I.
Cum duae vitae traditae sint hominum, rustica et urbana, quidni, Pinni, dubium non est quin hae non solum loco discretae sint, sed etiam tempore diversam originem habeant. Antiquior enim multo rustica, quod fuit tempus, cum rura colerent homines neque urbem haberent. Etenim vetustissimum oppidum cum sit traditum Graecum Boeotiae Thebae, quod rex Ogyges aedificarit, in agro Romano Roma, quam Romulus rex; nam in hoc nunc denique est ut dici possit, non cum Ennius scripsit:
septingenti sunt paulo plus aut minus anni,
augusto augurio postquam inclita condita Roma est.
[1.1] Though there are traditionally two ways in which men live — one in the country, the other in the city — there is clearly no doubt, Pinnius, that these differ not merely in the matter of place but also in the time at which each had its beginning. Country life is much more ancient — I mean the time when people lived on the land and had no cities. [2] For tradition has it that the oldest of all cities is a Greek one, Thebes in Boeotia, founded by King Ogygus; while the oldest on Roman territory is Rome, founded by King Romulus. For we may now say, with regard to this, with more accuracy than when Ennius wrote:
Seven hundred years are there, a little more or less,
Since glorious Rome was founded, with augury august.”
Thebae, quae ante cataclysmon Ogygi conditae dicuntur, eae tamen circiter duo milia annorum et centum sunt. Quod tempus si referas ad illud principium, quo agri coli sunt coepti atque in casis et tuguriis habitabant nec murus et porta quid esset sciebant, immani numero annorum urbanos agricolae praestant. Nec mirum, quod divina natura dedit agros, ars humana aedificavit urbes, cum artes omnes dicantur in Graecia intra mille annorum reperte, agri numquam non fuerint in terris qui coli possint. Neque solum antiquior cultura agri, sed etiam melior. Itaque non sine causa maiores nostri ex urbe in agros redigebant suos cives, quod et in pace a rusticis Romanis alebantur et in bello ab his allevabantur. Nec sine causa terram eandem appellabant matrem et Cererem, et qui eam colerent, piam et utilem agere vitam credebant atque eos solos reliquos esse ex stirpe Saturni regis. Cui consentaneum est, quod initia vocantur potissimum ea quae Cereri fiunt sacra. Nec minus oppidi quoque nomen Thebae indicat antiquiorem esse agrum, quod ab agri genere, non a conditore nomen ei est impositum. Nam lingua prisca et in Graecia Aeolis Boeoti sine afflatu vocant collis tebas, et in Sabinis, quo e Graecia venerunt Pelasgi, etiam nunc ita dicunt, cuius vestigium in agro Sabino via Salaria non longe a Reate miliarius clivus cum appellatur tebae. Agri culturam primo propter paupertatem maxime indiscretam habebant, quod a pastoribus qui erant orti in eodem agro et serebant et pascebant; quae postea creverunt peculia diviserunt, ac factum ut dicerentur alii agricolae, alii pastores. Quae ipsa pars duplex est, tametsi ab nullo satis discreta, quod altera est villatica pastio, altera agrestis. Haec nota et nobilis, quod et pecuaria appellatur, et multum homines locupletes ob eam rem aut conductos aut emptos habent saltus; altera villatica, quod humilis videtur, a quibusdam adiecta ad agri culturam, cum esset pastio, neque explicata tota separatim, quod sicam, ab ullo. Itaque cum putarem esse rerum rusticarum, quae constituta sunt fructus causa, tria genera, unum de agri cultura, alterum de re pecuaria, tertium de villaticis pastionibus, tres libros institui, e quis duo scripsi, primum ad Fundaniam uxorem de agri cultura, secundum de pecuaria ad Turranium Nigrum; qui reliquus est tertius de villaticis fructibus, in hoc ad te mitto, quod visus sum debere pro nostra vicinitate et amore scribere potissimum ad te. Cum enim villam haberes opere tectorio et intestino ac pavimentis nobilibus lithostrotis spectandam et parum putasses esse, ni tuis quoque litteris exornati parietes essent, ego quoque, quo ornatior ea esse posset fructu, quod facere possem, haec ad te misi, recordatus de ea re sermones, quos de villa perfecta habuissemus. De quibus exponendis initium capiam hinc.
[3] Thebes, however, which is said to have been founded before the deluge which takes its name from Ogygus, is some 2,100 years old. If, now, you compare this span of time with that early day when fields were first tilled, and men lived in huts and dugouts, and did not know what a wall or a gate was, farmers antedate city people by an enormous number of years. [4] And no marvel, since it was divine nature which gave us the country, and man’s skill that built the cities; since all arts are said to have been discovered in Greece within a thousand years, while there never was a time when there were not fields on earth that could be tilled. And not only is the tilling of the fields more ancient — it is more noble. It was therefore not without reason that our ancestors tried to entice their citizens back from city to the country; for in time of peace they were fed by the country Romans, and in time of war aided by them. [5] It was also not without reason that they called the same earth “mother” and “Ceres,” and thought that those who tilled her lived a pious and useful life, and that they were the only survivors of the stock of King Saturnus. And it is in accordance with this that the sacred rites in honour of Ceres are beyond all others called “Initiations.” [6] The name of Thebes, too, no less clearly shows that the country is more ancient, in that the name given it comes from a type of land, and not from the name of the founder. For the old language, and the Aeolians of Boeotia in Greece as well, use the word teba for hill, leaving out the aspirate; and among the Sabines, a country which was settled by the Pelasgians from Greece, up to this day they use the same word; there is a trace of it in the Sabine country on the Via Salaria, not far from Reate, where a slope of a mile in length is called tebae. [7] At first, because of their poverty, people practised agriculture, as a rule, without distinction, the descendants of the shepherds both planting and grazing on the same land; later, as this flocks grew, they made a division, with the result that some were called farmers, and others herdsmen. [8] This matter of herding has a twofold division (though no writer has made the distinction clearly), as the feeding around the steading is one thing, and that on the land is another. The latter is well known and highly esteemed, being also called pecuaria, and wealthy men frequently have ranches devoted to it, which they have either leased or bought; while the other, that of the steading, as it seems insignificant, has, by some writers, been brought under the head of agriculture, though it is a matter of feeding; and the subject as a whole has not, so far as I know, been treated as a separate topic by anyone. [9] Hence, as I suggested that there are three divisions of rural economy which are instituted for gainful ends — one of agriculture, a second of animal husbandry, and a third of the husbandry of the steading — I fixed on three books, of which I have written two: the first to my wife Fundania, on agriculture, and the second to Turranius Niger, on animal husbandry. The third book, that on the husbandry of the steading, which remains, I am herewith sending to you, thinking that in view of our nearness and our affection it is to you particularly that I should dedicate it. [10] For just as you had a villa noteworthy for its frescoing, inlaid work, and handsome mosaic floors, but thought it was not fine enough until its walls were adorned also by your writings, so I, that it might be farther adorned with fruit, so far as I could make it so, am sending this to you, recalling as I do the conversations which we held on the subject of the complete villa. And in discussing that subject we shall begin as follows.
II.
Comitiis aediliciis cum sole caldo ego et Q. Axius senator tribulis suffragium tulissemus et candidato, cui studebamus, vellemus esse praesto, cum domum rediret, Axius mihi, Dum diribentur, inquit, suffragia, vis potius villae publicae utamur umbra, quam privati candidati tabella dimidiata aedificemus nobis? Opinor, inquam, non solum, quod dicitur, “malum consilium consultori est pessimum”, sed etiam bonum consilium, qui consulit et qui consulitur, bonum habendum. Itaque imus, venimus in villam. Ibi Appium Claudium augurem sedentem invenimus in subselliis, ut consuli, siquid usus poposcisset, esset praesto. Sedebat ad sinistram ei Cornelius Merula consulari familia ortus et Fircellius Pavo Reatinus, ad dextram Minucius Pica et M. Petronius Passer. Ad quem cum accessissemus, Axius Appio subridens, Recipis nos, inquit, in tuum ornithona, ubi sedes inter aves? Ille, Ego vero, inquit, te praesertim, quoius aues hospitales etiam nunc ructor, quas mihi apposuisti paucis ante diebus in Villa Reatina ad lacum Velini eunti de controversiis Interamnatium et Reatinorum. Sed non haec, inquit, villa, quam aedificarunt maiores nostri, frugalior ac melior est quam tua illa perpolita in Reatino? Nuncubi hic vides citrum aut aurum? Num minium aut armenium? Num quod emblema aut lithostrotum? Quae illic omnia contra. Et cum haec sit communis universi populi, illa solius tua; haec quo succedant e campo cives et reliqui homines, illa quo equae et asini; praeterea cum ad rem publicam administrandam haec sit utilis, ubi cohortes ad dilectum consuli adductae considant, ubi arma ostendant, ubi censores censu admittant populum. Tua scilicet, inquit Axius, haec in campo Martio extremo utilis et non deliciis sumptuosior quam omnes omnium universae Reatinae? Tua enim oblita tabulis pictis nec minus signis; at mea, vestigium ubi sit nullum Lysippi aut Antiphili, at crebra sartoris et pastoris. Et cum illa non sit sine fundo magno et eo polito cultura, tua ista neque agrum habeat ullum nec bovem nec equam. Denique quid tua habet simile villae illius, quam tuus avos ac proavos habebat? Nec enim, ut illa, faenisicia vidit arida in tabulato nec vindemiam in cella neque in granario messim. Nam quod extra urbem est aedificium, nihilo magis ideo est villa, quam eorum aedificia, qui habitant extra portam Flumentanam aut in Aemilianis.
[2.1] During the election of aediles, Quintus Axius, the senator, a member of my tribe, and I, after casting our ballots, wished, though the sun was hot, to be on hand to escort the candidate whom we were supporting when he returned home. Axius remarked to me: “While the votes are being sorted, shall we enjoy the shade of the Villa Publica, instead of building us one out of the half-plank of our own candidate?” “Well,” I replied, “I think that the proverb is correct, ‘bad advice is worst for the adviser,’ and also that good advice should be considered good both for the adviser and the advised. [2] So we go our way and come to the Villa. There we find Appius Claudius, the augur, sitting on a bench so that he might be on hand for consultation, if need should arise. There were sitting at his left Cornelius Merula (‘Blackbird’), member of a consular family, and Fircellius Pavo (‘Peacock’), of Reate; and on his right Minucius Pica (‘Magpie’) and Marcus Petronius Passer (‘Sparrow’). When we came up to him, Axius said to Appius, with a smile: “Will you let us come into your aviary, where you are sitting among the birds?” [3] “With pleasure,” he replied, “and especially you; I still ‘bring up’ those hospitable birds which you set before me a few days ago in your villa at Reate, when I was on my way to lake Velinus in the matter of the dispute between the people of Interamna and those of Reate. But,” he added, “isn’t this villa, which our ancestors built, simpler and better than that elaborate villa of yours at Reate? [4] Do you see anywhere here citrus wood or gold, or vermilion or azure, or any coloured or mosaic work? At your place everything is just the opposite. Also, while this villa is common property of the whole population, that one belongs to you alone; this one is for citizens and other people to come to from the Campus, and that one is for mares and asses; and furthermore, this one is serviceable for the transaction of public business — for the cohorts to assemble when summoned by the consul for a levy, for the inspection of arms, for the censors to convoke the people for the census.” [5] “Do you really mean, replied Axius, “that this villa of yours on the edge of the Campus Martius is merely serviceable, and isn’t more lavish in luxuries than all the villas owned by everybody in the whole of Reate? Why, your villa is plastered with paintings, not to speak of statues; while mine, though there is no trace of Lysippus or Antiphilus, has many a trace of the hoer and the shepherd. Further, while that villa is not without its large farm, and one which has been kept clean by tillage, this one of yours has never a field or ox or mare. [6] In short, what has your villa that is like that villa which your grandfather and great-grandfather had? For it has never, as that one did, seen a cured hay harvest in the loft, or a vintage in the cellar, or a grain-harvest in the bins. For the fact that a building is outside the city no more makes it a villa than the same fact makes villas of the houses of those who live outside the Porta Flumentana or in the Aemiliana.”
Appius subridens, Quoniam ego ignoro, inquit, quid sit villa, velim me doceas, ne labar imprudentia, quod volo emere a M. Seio in Ostiensi villam. Quod si ea aedificia villae non sunt, quae asinum tuum, quem mihi quadraginta milibus emptum ostendebas aput te, non habent, metuo ne pro villa emam in litore Seianas aedes. Quod aedificium hic me Lucius Merula impulit ut cuperem habere, cum diceret nullam se accepisse villam, qua magis delectatus esset, cum apud eum dies aliquot fuisset; nec tamen ibi se vidisse tabulam pictam neque signum aheneum aut marmoreum ullum, nihilo magis torcula vasa vindemiatoria aut serias olearias aut trapetas. Axius aspicit Merulam et, Quid igitur, inquit, est ista villa, si nec urbana habet ornamenta neque rustica membra? Quoi ille; Num minus villa tua erit ad angulum Velini, quam neque pictor neque tector vidit umquam, quam in Rosea quae est polita opere tectorio eleganter, quam dominus habes communem cum asino? Cum significasset nutu nihilo minus esse villam eam quae esset simplex rustica, quam eam quae esset utrumque, et ea et urbana, et rogasset, quid ex iis rebus colligeret, Quid? inquit, si propter pastiones tuus fundus in Rosea probandus sit, et quod ibi pascitur pecus ac stabulatur, recte villa appellatur, haec quoque simili de causa debet vocari villa, in qua propter pastiones fructus capiuntur magni. Quid enim refert, utrum propter oves, an propter aves fructus capias? Anne dulcior est fructus apud te ex bubulo pecore, unde apes nascuntur, quam ex apibus, quae ad villam Sei in alvariis opus faciunt? Et num pluris tu e villa illic natos verres lanio vendis, quam hinc apros macellario Seius? Qui minus ego, inquit Axius, istas habere possum in Reatina villa? Nisi si apud Seium Siculum fit mel, Corsicum in Reatino; et hic aprum glans cum pascit empticia, facit pinguem, illic gratuita exilem. Appius: Posse ad te fieri, inquit, Seianas pastiones non negauit Merula; ego non esse ipse vidi. Duo enim genera cum sint pastionum, unum agreste, in quo pecuariae sunt, alterum villaticum, in quo sunt gallinae ac columbae et apes et cetera, quae in villa solent pasci, de quibus et Poenus Mago et Cassius Dionysius et alii quaedam separatim ac dispersim in libris reliquerunt, quae Seius legisse videtur et ideo ex iis pastionibus ex una villa maioris fructus capere, quam alii faciunt ex toto fundo. Certe, inquit Merula; nam ibi vidi greges magnos anserum, gallinarum, columbarum, gruum, pavonum, nec non glirium, piscium, aprorum, ceterae venationis. Ex quibus rebus scriba librarius, libertus eius, qui apparuit Varroni et me absente patrono hospitio accipiebat, in annos singulos plus quinquagena milia e villa capere dicebat. Axio admiranti, Certe nosti, inquam, materterae meae fundum, in Sabinis qui est ad quartum vicesimum lapidem via Salaria a Roma. Quidni? inquit, ubi aestate diem meridie dividere soleam, cum eo Reate ex urbe aut, cum inde venio hieme, noctu ponere castra. Atque in hac villa qui est ornithon, ex eo uno quinque milia scio venisse turdorum denariis ternis, ut sexaginta milia ea pars reddiderit eo anno villae, bis tantum quam tuus fundus ducentum iugerum Reate reddit. Quid? sexaginta, inquit Axius, sexaginta, sexaginta? derides. Sexaginta, inquam. Sed ad hunc bolum ut pervenias, opus erit tibi aut epulum aut triumphus alicuius, ut tunc fuit Scipionis Metelli, aut collegiorum cenae, quae nunc innumerabiles excandefaciunt annonam macelli. Reliquis annis omnibus si non hanc expectabis summam, spero, non tibi decoquet ornithon; neque hoc accidit his moribus nisi raro ut decipiaris. Quotus quisque enim est annus, quo non videas epulum aut triumphum aut collegia non epulari? Sed propter luxuriam, inquit, quodam modo epulum cotidianum est intra ianuas Romae. Nonne item L. Abucius, homo, ut scitis, apprime doctus, cuius Luciliano charactere sunt libelli, dicebat in Albano fundum suum pastionibus semper vinci a villa? Agrum enim minus decem milia reddere, villam plus vicena. Idem secundum mare, quo loco vellet, si parasset villam, se supra centum milia e villa recepturum. Age, non M. Cato nuper, cum Luculli accepit tutelam, e piscinis eius quadraginta milibus sestertiis vendidit piscis? Axius, Merula mi, inquit, recipe me quaeso discipulum villaticae pastionis. Ille: Quin simul ac promiseris minerval, incipiam, inquit. Ego vero non recuso, vel hodie vel ex ista pastione crebro. Appius: Credo simul ac primum ex isto villatico pecore mortui erunt anseres aut pavones. Cui ille: Quid enim interest, utrum morticinas editis volucres an pisces, quos nisi mortuos estis numquam? Sed oro te, inquit, induce me in viam disciplinae villaticae pastionis ac vim formamque eius expone.
