and Varieties of the Honey -Bee. 275 



from Egypt into Greece in prehistoric times. These suppositions 

 can neither be confirmed nor refuted absolutely ; but, indepen- 

 dently of the high antiquity of the Bee in Greece, the difference 

 between the Egyptian and Greek races of Bees is such that the 

 one could hardly have been derived from the other. 



Among the Romans, according to Magerstedt*, the business 

 of Bee-keeping occurs only at a comparatively late period; so 

 that those who maintain the gradual transmission of the Honey- 

 Bee from the south and east might here assume a transportal 

 from Greece. This supposition may be supported by the fact 

 that the Roman poets, such as Ovid and Virgil, in their myths 

 place the origin of the Honey-Bee, not in Italy, but in Greece, 

 which it might be concluded would not have been the case if 

 the Bee had existed as long in Italy as in Greece. But such a 

 conclusion is not admissible; for, just as the worship of the 

 Romans accommodated itself to Greek views, and, indeed, based 

 itself upon the Greek worship, so the myths and poetry of the 

 Romans approached most closely to those of the Greeks. Nor 

 does the late occurrence of Bee-keeping among the Romans 

 furnish any support to the introduction of the Bee from Greece; 

 for the constant wars of the Romans must have kept back all 

 civilization even in Italy itself. It is, however, possible that the 

 management of Bees, like many other occupations, may have 

 been taught to the Romans by the Greeks, and perhaps prac- 

 tised chiefly by the latter. If, as Magerstedt's investigations 

 prove, there was no Bee-keeping in Italy before the end of the 

 second Punic war, and its considerable extension only dates 

 from the time of Varro (b. c. 116), it seems very probable that 

 it was introduced amongst the Romans by the Greeks, as the 

 subjugation of Greece occurred between these two dates. In 

 favour of this is Pliny's statement (lib. xi. cap. 9) that two 

 Greeks, Aristomachus Solensis and Philiscus Thasius, busied 

 themselves for a long time with observations upon Bees, and 

 that the former did nothing for fifty-eight years but manage 

 Bees. 



The occurrence of Bees simultaneously in the South of Europe, 

 Western Asia, and Egypt may not appear improbable to those 

 who are inclined to ascribe to the Bee a southern origin. The 

 comparatively slight diversity of climate in the above-mentioned 

 countries certainly renders possible its original existence in all 

 of them ; and the opinions of authors differ essentially only on 

 the one point, whether the Bee is indigenous to northern lati- 

 tudes, or has been acclimatized under them. This question can- 

 not be historically decided with absolute certainty ; but it would 



* Die Bienenzucht tier Volker des Alterthums, insbesondere der Romer : 

 1851. 



