xxiv INTRODUCTION 



with many more, seem to deserve more attention 

 from naturalists than they have yet received. 



Incidentally, too, the enormous wealth and the 

 incredible luxury of the few at Rome, the turbu- 

 lence and corruption of elections, the frequency of 

 assassination, the price of provisions, the market 

 gardens, the average profits made by farms, the 

 occasional employment of hired labourers in prefer- 

 ence to slaves — all these and a host of other curious 

 facts are vividly described or illustrated in these 

 books on farming. 



The first book, on agriculture proper, begins with 

 a general introduction to the whole work, and a 

 statement of the method which is to be used in the 

 treatment of the subject. The treatise as a whole 

 is dedicated to his wife Fundania. And here we 

 may observe the elaborate care given to the mise- 

 en-scene by Varro. As the first book is concerned 

 with the cultivation of the land, the scene is laid in 

 the Temple of Tellus (earth), and the time is the 

 Sementivae (Festival of Sowing). The name Fun- 

 dania suggests the fundus^ or farm, as do chose of 

 the aeditumus Fundilius, and one of the interlocu- 

 tors, Fundanius, Varro's father-in-law. Agrius and 

 Agrasius — connected with «^^r (the land) — and Stolo 

 (sucker), are names of other speakers. 



The second book treats of cattle, horses, pigs, 



