136 VARRO ON FARMING [bk. 



ing of each particular kind of animal; (2) the time; 



/ and (3) the method; as an example: goats are taken 

 to graze in a mountainous bush-covered country, 

 rather than on grassy plains; mares not so. Again, 

 it does not suit all animals to feed in the same dis- 

 trict both in winter and summer. So people drive 

 flocks of sheep a considerable distance from Apulia, 

 to spend the summer in Samnium (they must re- 

 gister their names with the tax-farmer, lest, by 

 grazing an unregistered^ flock, they incur the 



17 penalties of the censor's law ^). And mules are in 

 summer driven from the plain of Rosea to the high 

 mountains of Burbur.^ 



Then you have to consider just the right method 

 of feeding each kind of cattle, for not only does a 

 mare or a cow grow fat on hay, while pigs shun it 



^ Inscriptum pecus. On the meadow land of the ager puh- 

 licus every citizen had the right to graze his cattle after first 

 registering his name before the manceps or publicanus, and 

 paying the registration tax. This was called the scriptura, 

 which owed its name, according to Festus, to the fact that 

 puhlicanus scribendo conpcit rationem cum pastore. 



^ Lege censoria. This refers to the censoria locatio^ where 

 the censor put up to auction the collection of certain vectigalia. 

 The highest bidder — individual or syndicate {societas)—^d,vQ 

 security for the amount bid, and proceeded to collect what he 

 could. The lex censoria defined the conditions of the locatio, 

 and gave the puhlicanus the legal authority by which he en- 

 forced payment. 



From the first book (cap. 7) it would appear that cases were 

 tried before the censor, such probably as were connected with 

 the up-keep cf the temples, public buildings, and roads. 



^ In Burbures (or Gurgures). Nothing is known of these 