[7] To which Appius replied, with a smile: “As I don’t know what a villa is, I should like you to enlighten me, so that I shall not go wrong from lack of foresight; since I want to buy a villa from Marcus Seius near Ostia. For if buildings are not villas unless they contain the ass which you showed me at your place, for which you paid 40,000 sesterces, I’m afraid I shall be buying a ‘Seian’ house instead of a seaside villa. [8] My friend here, Lucius Merula, made me eager to own this house when he told me, after spending several days with Seius, that he had never been entertained in a villa which he liked more; and this in spite of the fact that he saw there no picture or statue of bronze or marble, nor, on the other hand, apparatus for pressing wine, jars for olive oil, or mills.” [9] Axius turned to Merula and asked: “How can that be a villa, if it has neither the furnishings of the city nor the appurtenances of the country?” “Why,” he replied, “you don’t think that place of yours on the bend of the Velinus, which never a painter or fresco-worker has seen, is less a villa than the one in the Rosea which is adorned with all the art of the stucco-worker, and of which you and your ass are joint owners?” [10] When Axius had indicated by a nod that a building which was for farm use only was as much a villa as one that served both purposes, that of farm-house and city residence, and asked what inference he drew from that admission. “Why,” he replied, “if your place in the Rosea is to be commended for its pasturage, and is rightly called a villa because cattle are fed and stabled there, for a like reason that also should have the name in which a large revenue is derived from pasturing. [11] For if you get a revenue from flocks, what does it matter whether they are flocks of sheep or of birds? Why, is the revenue sweeter on your place from oxen which give birth to bees than it is from the bees which are busy at their task in the hives of Seius’s villa? And do you get more from the butcher for boars born on your place there than Seius does from the market-man for the wild boars from his place?” [12] “Well,” replied Axius, “what is there to prevent me from keeping these at my villa at Reate? You don’t think that honey is Sicilian if it is produced on Seius’s place, and Corsican if it is produced at Reate? And that if mast which has to be bought feeds a boar on his place it makes him fat, while that which is had for nothing on my place makes him thin?” Whereupon Appius remarked: “Merula did not say that you could not have husbandry like Seius’s on your place; but I have, with my own eyes, seen that you have not. [13] For there are two kinds of pasturing: one in the fields, which includes cattle-raising, and the other around the farmstead, which includes chickens, pigeons, bees, and the like, which usually feed in the steading; the Carthaginian Mago, Cassius Dionysius, and other writers have left in their books remarks on them, but scattered and unsystematic. These Seius seems to have read, and as a result he gets more revenue from such pasturing out of one villa than others receive from a whole farm.” [14] “You are quite right,” said Merula; “I have seen there large flocks of geese, chickens, pigeons, cranes, and peafowl, not to speak of numbers of dormice, fish, boars, and other game. His book-keeper, a freedman who waited on Varro and used to entertain me when his patron was away from home, told me that he received, because of such husbandry, more than 50,000 sesterces from the villa every year.” When Axius expressed his surprise, I remarked to him: “Doubtless you know my maternal aunt’s place in the Sabine country, at the twenty-fourth milestone from Rome on the Via Salaria?” [15] “Of course,” he replied; “it is my custom to break the journey there at noon in summer, when I am on my way to Reate from the city, and to camp there at night in winter when I am on my way from there to town.” “Well, from the aviary alone which is in that villa, I happen to know that there were sold 5,000 fieldfares, for three denarii apiece, so that that department of the villa in that year brought in sixty thousand sesterces — twice as much as your farm of 200 iugera at Reate brings in.” “What? Sixty?” exclaimed Axius, “Sixty? Sixty? You are joking!” [16] “Sixty,” I repeated. “But to reach such a haul as that you will need a public banquet or somebody’s triumph, such as that of Metellus Scipio at that time, or the club dinners which are now so countless that they make the price of provisions go soaring. If you can’t look for this sum in all other years, your aviary, I hope, will not go bankrupt on you; and if fashions continue as they now are, it will happen only rarely that you miss your reckoning. For how rarely is there a year in which you do not see a banquet or a triumph, or when the clubs do not feast?” “Why,” said he, “in this time of luxury it may fairly be said that there is a banquet every day within the gates of Rome. [17] Was it not Lucius Abuccius, who is, as you know, an unusually learned man (his writings are quite in the manner of Lucilius), who used to remark likewise that his estate near Alba was always beaten in feeding by his steading? for his land brought in less than 10,000, and his steading more than 20,000 sesterces. He also claimed that if he had got a villa near the sea, where he wanted one, he would take in more than 100,000 from the villa. Come, did not Marcus Cato, when he took over the guardianship of Lucullus recently, sell the fish from his ponds for 40,000 sesterces?” [18] “My dear Merula,” said Axius, “take me, I beg, as your pupil in this villa-feeding.” “Certainly,” he replied; “I will begin as soon as you promise the minerval.” “That is satisfactory to me; you may have it to-day, or I’ll pay it time and again from that feeding.” “Humph,” replied Appius, “the first time some geese or peacocks out of your flock die!” “Well,” retorted Axius, “what does it matter if you eat fowls or fish that have died, seeing that you never eat them unless they are dead? But, I pray you,” said he, “lead me into the way of the science of villa-husbandry, and set forth its scope and method.”
III.
Merula non gravate, Primum, inquit, dominum scientem esse oportet earum rerum, quae in villa circumve eam ali ac pasci possint, ita ut domino sint fructui ac delectationi. Eius disciplinae genera sunt tria: ornithones, leporaria, piscinae. Nunc ornithonas dico omnium alitum, quae intra parietes villae solent pasci. Leporaria te accipere volo non ea quae tritavi nostri dicebant, ubi soli lepores sint, sed omnia saepta, afficta villae quae sunt et habent inclusa animalia, quae pascantur. Similiter piscinas dico eas, quae in aqua dulci aut salsa inclusos habent pisces ad villam. Harum rerum singula genera minimum in binas species dividi possunt: in prima parte ut sint quae terra modo sint contentae, ut sunt pavones turtures turdi; in altera specie sunt quae non sunt contentae terra solum, sed etiam aquam requirunt, ut sunt anseres querquedulae anates. Sic alterum genus illud venaticum duas habet diversas species, unam, in qua est aper caprea lepus; altera item extra villam quae sunt, ut apes cochleae glires. Tertii generis aquatilis item species duae, partim quod habent pisces in aqua dulci, partim quod in marina. De his sex partibus ad ista tria genera item tria genera artificum paranda, aucupes venatores piscatores, aut ab iis emenda quae tuorum servorum diligentia tuearis in fetura ad partus et nata nutricere saginesque, in macellum ut perveniant. Neque non etiam quaedam adsumenda in villam sine retibus aucupis venatoris piscatoris, ut glires cochleas gallinas. Earum rerum cultura instituta prima ea quae in villa habetur; non enim solum augures Romani ad auspicia primum pararunt pullos, sed etiam patres familiae rure. Secunda, quae macerie ad villam venationis causa cluduntur et propter alvaria; apes enim subter subgrundas ad initio villatico usae tecto. Tertiae piscinae dulces fieri coeptae et e fluminibus captos recepere ad se pisces. Omnibus tribus his generibus sunt bini gradus; superiores, quos frugalitas antique, inferiores, quos luxuria posterior adiecit. Primus enim ille gradus anticus maiorum nostrum erat, in quo essent aviaria duo dumtaxat: in plano cohors, in qua pascebantur gallinae, et earum fructus erat ova et pulli; alter sublimis, in quo erant columbae in turribus aut summa villa. Contra nunc aviaria sunt nomine mutato, quod vocantur ornithones, quae palatum suave domini paravit, ut tecta maiora habeant, quam tum habebant totas villas, in quibus stabulentur turdi ac pavones. Sic in secunda parti ac leporario pater tuus, Axi, praeterquam lepusculum e venatione vidit numquam. Neque enim erat magnum id saeptum, quod nunc, ut habeant multos apros ac capreas, complura iugera maceriis concludunt. Non tu, inquit mihi, cum emisti fundum Tusculanum a M. Pisone, in leporario apri fuerunt multi? In tertia parti quis habebat piscinam nisi dulcem et in ea dumtaxat squalos ac mugiles pisces? Quis contra nunc minthon non dicit sua nihil interesse, utrum iis piscibus stagnum habeat plenum an ranis? Non Philippus, cum ad Ummidium hospitem Casini devertisset et ei e tuo flumine lupum piscem formosum apposuisset atque ille gustasset et exspuisset, dixit, “Peream, ni piscem putavi esse”? Sic nostra aetas in quam luxuriam propagavit leporaria, hac piscinas protulit ad mare et in eas pelagios greges piscium revocavit. Non propter has appellati Sergius Orata et Licinius Murena? Quis enim propter nobilitates ignorat piscinas Philippi, Hortensi, Lucullorum? Quare unde velis me incipere, Axi, dic.
[3.1] Merula began without hesitation: “In the first place, the owner ought to have so clear an idea of those creatures which can be reared or fed in the villa and around it that they may afford him both profit and pleasure. There are three divisions of this science: the aviary, the hare-warren, and the fish-pond. Under the head of aviary I include enclosures for all fowls which are usually reared within the walls of the villa. [2] Under the head of hare-warrens I wish you to understand, not those which our forefathers called by that name — places where there are only hares — but all enclosures which are attached to the villa and keep animals enclosed for feeding. Similarly, by the term fish-pond I mean ponds which keep fish enclosed near the villa, either in fresh or salt water. [3] Each of these divisions may be subdivided into at least two: thus, under the first head, those which are not content with the land only, but need water also, as geese, teal, and ducks. In the same way the second head — that of game — contains its two diverse classes, one under which come the boar, the roe, and the hare, and the second, those which are also outside the villa, such as bees, snails, and dormice. [4] There are likewise two divisions of the third class, the aquatic, inasmuch as fish are kept sometimes in fresh water, sometimes in sea-water. For the three classes formed of these six subdivisions must be secured three classes of craftsmen — fowlers, hunters, fishers — or else you must purchase from these those creatures which you are to preserve by the activity of your own servants during the period of gestation and up to the time of birth, and when they are born to rear and fatten so that they may reach the market. And there are, moreover, certain other creatures which are to be brought into the villa without the use of net by fowler or hunter or fisher, such as dormice, snails, and chickens. [5] The rearing of the last named, chickens, was the first to be attempted within the villa; for not only did Roman soothsayers raise chickens first for their auspices, but also the heads of families in the country. Next came the animals which are kept in an enclosure near the villa for hunting, and hard by it the bee-hives; for from the first bees took advantage of the roof of the villa under the eaves. Thirdly there began to be built fresh-water ponds, to which were carried fish which had been caught from the streams. [6] Each of these three classes has two stages: the earlier, which the frugality of the ancients observed, and the later, which modern luxury has now added. For instance, first came the ancient stage of our ancestors, in which there were simply two aviaries: the barn-yard on the ground in which the hens fed — and their returns were eggs and chickens — and the other above ground, in which were the pigeons, either in cotes or on the roof of the villa. [7] On the other hand, in these days, the aviaries have changed their name and have become ornithones; and those which the dainty palate of the owner has constructed have larger buildings for the sheltering of fieldfares and peafowl than whole villas used to have in those days. [8] So too in the second division, the warren, your father, Axius, never saw any better game from his hunting than a paltry hare. For in his day there was no great preserve, whereas nowadays people enclose many acres within walls, so as to keep numbers of wild boars and roes. When you bought your place near Tusculum from Marcus Piso,” he added, turning to me, “were there not many wild boars in the ‘hare-warren?’ [9] In the third division, who had a fish-pond, except a fresh-water pond, or kept any fish in it except squali or mugiles? On the other hand what young fop in these days will not tell you that he would as soon have his pond full of frogs as of such fish as these? You remember that Philippus once, when he had turned aside to visit his friend Ummidius at Casinum, was served with a fine pike from your river; he tasted it, spat it out, and exclaimed: ‘I’ll be hanged if I didn’t think it was fish!’ [10] So our generation, with the same extravagance with which it extended the boundaries of its warrens, has thrust its fish-ponds to the sea, and has brought into them whole schools of deep-sea fish. Was it not from these that Sergius Orata (‘Goldfish’) and Licinius Murena (‘Lamprey’) got their names? And, indeed, who does not know, on account of their fame, the fish-ponds of Philippus, Hortensius, and the Luculli? So, then, where do you wish me to begin, Axius?”
IV.
Ille, Ego vero, inquit, ut aiunt post principia in castris, id est ab his temporibus quam superioribus, quod ex pavonibus fructus capiuntur maiores quam e gallinis. Atque adeo non dissimulabo, quod volo de ornithone primum, quod lucri fecerunt hoc nomen turdi. Sexaginta enim milia Fircellina excande me fecerunt cupiditate.
Merula, Duo genera sunt, inquit, ornithonis: unum delectationis causa, ut Varro hic fecit noster sub Casino, quod amatores invenit multos; alterum fructus causa, quo genere macellarii et in urbe quidam habent loca clausa et rure, maxime conducta in Sabinis, quod ibi propter agri naturam frequentes apparent turdi. Ex iis tertii generis voluit esse Lucullus coniunctum aviarium, quod fecit in Tusculano, ut in eodem tecto ornithonis inclusum triclinium haberet, ubi delicate cenitaret et alios videret in mazonomo positos coctos, alios volitare circum fenestras captos. Quod inutile invenerunt. Nam non tantum in eo oculos delectant intra fenestras aves volitantes, quantum offendit quod alienus odor opplet nares.
[4.1] “Personally,” he replied, “if I may use a military figure, I should like you to begin post principia, that is, with the present rather than the former times, as larger returns are had from peafowl than from chickens. And what is more, I will make no secret of the fact that I want to hear first about the ornithon, because those fieldfares have made the word mean ‘gain’; for those sixty thousand sesterces of Fircellia have set me on fire with greed.”
[2] “There are,” resumed Merula, “two kinds of ornithon; one merely for pleasure, such as our friend Varro has built near Casinum, which has found many admirers, and the other for profit. Of the latter class are the enclosures which those who supply fowl for the market keep, some in the city, others in the country; especially the leased enclosures in the Sabine district, as, because of the nature of the country, large flocks of fieldfares are found there. [3] Lucullus claimed that the aviary which he built on his place near Tusculum, formed by a combination of these two, constituted a third class. Under the same roof he had an aviary and a dining-room, where he could dine luxuriously, and see some birds lying cooked on the dish and others fluttering around the windows of their prison. But they found it unserviceable; for in it the birds fluttering around the windows do not give pleasure to the eyes to the same extent that the disagreeable odour which fills the nostrils gives offence.
V.
Sed quod te malle arbitror, Axi, dicam de hoc quod fructus causa faciunt, unde, non ubi, sumuntur pingues turdi. Igitur testudo, aut peristylum tectum tegulis aut rete, fit magna, in qua milia aliquot turdorum ac merularum includere possint, quidam cum eo adiciant praeterea aves alias quoque, quae pingues veneunt care, ut miliariae ac coturnices. In hoc tectum aquam venire oportet per fistulam et eam potius per canales angustas serpere, quae facile extergeri possint (si enim late ibi diffusa aqua, et inquinatur facilius et bibitur inutilius), et ex eis caduca quae abundat per fistulam exire, ne luto aves laborent. Ostium habere humile et angustum et potissimum eius generis, quod cocliam appellant, ut solet esse in cavea, in qua tauri pugnare solent; fenestras raras, per quas non videantur extrinsecus arbores aut aves, quod earum aspectus ac desiderium marcescere facit volucres inclusas. Tantum locum luminis habere oportet, ut aves videre possint, ubi assidant, ubi cibus, ubi aqua sit. Tectorio tacta esse levi circum ostia ac fenestras, nequa intrare mus aliave quae bestia possit. Circum huius aedifici parietes intrinsecus multos esse palos, ubi aves assidere possint, praeterea perticis inclinatis ex humo ad parietem et in eis transversis gradatim modicis intervallis perticis adnexis ad speciem cancellorum scaenicorum ac theatri. Deorsum in terram esse aquam, quam bibere possint, cibatui offas positas. Eae maxime glomerantur ex ficis et farre mixto. Diebus viginti antequam tollere vult turdos, largius dat cibum, quod plus ponit et farre subtiliore incipit alere. In hoc tecto caveas, quae caveae tabulata habeant aliquot ad perticarum supplementum. Contra hic aviarius, quae mortuae ibi sunt aves, ut domino numerum reddat, solet ibidem servare. Cum opus sunt, ex hoc auiario ut sumantur idoneae, excludantur in minusculum aviarium, quod est coniunctum cum maiore ostio, lumine illustriore, quod seclusorium appellant. Ibi cum eum numerum habet exclusum, quem sumere vult, omnes occidit. Hoc ideo in secluso clam, ne reliqui, si videant, despondeant animum atque alieno tempore venditoris moriantur. Non ut advenae volucres pullos faciunt, in agro ciconiae, in tecto hirundines, sic aut hic aut illic turdi, qui cum sint nomine mares, re vera feminae quoque sunt. Neque id non secutum ut esset in merulis, quae nomine feminino mares quoque sunt. Praeterea volucres cum partim advenae sint, ut hirundines et grues, partim vernaculae, ut gallinae ac columbae, de illo genere sunt turdi adventicio ac quotannis in Italiam trans mare advolant circiter aequinoctium autumnale et eodem revolant ad aequinoctium vernum, et alio tempore, turtures ac coturnices immani numero. Hoc ita fieri apparet in insulis propinquis Pontiis, Palmariae, Pandateriae. Ibi enim in prima volatura cum veniunt, morantur dies paucos requiescendi causa itemque faciunt, cum ex Italia trans mare remeant.
