus was famous amongst the ancients for
the excellence of his Latin, cf. Quintilian, x, 1: ‘‘ Licet
Varro dicat Musas Plautius sermone locuturas fuisse
si latine loqui vellent,”’ and on the other hand “‘ plautus ”
(flat-footed, cf. Festus, ad verbum) was an epithet ap-
plied to the Umbrians, and the ‘‘ vasti Umbriae boves” ~
(Col., vi, 1, 2) were famous among cattle. It is to these ;
that Varro alludes, II, 5, 10.
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