V 



368 VARRO ON FARMING 



Most of the passage above was easily and soon cor- 

 -rected. Obviously " insta" = '* ista," '*an quid" = 

 ''inquit," '*ne" = ''ni" (or "nisi— n"^"), and ''inre- 

 disset " = perhaps '* impedisset "; but for " poetam se- 

 sum " no convincing emendation has been proposed. 

 Ursinus gave '' Paetum " (Aldus ** Petam "), " fessum " 

 taking *' fessum " to mean " ill." But no example is to 

 be found of the word having this meaning absolute. 

 Scaliger proposed **ad portam vis (for *' vix ") e re," etc., 

 which needs no comment. In Excursus I I have given 

 reasons for supposing that the scene of these conversa- 

 tions was at some port in or near Epirus. I would 

 therefore propose — with extreme diffidence — to read as 

 follows: " Ista, inquit ille, quae coeperat hie disserere 

 . . . cum eum, portum ingressum, visere venissemus 

 ni medici adventus," etc. One would then take ** ni . . . 

 impedisset" closely with "coeperat disserere," trans- 

 lating: " Precisely, answered Cossinius, I mean the dis- 

 course which Varro here was beginning . . . when 

 we had come to call on him after he had entered the 

 harbour (Cassiope or Corcyra), only the arrival of the 

 doctor prevented our further conversation." The omis- 

 sion of *' eum " might be explained as a case of haplo- 

 graphy. "Portum" would be written " portu/' while 

 the "in" of "ingressum" might have been taken (as 

 often) for "m"; but how " sesum " could have arisen 

 from "gressum" I do not pretend to explain — unless 

 one may assume that "g" was simply omitted. In II, 

 2, 12, " inigere est utile " (Ursinus) is given by all editors 

 for the meaningless reading of the Archetype " interest 

 utile." The general sense seems here to compel the 

 correction, and "i" and "t" are frequently confused ; 

 but how is the "g" to be justified? If one might 



