Ill] OF VILLA-BRED STOCK 257 



he not sell his ward's fishes for 40,000 sesterces 

 18 (;^32o)? Said Axius: My dear Merula, take me, I 

 implore you, as your pupil in the art of feeding 

 animals within the villa. Certainly, and as soon as 

 you promise the school-fee, I will begin. Well, I 

 don't refuse, and you can have it to-day, or later 

 many times over from the animals I shall feed under 

 your tuition. Ah yes, said Appius, whenever one 

 of these animals dies (a natural death), say a goose 

 or a peacock! Well, said Axius, what does it matter 

 if you eat birds or fishes that have died, seeing that 

 you never eat them except when dead? But please 

 set me now in the way of the scientific practice of 

 the art, and expound its scope and method. 



CHAPTER III 



OF ANIMALS FED WITHIN THE VILLA 



I Merula began without demur. 



In the first place the owner should have a know- 

 ledge of those things which can be reared and fed 

 in and about a villa with a view to the master's 

 profit or pleasure. Of this art there are three sec- 

 tions, concerned respectively with aviaries, warrens,' 



' Leporaria. Gellius (ii, 20), who quotes this passage, says 

 that in his own time they were commonly called vivaria — "a 

 word which has not the support of any ancient writer " ; in 

 Scipio's. roboraria, from the oaken planks with which they 

 were fenced. 



5 



