Ill] OF GEESE 305 



place where geese are fed you give the Greek name 

 chenoboscion ' (^x^\o^z<jx{iQv). Of these geese Scipio 

 Metellus * and M. Seius have some large flocks/ 



Said Merula : Seius in making his flocks of geese 

 was careful to attend to the following five points, 

 which I mentioned when I spoke of hens^: (i) the 

 choice of a stock, (2) breeding, (3) the eggs, (4) the 



- chickens, (5) fattening for market. In the first place 

 he ordered the slave to see when choosing the stock, 

 that they were big and white, as in most cases the 

 goslings resemble their parents. For there is a 

 second kind with variegated plumage — they are 

 called wild geese— which do not willingly associate 



3 with the first, and do not become so tame. For 

 geese the best time for mating begins with the 

 winter solstice, for laying and sitting it extends 



* Chenoboscion. Described in detail by Columella (viii, 14). 

 It was a courtyard enclosed by a nine feet wall and had porticoes 

 all round it. Under these were the petis, built of cement or 

 brick, each three feet in every dimension and having a stout 

 door. If there was no river or pond near, a tank was made for 

 them to dive in. 



' Scipio Metellus. Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius Scipio, 

 father-in-law of Pompey, and his colleague in the Consulship 

 for part of the year 52 B.C. He committed suicide at the close 

 of the civil war. 



* Greges magnos. Pliny (x, 22) mentions Metellus and Seius 

 together in connection with fate gras, and says that it was 

 doubtful which of the two first discovered its goodness. Nee 

 sine causa in quaestione est quis primus tantum bonum in- 

 veneritt Scipio Metellus, vir Consularis, an M. Seius eadem 

 aetate eques Romanus. 



' Gallinis. Cf. iii, 9, 2. 



I. 