Appius Axio, Si quinque milia hoc coieceris, inquit, et erit epulum ac triumphus, sexaginta milia quae vis statim in fenus des licebit multum. Tum mihi, tu dic illud alterum genus ornithonis, qui animi causa constitutus a te sub Casino fertur, in quo diceris longe vicisse non modo archetypon inventoris nostri ornithotrophion M. Laenii Strabonis, qui Brundisii hospes noster primus in peristylo habuit exhedra conclusas aves, quas pasceret obiecto rete, sed etiam in Tusculano magna aedificia Luculli. Quoi ego: Cum habeam sub oppido Casino flumen, quod per villam fluat, liquidum et altum marginibus lapideis, latum pedes quinquaginta septem, et e villa in villam pontibus transeatur, longum pedes DCCCCL derectum ab insula, quae est in imo fluvio, ubi confluit altera amnis, ad summum flumen, ubi est museum, circum huius ripas ambulatio sub dio pedes lata denos, ab hac est in agrum versus ornithonis locus ex duabus partibus dextra et sinistra maceriis altis conclusus. Inter quas locus qui est ornithonis deformatus ad tabulae litterariae speciem cum capitulo, forma qua est quadrata, patet in latitudinem pedes XLVIII, in longitudinem pedes LXXII; qua ad capitulum rutundum est, pedes XXVII. Ad haec, ita ut in margine quasi infimo tabulae descripta sit, ambulatio, ab ornithone plumula, in qua media sunt caveae, qua introitus in aream est. In limine, in lateribus dextra et sinistra porticus sunt primoribus columnis lapideis, pro mediis arbusculis humilibus ordinatae, cum a summa macerie ad epistylium tecta porticus sit rete cannabina et ab epistylio ad stylobaten. Hae sunt avibus omnigenus oppletae, quibus cibus ministratur per retem et aqua rivolo tenui affluit. Secundum stylobatis interiorem partem dextra et sinistra ad summam aream quadratam e medio diversae duae non latae oblongae sunt piscinae ad porticus versus. Inter eas piscinas tantummodo accessus semita in tholum, qui est ultra rutundus columnatus, ut est in aede Catuli, si pro parietibus feceris columnas. Extra eas columnas est silva manu sata grandibus arboribus, ut infima perluceat, tota saepta maceriis altis. Intra tholi columnas exteriores lapideas et totidem interiores ex abiete tenues locus est pedes quinque latus. Inter columnas exteriores pro pariete reticuli e nervis sunt, ut prospici in silvam possit et quae ibi sunt videri neque avis ea transire. Intra interiores columnas pro pariete rete aviarium est obiectum. Inter has et exteriores gradatim substructum ut theatridion avium, mutuli crebri in omnibus columnis impositi, sedilia avium. Intra retem aves sunt omnigenus, maxime cantrices, ut lusciniolae ac merulae, quibus aqua ministratur per canaliculum, cibus obicitur sub retem. Subter columnarum stylobaten est lapis a falere pedem et dodrantem alta; ipsum falere ad duo pedes altum a stagno, latum ad quinque, ut in culcitas et columellas convivae pedibus circumire possint. Infimo intra falere est stagnum cum margine pedali et insula in medio parva. Circum falere et navalia sunt excavata anatium stabula. In insula est columella, in qua intus axis, qui pro mensa sustinet rotam radiatam, ita ut ad extremum, ubi orbile solet esse, arcuata tabula cavata sit ut tympanum in latitudinem duo pedes et semipedem, in altitudinem palmum. Haec ab uno puero, qui ministrat, ita vertitur, ut omnia una ponantur et ad bibendum et ad edendum et admoveantur ad omnes convivas. Ex suggesto faleris, ubi solent esse peripetasmata, prodeunt anates in stagnum ac nant, e quo rivus pervenit in duas, quas dixi, piscinas, ac pisciculi ultro ac citro commetant, cum et aqua calida et frigida ex orbi ligneo mensaque, quam dixi in primis radiis esse, epitoniis versis ad unum quemque factum sit ut fluat convivam. Intrinsecus sub tholo stella lucifer interdiu, noctu hesperus, ita circumeunt ad infimum hemisphaerium ac moventur, ut indicent, quot sint horae. In eodem hemisphaerio medio circum cardinem est orbis ventorum octo, ut Athenis in horologio, quod fecit Cyrrestes; ibique eminens radius a cardine ad orbem ita movetur, ut eum tangat ventum, qui flet, ut intus scire possis.
Cum haec loqueremur, clamor fit in campo. Nos athletae comitiorum cum id fieri non miraremur propter studia suffragatorum et tamen scire vellemus, quid esset, venit ad nos Pantuleius Parra, narrat ad tabulam, cum diriberent, quendam deprensum tesserulas coicientem in loculum, eum ad consulem tractum a fautoribus competitorum. Pavo surgit, quod eius candidati custos dicebatur deprensus.
[5.1] “I shall, however, as I suppose you prefer, Axius, discuss the aviary which is built for profit — the place from which fat fieldfares are taken, and not the place where they are taken. Well, there is built a large domed building, or a peristyle covered with tiles or netting, in which several thousand fieldfares and blackbirds can be enclosed; [2] though some breeders add besides other birds which, when fattened, bring a high price, such as ortolans and quails. Into this building water should be conducted through a pipe and allowed to spread preferably through narrow channels which can easily be cleaned (for if the water spreads there in pools, it more easily becomes foul and is not good for drinking), and the superfluous drip-water from these should run out through a pipe, so that the birds may not be troubled by mud. [3] It should have a low, narrow door, and preferably of the kind which they call coclia, such as usually are seen in the pit where bullfights are held. The windows should be few, and so arranged that trees and birds outside cannot be seen; for the sight of these, and the longing for them, makes the imprisoned birds grow thin. It should have only enough openings for light to enable the birds to see where to perch, and where the food and water is. It should be faced around the doors and windows with smooth plaster, so that no mice or other vermin can enter anywhere. [4] Around the walls of this building on the inside there should be a number of poles for the birds to perch on; and, in addition, rods sloping from ground to wall, with transverse rods fastened to them in steps at moderate intervals, after the fashion of the balustrades of the theatre or the arena. At the bottom, on the ground, there should be water for them to drink, and here should be placed cakes for their food. These are usually made by kneading a mixture of figs and spelt. Twenty days before the breeder desires to remove fieldfares, he feeds them more liberally, giving larger quantities and beginning to feed them on spelt ground finer. In this building there should be recesses, equipped with several shelves, as a supplement to the perches; [5] it is here, facing the perches, that the caretaker usually keeps on hand the birds which have died in the place, so as to render account to his master. When it become necessary to remove from this aviary birds which are fit for market, they should be taken out and put into a smaller aviary, called the seclusorium (coop), which is connected by a door with the larger aviary and better lighted. When he has the number which he desires to take shut up here, he kills them all. [6] The reason for doing this privately in a separate room is to prevent the others, if they should see it, from moping and dying at a time which would be inopportune for the seller. Fieldfares do not rear their young here and there as do the other migratory birds, storks in the field, swallows under the roof [and though their name (turdi) is masculine, there are in fact females too; nor is the case otherwise as regards blackbirds (merulae) — though they have a feminine name, there are also males]. [7] Again, birds being partly migratory, as swallows and cranes, and partly indigenous, as hens and doves, fieldfares belong to the former class, the migratory, and fly yearly across the sea into Italy about the time of the autumnal equinox, and back again whence they came about the spring equinox, as do turtle-doves and quail at another season in vast numbers. The proof of this is seen in the near-by islands of Pontiae, Palmaria, and Pandateria; for when they arrive in these at the first migration, they remain there for a few days to rest, and do the same when they leave Italy for their return across the sea.
[8] “If you put 5,000 birds into this aviary,” said Appius to Axius, “and there comes a banquet and a triumph, you may at once put at high interest that 60,000 sesterces which you want.” Then, turning to me, he said: “Do you now describe that other kind of aviary which I am told you built for your amusement near Casinum, in the construction of which you are reputed to have far surpassed not only the archetype left by its inventor, our friend Marcus Laenius Strabo, our host at Brundisium, who was the first to keep birds penned up in a recess in his peristyle, feeding them through a net covering, but also Lucullus’ huge buildings on his place at Tusculum.” [9] I replied: “I own, near the town of Casinum, a stream which runs through my villa, clear and deep, with a stone facing, 57 feet wide, and requiring bridges for passage from one side of the villa to the other; it is 950 feet in a straight line from the island in the lowest part of the stream, where another stream runs into it, to the upper part of the stream, where the Museum is situated. [10] Along the banks of this stream there runs an uncovered walk 10 feet broad; off this walk and facing the open country is the place in which the aviary stands, shut in on two sides, right and left, by high walls. Between these lies the site of the aviary, shaped in the form of a writing-tablet with a top-piece, the quadrangular part being 48 feet in width and 72 feet in length, while at the rounded top-piece it is 27 feet. [11] Facing this, as it were a space marked off on the lower margin of the tablet, is an uncovered walk with a plumula extending from the aviary, in the middle of which are cages; and here is the entrance to the courtyard. At the entrance, on the right side and the left, are colonnades, arranged with stone columns in the outside rows and, instead of columns in the middle, with dwarf trees; while from the top of the wall to the archway the colonnade is covered with a net of hemp, which also continues from the archway to the base. These colonnades are filled with all manner of birds, to which food is supplied through the netting, while water flows to them in a tiny rivulet. [12] Along the inner side of the base of the columns, on the right side and on the left, and extending from the middle to the upper end of the open quadrangle, are two oblong fish-basins, not very wide, facing the colonnades. Between these basins is merely a path giving access to the tholos, which is a round domed building outside the quadrangle, faced with columns, such as is seen in the hall of Catulus, if you put columns instead of walls. Outside these columns is a wood planted by hand with large trees, so that the light enters only at the lower part, and the whole is enclosed with high walls. [13] Between the outer columns of the rotunda, which are of stone, and the equal number of slender inner columns, which are of fir, is a space five feet wide. Between the exterior columns, instead of a wall there is a netting of gut, so that there is a view into the wood and the objects in it, while not a bird can get out into it. In the spaces between the interior columns the aviary is enclosed with a net instead of a wall. Between these and the exterior columns there is built up step by step a sort of little bird-theatre, with brackets fastened at frequent intervals to all the columns as bird-seats. [14] Within the nettings are all manner of birds, chiefly songsters, such as nightingales and blackbirds, to which water is supplied by means of a small trench, while food is passed to them under the netting. Below the base of the columns is stone-work rising a foot and nine inches above the platform; the platform itself rises about two feet above a pond, and is about five feet wide, so that the guests can walk in among the benches and the small columns. At the foot of the platform inside, is the pond, with a border a foot wide, and a little island in the middle. Along the platform also docks have been hollowed out as shelters for ducks. [15] On the island is a small column, and on the inside of it is a post, which holds up, instead of a table, a wheel with spokes, in such fashion that on the outer rim, where the felloe usually stands, there is a curved board with raised edges like a tambourine, two and a half feet in width and a palm in height. This is revolved by a single manservant in such a way that everything to drink and eat is placed on it at once and moved around to all the guests. [16] From the side of the platform, on which there are usually coverlets, the ducks come out into the pond and swim about; from this pond a stream runs into the two fish-basins which I have described, and the minnows dart back and forth, while it is so arranged that cold and warm water flows for each guest from the wooden wheel and the table which, as I have said is at the ends of the spokes, by the turning of cocks. [17] Inside, under the dome of the rotunda, the morning-star by day and the evening-star at night circle around near the lower part of the hemisphere, and move in such a manner as to show what the hour is. In the middle of the same hemisphere, running around the axis, is a compass of the eight winds, as in the horologium at Athens, which was built by the Cyrrestrian; and there a pointer, projecting from the axis, runs about the compass in such a way that it touches the wind which is blowing, so that you can tell on the inside which it is.”
[18] While we were thus conversing, a shouting arose in the Campus. We old hands at politics were not surprised at this occurrence, as we knew how excited an election crowd could become, but still we wanted to know what it meant; thereupon Pantuleius Parra comes to us, and tells us that a man had been caught, while they were sorting the ballots in the office, in the act of casting ballots into the ballot-box; and that he had been dragged off to the consul by the supporters of the other candidates. Pavo arose, as it was the watcher for his candidate who was reported to have been arrested.
VI.
Axius, De pavonibus, inquit, libere licet dicas, quoniam discessit Fircellius, qui, secus siquid diceres de iis, gentilitatis causa fortasse an tecum duceret serram. Quoi Merula, De pavonibus nostra memoria, inquit, greges haberi coepti et venire magno. Ex iis M. Aufidius Lurco supra sexagena milia nummum in anno dicitur capere. Ii aliquanto pauciores esse debent mares quam feminae, si ad fructum spectes; si ad delectationem, contra; formosior enim mas. Pascendi greges agrestes. Transmarini esse dicuntur in insulis, Sami in luco Iunonis, item in Planasia insula M. Pisonis. Hi ad greges constituendos parantur bona aetate et bona forma. Huic enim natura formae e volucribus dedit palmam. Ad admissuram haec minores bimae non idoneae nec iam maiores natu. Pascuntur omne genus obiecto frumento, maxime hordeo. Itaque Seius iis dat in menses singulos hordei singulos modios, ita ut in fetura det uberius, antequam salire incipiant. In has a procuratore ternos pullos exigit eosque, cum creverunt, quinquagenis denariis vendit, ut nulla avis hunc assequatur fructum. Praeterea ova emit ac supponit gallinis, ex quibus excusos pullos refert in testudinem eam, in qua pavones habet. Quod tectum pro multitudine pavonum fieri debet et habere cubilia discreta, tectorio levata, quo neque serpens neque bestia accedere ulla possit; praeterea habere locum ante se, quo pastum exeant diebus apricis. Utrumque locum purum esse volunt hae volucres. Itaque pastorem earum cum vatillo circumire oportet ac stercus tollere ac conservare, quod et ad agri culturam idoneum est et ad substramen pullorum. Primus hos Q. Hortensius augurali aditiali cena posuisse dicitur, quod potius factum tum luxuriosi quam severi boni viri laudabant. Quem cito secuti multi extulerunt eorum pretia, ita ut ova eorum denariis veneant quinis, ipsi facile quinquagenis, grex centenarius facile quadragena milia sestertia ut reddat, ut quidem Abucius aiebat, si in singulos ternos exigeret pullos, perfici sexagenas posse.
[6.1] “You may speak freely about peafowl,” said Axius, “since Fircellius has gone; if you should say anything out of the way about them, he would perhaps have a bone to pick with you for the credit of the family.” To whom Merula said: “As to pea-fowl, it is within our memory that flocks of them began to be kept and sold at a high price. From them Marcus Aufidius Lurco is said to receive an income of more than 60,000 sesterces a year. There should be somewhat fewer males than females if you have an eye to the financial returns; but the opposite if you look at the pleasure, for the male is handsomer. [2] They should be pastured in flocks in the fields. Across the water they are said to be reared in the islands — on Samos, in the grove of Juno, and likewise in Marcus Piso’s island of Planasia. For the forming of a flock they are to be secured when they are young and of good appearance; for nature has awarded the palm of beauty to this fowl over all winged things. The hens are not suited for breeding under two years, and are no longer suited when they get rather old. [3] They eat any kind of grain placed before them, and especially barley; so Seius issues a modius of barley a month per head, with the exception that he feeds more freely during the breeding season, before they begin to tread. He requires of his breeder three chicks for each hen, and these, when they are grown, he sells for fifty denarii each, so that no other fowl brings in so high a revenue. [4] He buys eggs, too, and places them under hens, and the chicks which are hatched from these he places in that domed building in which he keeps his peafowl. This building should be made of a size proportioned to the number of peafowl, and should have separate sleeping quarters, coated with smooth plaster, so that no serpent or animal can get in; [5] it should also have an open place in front of it, to which they may go out to feed on sunny days. These birds require that both places be clean; and so their keeper should go around with a shovel and pick up the droppings and keep them, as they are useful for fertilizer and as litter for chicks. [6] It is said that Quintus Hortensius was the first to serve these fowl; it was on the occasion of his inauguration as aedile, and the innovation was praised at that time rather by the luxurious than by those who were strict and virtuous. As his example was quickly followed by many, the price has risen to such a point that the eggs sell for five denarii each, the birds themselves sell readily for 50 each, and a flock of 100 easily brings 40,000 sesterces — in fact, Abuccius used to say that if one required three chicks to every hen, the total might amount to 60,000.
VII.
