ITS RISE AND PROGRESS. 1 1 



ligion; the dunghill had its god, and Stercutus his 

 temple and worshippers. Their corn-crops were 

 abundant ; besides barley and far* they had three 

 species of wheat, the robus or red, the sihgo or 

 white, and the triticum trimestre, three months or 

 summer wheat; they had, besides, millet, panis, 

 zea, and rye, all of which, producing a flour conver 

 tible into bread, were known by the common name 

 of frumentum, corn or grain. Leguminous crops 

 were frequent ; the lupine, in particular, was raised 

 in abundance, and, besides being employed as a 

 manure,f entered extensively into the subsistence 

 of men, cattle, and poultry. The cultivation of 

 garden vegetables was well understood, and employ- 

 ed many hands ; and meadows, natural and artifi- 

 cial, were brought to great perfection. Lucerne and 

 fenu-gree were the basis of the latter; and pease, 

 rye, and a mixture of barley, beans and pease, called 

 farrago, were occasionally used in the stables as 

 green food. Their flocks were abundant, and formed 

 their first representative of wealth, as is sufficiently 

 indicated by their word pecunia. Vines and olives, 

 and their products, wine and oil, had a full share 

 of attention and use. The rearing of poultry made 

 an important part of domestic economy ; nor were 

 apiaries and fishponds forgotten or neglected. 



Such was the husbandry of Rome when Rome 

 was mistress of the world ; and it was to this illus- 

 trious period that Pliny alluded, when, speaking of 

 the ancient fertility of the soil, he remarked, " that 

 the earth took pleasure in being cultivated by the 

 hands of men crowned with laurels and decorated 

 with triumphal honours." 



* Of this last there were three kinds, neither of which is now 

 cultivated. 



f The lupinus albus of Linnaeus : " many other vegetables 

 are used for this purpose, particularly the bean, but they do not 

 answer as well as the lupine ; when this is heated in an oven, 

 and then buried, it forms the most powerful of all manures." 

 T. C. L. Simonde. TaMeau de V Agriculture Toscane, 

 2 



