BOOK XV 



I. One of the most celebrated Greek authors, NaturaJ 

 Theophrastus, who flourished about 314 b.c, stated ^",^^^°£^ 

 that the oHve onlv orrows at plaees within forty miles ?'^.?'?'''/ 

 o\ the sea, while renestella says that in 581 b.c, 

 during the reign of Tarquinius Priscus, it was not 

 found at all in Italy and Spain or in Africa ; whereas 



at the present day it has penetrated even across the 

 Alps and intothe middleof theGalHcandSpanish pro- 

 vinces. Indeed in 249 b.c, the year in which Appius 

 Claudius the grandson of Appius Claudius Caecus 

 and Lucius Junius were the consuls, olive-oil cost 10 

 asses for 12 Ibs. and somewhat later, in 74 b.c, the 

 curule aedile Marcus Seius,son of Lucius, throughout 

 the whole of his year of office suppHed the Roman 

 pubHc with oil at the rate of an as for 10 Ibs. These 

 facts wiH seem less surprising to a person who knows 

 that 22 years later in the third consulship of Gnaeus 

 Pompeius Italy exported oil to the provinces. Also 

 Hesiod, who thought that instruction in agriculture 

 was a prime necessity of Hfe, declared that no one 

 had ever gathered fruit from an oHve-tree of his own 

 planting — so slow a business it was in those days, 

 whereas now oHve-trees bear even in the nursery- 

 gardens, and after they have been transplanted 

 oHves are picked from them the next year. 



II. Fabianus says that the oHve will not grow in oiive- 

 extremely cold places nor yet in extremely hot ones. ^Sw^.''^ 



289 