Interea venit apparitor Appi a consule et augures ait citari. Ille foras exit e villa. At in villam intro involant columbae, de quibus Merula Axio: Si umquam peristerotrophion constituisses, has tuas esse putares, quamvis ferae essent. Duo enim genera earum in peristerotrophio esse solent: unum agreste, ut alii dicunt, saxatile, quod habetur in turribus ac columinibus villae, a quo appellatae columbae, quae propter timorem naturalem summa loca in tectis captant; quo fit ut agrestes maxime sequantur turres, in quas ex agro evolant suapte sponte ac remeant. Alterum genus columbarum est clementius, quod cibo domestico contentum intra limina ianuae solet pasci. Hoc genus maxime est colore albo, illud alterum agreste sine albo, vario. Ex iis duabus stirpibus fit miscellum tertium genus fructus causa, atque incedunt in locum unum, quod alii vocant peristerona, alii peristerotrophion, in quo uno saepe vel quinque milia sunt inclusae. Peristeron fit ut testudo magna, camara tectus, uno ostio angusto, fenestris punicanis aut latioribus reticulatis utrimque, ut locus omnis sit illustris, neve quae serpens aliudve quid animal maleficum introire queat. Intrinsecus quam levissimo marmorato toti parietes ac camarae oblinuntur et extrinsecus circum fenestras, ne mus aut lacerta qua adrepere ad columbaria possit. Nihil enim timidius columba. Singulis paribus columbaria fiunt rutunda in ordinem crebra, ordines quam plurimi possunt a terra usque ad camaram. Columbaria singula esse oportet ut os habeat, quo modo introire et exire possit, intus ternarum palmarum ex omnibus partibus. Sub ordines singulos tabulae fictae ut sint bipalmes, quo utantur vestibulo ac prodeant. Aquam esse oportet quae influat, unde et bibere et ubi lavari possint. Permundae enim sunt hae volucres. Itaque pastorem columbarum quotquot mensibus crebro oportet everrere; est enim quod eum inquinat locum appositum ad agri culturam, ita ut hoc optimum esse scripserint aliquot. Siquae columba quid offenderit, ut medeatur; siquae perierit, ut efferatur; siqui pulli idonei sunt ad vendendum, promat. Item quae fetae sunt, certum locum ut disclusum ab aliis rete habeat, quo transferantur, e quo foras ex peristerone evolare possint matres. Quod faciunt duabus de causis: una, si fastidiunt aut inclusae consenescunt, quod libero aere, cum exierint in agros, redintegrentur; altera de causa propter inlicium. Ipsae enim propter pullos, quos habent, utique redeunt, nisi a corvo occisae aut ab accipitre interceptae. Quos columbarii interficere solent duabus virgis viscatis defictis in terra inter se curvatis, cum inter eas posuerint obligatum animal, quod petere soleant accipitres, qui ita decipiuntur, cum se obleverunt visco. Columbas redire solere ad locum licet animadvertere, quod multi in theatro e sinu missas faciunt, atque ad locum redeunt, quae nisi reverterentur, non emitterentur. Cibus apponitur circum parietes in canalibus, quas extrinsecus per fistulas supplent. Delectantur milio, tritico, hordeo, piso, fasiolis, ervo. Item fere haec, in turribus ac summis villis qui habent agrestes columbas, quoad possunt, imitandum. In peristeronas aetate bona parandum, neque pullos neque vetulas, totidem mares quot feminas. Nihil columbis fecundius. Itaque diebus quadragenis concipit et parit et incubat et educat. Et hoc fere totum annum faciunt; tantummodo intervallum faciunt a bruma ad aequinoctium vernum. Pulli nascuntur bini, qui simulac creverunt et habent robur, cum matribus pariunt. Qui solent saginare pullos columbinos, quo pluris vendant, secludunt eos, cum iam pluma sunt tecti. Deinde manducato candido farciunt pane; hieme hoc bis, aestate ter, mane meridie vesperi; hieme demunt cibum medium. Qui iam pinnas incipiunt habere, relincunt in nido inlisis cruribus et matribus, uberius ut cibo uti possint, obiciunt. Eo enim totum diem se et pullos pascunt. Qui ita educantur, celerius pinguiores fiunt quam alii, et candidae fiunt parentes eorum. Romae, si sunt formosi, bono colore, integri, boni seminis, paria singula volgo veneunt ducenis nummis nec non eximia singulis milibus nummum. Quas nuper cum mercator tanti emere vellet a L. Axio, equite Romano, minoris quadringentis denariis datorum negavit. Axius, Si possem emere, inquit, peristerona factum, quem ad modum in aedibus cum habere vellem, emi fictilia columbaria, iam issem emptum et misissem ad villam. Quasi vero, inquit Pica, non in urbe quoque sint multi. An tibi columbaria qui in tegulis habent, non videntur habere peristeronas, cum aliquot supra centum milium sestertium habeant instrumentum? E quis alicuius totum emas censeo, et antequam aedificas rure, magnum condiscas hic in urbe cotidie lucrum assem semissem condere in loculos. Tu, Merula, sic perge deinceps.
[7.1] Meanwhile Appius’s bailiff comes with a message from the consul that the augurs are summoned, and he leaves the villa. But pigeons fly into the villa, and Merula, pointing to them, remarks to Axius: “If you had ever built a dove-cote you might think these were your doves, wild though they are. For in a dove-cote there are usually two species of these: one the wild, or as some call them, the rock-pigeon, which lives in turrets and gable-ends (columina) of the farmhouse — whence the name columbae — and these, because of their natural shyness, hunt for the highest peak of the roof; hence the wild pigeons chiefly hunt for the turrets, flying into them, from the fields and back again, as the fancy takes them. [2] The other species of pigeon is gentler, and being content with the food from the house usually feeds around the doorstep. This species is generally white, while the other, the wild, has no white, but is variously coloured. From these two stocks is bred for profit a third hybrid species; these are put in a place called by some peristeron and by others peristerotrophion, and often a single one of these will contain as many as 5,000. [3] The peristeron is built in the form of a large building, with a vaulted roof; it has one narrow door and windows of the Punic style, or wider ones with double lattice-work, so that the whole interior is light, but so that no snake or other noxious creature can get in. The whole of the walls and chambers in the interior is covered with the smoothest possible plaster made of marble dust, and the exterior is also plastered around the windows, so that no mouse or lizard can crawl into the pigeon nest; for nothing is more timid than a pigeon. [4] Round nests are constructed for each pair, side by side in a row, and as many rows as possible are run from the floor up to the vaulted roof. Each nest should be so constructed as to have an opening large enough to allow only entrance and exit, and on the interior should be three palms in all directions. Under each row there should be fixed a board two palms wide, to serve as an entrance and walk-way. [5] Provision should be made for water to flow in, so that they may have a place to drink and bathe, for these birds are extremely cleanly. So the pigeon-keeper should sweep them out frequently every month; for the droppings which make the place filthy are so well suited for fertilizing that several writers have stated that it is the best kind. He should see to it that any pigeon which has been hurt be treated, and that any dead one be removed, and should remove the squabs which are fit for market. [6] He should also have a place shut off by a net from the rest, to which the brooding birds may be transferred, and from which the mother-birds may be able to fly away from the pigeon-house. This they do for two reasons: first, if they lose their appetite or grow sickly from confinement, as they are refreshed by the open air when they fly over the fields, or secondly for a decoy; for they will themselves return in any case, because of the young they have, unless they are killed by a crow or cut off by a hawk. [7] These birds the pigeon-keepers make a practice of killing by planting two limed twigs in the ground, leaning toward each other, after placing between them, with its legs tied, some animal which hawks are in the habit of chasing; and they are caught in this way, when they have smeared themselves with the lime. You may see that doves do return to a place, from the fact that many people let them loose from their bosoms in the theatre and they return to their homes; and if they did not come back they would not be turned loose. [8] Food is furnished them in troughs running around the walls, which are filled from the outside through pipes. Their favourite foods are millet, wheat, barley, peas, kidney-beans, and vetch. Those who have wild pigeons in turrets and in the tops of their villas should imitate these methods so far as they can. Those which are placed in the pigeon-house should be of a proper age, neither squabs nor old birds; and there should be an equal number of cocks and hens. [9] Nothing is more prolific than the pigeon; thus, within a period of forty days it conceives, lays, hatches, and brings off its young. And they continue this, too, through practically the entire year, leaving an interval only between the winter solstice and the vernal equinox. Two chicks are born each time, and as soon as they have grown and have their strength they breed along with their mothers. Those who practise the fattening of squabs to increase their selling price, shut them up as soon as they are covered with down; then they stuff them with white bread which has been chewed, twice a day in winter and three times in summer — morning, noon, and evening; in winter they omit the noon feeding. [10] When they begin to have feathers they are left in the nest, with their legs broken, and are left to their mothers so that they can eat the food more freely; for they feed themselves and their young on it all day long. Birds which are reared in this way fatten more quickly than others, and their parents become white. At Rome, if the birds are handsome, of good colour, sound, and of good breed, single pairs sell usually for 200 sesterces; but unusually fine ones sometimes for 1,000 sesterces. When a trader wanted recently to buy such birds at this price from Lucius Axius, a Roman knight, he said he would not sell for less than 400 denarii.” [11] Axius remarked: “If I could buy a ready-made pigeon-house, as I bought an earthenware dove-cote when I wanted one in my town house, I should already have gone to buy it and have sent it to the farm-house.” “Just as if,” replied Pica, “there weren’t many of them in the city, also. Or doesn’t it seem to you that people who have dove-cotes on their roof-tiles possess pigeon-houses, inasmuch as some of them have equipment worth more than 100,000 sesterces? I suggest that you buy the complete outfit from one of these, and before you build in the country learn here in the city to put in your purse every day the big profit of a penny or two. But go ahead with your subject, Merula.”
VIII.
Ille, Turturibus item, inquit, locum constituendum proinde magnum, ac multitudinem alere velis; eumque item ut de columbis dictum est, ut habeat ostium ac fenestras et aquam puram ac parietes camaras munitas tectorio; sed pro columbariis in pariete mutulos aut palos in ordinem, supra quos tegeticulae cannabinae sint impositae. Infimum ordinem oportet abesse a terra non minus tres pedes, inter reliquos dodrantes, a summo ad camaram semipedem, aeque latum ac mutulus a pariete extare potest, in quibus dies noctesque pascuntur. Cibatui quod sit, obiciunt triticum siccum, in centenos vicenos turtures fere semodium, cottidie everrentes eorum stabula, a stercore ne offendantur, quod item servatur ad agrum colendum. Ad saginandum adpositissimum tempus circiter messem. Etenim matres eorum tum optimae sunt, cum pulli plurimi gignuntur, qui ad farturam meliores. Itaque eorum fructus id temporis maxime consistit.
[8.1] “For turtle-doves, also,” he resumed, “a place should be built of a size proportioned to the number you wish to raise; and this, too, as was remarked of pigeons, so that it has a door and windows, clear water, walls and cupola covered with plaster. [2] But instead of nests set in the walls it should have brackets or poles in a row, and over these there should be placed small mats of hemp. The bottom row should be not less than three feet from the ground, between the other rows there should be a space of nine inches, with a half-foot interval between the top and the cupola; and the row should be as wide as the bracket can stand out from the wall, as they feed on the brackets day and night. [3] As to food, dry wheat is given them, about a half-modius for 120 turtle-doves, and their quarters are swept out every day so that they may not suffer harm from the dung — and this is also kept for fertilizing the ground. The most suitable time for fattening is about harvest, for at that time their mothers are at their best, when most chicks are being born, these latter being better for fattening; and hence the income from them is greatest at this time.”
IX.
Axius, Ego quae requiro farturae membra, de gallinis dic sodes, Merula: tum de reliquis siquid idoneum fuerit ratiocinari, licebit. Igitur sunt gallinae quae vocantur generum trium: villaticae et rusticae et Africanae. Gallinae villaticae sunt, quas deinceps rure habent in villis. De his qui ornithoboscion instituere vult, id est adhibita scientia ac cura ut capiant magnos fructus, ut factitaverunt Deliaci, haec quinque maxime animadvertant oportet; de emptione, cuius modi et quam multas parent; de fetura, quem ad modum admittant et pariant; de ovis, quem ad modum incubent et excudant; de pullis, quem ad modum et a quibus educentur; hisce appendix adicitur pars quinta, quem ad modum saginentur. Ex quis tribus generibus proprio nomine vocantur feminae quae sunt villaticae gallinae, mares galli, capi semimares, qui sunt castrati. Gallos castrant, ut sint capi, candenti ferro inurentes ad infima crura, usque dum rumpatur, et quod exstat ulcus, oblinunt figlina creta. Qui spectat ut ornithoboscion perfectum habeat, scilicet genera ei tria paranda, maxime villaticas gallinas. E quis in parando eligat oportet fecundas, plerumque rubicunda pluma, nigris pinnis, imparibus digitis, magnis capitibus, crista erecta, amplas; hae enim ad partiones sunt aptiores. Gallos salaces qui animadvertunt, si sunt lacertosi, rubenti crista, rostro brevi pleno acuto, oculis ravis aut nigris, palea rubra subalbicanti, collo vario aut aureolo, feminibus pilosis, cruribus brevibus, unguibus longis, caudis magnis, frequentibus pinnis; item qui elati sunt ac vociferant saepe, in certamine pertinaces et qui animalia quae nocent gallinis non modo non pertimescant, sed etiam pro gallinis propugnent. Nec tamen sequendum in seminio legendo Tanagricos et Melicos et Chalcidicos, qui sine dubio sunt pulchri et ad proeliandum inter se maxime idonei, sed ad partus sunt steriliores. Si ducentos alere velis, locus saeptus adtribuendus, in quo duae caveae coniunctae magnae constituendae, quae spectent ad exorientem versus, utraeque in longitudinem circiter decem pedum, latitudine dimidio minores, altitudine paulo humiliores: in utraque fenestra lata tripedalis, et eae pede altiores e viminibus factae raris, ita ut lumen praebeant multum, neque per eas quicquam ire intro possit, quae nocere solent gallinis. Inter duas ostium sit, qua gallinarius, curator earum, ire possit. In caveis crebrae perticae traiectae sint, ut omnes sustinere possint gallinas. Contra singulas perticas in pariete exclusa sint cubilia earum. Ante sit, ut dixi, vestibulum saeptum, in quo diurno tempore esse possint atque in pulvere volutari. Praeterea sit cella grandis, in qua curator habitet, ita ut in parietibus circum omnia plena sint cubilia gallinarum aut exsculpta aut adficta firmiter. Motus enim, cum incubat, nocet. In cubilibus, cum parturient, acus substernendum; cum pepererunt, tollere substramen et recens aliud subicere, quod pulices et cetera nasci solent, quae gallinam conquiescere non patiuntur; ob quam rem ova aut inaequabiliter maturescunt aut consenescunt. Quae velis incubet, negant plus XXV oportere ova incubare, quamvis propter fecunditatem pepererit plura, optimum esse partum ab aequinoctio verno ad autumnale. Itaque quae ante aut post nata sunt et etiam prima eo tempore, non supponenda; et ea quae subicias, potius vetulis quam pullitris, et quae rostra aut ungues non habeant acutos, quae debent potius in concipiendo occupatae esse quam incubando. Adpositissimae ad partum sunt anniculae aut bimae. Si ova gallinis pavonina subicias, cum iam decem dies fovere coepit, tum denique gallinacia subicere, ut una excudat. Gallinaciis enim pullis bis deni dies opus sunt, pavoninis ter noveni. Eas includere oportet, ut diem et noctem incubent, praeterquam mane et vespere, dum cibus ac potio is detur. Curator oportet circumeat diebus interpositis aliquot ac vertere ova, ut aequabiliter concalefiant. Ova plena sint atque utilia necne, animadverti aiunt posse, si demiseris in aquam, quod inane natet, plenum desidit. Qui ut hoc intellegant concutiant, errare, quod vitale venas confundant in iis. Idem aiunt, cum ad lumen sustuleris, quod perluceat, id esse inane. Qui haec volunt diutius servare, perfricant sale minuto aut muria tres aut quattuor horas eaque abluta condunt in furfures aut acus. In supponendo ova observant ut sint numero imparia. Ova, quae incubantur, habeantne semen pulli, curator quadriduo post quam incubari coepit intellegere potest. Si contra lumen tenuit et purum unius modi esse animadvertit, putant eiciendum et aliud subiciundum. Excusos pullos subducendum ex singulis nidis et subiciendum ei quae habeat paucos; ab eaque, si reliqua sint ova pauciora, tollenda et subicienda aliis, quae nondum excuderunt et minus habent triginta pullos. Hoc enim gregem maiorem non faciendum. Obiciendum pullis diebus XV primis mane subiecto pulvere, ne rostris noceat terra dura, polentam mixtam cum nasturti semine et aqua aliquanto ante factam intritam, ne tum denique in eorum corpore turgescat; aqua prohibendum. Qua de clunibus coeperint habere pinnas, e capite, e collo eorum crebro eligendi pedes; saepe enim propter eos consenescunt. Circum caveas eorum incendendum cornum cervinum, ne quae serpens accedat, quarum bestiarum ex odore solent interire. Prodigendae in solem et in stercilinum, ut volutare possint, quod ita alibiliores fiunt; neque pullos, sed omne ornithoboscion cum aestate, tum utique cum tempestas sit mollis atque apricum; intento supra rete, quod prohibeat eas extra saepta evolare et in eas involare extrinsecus accipitrem aut quid aliud; evitantem caldorem et frigus, quod utrumque iis adversum. Cum iam pinnas habebunt, consuefaciundum ut unam aut duas sectentur gallinas, ceterae ut potius ad pariendum sint expeditae, quam in nutricatu occupatae. Incubare oportet incipere secundum novam lunam, quod fere quae ante, pleraque non succedunt. Diebus fere viginti excudunt. De quibus villaticis quoniam vel nimium dictum, brevitate reliqua compensabo.
