272 VARRO ON FARMING [bk. 



wing), in the middle of which are bird-cages where 

 the entrance to the quadrangle is placed. At the 

 threshold and along the sides right and left colon- 

 nades are arranged, the front columns being of 

 stone, and instead of columns between them and 

 the wall there are dwarf trees, while from the 

 top of the wall to the architrave the colonnade is 

 covered by a hempen net which is continued also 

 from the architrave to the stylobate. These colon- 

 nades are filled with all kinds of birds which are 

 fed through the net, and water flows to them in a 

 12 tiny stream. Adjoining the inner side [t.e, facing the 

 area] of the stylobate at the upper end of the quad- 

 rangular space, two separate narrow oblong ponds 

 stretch from the middle of the quadrangle in the 

 direction of the colonnades. Between these ponds 

 is a path, the only means of access to the tholus 

 beyond, which is a rotunda supported by pillars, as 



where the entrance to the quadrangle stands, are many bird- 

 cages. " I am aware that such conjectures without some further 

 support are not valuable ; but the passage seems to need strong 

 medicine, and the copyist has been very careless throughout 

 this description. For example, five lines further down he has 

 artihusculis for the obvious arbusculis, and (lo) ad stylobate for 

 stylohaten. In limine^ too, I believe to be an explanation, inter- 

 polated in the text, of the previous clause ; for, it will be re- 

 membered, the aviary is enclosed by walls only on two sides, 

 so that the arrangement described in lines 6-9 could not have 

 been in limine. 



This second avihulatio may have been either the usual 

 ' ' alley " of clipped box, etc. , or a covered colonnade. Cf. Cicero, 

 Ad Q. F., iii : Ita omnia convestit hedera^ qua hasim villae qua 

 intercolumnia ambulationis. 



