and Extension of the Merino Breed of Sheep. 395 



similar quality with coarse ewes. Columella tried, in this instance, to obtain fine 

 woolled, coloured lambs, by coupling coloured coarse rams, with white fine 

 woolled ewes. Neither does it at all follow from the words, " in agros transtulit," 

 that Columella placed these rams on any lands of his in Spain. It is much more 

 probable, even from the words themselves, as well as from the nature of his object, 

 that he brought them into the Roman territories in Italy, where, as we shall hereafter 

 see, there were abundance of the " oves tectae," " molies," or " TarenUnae," 

 which were chiefly valued for superfine white wool. 



It is well known that all ranks of people of both sexes among the Romans 

 chiefly wore woollen garments. Even so late as the reign of the Emperor Aurelian, 

 270 years after Christ, a pound of silk, according to Vopiscus, was equal in value 

 to a pound of gold. A people so pre-eminent in wealth, and in all the refinements 

 of art, would naturally be solicitous to attain the highest degree of excellence in the 

 materials of those fabrics, which, by adorning their persons, were calculated to 

 gratify one of the most prevailing passions of the human mind. Neither was it less 

 necessary for them to consult their ease than their vanity. The heat of Italy vv'as 

 at certain seasons of the year so great, that the affluent would scarcely have sup- 

 ported a woollen dress, had it not consisted of filaments sufiiciently fine to be 

 worked into the thinnest and lightest cloth. This quality must have been, more 

 especially important, since we find that, during the Augustan age, and for a consi- 

 derable time afterwards, it was the fashion to wear cloths, which, as at present, were 

 furnished with a nap or pile. Such cloths were called " pexs," in contradistinction 

 to " tritae," or threadbare. Thus Horac? ; 



" si forte subucula pexas 



" Trita subest tunicas 



" Rides."—* 



" You laugh, if you espy a threadbare vest 

 " Under a well pil'd tunic." 



And again Martial ; 



" Pexatus pulchre, rides mea, Zoile, trita. "f 



" In well dress'd cloth array'd, Zoilus, you mock 

 •' My threadbare garment." ■ 



• Epistola I. Lin, 55. f Epigrammatum lib. ii. 58. 



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