10 TLINV's NATURAL niSTOllT. [Book XVIII. 



liavc written on this subject we find the names of kings even, 

 ILiero, lur insUmcc, AttalusPhilometor, and Archelaiis, as well as 

 of generals, Xenophon, for example, and Mago the Carthagiuian. 

 Indeed, to this lust writer did the lloman senate aAvard such 

 liigh honours, that, after the capture of Carthage, when it 

 bestowed the libraries of tliat city upon the petty kings of 

 Africa, it gave orders, in his case only, that his thirty- two 

 Books sliould be translated into the Latin language, and this, 

 althougli M. Cato had already compiled his Eook of Precepts ; 

 it took eveiy care also to entrust the execution of this task to 

 men who wxtc well versed in the Carthaginian tongue, among 

 wliom was pre-eminent D. Silanus, a member of one of the 

 most illustrious families of Eome. I have already indicated,*^ 

 at the commencement of this work, the numerous learned 

 authors and writers in verse, together with other illustrious 

 men, whose authority it is my intention to folloW' ; but among 

 tlie number I may here more particularly distinguish M. Yarro, 

 M-ho, at the advanced age of eighty-eight years, tliought it 

 liis duty to publish a treatise upon this subject. 



(4.) Among the Eomans the cultivation of the vine was 

 introduced at a comparatively recent period, and at first, as 

 indeed they were obliged to do, they paid their sole attention 

 to the culture of the fields. The various methods of cultivat- 

 ing the land will now be our subject ; and they shall be treated 

 of by us in no ordinary or superficitd manner, but in the same 

 spirit in wliich we have hitherto w^ritten ; enquiry shall be 

 made with every care first into the usages of ancient days, and 

 th(>n into the discoveries of more recent times, our attention 

 being devoted alike to the primary causes of these operations, 

 and the reasons upon which they are respectively based. We 

 shall make mention,''^ too, of the various constellations, and of 

 tlie several indications which, beyond all doubt, they afford to 

 the earth ; and the more so, from the fact that those writers 

 who liave liitlierto treated of them with any degree of exact- 

 ness, seem to have written their works for the use of any class 

 of men but the agriculturist. 



*^ In the First Book, as originally written. This list of writers is ap- 

 pemlca in tlic present Transl.ition to each respective Book. 



Tins IS i)r..bably written in humble imitation of the splendid exordium 

 • T the (jtorjrics of Virgil. 



