Ill] OF VILLA-BRED STOCK 259 



care of your own slaves, and by them looked after 

 during pregnancy until the young ones are born. 

 These when born will be reared and fattened until 

 they are ready for the market. There are, too, cer- 

 tain other animals which must be added to the villa's 

 stock, animals which do not call for the nets of 

 fowlers, hunters, or fishers— such as dormice, snails, 

 and hens. 



5 Now of these creatures those which are kept 

 within the precincts of the villa were the first to 

 which men gave their attention — for in the earliest 

 times it was not only the augurs who procured 

 chickens in order to take the auspices, but the heads 

 of families in the country did so as well. In the 

 second place came those animals which, being used 

 for hunting, are enclosed near the villa by a wall, 

 and close to the villa the bee-hives, for bees origin- 

 ally were kept under the eaves ' of the farmhouse, 

 and had the shelter of its roof. Third in order of 

 time were fresh-water fish-ponds which men began 

 to make for the fishes that had been caught in the 



6 rivers. Each of these classes has two stages, the 

 earlier, which the thrift of antiquity adopted, the 

 later, that elaborated by modern luxury. For the 

 first stage was reflected in the excellent old-time 



' Sugrundas=ytiaat the projecting part of the roof. Pliny 

 (xxv, 13) speaks of the house-leek, hypoj^esoriy so called quod in 

 subgrundiis fere nasciiur. Cf. Columella (ix, pref., § 2) : Apihus 

 quoque dabatur sedes adhuc nostra memoria vel in ipsis villae 

 parietibus excisis^ vel in protcctis porticibus. The yf>6v9oi ^vXivot 

 (Mathem. Vet) were projecting supports. 