Gallinae rusticae sunt in urbe rarae nec fere nisi mansuetae in cavea videntur Romae, similes facie non his gallinis villaticis nostris, sed Africanis. Aspectu ac facie incontaminatae in ornatibus publicis solent poni cum psittacis ac merulis albis, item aliis id genus rebus inusitatis. Neque fere in villis ova ac pullos faciunt, sed in silvis. Ab his gallinis dicitur insula Gallinaria appellata, quae est in mari Tusco secundum Italiam contra montes Liguscos, Intimilium, Album Ingaunum; alii ab his villaticis invectis a nautis, ibi feris factis procreatis. Gallinae Africanae sunt grandes, variae, gibberae, quas meleagridas appellant Graeci. Haec novissimae in triclinium cenantium introierunt e culina propter fastidium hominum. Veneunt propter penuriam magno. De tribus generibus gallinae saginantur maxime villaticae. Eas includunt in locum tepidum et angustum et tenebricosum, quod motus earum et lux pinguitudinis vindicta, ad hanc rem electis maximis gallinis, nec continuo his, quas Melicas appellant falso, quod antiqui, ut Thetim Thelim dicebant, sic Medicam Melicam vocabant. Hae primo dicebantur, quae ex Medica propter magnitudinem erant allatae quaeque ex iis generatae, postea propter similitudinem amplae omnes. Ex iis evulsis ex alis pinnis et e cauda farciunt turundis hordeaceis partim admixtis farina lolleacia aut semine lini ex aqua dulci. Bis die cibum dant, observantes ex quibusdam signis ut prior sit concoctus, antequam secundum dent. Dato cibo, quom perpurgarunt caput, nequos habeat pedes, rursus eas concludunt. Hoc faciunt usque ad dies XXV; tunc denique pingues fiunt. Quidam et triticeo pane intrito in aquam, mixto vino bono et odorato, farciunt, ita ut diebus XX pingues reddant ac teneras. Si in farciendo nimio cibo fastidiunt, remittendum in datione pro portione, ac decem primis processit, in posterioribus ut deminuat eadem ratione, ut vicesimus dies et primus sint pares. Eodem modo palumbos farciunt ac reddunt pingues.
[9.1] “I wish, Merula,” said Axius, “you would tell us of the division of fattening in which I am interested — that of chickens; then if there is anything in the other topics that is worth taking into account we may do so.” “Well, under the term poultry are included three kinds of fowl: the barn-yard, the wild, and the African. [2] Barn-yard fowls are the species which are kept continuously in farmsteads. One who wants to set up a poultry-farm of these — that is, wants to gain a large profit by the exercise of knowledge and care, as the Delians generally have done — should observe especially the following five points: purchase, including the breed and number to secure; breeding, including the manner of mating and laying; eggs, including the manner of sitting and hatching; chicks, including the manner of rearing and the birds by which they are reared; and to these is added, as an appendix, the fifth topic — the method of fattening. [3] Of the three species, the proper name for the female of the barn-yard fowl is hen, for the male is cock, while that of the half-males, which have been castrated, is capon. Cocks are castrated, to make them capons, by burning with a red-hot iron at the lowest part of the leg until it bursts; and the sore which results is smeared with potter’s clay. [4] One who intends to have a complete poultry-farm should, of course, procure all three species, but chiefly the barn-yard fowls. In buying these he should choose hens which are prolific, usually of a reddish plumage, with black wing feathers, toes of uneven length, large heads, upright crest, full-bodied, as these are better fitted for laying. [5] Cocks should be amorous; and this is judged from their being muscular, with comb reddish, beak short, wide, and sharp, eyes yellowish or black, wattles red with a trace of white, neck particoloured or golden, thighs feathered, lower leg short, claws long, tail large, feathers thick; also by their stretching and crowing often, being stubborn in a fight — those which not only do not fear animals which attack the hens but even fight for the hens. [6] In choosing a strain, however, it is not well to go after the Tanagrian, Median, or Chalcidian; these are undoubtedly handsome birds and very well fitted for fighting one another, but they are rather poor for laying. If you wish to raise 200 you should assign them an enclosed place, and on it construct two large connecting hen-houses, facing eastward, each about ten feet in length, one-half smaller in width, and a little less in height. In each of these there should be a window three feet wide and one foot higher; these should be made of withes so spaced as to allow plenty of light to enter, and yet to keep from passing through them any of the things which usually injure fowls. [7] Between the two houses there should be a door through which their keeper, the gallinarius, can enter. In the houses should be run a number of perches sufficient to hold all the hens. Facing the several perches separate nests should be built for them in the wall. In front of it, as I said, should be an enclosed yard, in which they may run during the daytime and dust themselves. In addition there should be a large room for the caretaker to live in, so built that the surrounding walls may be entirely filled with hens’ nests, either built in the wall or firmly attached; for movement isº harmful to a sitting hen. [8] In their nests at laying-time chaff should be spread under them; and when they have laid their eggs, the bedding should be removed and other fresh bedding spread, as in old bedding lice and other vermin generally breed, and these keep the hen from resting quietly, the result being that the eggs either develop unevenly or become stale. If you wish the hen to cover the eggs, it is claimed that a sitting should number not more than 25, even if the hen has been so prolific as to lay more, [9] and that the laying is best from the vernal to the autumnal equinox. So eggs which are laid before or after that period, and even the first laid within the period, should not be set; and the eggs which you set should be put under old hens (and such hens should not have sharp beaks or claws) rather than under pullets, as the latter ought to be busy at laying rather than at sitting. They are best fitted for laying when one or two years old. [10] If you are putting peafowl eggs under a hen, you should put the hen’s eggs under her only at the beginning of the tenth day of sitting, so that she will hatch them together; for chicks require twice ten days, and peafowl chicks thrice nine. The hens should be shut up so that they may sit day and night, except at the times morning and evening, when food and drink are being given them. [11] The caretaker should go around at intervals of several days and turn the eggs so that they will warm evenly. It is said that you can tell whether eggs are full and fertile or not if you drop them into water, as the empty egg floats, while the full one sinks. Those who shake an egg to find this out make a mistake, as they break up the vital veins in them. The same authorities state that when you hold it up to the light, the one that the light shines through is infertile. [12] Those who wish to keep eggs a considerable time rub them down thoroughly with fine salt or brine for three or four hours, and when this is washed off pack them in bran or chaff. In setting eggs, care is taken that the number be uneven. The caretaker can find out four days after the sitting begins whether the incubating eggs contain the embryo of a chick. If he holds one against a light and observes it to be uniformly clear, the belief is that it should be thrown out and another substituted. [13] The chicks, when hatched, should be taken from the several nests and placed under a hen which has few chicks; and if a few eggs are left they should be taken away from this hen and put under others which have not yet hatched and those which have fewer than [30] chicks; for the batch must not exceed this number. During the first fifteen days there should be fed to the chicks in the morning, on a bed of dust, so that the hard earth may not injure their beaks, a mixture of barley-meal and cress-seed which has been worked up some time before with water, so that when it is eaten it may not swell up in their crops; and they must be kept away from water. [14] When they begin to grow feathers from the rump, the lice must be picked from their heads and necks often, for they frequently waste away because of these. Around their houses stag horns should be burned, to keep snakes from coming in; for the smell of these animals is usually fatal to them. They should be driven out into the sunshine and on to the dung-hill so they can flutter about, as in that way they grow healthier — [15] not only the chicks but the whole poultry yard, both in summer and whenever the air is mild and it is sunny, with a net spread above them to keep them from flying outside the enclosure, and to keep hawks and the like from flying into it from outside; avoiding heat and cold, each of which is harmful to them. As soon as they have their wing-feathers they should be trained to follow one or two hens, so that the others may be free for laying rather than busied with the rearing of young. [16] They should begin to sit after the new moon, for the sittings which begin before that time usually do not turn out well. They are hatched in about twenty days. As really too much has been said about these barnyard fowls, I shall make up for it by brevity in speaking of the rest.
“Wild hens are found rarely in town and are hardly seen in Rome, except the tamed ones in cages. In appearance they not like these barn-yard fowls of ours, but rather like the African fowl. [17] Birds whose appearance and shape show that they are of unmixed breed are usually displayed in public ceremonies, along with parrots, white blackbirds, and other unusual things of that sort. Usually they do not produce eggs and chicks in farmsteads, but in the forests. It is from these fowls that the island Gallinaria, in the Tuscan Sea off the coast of Italy opposite the Ligurian mountains, Intimilium, and Album Ingaunum, is said to have got its name; others hold that they are the descendants of those barnyard fowls which were carried there by sailors and became wild. [18] The African hens are large, speckled, with rounded back, and the Greeks call them ‘meleagrides.’ These are the latest fowls to come from the kitchen to the dining-room because of the pampered tastes of people. [19] On account of their scarcity they fetch a high price. Of the three species, it is chiefly the barnyard fowls which are fattened. These are shut into a warm, narrow, darkened place, because movement on their part and light free them from the slavery of fat. For this purpose the largest hens are chosen, but not necessarily those which are mistakenly called “Melic”; for the ancients said “Melic” for “Medic,” just as they said “Thelis” for “Thetis.” Those were called so originally which, because of their size, were imported from Media, and the descendants of these; but later on all large hens got the name on account of their likeness. [20] On these hens the feathers are pulled from wings and tail, and they are fattened on pellets of barley-meal, sometimes mixed with darnel flour, or with flax seed soaked in fresh water. They are fed twice a day, and are watched to see, from certain symptoms, that the last food taken has been digested before more is given. When they have eaten, and their heads have been cleaned to prevent their having lice, they are again shut up. This is continued as long as twenty-five days, and at this time they finally become fat. [21] Some breeders fatten them also on wheat bread softened in water mixed with a sound, fragrant wine, which results in making them fat and tender within twenty days. If, in the course of the fattening, they lose their appetites from too much food, the amount fed should be lessened, diminishing in the last ten days in the same proportion as it increased in the first ten, so that the twentieth day will be equal to the first. The same method is followed in fattening wood-pigeons and making them plump.”
X.
Transi, inquit Axius, nunc in illud genus, quod non est ulla villa ac terra contentum, sed requirit piscinas, quod vos philograeci vocatis amphibium. In quibus ubi anseres aluntur, nomine alieno chenoboscion appellatis. Horum greges Scipio Metellus et M. Seius habent magnos aliquot. Merula, Seius, inquit, ita greges comparavit anserum, ut hos quinque gradus obseruaret, quos in gallinis dixi. Hi sunt de genere, de fetura, de ovis, de pullis, de sagina. Primum iubebat servum in legendo observare ut essent ampli et albi, quod plerumque pullos similes sui faciunt. Est enim alterum genus varium, quod ferum vocatur, nec cum iis libenter congregantur, nec aeque fit mansuetum. Anseribus ad admittendum tempus est aptissimum a bruma, ad pariendum et incubandum a Kalendis Februariis vel Martiis usque ad solstitium. Saliunt fere in aqua, iniguntur in flumen aut piscinam. Singulae non plus quam ter in anno pariunt. Singulis, ubi pariant, faciendum haras quadratas circum binos pedes et semipedem; eas substernendum palea. Notandum earum ova aliquo signo, quod aliena non excudunt. Ad incubandum supponunt plerumque novem aut undecim, qui hoc minus, quinque, qui hoc plus, XV. Incubat tempestatibus dies triginta, tepidioribus XXV. Cum excudit, quinque diebus primis patiuntur esse cum matre. Deinde cotidie, serenum cum est, producunt in prata, item piscinas aut paludes, iisque faciunt haras supra terram aut suptus, in quas non inducunt plus vicenos pullos, easque cellas provident ne habeant in solo umorem et ut molle habeant substramen e palea aliave qua re, neve qua eo accedere possint mustelae aliaeve quae bestiae noceant. Anseres pascunt in umidis locis et pabulum serunt, quod aliquem ferat fructum, seruntque his herbam, quae vocatur seris, quod ea aqua tacta, etiam cum est arida, fit viridis. Folia eius decerpentes dant, ne, si eo inegerint, ubi nascitur, aut obterendo perdant aut ipsi cruditate pereant; voraces enim sunt natura. Quo temperandum iis, qui propter cupiditatem saepe in pascendo, si radicem prenderunt, quam educere velint e terra, abrumpunt collum; perimbecillum enim id, ut caput molle. Si haec herba non est, dandum hordeum aut frumentum aliud. Cum est tempus farraginis, dandum, ut in seri dixi. Cum incubant, hordeum iis intritum in aqua apponendum. Pullis primum biduo polenta aut hordeum apponitur, tribus proximis nasturtium viride consectum minutatim ex aqua in vas aliquod. Cum autem sunt inclusi in haras aut speluncas, ut dixi, viceni, obiciunt iis polentam hordeaceam aut farraginem herbamve teneram aliquam concisam. Ad saginandum eligunt pullos circiter sesquimensem qui sunt nati; eos includunt in saginario ibique polentam et pollinem aqua madefacta dant cibum, ita ut ter die saturent. Secundum cibum large ut bibant faciunt potestatem. Sic curati circiter duobus mensibus fiunt pingues. Quotienscumque sumpeserunt, locus solet purgari, quod amant locum purum neque ipsi ullum, ubi fuerunt, relincunt purum.
[10.1] “Pass on now,” said Axius, “to that kind of fowl which is not content with any farmstead and land, but wants ponds — the kind you Greek-lovers call amphibious. The place where geese are reared you call by the foreign name of chenoboscion. Scipio Metellus and Marcus Seius have several large flocks of geese.” “Seius,” continued Merula, “in making provision for his flocks of geese, observed the five steps which I have described in the case of chickens, and which had to do with strain, mating, eggs, chicks, and fattening. [2] His first injunction to his servant was to see in choosing them that they were full-bodied and white, as usually they have goslings like themselves. For there is another species, mottled, which is called ‘wild,’ and these do not like to flock with the others, and are not tamed so easily. [3] The most suitable time for mating, in the case of geese, is after the winter solstice, for laying and sitting from the first of February or March up to the summer solstice. As they usually mate in the water, they are driven into a stream or a pond. Individuals do not lay more than three times in a year, and when they do, square coops should be built for each, about two and a half feet on each side, and these should be carpeted with straw. Their eggs should be distinguished by some mark, as they do not hatch the eggs of another. Usually nine eggs or eleven form a sitting; if fewer are set, five, if more, fifteen. In cold weather they sit thirty days, in warmer weather twenty-five. [4] When they hatch they are allowed to stay with the mother for the first five days; then they are driven out daily, when the weather is good, into meadows, and also into ponds or swamps. Coops are made for them above ground or under it, and not more than twenty goslings are placed in each; and care is taken that these quarters do not have moisture in the ground, and that they do have a soft cushion of straw or some other material, and that weasels cannot get in, or any other harmful beasts. [5] Geese feed in damp places; so a food is sowed which will bring in a profit, and also there is sowed for them an herb which is called seris, because this, even when it is dry, if touched by water becomes green. The leaves of this are plucked and fed to them, for if they are driven into the place where it is growing they either ruin it by their trampling or die from over-eating; for they are naturally ravenous. For this reason you must restrain them, for, as often happens in their feeding because of their greed, if they catch hold of a root which they want to pull out of the ground, they break their necks; for the neck is exceedingly weak, just as the head is soft. If there is none of this herb, they should be fed on barley or other grain. When the season for mixed forage comes, this should be fed as I said in regard to seris. [6] While the geese are sitting they should be fed on barley soaked in water. The goslings are fed first on barley-meal or barley for two days, and for the next three on green cress cut fine, soaked in water and turned into a vessel. But after they are shut into the coops or the underground nests, twenty to the nest, as I have said, they are fed on ground barley or mixed forage or tender grass cut fine. [7] For fattening, goslings are chosen which are about one and one-half months old; these are enclosed in the fattening pen, and there they are fed on a food consisting of barley-meal and flour dampened with water, being surfeited three times a day. After eating, they are allowed the opportunity of drinking as much as they want. When they are treated in this way they become fat in about two months. After every feeding the place is cleaned out; for they like a clean place, and yet never leave any place clean where they have been.
XI.
Qui autem volunt greges anatium habere ac constituere nessotrophion, primum locum, quoi est facultas, eligere oportet palustrem, quod eo maxime delectantur; si id non, potissimum ibi, ubi sit naturalis aut lacus aut stagnum aut manu facta piscina, quo gradatim descendere possint. Saeptum altum esse oportet, ubi versentur, ad pedes quindecim, ut vidistis ad villam Sei, quod uno ostio claudatur. Circum totum parietem intrinsecus crepido lata, in qua secundum parietem sint tecta cubilia, ante ea vestibulum earum exaequatum tectorio opere testaceo. In eo perpetua canalis, in quam et cibus imponitur iis et immittitur aqua; sic enim cibum capiunt. Omnes parietes tectorio levigantur, ne faeles aliave quae bestia introire ad nocendum possit, idque saeptum totum rete grandibus maculis integitur, ne eo involare aquila possit neve evolare anas. Pabulum iis datur triticum, hordeum, vinacei, non numquam etiam ex aqua cammari et quaedam eius modi aquatilia. Quae in eo saepto erunt piscinae, in eas aquam large influere oportet, ut semper recens sit.
Sunt item non dissimilia alia genera, ut querquedulae, phalarides, sic perdices, quae, ut Archelaus scribit, voce maris audita concipiunt. Quae, ut superiores, neque propter fecunditatem neque propter suavitatem saginantur et sic pascendo fiunt pingues. Quod ad villaticarum pastionum primum actum pertinere sum ratus, dixi.
[11.1] “One who wishes to keep flocks of ducks and build a duck-farm should choose, first, if he has the opportunity, a place which is swampy, for they like this best of all; if this is not available, a place preferably where there is a natural pond or pool or an artificial pond, to which they can go down by steps. [2] There should be an enclosure in which they can move about, some fifteen feet high, as you saw at Seius’s place, closed by one entrance. Around the entire wall on the inside should run a wide ledge, along which, next to the wall, are the covered resting places, and in front of them their vestibule levelled with plastered brickwork. In this is a continuous trough, in which food is placed for them and water is admitted; for in this way they take their food. [3] All the walls are smoothed with plaster, so that no weasel or other beast can get in to harm them; and the entire enclosure is covered with a wide-meshed net, so that an eagle cannot fly in or the ducks fly out. For food they are often given wheat, barley, grape-skins, and sometimes water-crabs and certain aquatic food of that sort. Any ponds in the enclosure should have a large inflow of water, so that it may always be fresh.
