26o VARRO ON FARMING [bk. 



practice of our ancestors which allowed but two 

 '^aviaries," namely, on the surface of the ground a 

 farmyard in which hens were fed — and their return 

 was eggs and chickens — and above the ground a 

 second place in which were pigeons in turrets or on 

 the roof of the villa. But nowadays aviaries have 



7 changed their name, being called ^' ornithones," 

 and those acquired by the modern epicure have 

 buildings for lodging fieldfares and peacocks more 

 extensive than were entire villas in former times. 



8 Now with regard to the second section — the 

 warren — your father, Axius, never in his life saw 

 anything as the result of his hunting more than a 

 paltry hare. For the big walled-in enclosure made 

 to hold wild boars and roes in large numbers did 

 not exist in his time. While you, said he, turning 

 to me, when you bought your estate at Tusculum 

 from M. Piso,^ found wild boars in plenty in the 



9 warren, did you not? Touching the third section: 

 in ancient times did any one dream of having any 

 but a fresh-water fish-pond, or other fish in it than 

 "squali" and ''mugiles"? but now every man of 

 refined ' taste tells you that he would as soon keep 



^ M. Piso. M. Pupius PIso Calpurnianus, who was Consul 

 in 6 1 B.C. He is frequently mentioned by Cicero as a friend 

 of the notorious Clodius (Ad Atticum, i, 14). In the De Finibus 

 (v, i) he is made to champion the Peripatetic doctrine con- 

 cerning the summum bonum. 



2 Minthon. Keil substitutes this word for the rhynton of 

 the Archetype, and for the meaning quotes Philodemus of 

 Gadara, who defines fiivOcov as a supercilious fop " who looks 

 down upon everybody and depreciates all whom he meets or 



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