Chap. 21.] CAPMFICATIOS". 313 



in the interior. The juice, when the fruit is ripening, has the 

 taste of milk, and when dead ripe, that of honey. If left on 

 the tree they will grow old ; and when in that state, they 

 distil a liquid that flows in tears w like gum. Those that are 

 more highly esteemed are kept for drying, and the most ap- 

 proved kinds are put away for keeping in baskets. 85 The figs 

 of the island of Ebusus 86 are the best as well as the largest, 

 and next to them are those of Marrueinum. 87 Where figs are 

 in great abundance, as in Asia, for instance, huge jars 8 ' 

 are filled with them, and at Euspina, a city of Africa, we find 

 casks 89 used for a similar purpose : here, in a dry state, they 

 are extensively used instead of bread, 90 and indeed as a general 

 article of provision. 91 Cato, 92 when laying down certain defi- 

 nite regulations for the support of labourers employed in agri- 

 culture, recommends that their supply of food should be 

 lessened just at the time 93 when the fig is ripening : it has 

 been a plan adopted in more recent times, to find a substitute 

 for salt with cheese, by eating fresh figs. To this class of 

 fruit belong, as we have already mentioned, 94 the cottana and 

 the carica, together with the cavnea, 95 which was productive of 

 so bad an omen to M. Crassus at the moment when he was 

 embarking 96 for his expedition against the Parthians, a dealer 

 happening to be crying them just at that very moment. L. 

 Vitellius, who was more recently appointed to the censor- 

 ship, 97 introduced all these varieties from Syria at his country- 

 seat at Alba, 93 having acted as legatus in that province in the 

 latter years of the reign of Tiberius Caesar. 



84 A mixture of the sugar of the fruit with the milky juice of the tree, 

 which is a species of caoutchouc. 85 Capsis. 



85 See B. iii. c. 11. The Balearic Isles still produce great quantities of 

 excellent dried figs. 87 See B. iii. c. 17. 



88 Orcse. 89 Cadi. 



90 Ground, perhaps, into a kind of flour. 



91 Opsonii vicem. " Opsonium " was anything eaten with bread, such as 

 vegetables, meat, and fish, for instance. 



92 De Re Rust. c. 56. 



93 Because they would he sure, under any circumstances, to eat plenty of 

 them. 94 g ee b. xiii. c. 10. 



95 These were so called from Caunus, a city of Caria, famous for its dried 

 figs. Pronounced " Cavncas," it would sound to the superstitious, " Cave 

 ne eas," " Take care that you go not." 



96 At Brundisium. 97 a.u.c. 801. 

 98 Alba Longa. See B. iii. c. 9. 



