INTRODUCTION xxix 



scription now preserved in the Badia of Monte 

 Cassino. 



These examples illustrate the meticulous accuracy 

 shown by Varro in arranging the background for 

 these dialogues. He probably fixed upon some one 

 year for the conversation of each book, and then 

 consulted his notes for the events and people of 

 that year, choosing of the latter those whose cir- 

 cumstances and names associated them with agri- 

 culture — for there were few things which Varro 

 liked better than a pun. One need not wonder at 

 his success in finding characters whose names came 

 so pat to his purpose, for a large proportion of 

 Roman names are connected with the animals and 

 plants found on a farm. 



The place and occasion of the conversations in 

 the first book is, as I have said, made clear by 

 Varro, but there is no internal evidence to fix the 

 year. From the allusion, however, to Corcyra, and 

 the fleet being there, if the reference is, as most 

 commentators suppose, to the great civil war of 

 49-48, we may conclude that it was after this date. 

 I am inclined to think, however, that the time re- 

 ferred to is when Varro served under Pompey in 

 the war against the pirates. In book ii the time of 

 the conversation is precisely fixed, for Varro says 

 that they took place when he was in command of 



