6 PLINY's natural UlSTORY^ [Cook XVIII. 



day, evon, ^n the registers of the censors, we find set down 

 under the liead of "pascua," or *' pasture lands," everything 

 from wliich the public revenues are derived, from the fact that 

 for a long period of time pasture lands were the only sourcies- 

 of tlie public revenue. Fines, too, were only imposed in the 

 sluipe of paying so many sheep or so many oxen ; and the be- 

 nevolent 8})irit of the ancient laws deserves remark, which 

 most considerately enjoined that the magistrate, when he in- 

 flicted a p<'nalty, should never impose a fine of an ox before 

 having first condemned the same puj'ty to the payment of a 

 bheep. 



Those who celebrated the public games in honour of the ox 

 received the name of Bubetii.^^ King Servius was the first 

 who impressed upon our copper coin^^ the figures of sheep and 

 oxen. To depasture cattle secretly by night upon the unripe 

 crops on ])lough lands, or to cut them in that state, was made 

 by the Twelve Tables^* a capital offence in the case of au 

 adult ; and it was enacted that the person guilty of it should 

 ))e hanged, in order to make due reparation to the goddess 

 Ceres, a punishment more severe, even, than that inflicted for 

 murder. If, on the other hand, the off'ender was not an adult, 

 he was beaten at the discretion of the praetor ; a penalty double 

 the amount of the damage was also exacted. 



The various ranks, too, and distinctions in the state had no 

 other origin tlum the pursuits of agriculture. The rural 

 tribes held the foremost rank, and Avere composed of those 

 who possessed lands ; while those of the city, a place to which 

 it Wfus looked upon as ignominious to be transferred, had the 

 discredit thrown upon them of being an indolent race. Hence 

 it was that these last were only four in number, and received 

 tlieir names from the several parts of the City which they re- 

 spectively inhabited ; being the Suburran, the Palatine, Col- 

 hue, and Ex(iuiline tribes. Every ninth day-^ the rural tribes 

 used to visit the city for the purpose of marketing, and it was 

 for this reason that it was made illegal to hold the comitia upon 



« St AugUHtin, De Civ. Dei., mentions a goddoss, Buhona, the tutelar 

 2'"c^* X, "''''"•••■ ^^"*^'°S seoms to be known of those games, 

 o. rnv, ^''^'"■ ^' ^^- ^^lacrobius says that it was Janus. 

 -* rable vn. s. 2. 



w On the "Nundin.'c," or ninth-day holiday: similar to our ma 

 days. Accordmg lo our mode of reckoning, it was every eighth day. 



market- 