[4] “There are also other species not unlike them, such as the teal, coot, and partridge, which, as Archelaus writes, conceive when they hear the voice of the male. These are not stuffed as are those above mentioned, either to increase their fecundity or to improve their flavour, but they become fat by merely feeding them as described. I have finished telling what seems to belong to the first act of the husbandry of the steading.”
XII.
Interea redit Appius, et percontati nos ab illo et ille a nobis, quid esset dictum ac factum. Appius, Sequitur, inquit, actus secundi generis adficticius ad villam qui solet esse, ac nomine antico a parte quadam leporarium appellatum. Nam neque solum lepores in eo includuntur silva, ut olim in iugero agelli aut duobus, sed etiam cervi aut capreae in iugeribus multis. Quintus Fulvius Lippinus dicitur habere in Tarquiniensi saepta iugera quadraginta, in quo sunt inclusa non solum ea quae dixi, sed etiam oves ferae, etiam hoc maius hic in Statoniensi et quidam in locis aliis; in Gallia vero transalpina T. Pompeius tantum saeptum venationis, ut circiter passum locum inclusum habeat. Praeterea in eodem consaepto fere habere solent cocliaria atque alvaria atque etiam dolia, ubi habeant conclusos glires. Sed horum omnium custodia, incrementum et pastio aperta, praeterquam de apibus. Quis enim ignorat saepta e maceriis ita esse oportere in leporario, ut tectorio tacta sint et sint alta? Alterum ne faelis aut maelis aliave quae bestia introire possit, alterum ne lupus transilire; ibique esse latebras, ubi lepores interdiu delitiscant in virgultis atque herbis, et arbores patulis ramis, quae aquilae impediant conatus. Quis item nescit, paucos si lepores, mares ac feminas, intromiserit, brevi tempore fore ut impleatur? Tanta fecunditas huius quadripedis. Quattuor modo enim intromisit in leporarium, brevi solet repleri. Etenim saepe, cum habent catulos recentes, alios in ventre habere reperiuntur. Itaque de iis Archelaus scribit, annorum quot sit qui velit scire, inspicere oportere foramina naturae, quod sine dubio alius alio habet plura. Hos quoque nuper institutum ut saginarent plerumque, cum exceptos e leporario condant in caveis et loco clauso faciant pingues. Quorum ergo tria genera fere sunt: unum Italicum hoc nostrum pedibus primis humilibus, posterioribus altis, superiore parte pulla, ventre albo, auribus longis. Qui lepus dicitur, cum praegnas sit, tamen concipere. In Gallia Transalpina et Macedonia fiunt permagni, in Hispania et in Italia mediocres. Alterius generis est, quod in Gallia nascitur ad Alpis, qui hoc fere mutant, quod toti candidi sunt; ii raro perferuntur Romam. Tertii generis est, quod in Hispania nascitur, similis nostro lepori ex quadam parte, sed humile, quem cuniculum appellant. L. Aelius putabat ab eo dictum leporem a celeritudine, quod levipes esset. Ego arbitror a Graeco vocabulo antico, quod eum Aeolis leporin appellabant. Cuniculi dicti ab eo, quod sub terra cuniculos ipsi facere solent, ubi lateant in agris. Horum omnium tria genera, si possis, in leporario habere oportet. Duo quidem utique te habere puto, quod in Hispania annis ita fuisti multis, ut inde te cuniculos persecutos credam.
[12.1] Meanwhile Appius returns, and we are asked by him and he by us what has been said and done. Appius continues: “There follows the second act, which is usually an appendage to the villa and retains its old name of hare-warren because of one part of it — for not only are hares enclosed in it in woods, as used to be the case on an acre or two of land, but also stags and roes on many acres. It is reported that Quintus Fulvius Lippinus has a preserve in the vicinity of Tarquinii of forty iugera, in which are enclosed, not only the animals I have named, but also wild sheep; and an even larger one near Statonia, and some in other places; [2] while in Transalpine Gaul, Titus Pompeius has a hunting preserve so large that he keeps a tract of about four square miles enclosed. In addition to this, in the same enclosure are usually kept places for snails and bee-hives, and also casks in which dormice are kept confined. But the care, increase, and feeding of all these, except the bees, is evident. [3] For everybody knows that walled enclosures in warrens ought to be covered with plaster and ought to be high — in the one case to make it impossible for a weasel or a badger or other animal to enter, and in the other to keep a wolf from leaping over; and they should have coverts in which the hares may hide in the day-time under the brush and grass, and trees with spreading branches to hinder the swooping of an eagle. [4] Who also does not know that if he points in a few hares, male and female, in a short time the place will be filled? Such is the fecundity of this animal. For place only four in a warren and it is usually filled in a short time; for often, while they have a young litter they are found to have others in the womb. And so Archelaus writes of them that one who wishes to know how old they are should examine the natural openings, for undoubtedly one has more than another. [5] There is a recent practice of fattening these, too, by taking them from the warren and shutting them up in hutches and fattening them in an enclosed space. There are, then, some three species of these: one, this Italian species of ours, with short fore-legs and long hind legs, the upper part of the body dark, belly white, and ears long. This hare is said to conceive even while it is pregnant. In Transalpine Gaul and Macedonia they grow very large; in Spain and in Italy they are medium-sized. [6] Belonging to the second species is the hare which is born in Gaul near the Alps, which usually differs in the fact that it is entirely white; these are not often brought to Rome. To the third species belongs the one which is native to Spain — like our hare in some respects, but with short legs — which is called cony. Lucius Aelius thought that the hare received its name lepus because of its swiftness, being levipes, nimble-foot. My own opinion is that it comes from an old Greek word, as the Aeolians called it λέπορις. The conies are so named from the fact that they have a way of making in the fields tunnels (cuniculos) in which to hide. [7] You should have all these three species in your warren if you can. You surely have two species anyway, I suppose, as you were in Spain for so many years that I imagine the conies followed you all the way from there.
XIII.
Apros quidem posse haberi in leporario nec magno negotio ibi et captivos et cicuris, qui ibi nati sint, pingues solere fieri scis, inquit, Axi. Nam quem fundum in Tusculano emit hic Varro a M. Pupio Pisone, vidisti ad bucinam inflatam certo tempore apros et capreas convenire ad pabulum, cum ex superiore loco e palaestra apris effunderetur glans, capreis victa aut quid aliud. Ego vero, inquit ille, apud Q. Hortensium cum in agro Laurenti essem. Ibi istuc magis thraikikos fieri vidi. Nam silva erat, ut dicebat, supra quinquaginta iugerum maceria saepta, quod non leporarium, sed therotrophium appellabat. Ibi erat locus excelsus, ubi triclinio posito cenabamus, quo Orphea vocari iussit. Qui cum eo venisset cum stola et cithara cantare esset iussus, bucina inflavit, ut tanta circumfluxerit nos cervorum aprorum et ceterarum quadripedum multitudo, ut non minus formosum mihi visum sit spectaculum, quam in Circo Maximo aedilium sine Africanis bestiis cum fiunt venationes.
[13.1] “You know, Axius,” Appius continued, “that boars can be kept in the warren with no great trouble; and that both those that have been caught and the tame ones which are born there commonly grow fat in them. For on the place that our friend Varro here bought from Marcus Pupius Piso near Tusculum, you saw wild boars and roes gather for food at the blowing of a horn at a regular time, when mast was thrown from a platform above to the boars, and vetch or the like to the roes.” [2] “Why,” said he, “I saw it carried out more in the Thracian fashion at Quintus Hortensius’s place near Laurentum when I was there. For there was a forest which covered, he said, more than fifty iugera; it was enclosed with a wall and he called it, not a warren, but a game-preserve. In it was a high spot where was spread the table at which we were dining, to which he bade Orpheus be called. [3] When he appeared with his robe and harp, and was bidden to sing, he blew a horn; whereupon there poured around us such a crowd of stags, boars, and other animals that it seemed to me to be no less attractive a sight than when the hunts of the aediles take place in the Circus Maximus without the African beasts.”
XIV.
Axius, Tuas partes, inquit, sublevavit Appius, O Merula noster. Quod ad venationem pertinet, breviter secundus trasactus est actus, nec de cochleis ac gliribus quaero, quod relicum est; neque enim magnum molimentum esse potest. Non istuc tam simplex est, inquit Appius, quam tu putas, O Axi noster. Nam et idoneus sub dio sumendus locus cochleariis, quem circum totum aqua claudas, ne, quas ibi posueris ad partum, non liberos earum, sed ipsas quaeras. Aqua, inquam, finiendae, ne fugitivarius sit parandus. Locus is melior, quem et non coquit sol et tangit ros. Qui si naturalis non est, ut fere non sunt in aprico loco, neque habeas in opaco ubi facias, ut sunt sub rupibus ac montibus, quorum adluant radices lacus ac fluvii, manu facere oportet roscidum. Qui fit, si adduxeris fistula et in eam mammillas imposueris tenues, quae eructent aquam, ita ut in aliquem lapidem incidat ac late dissipetur. Parvus iis cibus opus est, et is sine ministratore, et hunc, dum serpit, non solum in area reperit, sed etiam, si rivus non prohibet, parietes stantes invenit. Denique ipsae et ruminantes ad propolam vitam diu producunt, cum ad eam rem pauca laurea folia intericiant et aspergant furfures non multos. Itaque cocus has vivas an mortuas coquat, plerumque nescit. Genera cochlearum sunt plura, ut minutae albulae, quae afferuntur e Reatino, et maximae, quae de Illyrico apportantur, et mediocres, quae ex Africa afferuntur; non quo non in his regionibus quibusdam locis ac magnitudinibus sint disperiles; nam et valde amplae sunt ex Africa, quae vocantur solitannae, ita ut in eas LXXX quadrantes coici possint, et sic in aliis regionibus eaedem inter se collatae minores ac maiores. Hae in fetura pariunt innumerabilia. Earum semen minutum ac testa molli diuturnitate obdurescit. Magnis insulis in areis factis magnum bolum deferunt aeris. Has quoque saginare solent ita, ut ollam cum foraminibus incrustent sapa et farri, ubi pascantur, quae foramina habeat, ut intrare aer possit; vivax enim haec natura.
[14.1] “Appius has lightened your task, my dear Merula,” said Axius. “So far as game is concerned, the second act has been completed briefly; and I do not ask for the rest of it — snails and dormice — as that cannot be a matter of great effort.” “The thing is not so simple as you think, my dear Axius,” replied Appius. “You must take a place fitted for snails, in the open, and enclose it entirely with water; for if you do not, when you put them to breed it will not be their young which you have to search for, but the old snails. [2] They have to be shut in, I repeat, with water, so that you need not get a runaway-catcher. The best place is one which the sun does not parch, and where the dew falls. If there is no such natural place — and there usually is not in sunny ground — and you have no place where you can build one in the shade, as at the foot of a cliff or a mountain with a pool or stream at the bottom, you should make an artificially dewy one. This can be done if you will run a pipe and attach to it small teats to squirt out the water in such a way that it will strike a stone and be scattered widely in a mist. [3] They need little food, and require no one to feed them; they get their food, not only in the open while crawling around, but even discover any upright walls, if the stream does not prevent. In fact, even at the dealer’s they keep alive for a long time by chewing the cud, a few laurel leaves being thrown them for the purpose, sprinkled with a little bran. Hence the cook usually doesn’t know whether they are alive or dead when he is cooking them. [4] There are several varieties of snails, such as the small whites, which come from Reate, the large-sized, which are brought from Illyricum, and the medium-sized, which come from Africa. Not that they do not vary in these regions in distribution and size; thus, very large ones do come from Africa — the so-called solitannae — so large that 80 quadrantes can be put into their shells; and so in other countries the same species are relatively larger or smaller. [5] They produce innumerable young; these are very small and with a soft shell, but it hardens with time. If you build large islands in the yards, they will bring in a large haul of money. Snails, too, are often fattened as follows: a jar for them to feed in, containing holes, is lined with must and spelt — it should contain holes in order to allow the air to enter, for the snail is naturally hardy.
XV.
Glirarium autem dissimili ratione habetur, quod non aqua, sed maceria locus saepitur; tota levi lapide aut tectorio intrinsecus incrustatur, ne ex ea erepere possit. In eo arbusculas esse oportet, quae ferant glandem. Quae cum fructum non ferunt, intra maceriem iacere oportet glandem et castaneam, unde saturi fiant. Facere iis cavos oportet laxiores, ubi pullos parere possint; aquam esse tenuem, quod ea non utuntur multum et aridum locum quaerunt. Hae saginantur in doliis, quae etiam in villis habent multi, quae figuli faciunt multo aliter atque alia, quod in lateribus eorum semitas faciunt et cavum, ubi cibum constituant. In hoc dolium addunt glandem aut nuces iuglandes aut castaneam. Quibus in tenebris cum operculum impositum est in doleis, fiunt pingues.
[15.1] “The place for dormice is built on a different plan, as the ground is surrounded not by water but by a wall, which is covered on the inside with smooth stone or plaster over the whole surface, so that they cannot creep out of it. In this place there should be small nut-bearing trees; when they are not bearing, acorns and chestnuts should be thrown inside the walls for them to glut themselves with. [2] They should have rather roomy caves built for them in which they Campagna bring forth their young; and the supply of water should be small, as they do not use much of it, but prefer a dry place. They are fattened in jars, which many people keep even inside the villa. The potters make these jars in a very different form from other jars, as they run channels along the sides and make a hollow for holding the food. In such a jar acorns, walnuts, or chestnuts are placed; and when a cover is placed over the jars they grow fat in the dark.”
XVI.
Appius, Igitur relinquitur, inquit, de pastione villatica tertius actus de piscinis. Quid tertius? inquit Axius. An quia tu solitus es in adulescentia tua domi mulsum non bibere propter parsimoniam, nos mel neclegemus? Appius nobis, Verum dicit, inquit. Nam cum pauper cum duobus fratribus et duabus sororibus essem relictus, quarum alteram sine dote dedi Lucullo, a quo hereditate me cessa primum et primus mulsum domi meae bibere coepi ipse, cum interea nihilo minus paene cotidie in convivio omnibus daretur mulsum. Praeterea meum erat, non tuum, eas novisse volucres, quibus plurimum natura ingeni atque artis tribuit. Itaque eas melius me nosse quam te ut scias, de incredibili earum arte naturali audi. Merula, ut cetera fecit, historicos quae sequi melitturgoe soleant demonstrabit.
Primum apes nascuntur partim ex apibus, partim ex bubulo corpore putrefacto. Itaque Archelaus in epigrammate ait eas esse
boos phthimenes peplanemena tekna,
idem
hippon men sphekes genea, moschon de melissai.
Apes non sunt solitaria natura, ut aquilae, sed ut homines. Quod si in hoc faciunt etiam graculi, at non idem, quod hic societas operis et aedificiorum, quod illic non est, hic ratio atque ars, ab his opus facere discunt, ab his aedificare, ab his cibaria condere. Tria enim harum: cibus, domus, opus, neque idem quod cera cibus, nec quod mel, nec quod domus. Non in favo sex angulis cella, totidem quot habet ipsa pedes? Quod geometrae hexagonon fieri in orbi rutundo ostendunt, ut plurimum loci includatur. Foris pascuntur, intus opus faciunt, quod dulcissimum quod est, et deis et hominibus est acceptum, quod favus venit in altaria et mel ad principia convivi et in secundam mensam administratur. Haec ut hominum civitates, quod hic est et rex et imperium et societas. Secuntur omnia pura. Itaque nulla harum adsidit in loco inquinato aut eo qui male oleat, neque etiam in eo qui bona olet unguenta. Itaque iis unctus qui accessit, pungunt, non, ut muscae, ligurriunt, quod nemo has videt, ut illas, in carne aut sanguine aut adipe. Ideo modo considunt in eis quorum sapor dulcis. Minime malefica, quod nullius opus vellicans facit deterius, neque ignava, ut non, qui eius conetur disturbare, resistat; neque tamen nescia suae imbecillitatis. Quae cum causa Musarum esse dicuntur volucres, quod et, si quando displicatae sunt, cymbalis et plausibus numero redducunt in locum unum; et ut his dis Helicona atque Olympon adtribuerunt homines, sic his floridos et incultos natura adtribuit montes. Regem suum secuntur, quocumque it, et fessum sublevant, et si nequit volare, succollant, quod eum servare volunt. Neque ipsae sunt inficientes nec non oderunt inertes. Itaque insectantes ab se eiciunt fucos, quod hi neque adiuvant et mel consumunt, quos vocificantes plures persecuntur etiam paucae. Extra ostium alvi opturant omnia, qua venit inter favos spiritus, quam erithacen appellant Graeci. Omnes ut in exercitu vivunt atque alternis dormiunt et opus faciunt pariter et ut colonias mittunt, iique duces conficiunt quaedam ad vocem ut imitatione tubae. Tum id faciunt, cum inter se signa pacis ac belli habeant. Sed, O Merula, Axius noster ne, dum haec audit physica, macescat, quod de fructu nihil dixi, nunc cursu lampada tibe trado.
