Ill] OF VILLA-BRED STOCK 261 



a pond full of frogs as of these fishes. Philippus' 

 once — the story is familiar — called upon his friend 

 Ummidius' at Casinum, and a fine lupus^ (pi^e) 



hears of even if they be people reputed great," etc. The 

 word is derived from n'lvOa, mint. Cf. the muguets (lilies) of 

 the time of Louis XIV. 



* Philippus. Probably L. Marcius Philippus (Cons. 91 B.C.), 

 whom Cicero describes (De Orat., iii, i) as homini et vehementi 

 et diserto et imprimis forti ad resistendum. And again (Brutus, 

 47) : Sed tamen erant ea in Philippo . . . summa libertas in 

 oratione^ multae facetiae ... in altercando cum aliquo aculeo 

 et maledicto facetus. 



' Ummidius. Perhaps the Ummidius of Horace (Sat., i, 

 i» 95): 



Ummidius quidam — non longa estfahula — dives 



Ut metiretur nummos, ita sordidus ut se 



Non umquam servo melius vestiret ad usque 



Supremum tempus, etc. 



There is an inscription kept by the monks of Monte Cassino 

 which sets forth that the theatre at Casinum (Cassino) was 

 built at the expense of Ummidia (Quadratilla) — a lady described 

 by Pliny (Epist. vii, 24) as being very fond of '* pantomiml." 

 This theatre, in moderately good preservation, stands about 

 300 yards from the poor remains of Varro's villa. The 

 characters assigned to the two men by Cicero and Horace 

 accord well with Varro's story. The wealthy miser gave 

 Philippus a dinner, and the fish was the cheap lupus instead 

 of the usual mullet, sturgeon, or lamprey, and Philippus 

 showed his resentment in such a manner as we should expect 

 from Cicero's description of him. 



' Lupus. This fish was much esteemed by the contempor- 

 aries of Lucilius. One of them, in a Zolaesque description of 

 the debauchery of the young nobles of that time, gives an 

 account of their behaviour in Court. '* He is so drunk that 

 he can hardly keep his eyes open, and, when they rise for 



