202 VARRO ON FARMING [bk. 



middle teeth, the two upper and two lower. As 

 they enter upon their fourth year of life they shed 

 others in like manner — the four teeth next those 

 which they have already lost — and the so-called 



3 canine teeth begin to grow. Similarly, at the 

 beginning of the fifth year, the horse loses in like 

 manner two, and, whereas those which are growing 

 again are hollow, in the sixth year they are filled 

 in, and with the seventh year he generally has all 

 his teeth to the full number grown again. They 

 say that you cannot tell the age of those that are 

 older, only when the teeth have become prominent^ 

 and the eyebrows gray, with hollows under them, 

 they say — judging from this — that the horse is 

 sixteen years old. 



4 As to type : they should be of moderate size, for 

 if excessively big or small they do not look well. 

 The mares should have broad quarters and bellies. 

 Such horses as are destined for stud purposes you 



* Denies hrocchi. Cf. Columella (vi, 29, 5) : Nee posfea quot 

 annorum sit, manifesto comprehendi potest. Decimo tamen anno 

 tempora cavari incipiunt, et supercilia nonnumquam canescere, 

 et dentes prominere. 



Brocchus or hroncus is defined by Nonius (Bk. i, ad verb.) as 

 producto ore dentihus prominentibus. He cites Lucilius, Bk. Ill : 

 Broncu' Bovillanus dente adverso eminulo, hie est rinoceros. 



The word is found also in a fragment of Plautus, quoted by 

 Festus: Aut varum aut valgum aut compemem aut pactum aut 

 brocchum filium. In both these cases it describes persons, 

 while Varro here and ii, 9, 3 uses it of the teeth themselves. 

 Crescentius, not understanding it, translates brocchi by pli- 

 cati (bent !). 