Merula, De fructu, inquit, hoc dico, quod fortasse an tibi satis sit, Axi, in quo auctorem habeo non solum Seium, qui alvaria sua locata habet quotannis quinis milibus pondo mellis, sed etiam hunc Varronem nostrum, quem audivi dicentem duo milites se habuisse in Hispania fratres Veianios ex agro Falisco locupletis, quibus cum a patre relicta esset parva villa et agellus non sane maior iugero uno, hos circum villam totam alvaria fecisse et hortum habuisse ac relicum thymo et cytiso opsevisse et apiastro, quod alii meliphyllon, alii melissophyllon, quidam melittaenam appellant. Hos numquam minus, ut peraeque ducerent, dena milia sestertia ex melle recipere esse solitos, cum dicerent velle exspectare, ut suo potius tempore mercatorem admitterent, quam celerius alieno. Dic igitur, inquit, ubi et cuius modi me facere oporteat alvarium, ut magnos capiam fructus. Ille, melittonas ita facere oportet, quos alii melitrophia appellant, eandem rem quidam mellaria. Primum secundum villam potissimum, ubi non resonent imagines (hic enim sonus harum fugae existimatur esse protelum), esse oportet aere temperato, neque aestate fervido neque hieme non aprico, ut spectet potissimum ad hibernos ortus, qui prope se loca habeat ea, ubi pabulum sit frequens et aqua pura. Si pabulum naturale non est, ea oportet dominum serere, quae maxime secuntur apes. Ea sunt rosa, serpyllon, apiastrum, papaver, faba, lens, pisum, ocimum, cyperum, medice, maxime cytisum, quod minus valentibus utilissimum est. Etenim ab aequinoctio verno florere incipit et permanet ad alterum aequinoctium. Sed ut hoc aptissimum ad sanitatem apium, sic ad mellificium thymum. Propter hoc Siculum mel fert palmam, quod ibi thymum bonum frequens est. Itaque quidam thymum contundunt in pila et diluunt in aqua tepida; eo conspergunt omnia seminaria consita apium causa. Quod ad locum pertinet, hoc genus potissimum eligendum iuxta villam, non quo non in villae porticu quoque quidam, quo tutius esset, alvarium collocarint. Ubi sint, alii faciunt ex viminibus rutundas, alii e ligno ac corticibus, alii ex arbore cava, alii fictiles, alii etiam ex ferulis quadratas longas pedes circiter ternos, latas pedem, sed ita, ubi parum sunt quae compleant, ut eas conangustent, in vasto loco inani ne despondeant animum. Haec omnia vocant a mellis alimonio alvos, quas ideo videntur medias facere angustissimas, ut figuram imitentur earum. Vitiles fimo bubulo oblinunt intus et extra, ne asperitate absterreantur, easque alvos ita collocant in mutulis parietis, ut ne agitentur neve inter se contingant, cum in ordinem sint positae. Sic intervallo interposito alterum et tertium ordinem infra faciunt et aiunt potius hinc demi oportere, quam addi quartum. Media alvo, qua introeant apes, faciunt foramina parva dextra ac sinistra. Ad extremam, qua mellarii favum eximere possint, opercula imponunt. Alvi optimae fiunt corticeae, deterrimae fictiles, quod et frigore hieme et aestate calore vehementissime haec commoventur. Verno tempore et aestivo fere ter in mense mellarius inspicere debet fumigans leniter eas et ab spurcitiis purgare alvum et vermiculos eicere. Praeterea ut animadvertat ne reguli plures existant; inutiles enim fiunt propter seditiones. Et quidam dicunt, tria genera cum sint ducum in apibus, niger ruber varius, ut Menecrates scribit, duo, niger et varius, qui ita melior, ut expediat mellario, cum duo sint in eadem alvo, interficere nigrum, cum sit cum altero rege, esse seditiosum et corrumpere alvom, quod fuget aut cum multitudine fugetur. De reliquis apibus optima est parva varia rutunda. Fur qui vocabitur, ab aliis fucus, est ater et lato ventre. Vespa, quae similitudinem habet apis, neque socia est operis et nocere solet morsu, quam apes a se secernunt. Hae differunt inter se, quod ferae et cicures sunt. Nunc feras dico, quae in silvestribus locis pascitant, cicures, quae in cultis. Silvestres minores sunt magnitudine et pilosae, sed opifices magis.
In emendo emptorem videre oportet, valeant an sint aegrae. Sanitatis signa, si sunt frequentes in examine et si nitidae et si opus quod faciunt est aequabile ac leve. Minus valentium signa, si sunt pilosae et horridae, ut pulverulentae, nisi opificii eas urget tempus; tum enim propter laborem asperantur ac marcescunt. Si transferendae sunt in alium locum, id facere diligenter oportet et tempora, quibus id potissimum facias, animadvertendum et loca, quo transferas, idonea providendum: tempora, ut verno potius quam hiberno, quod hieme difficulter consuescunt quo translatae manere, itaque fugiunt plerumque. Si e bono loco transtuleris eo, ubi idonea pabulatio non sit, fugitivae fiunt. Nec, si ex alvo in alvum in eodem loco traicias, neglegenter faciendum, sed et in quam transiturae sint apes, ea apiastro perfricanda, quod inlicium hoc illis, et favi melliti intus ponendi a faucibus non longe, ne, cum animadverterint aut inopiam esse * * * habuisse dicit. Is ait, cum sint apes morbidae propter primoris vernos pastus, qui ex floribus nucis graecae et cornus fiunt, coeliacas fieri atque urina pota reficiendas. Propolim vocant, e quo faciunt ad foramen introitus protectum ante alvum maxime aestate. Quam rem etiam nomine eodem medici utuntur in emplastris, propter quam rem etiam carius in sacra via quam mel venit. Erithacen vocant, quo favos extremos inter se conglutinant, quod est aliud melle et propoli; itaque in hoc vim esse illiciendi. Quocirca examen ubi volunt considere, eum ramum aliamve quam rem oblinunt hoc admixto apiastro. Favus est, quem fingunt multicavatum e cera, cum singula cava sena latera habeant, quot singulis pedes dedit natura. Neque quae afferunt ad quattuor res faciendas, propolim, erithacen, favum, mel, ex iisdem omnibus rebus carpere dicunt. Simplex, quod e malo punico et asparago cibum carpant solum, ex olea arbore ceram, e fico mel, sed non bonum. Duplex ministerium praeberi, ut e faba, apiastro, cucurbita, brassica ceram et cibum; nec non aliter duplex quod fit e malo et piris silvestribus, cibum et mel; item aliter duplex quod e papavere, ceram et mel. Triplex ministerium quoque fieri, ut ex nuce Graeca et e lapsano cibum, mel, ceram. Item ex aliis floribus ita carpere, ut alia ad singulas res sumant, alia ad plures, nec non etiam aliud discrimen sequantur in carptura aut eas sequatur, ut in melle, quod ex alia re faciant liquidum mel, ut e siserae flore, ex alia contra spissum, ut e rore marino; sic ex alia re, ut e fico mel insuave, e cytiso bonum, e thymo optimum. Cibi pars quod potio et ea iis aqua liquida, unde bibant esse oportet, eamque propinquam, quae praeterfluat aut in aliquem lacum influat, ita ut ne altitudine escendat duo aut tres digitos; in qua aqua iaceant testae aut lapilli, ita ut exstent paulum, ubi adsidere et bibere possint. In quo diligenter habenda cura ut aqua sit pura, quod ad mellificium bonum vehementer prodest. Quod non omnis tempestas ad pastum prodire longius patitur, praeparandus his cibus, ne tum melle cogantur solo vivere aut relinquere exinanitas alvos. Igitur ficorum pinguium circiter decem pondo decoquont in aquae congiis sex, quas coctas in offas prope apponunt. Alii aquam mulsam in vasculis prope ut sit curant, in quae addunt lanam puram, per quam sugant, uno tempore ne potu nimium impleantur aut ne incidant in aquam. Singula vasa ponunt ad alvos, haec supplentur. Alii uvam passam et ficum cum pisierunt, affundunt sapam atque ex eo factas offas apponunt ibi, quo foras hieme in pabulum procedere tamen possint.
Cum examen exiturum est, quod fieri solet, cum adnatae prospere sunt multae ac progeniem ut coloniam emittere volunt, ut olim crebro Sabini factitaverunt propter multitudinem liberorum, huius quod duo solent praeire signa, scitur: unum, quod superioribus diebus, maxime vespertinis, multae ante foramen ut uvae aliae ex aliis pendent conglobatae; alterum, quod, cum iam evolaturae sunt aut etiam inceperunt, consonant vehementer, proinde ut milites faciunt, cum castra movent. Quae primum exierunt, in conspectu volitant reliquas, quae nondum congregatae sunt, respectantes, dum conveniant. A mellario cum id fecisse sunt animadversae, iaciundo in eas pulvere et circumtinniendo aere perterritae, quo volunt perducere, non longe inde oblinunt erithace atque apiastro ceterisque rebus, quibus delectantur. Ubi consederunt, afferunt alvum eisdem inliciis litam intus et prope apposita fumo leni circumdato cogunt eas intrare. Quae in novam coloniam cum introierunt, permanent adeo libenter, ut etiam si proximam posueris illam alvum, unde exierunt, tamen novo domicilio potius sint contentae.
Quod ad pastiones pertinere sum ratus quoniam dixi, nunc iam, quoius causa adhibetur ea cura, de fructu dicam. Eximendorum favorum signum sumunt ex ipsis uiris alvos habeat nem congerminarit coniecturam capiunt, si intus faciunt bombum et, cum intro eunt ac foras, trepidant et si, opercula alvorum cum remoris, favorum foramina obducta videntur membranis, cum sint repleti melle. In eximendo quidam dicunt oportere ita ut novem partes tollere, decumam relinquere; quod si omne eximas, fore ut discedant. Alii hoc plus relincunt, quam dixi. Ut in aratis qui faciunt restibiles segetes, plus tollunt frumenti ex intervallis, sic in alvis, si non quotannis eximas aut non aeque multum, et magis his assiduas habeas apes et magis fructuosas. Eximendorum favorum primum putant esse tempus vergiliarum exortu, secundum aestate acta, antequam totus exoriatur arcturus, tertium post vergiliarum occasum, et ita, si fecunda sit alvos, ut ne plus tertia pars eximatur mellis, reliquum ut hiemationi relinquatur; sin alvus non sit fertilis, ne quid eximatur. Exemptio cum est maior, neque universam neque palam facere oportet, ne deficiant animum. Favi qui eximuntur, siqua pars nihil habet aut habet incunatum, cultello praesicatur. Providendum ne infirmiores a valentioribus opprimantur, eo enim minuitur fructus; itaque imbecilliores secretas subiciunt sub alterum regem. Quae crebrius inter se pugnabant, aspargi eas oportet aqua mulsa. Quo facto non modo desistunt pugna, sed etiam conferciunt se lingentes, eo magis, si mulso sunt asparsae, quo propter odorem avidius applicant se atque obstupescunt potantes. Si ex alvo minus frequentes evadunt ac subsidit aliqua pars, subfumigandum et prope apponendum bene olentium herbam maxime apiastrum et thymum. Providendum vehementer ne propter aestum aut propter frigus dispereant. Si quando subito imbri in pastu sunt oppressae aut frigore subito, antequam ipsae providerint id fore, quod accidit raro ut decipiantur, et imbris guttis uberibus offensae iacent prostratae, ut efflictae, colligendum eas in vas aliquod et reponendum in tecto loco ac tepido, proximo die quam maxime tempestate bona cinere facto e ficulneis lignis infriandum paulo plus caldo quam tepidiore. Deinde concutiendum leviter ipso vaso, ut manu non tangas, et ponendae in sole. Quae enim sic concaluerunt, restituunt se ac revivescunt, ut solet similiter fieri in muscis aqua necatis. Hoc faciendum secundum alvos, ut reconciliatae ad suum quaeque opus et domicilium redeant.
[16.1] “Well,” remarked Appius, “the third act of the husbandry of the steading is left — fishponds.” “Why third?” inquired Axius. “Or, just because you were accustomed in your youth not to drink honey-wine at home for the sake of thrift, are we to overlook honey?” “It is the truth he is telling,” Appius said to us. [2] “For I was left in straitened circumstances, together with two brothers and two sisters, and gave one of them to Lucullus without a dowry; it was only after he relinquished a legacy in my favour that I, for the very first time, began to drink honey-wine at home myself, though meantime mead was none the less commonly served at banquets almost daily to all guests. [3] And furthermore, it was my right and not yours to know these winged creatures, to whether nature has given so much talent and art. And so, that you may realize that I know bees better than you do, hear of the incredible art that nature has given them. Our well-versed Merula, as he has done in other cases, will tell you of the practice followed by bee-keepers.
[4] “In the first place, bees are produced partly from bees, and partly from the rotted carcass of a bullock. And so Archelaus, in an epigram, says that they are ‘the roaming children of a dead cow’; and the same writer says: ‘While wasps spring from horses, bees come from calves.’ Bees are not of a solitary nature, as eagles are, but are like human beings. Even if jackdaws in this respect are the same, still it is not the same case; for in one there is a fellowship in toil and in building which does not obtain in the other; in the one case there is reason and skill — it is from these that men learn to toil, to build, to store up food. [5] They have three tasks: food, dwelling, toil; and the food is not the same as the wax, nor the honey, nor the dwelling. Does not the chamber in the comb have six angles, the same number as the bee has feet? The geometricians prove that this hexagon inscribed in a circular figure encloses the greatest amount of space. They forage abroad, and within the hive they produce a substance which, because it is the sweetest of all, is acceptable to gods and men alike; for the comb comes to the altar and the honey is served at the beginning of the feast and for the second table. [6] Their commonwealth is like the states of men, for here are king, government, and fellowship. They seek only the pure; and hence no bee alights on a place which is befouled or one which has an evil odour, or even one which smells of sweet perfume. So one who approaches them smelling of perfume they sting, and do not, as flies do, lick him; and one never sees bees, as he does flies, on flesh or blood or fat — so truly do they alight only on objects which have a sweet savour. [7] The bee is not in the least harmful, as it injures no man’s work by pulling it apart; yet it is not so cowardly as not to fight anyone who attempts to break up its own work; but still it is well aware of its own weakness. They are with good reason called ‘the winged attendants of the Muses,’ because if at any time they are scattered they are quickly brought into one place by the beating of cymbals or the clapping of hands; and as man has assigned to those divinities Helicon and Olympus, so nature has assigned to the bees the flowering untilled mountains. [8] They follow their own king where he goes, assist him when weary, and if he is unable to fly they bear him upon their backs, in their eagerness to serve him. They are themselves not idle, and detest the lazy; and so they attack and drive out from them the drones, as these give no help and eat the honey, and even a few bees chase larger numbers of drones in spite of their cries. On the outside of the entrance to the hive they seal up the apertures through which the air comes between the combs with a substance which the Greeks call erithace. They all live as if in an army, sleeping and working regularly in turn, and send out as it were colonies, and their leaders give certain orders with the voice, as it were in imitation of the trumpet, as happens when they have signals of peace and war with one another. But, my dear Merula, that our friend Axius may not waste away while hearing this essay on natural history, in which I have made no mention of gain, I hand over to you the torch in the race.”
[10] Whereupon Merula: “As to the gain I have this to say, which will perchance be enough for you, Axius, and I have as my authorities not only Seius, who has his apiaries let out for an annual rental of 5,000 pounds of honey, but also our friend Varro here. I have heard the latter tell the story that he had two soldiers under him in Spain, brothers named Veianius, from the district near Falerii. They were well-off, because, though their father had left only a small villa and a bit of land certainly not larger than one iugerum, they had built an apiary entirely around the villa, and kept a garden; and all the rest of the land had been planted in thyme, snail-clover, and balm — a plant which some call honey-leaf, others bee-leaf, and some call bee-herb. [11] These men never received less than 10,000 sesterces from their honey, on a conservative estimate, as they said they preferred to wait until they could bring in the buyer at the time they wanted rather than to rush into market at an unfavourable time.” “Tell me, then,” said he, “where I ought to build an apiary and of what sort, so as to get a large profit.” [12] “The following,” said Merula, “is the proper method for building apiaries, which are variously called melitrophia and mellaria: first, they should be situated preferably near the villa, but where echoes do not resound (for this sound is thought to be a signal for flight in their case); where the air is temperate, not too hot in summer, and not without sun in winter; that it preferably face the winter sunrise, and have near by a place which has a good supply of food and clear water. [13] If there is no natural food, the owner should sow crops which are most attractive to bees. Such crops are: the rose, wild thyme, balm, poppy, bean, lentil, pea, clover, rush, alfalfa, and especially snail-clover, which is extremely wholesome for them when they are ailing. It begins flowering at the vernal equinox and continues until the second equinox. [14] But while this is most beneficial to the health of bees, thyme is best suited to honey-making; and the reason that Sicilian honey bears off the palm is that good thyme is common there. For this reason some bruise thyme in a mortar and soak it in lukewarm water, and with this sprinkle all the plots planted for the bees. [15] So far as the situation is concerned, one should preferably be chosen close to the villa — and some people place the apiary actually in the portico of the villa, so that it may be better protected. Some build round hives of withes for the bees to stay in, others of wood and bark, others of a hollow tree, others build of earthenware, and still others fashion them of fennel stalks, building them square, about three feet long and one foot deep, but making them narrower when there are not enough bees to fill them, so that they will not lose heart in a large empty space. All such hives are called alvi, ‘bellies,’ because of the nourishment (alimonium), honey, which they contain; and it seems that the reason they are made with a very narrow middle is that they may imitate the shape of the bees. [16] Those that are made of withes are smeared, inside and out, with cow-dung, so that the bees may not be driven off by any roughness; and these hives are so placed on brackets attached to the walls that they will not be shaken nor touch one another when they are arranged in a row. In this method, a second and a third row are placed below it at an interval, and it is said that it is better to reduce the number than to add a fourth. At the middle of the hive small openings are made on the right and left, by which the bees may enter; [17] and on the back, covers are placed through which the keepers can remove the comb. The best hives are those made of bark, and the worst those made of earthenware, because the latter are most severely affected by cold in winter and by heat in summer. During the spring and summer the bee-keeper should examine them about thrice a month, smoking them lightly, and clear the hive of filth and sweep out vermin. [18] He should further see to it that several chiefs do not arise, for they become nuisances because of their dissensions. Some authorities state also that, as there are three kinds of leaders among bees — the black, the red, and the striped — or as Menecrates states, two — the black and the striped — the latter is so much better that it is good practice for the keeper, when both occur in the same hive, to kill the black; for when he is with the other king he is mutinous and ruins the hive, because he either drives him out or is driven out and takes the swarm with him. [19] Of ordinary bees, the best is the small round striped one. The one called by some the thief, and by others the drone, is black, with a broad belly. The wasp, though it has the appearance of a bee, is not a partner in its work, and frequently injures it by its sting, and so the bees keep it away. Bees differ from one another in being wild or tame; by wild, I mean those which feed in wooded places, and by tame those which feed in cultivated ground. The former are smaller in size, and hairy, but are better workers.
