324 VARRO ON FARMING [bk. 



4 In the first place bees are born, some from bees, 

 some from the rotten carcase of an ox.^ Thus, 

 Archelaus^ in an epigram calls them ^oog (pOi/jimg 

 TTZTT'havT^fji.sva TEKvay *'the roaming children of a dead 



cow," and he also writes: 'Itt'^uv fxh a-pJKEg yevea, yLQ(T%m 



tz ixknacraiy *' Wasps Spring from horses and from 

 calves come bees." 



Bees are not solitary creatures like eagles, but 

 gregarious as are men. And though jack-daws also 

 resemble men in this, yet it is not the same thing, 

 for bees combine to work and build, which is not 

 the case with jack-daws; bees have method and 



then proceeds to give a sketch of the history of his subject. 

 Here historicos=*'\n descriptive detail" or something of the 

 kind. 



* Ex huhulo corpore. The Geoponica (xv, 2) make Demo- 

 critus and Varro their authorities for the following method by 

 which bees may be produced from a bull. ** Build a house fif- 

 teen feet in every dimension, having one door and four windows 

 — one in each side. Into this house put a bull of thirty months, 

 fleshy and very fat, which is beaten to death with clubs by a 

 gang of young men who must bruise the flesh and break the 

 bones without drawing blood. They must then turn the bull 

 on to its back, cover it with thyme, and leave the house. The 

 door and windows are then to be blocked up with thick mud 

 so that no air can get in. In the third week after this, light 

 and fresh air are to be admitted by throwing open the door 

 and all the windows. Then when the dead matter begins to 

 be alive the windows and door must be blocked as before. On 

 the eleventh day after open again and you will find the house 

 filled with bees hanging together in bunches, and of the bull 

 nothing left but the horns, bones and hair." Cf. Vergil, Georg., 

 iv, 550-8. 



- Archelaus. Cf. note on ii, 3, 5. 



1 



