236 VARRO ON FARMING [bk. 



B.C. from Sicily, as is proved by the public archives 

 of Ardea,^ and to have been introduced by Publius 

 Titinius Menas. That in older time no barbers 

 existed is shown by the statues of the ancients, for 

 most of them have long hair and a big beard. 



Cossinius resumed: As the sheep yields up its 

 wool for clothing, so the she-goat gives its hair 

 for the use of sailors,^ for military engines, and for 

 mechanics' tools. Moreover some tribes are clad in 

 goat-skins, as is the case in Gaetulia and Sardinia. 

 That the practice of wearing them prevailed among 

 the ancient Greeks is evident, as in their tragedies 



beard grow, to hide, it is said, scars on the lower part of his 

 face. The Greeks were generally bearded until the time of 

 Alexander the Great. Cf. Alexander ab Alexandre, v, i8. I am 

 convinced that Varro uses tonsores here in the restricted sense 

 of " barbers " — and that an entry in a " Common-place book " 

 or his memory, that of a polymath, caused the sudden diver- 

 gence from the subject. 



^ Ardea. Pliny (xxxv, lo) speaks of very ancient inscriptions 

 in a temple at Ardea, and (xxxv, 3) of certain pictures which 

 were older than the city of Rome. 



2 Ad usum nauticum, etc. Cf. Geoponica, xviii, 9: "Their 

 hair is used for making ropes and bags and the like — and 

 things for sailors ; for what is made of this hair is not easily 

 cut and does not rot." Cf. also Vergil's well-known lines 

 (Georg., iii, 312), on which see Servius, who quotes Varro: 



Cyniphii tondent hirci saetasque C07nantes 

 Usum in castrorum et miseris velamina nautis. 



The military engines are, of course, the catapuUa, ballista, 

 etc. 



As for the mechanics' tools I am at a loss — unless their tool 

 bags were of goat-skin. 