“In purchasing, the buyer should see whether they are well or sick. [20] The signs of health are their being thick in the swarm, sleek, and building uniformly smooth comb. When they are not so well, the signs are that they are hairy and shaggy, as if dusted over — unless it is the working season which is pressing them; for at this time, because of the work, they get tough and thin. [21] If they are to be transferred to another place, it should be done carefully, and the proper time should be observed for doing it, and a suitable place be provided to which to move them. As to the time, it should be in spring rather than in winter, as in winter it is difficult for them to form the habit of staying where they have been moved, and so they generally fly away. If you move them from a good situation to one where there is no suitable pasturage, they become runaways. And even if you move them from one hive into another at the same place, the operation should not be carried out carelessly, [22] but the hive into which the bees are going should be smeared with balm, which has a strong attraction for them, and combs full of honey should be placed inside not far from the entrance, for fear that, when they notice either a lack of food. . . . He says that when bees are sickly, because of their feeding in the early spring on the blossoms of the almond and the cornel, it is diarrhoea that affects them, and they are cured by drinking urine. [23] Propolis is the name given to a substance with which they build a protectum (‘gable’) over the entrance opening in front of the hive, especially in summer. This substance is used, and under the same name, by physicians in making poultices, and for this reason it brings even a higher price than honey on the Via Sacra. Erithace is the name given a substance with which they fasten together the ends of the comb (it is a different substance than either honey or propolis) and it is in it that the force of the attraction lies. So they smear with this substance, mixed with balm, the bough or other object on which they want the swarm to settle. [24] The comb is the structure which they fashion in a series of cells of wax, each separate cell having six sides, the same number as that of the feet given to each bee by nature. It is said that they do not gather wholly from the same sources the materials which they bring in for making the four substances, propolis, erithace, comb, and honey. Sometimes what they gather is of one kind, since from the pomegranate and the asparagus they gather only food, from the olive tree wax, from the fig honey, but of a poor quality. [25] Sometimes a double service is rendered, as both wax and food from the bean, the balm, the gourd, and the cabbage; and similarly a double service of food and honey from the apple and wild pear, and still another double service in combination, since they get wax and honey from the poppy. A threefold service, too, is rendered, as food, honey, and wax from the almond and the charlock. From other blossoms they gather in such a way that they take some materials for just one of the substances, other materials for more than one; [26] they also follow another principle of selection in their gathering (or rather the principle follows the bees); as in the case of honey, they make watery honey from one flower, for instance the sisera, thick honey from another, for instance from rosemary; and so from still another they make an insipid honey, as from the fig, good honey from snail-clover, and the best honey from thyme. [27] As drink is a component of food, and as this, in the case of bees, is clear water, they should have a place from which to drink, and this close by; it should flow past their hives, or run into a pool in such a way that it will not rise higher than •two or three fingers, and in this water there should lie tiles or small stones in such a way that they project a little from the water, so that the bees can settle on them and drink. In this matter great care should be taken to keep the water pure, as this is an extremely important point in making good honey. [28] As it is not every kind of weather that allows them to go far afield for feeding, food should be provided for them, so that they will not have to live on the honey alone at such times, or leave the hives when it is exhausted. So about ten pounds of ripe figs are boiled in six congii of water, and after they are boiled they are rolled into lumps and placed near the hives. Other apiarists have water sweetened with honey placed near the hives in vessels, and drop clean pieces of wool into it through which they can suck, for the double purpose of keeping them from surfeiting themselves with the drink and from falling into the water. A vessel is placed near each hive and is kept filled. Others pound raisins and figs together, soak them in boiled wine, and put pellets made of this mixture in a place where they can come out to feed even in winter.
[29] “The time when the bees are ready to swarm, which generally occurs when the well hatched new brood is over large and they wish to send out their young as it were a colony (just as the Sabines used to do frequently on account of the number of their children), you may know from two signs which usually precede it: first, that on preceding days, and especially in the evenings, numbers of them hang to one another in front of the entrance, [30] massed like a bunch of grapes; and secondly, that when they are getting ready to fly out or even have begun the flight, they make a loud humming sound exactly as soldiers do when they are breaking camp. Those which have gone out first fly around in sight, looking back for the others, which have not yet gathered, to swarm. When the keeper observes that they have acted so, he frightens them by throwing dust on them and by beating brass around them; [31] and the place to which he wishes to carry them, and which is not far away, is smeared with bee-bread and balm and other things by which they are attracted. When they have settled, a hive, smeared on the inside with the same enticing substances, is brought up and placed near by; and then by means of a light smoke blown around them they are induced to enter. When they have moved into the new colony, they remain so willingly that even if you place near by the hive from which they came, still they are content rather with their new home.
[32] “As I have given my views on the subject of feeding, I shall now speak of the thing on account of which all this care is exercised — the profit. The signal for removing the comb is given by the following occurrences . . . if the bees make a humming noise inside, if they flutter when going in and out, and if, when you remove the covers of the hives, the openings of the combs are seen to be covered with a membrane, the combs being filled with honey. [33] Some authorities hold that in taking off honey nine-tenths should be removed and one-tenth left; for if you take all, the bees will quit the hive. Others leave more than the amount stated. Just as in tilling, those who let the ground lie fallow reap more grain from interrupted harvests, so in the matter of hives if you do not take off honey every year, or not the same amount, you will by this method have bees which are busier and more profitable. [34] It is thought that the first season for removing the comb is at the time of the rising of the Pleiades, the second at the end of summer, before Arcturus is wholly above the horizon, and the third after the setting of the Pleiades. But in this case, if the hive is well filled no more than one-third of the honey should be removed, the remainder being left for the wintering; but if the hive is not well filled no honey should be taken out. When the amount removed is large, it should not all be taken at one time or openly, for fear the bees may lose heart. If some of the comb removed contains no honey or honey that is dirty, it should be cut off with a knife. [35] Care should be taken that the weaker bees be not imposed upon by the stronger, for in this case their output is lessened; and so the weaker are separated and placed under another king. Those which often fight one another should be sprinkled with honey-water. When this is done they not only stop fighting, but swarm over one another, licking the water; and even more so if they are sprinkled with mead, in which case the odour causes them to attach themselves more greedily, and they drink until they are stupefied. [36] If they leave the hive in smaller numbers and a part of the swarm remains idle, light smoke should be applied, and there should be placed near by some sweet-smelling herbs, especially balm and thyme. [37] The greatest possible care should be taken to prevent them from dying from heat or from cold. If at any time they are knocked down by a sudden rain while harvesting, or overtaken by a sudden chill before they have foreseen that this would happen (though it is rarely that they are caught napping), and if, struck by the heavy rain-drops, they lie prostrate as if dead, they should be collected into a vessel and placed under cover in a warm spot; the next day, when the weather is at its best, they should be dusted with ashes made of fig wood, and heated a little more than warm. Then they should be shaken together gently in the vessel, without being touched with the hand, and placed in the sun. [38] Bees which have be warmed in this way recover and revive, just as happens when flies which have been killed by water are treated in the same way. This should be carried out near the hives, so that those which have been revived may return each to his own work and home.”
XVII.
Interea redit ad nos Pavo et, Si vultis, inquit, ancoras tollere, latis tabulis sortitio fit tribuum, ac coepti sunt a praecone recini, quem quaeque tribus fecerit aedilem. Appius confestim surgit, ut ibidem candidato suo gratularetur ac discederet in hortos. Merula, Tertium actum de pastionibus villaticis postea, inquit, tibi reddam, Axi. Consurgentibus illis, Axius mihi respectantibus nobis, quod et candidatum nostrum venturum sciebamus, Non laboro, inquit, hoc loco discessisse Merulam. Reliqua enim fere mihi sunt nota, quod, cum piscinarum genera sint duo, dulcium et salsarum, alterum apud plebem et non sine fructu, ubi Lymphae aquam piscibus nostris villaticis ministrant; illae autem maritimae piscinae nobilium, quibus Neptunus ut aquam et piscis ministrat, magis ad oculos pertinent, quam ad vesicam, et potius marsippium domini exinaniunt, quam implent. Primum enim aedificantur magno, secundo implentur magno, tertio aluntur magno. Hirrus circum piscinas suas ex aedificiis duodena milia sestertia capiebat. Eam omnem mercedem escis, quas dabat piscibus, consumebat. Non mirum; uno tempore enim memini hunc Caesari duo milia murenarum mutua dedisse in pondus et propter piscium multitudinem quadragies sestertio villam venisse. Quae nostra piscina mediterranea ac plebeia recte dicitur dulcis et illa amara; quis enim nostrum non una contentus est hac piscina? Quis contra maritumas non ex piscinis singulis coniunctas habet pluris? Nam ut Pausias et ceteri pictores eiusdem generis loculatas magnas habent arculas, ubi discolores sint cerae, sic hi loculatas habent piscinas, ubi dispares disclusos habeant pisces, quos, proinde ut sacri sint ac sanctiores quam illi in Lydia, quos sacrificanti tibi, Varro, ad tibicinem gregatim venisse dicebas ad extremum litus atque aram, quod eos capere auderet nemo, cum eodem tempore insulas Lydorum ibi choreuousas vidisses, sic hos piscis nemo cocus in ius vocare audet. Quintus Hortensius, familiaris noster, cum piscinas haberet magna pecunia aedificatas ad Baulos, ita saepe cum eo ad villam fui, ut illum sciam semper in cenam pisces Puteolos mittere emptum solitum. Neque satis erat eum non pasci e piscinis, nisi etiam ipse eos pasceret ultro ac maiorem curam sibi haberet, ne eius esurirent mulli, quam ego habeo, ne mei in Rosea esuriant asini, et quidem utraque re, et cibo et potione, cum non paulo sumptuosius, quam ego, ministraret victum. Ego enim uno servulo, hordeo non multo, aqua domestica meos multinummos alo asinos; Hortensius primum qui ministrarent piscatores habebat complures, et ei pisciculos minutos aggerebant frequenter, qui a maioribus absumerentur. Praeterea salsamentorum in eas piscinas emptum coiciebat, cum mare turbaret ac per tempestatem macellum piscinarum obsonium praeberet neque everriculo in litus educere possent vivam saginam, plebeiae cenae piscis. Celerius voluntate Hortensi ex equili educeres redarias, ut tibi haberes, mulas, quam e piscina barbatum mullum. Atque, ille inquit, non minor cura erat eius de aegrotis piscibus, quam de minus valentibus servis. Itaque minus laborabat ne servos aeger aquam frigidam, quam ut recentem biberent sui pisces. Etenim hac incuria laborare aiebat M. Lucullum ac piscinas eius despiciebat, quod aestuaria idonea non haberet, ac reside aqua in locis pestilentibus habitarent pisces eius; contra ad Neapolim L. Lucullum, posteaquam perfodisset montem ac maritumum flumen immisisset in piscinas, qui reciproce fluerent ipsae, Neptuno non cedere de piscatu. Factum esse enim ut amicos pisces suos videatur propter aestus eduxisse in loca frigidiora, ut Apuli solent pecuarii facere, qui per calles in montes Sabinos pecus ducunt. In Baiano autem aedificans tanta ardebat cura, ut architecto permiserit vel ut suam pecuniam consumeret, dummodo perduceret specus e piscinis in mare obiecta mole, qua aestus bis cotidie ab exorta luna ad proximam novam introire ac redire rursus in mare posset ac refrigerare piscinas.
Nos haec. At strepitus ab dextra et cum lata candidatus noster designatus aedilis in villam. Cui nos occedimus et gratulati in Capitolium persequimur. Illi inde endo suam domum, nos nostram, o Pinni noster, sermone de pastione villatica summatim hoc, quem exposui, habito.
[17.1] Meantime Pavo returns to us and says: “If you wish to weigh anchor, the ballots have been cast and the casting of lots for the tribes is going on; and the herald has begun to announce who has been elected aedile by each tribe.” Appius arose hurriedly, so as to congratulate his candidate at once and then go on to his home. And Merula remarked: “I’ll give you the third act of the husbandry of the steading later, Axius.” As they were rising, and we were looking back, because we knew that our candidate was coming also, Axius remarked to me: “I am not sorry that Merula left at this point, [2] for the rest is pretty well known to me. There are two kinds of fish-ponds, the fresh and the salt. The one is open to common folk, and not unprofitable, where the Nymphs furnish the water for our domestic fish; the ponds of the nobility, however, filled with sea-water, for which only Neptune can furnish the fish as well as the water, appeal to the eye more than to the purse, and exhaust the pouch of the owner rather than fill it. For in the first place they are built at great cost, and in the second place they are stocked at great cost, and in the third place they are kept up at great cost. [3] Hirrus used to take in 12,000 sesterces from the buildings around his fish-ponds; but he spent all that income for the food which he gave his fish. No wonder; for I remember that he lent to Caesar on one occasion 2,000 lampreys by weight; and that on account of the great number of fish his villa sold for 4,000,000 sesterces. Our inland pond, which is for the common folk, is properly called ‘sweet,’ and the other ‘bitter’; for who of us is not content with one such pond? Who, on the other hand, who starts with one of the sea-water ponds doesn’t go on to a row of them? [4] For just as Pausias and the other painters of the same school have large boxes with compartments for keeping their pigments of different colours, so these people have ponds with compartments for keeping the varieties of fish separate, as if they were holy and more inviolate than those in Lydia about which, Varro, you used to say that while you were sacrificing, they would come up in schools, at the sound of a flute, to the edge of the shore and the altar, because no one dared catch them (the same time as that at which you saw the dancing islands of the Lydians); just so no cook dares ‘haul these fish over the coals.’ [5] Though our friend Quintus Hortensius had ponds built at great expense near Bauli, I was at his villa often enough to know that it was his custom always to send to Puteoli to buy fish for dinner. [6] And it was not enough for him not to feed from his ponds — nay, he must feed his fish with his own hands; and he actually took more pains to keep his mullets from getting hungry than I do to keep my mules at Rosea from getting hungry, and indeed he furnished them nourishment in the way of both food and drink much more generously than I do in caring for my donkeys. For I keep my very valuable asses with the help of a single stable-boy, a bit of barley, and water from the place; while Hortensius in the first place kept an army of fishermen to supply food, and they were continually heaping up minnows for the larger fish to eat. [7] Besides, he used to buy salted fish and throw them into ponds when the sea was disturbed and on account of bad weather this source of supply of the ponds failed to furnish food, and the live food — the fish which supplies the people with supper — could not be brought ashore with the net.” “You could more easily get Hortensius’s consent to take the carriage mules (mulas) from his travelling-carriage and keep them for your own,” said I, “than take a barbed mullet (mullum) from his pond.” [8] “And,” he continued, “he was no less disturbed over his sick fish than he was over his ailing slaves. And so he was less careful to see that a sick slave did not drink cold water than that his fish should have fresh water to drink. In fact he used to say that Marcus Lucullus suffered from carelessness in this respect, and he looked down on his ponds because they did not have suitable tidal-basins, and so, as the water became stagnant, his fish lived in unwholesome quarters; [9] while, on the other hand, after Lucius Lucullus had cut through a mountain near Naples and let a stream of sea-water into his ponds, so that they ebbed and flowed, he had no need to yield to Neptune himself in matter of fishing — for he seemed, because of the hot weather, to have led his beloved fish into cooler places, just as the Apulian shepherds are wont to do when they lead their flocks along the cattle-trails into the Sabine hills. But while he was building near Baiae he became so enthusiastic that he allowed the architect to spend money as if it were his own, provided he would run a tunnel from his ponds into the sea and throw up a mole, so that the tide might run into the pond and back to the sea twice a day from the beginning of the moon until the next new moon, and cool off the ponds.”
[10] So far we. Then a noise on the right, and our candidate, as aedile-elect, came into the villa wearing the broad stripe. We approach and congratulate him and escort him to the Capitoline. Thence, he to his home, we to ours, my dear Pinnius, after having had the conversation on the husbandry of the villa, the substance of which I have given you.