248 VARRO ON FARMING [bk. 



of Reate, on his right Minucius Pica (Jay), and 

 M. Petronius Passer (Sparrow). When we joined 

 them, Axius smiling said to Appius: Will you let 

 us come into your aviary where you are sitting 

 3 amongst the birds? I certainly will, answered 

 Appius, and you rather than another, for I can still 

 taste the birds that you set on the table when you 

 entertained me a few days ago at your villa at 

 Reate. I was then on my way to Lake Velinus on 

 business connected with disputes^ between the 



^ De controversiis . The quarrel arose through the draining 

 of Lake Velinus (now Lago di S. Susanna), which appears to 

 have done harm to the people of Interamna, good to the 

 Reatlni. In fact, according to Servius (Aen., vii, 712), the 

 extraordinary fertility of the Rosean country (part of the Ager 

 Reatinus), mentioned by Varro (i, 7, 10), dated from the time, 

 when M. Curius let out Lake Velinus into the river Nar "by 

 cutting through the mountain." It is most interesting to find 

 that it was Cicero himself who conducted the case for the men 

 of Reate, and that he stayed on that occasion with Axius. Cf. 

 Ad Atticum (iv, 15): Reatini me ad sua Tempe duxerunt ut 

 agerem causaTn contra Interamnates apud consulem et decern 

 legatos; quod lacus Velinus a M. Curio emissus interciso monte^ 

 in Narem defluit: Ex quo est ilia siccata, et humida tamen modice 

 Rosea. Vixi cum Axio. Appius was probably one of the decem 

 legati. This letter of Cicero's fixes the time of these conversa- 

 tions, for it was written in 54 B.C., when Appius Claudius 

 Pulcher and L. Domitius Ahenobarbus were consuls. It is 

 singular than an Appius Claudius was also an augur. Can It 

 be that the consul and the augur were the same man, for we 

 know from Cicero's letters (Ad DIversos, bk. Ill, passim) that 

 the Consul had been an augur at the same time as Cicero, and 

 had written a book, De iure augurali, which he dedicated 

 to him? 



