220 VARRO ON FARMING [bk. 



score of equity. Some people buy their dogs separ- 

 ately, others in buying arrange for the puppies to 

 go with the mother, others that two puppies shall 

 count as one dog, as two Iambs do for one sheep ; 

 others arrange that those dogs shall be taken over 

 which have been accustomed to be together. 



8 A dog's food is more like a man's than a sheep's, 

 for it feeds on bits of meat,^ etc., and bones, not 

 grass and leaves. You must be very careful to give 

 them food, for if you do not, hunger will drive 



9 them to hunt for it and desert the flock ; if indeed 

 they do not (and some people think they will) go so 

 far as to give the lie to the ancient proverb,^ or a 

 practical illustration of the myth about Actaeon by 



[o turning their teeth against their master. And you 

 must give' them barley-bread, which must be well 



entur, etc. So that hie clearly refers to dogs. But then pecoris 

 cannot mean "sheep"; it must mean cattle in the sense of 

 oxen, in the case of which these exceptions were not made. 

 Cf. ii, 5, lo. Pecus, of course, as a legal term, included oves^ 

 boves, eqtiosy capras, and even sues, but generally meant oxen 

 and cows. Aliquando bonus domiitat Homerus! 



^ Eduliis. Fulgentius defines edulium as praegustativa 

 comestio = ' * a snack. " 



^ Proverbium. Canis caninam non est ("Dog doesn't eat 

 dog"). Cf. Varro, L. L., vii, cap. 3 (§ 87, Spengel) : Nam 

 idem quod Trapoifiiav vocant Graeci, ut est " Au7'ibus lupum 

 teneo" " Canis caninam non est^ Many proverbs, all more or 

 less irrelevant, had been suggested by the commentators, 

 when Keil, by indicating this, made the whole passage clear. 



3 Nee non . . . non. The second non is, of course, incorrect. 

 Varro's careless use of negatives (Keil gives many examples 

 in his note to i, 2, 23) reminds one strongly of the practice in 



