358 VARRO ON FARMING 



tions to bring back his comrades and household safe and 

 sound. Corcyra was just off Epirus and opposite 

 Buthrotum, where Atticus had a house (Cicero, Ad Att., 

 iv, 8). We know, too, from Cicero (Ad Att., i, 5-8) that 

 between 68 and 66 Atticus was travelHng in Greece ; and 

 that Corcyra was malarious, for in 51 Atticus (Ad Att., 

 vi, 2) caught a bad quartan fever there from which he 

 recovered with difficulty (Ad Att., vii, 5, 9, etc.). If Varro 

 was at Cassiope {partus Corcyraeorum^ cf. Cic. Ad Div., 

 xvi, 9) no doubt his friend Atticus, if then at Buthrotum, 

 would run over to see him. The epidemic which was 

 raging would explain the visit of the doctor. 



Again, the talk must have taken place in some build- 

 ing in the city (vii, i), for in v, i, Lucienus is spoken of 

 as introiens (coming inside), and not in a private house, 

 for the libertus of Vitulus was on his way to Varro's quar- 

 ters when seeing him and the others he came to them. 

 It seems likely that the building was a temple (just as in 

 Book I), possibly an aedes Palis. I would suggest the 

 following as a plausible reconstruction of the plot. 



Some time in April 67 B.C. the fleet with which Varro 

 was hunting pirate galleys put into Cassiope, the princi- 

 pal harbour of Corcyra. On the 20th, or a little before, 

 Atticus and Cossinius came over to see him, and began 

 a conversation on cattle-raising, which was interrupted 

 by the arrival of the doctor, who carried off Varro 

 {wot/LiEva Xawv) to see a sick man, or to consult about the 

 health of the soldiers and seamen. On the following day 

 Varro, Atticus, Cossinius, Murrius, Vaccius, Scrofa, 

 Pomponius Vitulus — probably a kinsman of Atticus — 

 and Menas met by appointment to make arrangements 

 for spending the Palilia. Vitulus, who had a house and 

 grounds outside the city (xi, 12), asked Varro and 



