156 VARRO ON FARMING [bk 



CHAPTER III 



OF GOATS 



1 Then said Cossinius to him, Long enough has. 

 thou bleated, O Roman Faustulus,^ now Hste 

 while I tell of goats, I, the Melanthius" of Homei 

 born out of season,^ and learn from me how a ma 

 should speak without waste of words. 



He who would form a flock of goats must fin 

 consider the question of age, buying such as ca 

 now yield increase, and of these preferring one the 

 has a longer breeding time before it; for a youn 



2 one is more profitable than an old. As to the 

 points: see that they be big and strong, having 

 smooth body, and thick hair (except when they ai 

 hairless — for there are two varities); under the chi^ 



' O Faustule. An allusion to the shepherd foster-father , 

 Romulus and Remus. He was the shepherd of Amulius. 



* Melanthio. Melanthius was the goatherd (MeXav^ioc axitoK 

 alyutv) of Ulysses, who supplied the suitors with the best of tl 

 flock (Od., xvii, 217). For this he was mutilated horribly ar 

 killed by Telemachus (xxii, 474). 



' Cordo. Cordus, which means " born out of season," was 

 Roman family name (Quintilian, i, 4, 25). Cicero mentions 

 L. Cordus — a negotiator Siculus — (Verr., iv, 20). The phra 

 Homerico Melanthio Cordo reminds one of Persius's line (v 

 11), Maeonides Quintus pavone ex Pythagoreo, where there , 

 precisely the same kind of pun as here, for ** Quintus " is' 

 Roman praenomen and means "fifth," and Ennius (so tl. 

 Scholiast) was fifth from the peacock — the order being, pe 

 cock, Euphorbus, Homer, Pythagoras, Ennius. 



