EXCURSUS I 357 



these imagfinary conversations are supposed to have been 

 held at the festival of the Palilia, 67 B.C. 



To fix with the same certainty the place where they 

 took place is, I fear, not possible, but 2i prima facie case 

 may perhaps be made out for Buthrotum or Cassiope. 



Varro at the end of the introduction says that he will 

 reproduce conversations which he had had with owners 

 of large cattle-ranches in Epirus, at the time of the war 

 against the Pirates when, as a legatus of Pompey, he 

 was in command of fleets between Delos and Sicily ; so 

 that the scene of the dialogue must have been outside 

 Italy. Pontedera's second inference that it must have 

 been Rome is absurd, for urbs unqualified does not 

 necessarily mean Rome, and the Palilia being the birth- 

 day of the capital, was doubtless celebrated not only in 

 Italy but in all the Roman provinces. As Varro states 

 that the dialogue is between Epirot cattle-breeders, and 

 as three of the speakers are demonstrably Epirots — 

 Atticus, whose income came principally from cattle- 

 farms in Epirus (cf. Corn. Nep., Atticus), Cossinius, and 

 Lucienus, who addresses the other two as 2vi/»;7rctpwrat 

 (v, i) — and as the coast there would be in Varro's beat 

 (the Sicilian and Ionian Seas as far as Acarnania, cf. 

 Appian B. Mith. 39), and as Epirus was celebrated for 

 its cattle and so was not unlikely to be chosen by Varro 

 for these imaginary conversations, some city in or near 

 Epirus seems indicated. 



It appears from the beginning of the dialogue that the 

 discussion was continued from a short while before, 

 when it had been interrupted by the arrival of the doctor. 

 Now in i, 4, 5, Varro says that when the fleet and army 

 were atCorcyra, and all the houses were filled with sick 

 or dead people, he managed by taking certain precau- 



