BOOK III 



OF SMALLER STOCK 



CHAPTER I 



INTRODUCTION AND DEDICATION 



1 Ln the history of mankind, my dear Pinnius, we 

 find two modes of life, that of the country and that 

 of the town, and it is obvious ^ that these two differ 

 not only as to place, but as to the time when they 

 began to be. The country life is much the more 

 ancient of the two, seeing that there was once a 

 time when men lived in the country and had no 



2 towns at all. For the oldest Greek town known to 



' Quidni. The ante-Victorian MSS. have Q. Pinni. The 

 readinf^ (>««</»« of the Archetype restored by Keil from a note of 

 Politian, seems pointless as it is here used. The word is gener- 

 ally used to emphasize a previous statement and is usually 

 followed by a corroborative clause — as often in Catullus. Cf. 

 Ixxvii, i: 



Lesbius est pulcherl quidni? quern Leshia malit, etc. ; 

 Ixxxvi, i: 



Gellius est tenuis: quidni? quoi tarn bona mater ^ etc. ; 

 and Varro, in the next chapter, § 15. 



Varro, besides, generally uses the friendly mi or nosier of 

 the man to whom he is dedicating a book : cf. ii, Int. 6 ; ii, 1 1, 

 12; iii, 17, 10. Possibly mi Pinni wa^ written originally, and 

 quidni was the ineptitude of a scribe. 



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