246 VARRO ON FARMING [bk. 



waiting to attend on his way home the candidate 

 whom we supported. Said Axius to me : Suppose 

 while the votes are being counted ' we make use of 

 the shelter of the Villa Publica' (People's Hall) 

 instead of making one for ourselves with the bench ^ 



^ Diribentur. Literally, "shall be divided." The dirihitores 

 divided the votes {tabellae) as they were taken out of the chests 

 {cisiae), and handed them over to the custodes, who checked 

 them off by dots made on a waxed tablet. 



^ Villa Puhlica. Cf. Livy, iv, 22 : Eoanno{^2^^'^') ^- Furius 

 Pacilus et M. Geganius Macerinus Censores Villain publicam 

 in Campo Martio probaverunt: ibique primum census populi est 

 actus. The purposes for which it was used are stated in the 

 next chapter, § 4. Some remains of it still exist, cf. Middleton's 

 Rome. 



At the time of these conversations (54 B.C.), Cicero and *' the 

 friends of Caesar " were about to build marble saepta for the 

 Comitia Tributa, and a new Villa Publica (Ad Atticum, iv, 16). 



^ Tabella dimidiata. The text here is assuredly corrupt, and 

 the emendations and explanations of Jucundus, Ursinus, 

 Gesner, Scaliger, and the rest are merae nugae. I have trans- 

 lated as best I could, taking umbram which is understood here 

 in the sense given to it by Festus {ad verbum) : Umbrae vocantur 

 Neptunalibus casae frondeae pro tabernaculis. The rustics, at 

 the festival of Anna Perenna (Fasti, iii, 523), made themselves 

 shelters against the sun with boughs of trees, or by sticking 

 reeds into the ground and stretching their togas over them. 



Sub Jove pars durat, pauci tentoria ponunt 

 Sunt quibus e ramis frondea facta casa est 



Pars ubi pro rigidis calamos statuere columnis 

 Desuper extentas imposuere togas. 



Perhaps the tabella (whatever it was) might have been used 

 together with leafy boughs as a protection against the sun. 



Instead oi tabella^ tabema has been proposed In the sense of 

 tabernaculo. And It is quite likely that a candidate used to 



