416 PLINY'S NATURAL IIISTOItY. [Book XVI. 



under these circumstances that Tiberius Csesar gave orders 

 for the larches to be cut in Rhaetia, that were required for 

 the purpose of rebuilding the bridge of the Naumachia 95 after 

 it had been destroyed by fire. Some persons say that the 

 moon ought not only to be in conjunction, but below the ho- 

 rizon as well, a thing that can only happen in the night. If the 

 conjunction should chance to fall on the very day of the winter 

 solstice, the timber, they say, that is then felled will be of ever- 

 lasting duration ; the next best being the timber that is cut 

 when the conjunction coincides with the constellations pre- 

 viously mentioned. There are some, too, who add the rising 

 of the Dog-star as a favourable time, and say that it was at 

 this period that the timber was cut which was employed in 

 building the Forum of Augustus. 



Wood which is intended for timber ought to be cut neither 

 when too young nor too old. Some persons, too — and the prac- 

 tice is by no means without its utility — cut round 96 the tree as 

 far as the pith, and then leave the timber standing, so that all 

 the juices may be enabled to escape. Going back to ancient 

 times, it is a remarkable fact, that in the first Punic War the 

 fleet commanded by Duillius was on the water within sixty 

 days from the time the timber was cut : and, what is still 

 more so, Piso relates that King Hiero had two hundred and 

 twenty ships wholly constructed in forty-five days : in the 

 second Punic War, too, the fleet of Scipio was at sea the fortieth 

 day after the axe had been put to the tree. Such is the 

 energy and dispatch that can be displayed on occasions of 

 emergency. 



CHAP. 75. THE OriNION OF CATO ON THE FELLING OF TIMBER. 



Cato, 97 a man of consummate authority in all practical mat- 

 ters, expresses himself in relation to timber to the following 

 effect : — " For making presses, employ the wood of the sappinus 

 in preference. When you root up the elm, the pine, the nut- 



95 This was the name of mimic sea-fights, exhibited at Rome in the 

 Circus or amphitheatres, or else in lakes dug expressly for the purpose. 

 Hardouin says, there were five Naumacbiae at Rome, in the 14th region of 

 the City. 



96 This practice is no longer followed. 



97 De Re Rust. c. 31 ; also cc. 17 and 37. 



