I] AIM AND SCOPE OF AGRICULTURE 7 



Our presence has, I imagine, the same cause 

 as yours, said Agrius, an invitation from the Aedi- 

 tumus, and if I am right — as your nod would in- 

 dicate — you must wait with us until he returns, 

 for the aedile who has charge of this temple sent 

 or him and he hasn't yet come back, but he left a 

 request that we should wait for him. So, in the 

 leantime, while he is on the way, suppose we 

 ►ply the ancient proverb — ^'The Roman wins by 

 Itting still." ^ 

 A good idea, said Agrius, and thinking that 

 le longest part of a journey is, according to the 

 proverb, the getting to the gate, at once moved 

 >rward to the benches ; and we followed. 

 When we were seated Agrasius said: You men 

 rho have travelled over many lands, have you ever 

 jeen any which was better cultivated than Italy? 

 My opinion is, said Agrius, that there is none 

 that has so little of its land uncultivated. In the 

 first place, as Eratosthenes " divided the earth into 



' Romamis sedendo vincit. A saying, no doubt of Fabius 

 'unctator. Cf. his advice to Paullus (Livy, xxii, 39): Dubitas 

 rgo quin sedendo superaturi simus? His colleague, Minucius, 

 vas of the opposite opinion (cf. Livy, xxii, 14): Stultitia est, 

 'dendo aut votis debellari credere posse, . . . Audendo atque 

 agendo res Romana crevit. 



' Eratosthenes, the founder of scientific geography, born 

 about 275 B.C., died 195 B.C., who was made keeper of the 

 g^eat library at Alexandria in 247 B.C. by Ptolemy III. Of 

 his genuine writings only a few fragments remain. In one of 

 them, the " Hermes," in which the celebrated description of 

 the Five Zones, imitated by Vergil (Georgics, i, 233) occurs, 



