Ill] OF BEES AND APIARIES 323 



first gave up an inheritance^ in my favour that 

 I myself began to drink mulsum at my house, 

 though it was given almost every day on the occasion 

 3 of a banquet" to all. Besides it has been more my ^ 

 business than yours to know the habits of these 

 winged creatures, to whom Nature has given the 

 greatest talent and skill. And so as a proof that I 

 have a better knowledge of them than you, let me 

 tell you about their amazing and untaught ability. 

 Merula must then relate to us, as before, the usual 

 practice ^ adopted by melitturgoe (as those who keep 

 apiaries are called). 



' Hereditate me cessa for concessa. Keil seems to think 

 that Appius was Lucullus's heir, cum hereditatem Luculli accep- 

 isset Is not the meaning rather that Lucullus waived a prior 

 claim to an inheritance? Cf. Cicero (Pro Flacc, 36) : Communem 

 hereditatem quae aequaliter ad utrumque venisset, concessit 

 adulescenti. Me is for mihi. Cf Festus, '■'' me''"' pro '''■ mihV 

 dicebant antiqui, who quotes from Lucilius, quae me impendet. 

 Vae te is found in Plautus. Lindsay, however (Lat. Lang, 

 p. 422), thinks these are old uses of the accusative. Quintilian 

 (i, 5) seems to say that mehe was an ancient form of mihi^ but 

 the reading is doubtful. The evidence for the use of me for mihi 

 is certainly slender. 



■* In convivio . . . daretur. The reading of the Archetype 

 was darem. If this be kept the meaning is that Appius did 

 not drink mulsum himself, though he gave it all the same to 

 all his guests when there was a dinner party, and that there 

 was one nearly every day at his house. And this reading seems 

 to present fewer difficulties than Keil's emendation. 



' Meum, an allusion to the name "Appius" connected by 

 Varro with apis. 



* Historicos, loropuuSz. In ii, i, 2, historicon has precisely 

 the meaning of the English word "historical," for Varro 



