11] CATTLE FARMING: ITS ORIGIN 127 



whose flocks in the country of the Bruttii are 

 accounted so famous. 



But, said Scrofa, you shall have what we can 

 give only on the condition that you, who are Epirots 

 and therefore are great men at cattle-raising, repay 

 us by bringing what you know to the common stock. 

 For no one can know everything. 



When I had received the assent of the company 

 to the first two parts (only) being mine — not but 

 what I too possess flocks in Italy, but the harp does 

 not make the harper — I began. 



Well, gentlemen, as from the nature of things 

 men and sheep must always have existed — for 

 whether we suppose that there was an original 

 i generating principle for animals, which was the 

 opinion of Thales of Miletus^ and Zeno of Citium,* 

 or on the other hand that animals had no begin- 

 ning at all, as Pythagoras of Samos' and Aris- 



' Thales Milesius. Water to wit: cf. Plutarch (Plac. Phil., 

 ^): arvx/iZjirai V U tovtov irpCiTOV '6ti Travriav rwv ^<^'(ui/ // yovri 

 "FX^ i^nv vypd ovaa. 



* Zeno Citie-us (borrowing from Heracleitus) made fire the 

 ultimate physical principle; cf. Diogenes Laertius, vii, 156: 

 ^«ni V oOtoIc r^v ftiv <pvaiv ilvai irvp TtxviKbv uS<{> ^adH^ov etc 

 yivtmv. Cf Cicero, N. D., ii, 41 : Quare cum solis ignis similis 

 eorum ignium sit qui sunt in corporibus animantium^ etc., and 

 Varro (L. L., v, 10): Sive ut Zeno Citieus animalium semen 

 ignis. 



* Pythagoras Samius. Varro alludes perhaps to the incessant 

 transmigration of souls. Cf Porphyrius, Vita Pythag., 19: 

 wpttrop ftiv wf dOdvarov tlvai tptiai n)v rin/xfjv tlra fxtrafiuXXovaav d{ 

 AXa yivti l^tfitiv . . . v'tov V ohiiv dirXuiQ iari. 



