HdZ 



BOOK XVII. 



THE NATUKAL HISTORY OF THE CULTIVATED TEEES. 



CHAP. 1. (1.) TKEES WHICH HATE BEEN SOLD AT ENORMOUS 



PKICES. 



We have described the trees which grow spontaneously on 

 land and in the sea, 1 and it now remains for us to speak of 

 those which owe their formation, properly speaking, rather than 

 birth, to art and the inventive genius of man. 2 Here, how- 

 ever, I cannot but express my surprise, that after the state of 

 penury in which man lived, as already described, 3 in primitive 

 times, holding the trees of the forest in common with the wild 

 beasts, and disputing with them the possession of the fruits 

 that fell, and with the fowls of the air that of the fruits as they 

 hung on the tree, luxury has now attached to them prices so 

 enormous. 



The most famous instance, in my opinion, of this excess, was 

 that displayed by L. Crassus and Cneius Domitius Aheno- 

 barbus. Crassus was one of the most celebrated of the Eoman 

 orators ; his house was remarkable for its magnificence, though 

 in some measure surpassed even by that of Q. Catulus, 4 

 also upon the Palatine Hill ; the same Catulus, who, in con- 

 junction with C. Marius, defeated the Cimbri. But by far 

 the finest house of all that period, it was universally acknow- 

 ledged, was that of C. Aquilius, a Eoman of Equestrian rank, 

 situate upon the Yiminal Hill ; a house, indeed, that conferred 

 a greater degree of celebrity upon him than even his acquaint- 

 ance with the civil law. This, however, did not prevent 

 Crassus being reproached with the magnificence of his. Cras- 

 sus and Domitius, members, both of them, of the most illus- 



1 He alludes to the various shrubs and trees, mentioned as growing in 

 the sea, B. xiii. c. 48 ; but which there is little doubt, in reality belong to 



tVlP diss 01 iUClt 



2 "Fiunt verius quam nascuntur;" a distinction perpetuated in the 

 adage, " Poeta nascitur, non fit." 



3 He probably alludes to his remark in B. xvi. c. 1. 



* Q Luctatius Catulus, the colleague of Marius. Being afterwards con- 

 demned to die by Marius, he suffocated himself with the fumes of charcoal, 



