BOOK XVII. I. 6-8 



contained nnthing beside trees to attract this pro- 

 voking bid from Domitius ; on the contrary, he liad 

 already erected for decorative purposes in the court of 

 thc niansion six pillars of marble from Mt. Hymettus, 

 which in view of his aedileship he had imported to em- 

 belHsh the staffc of the theatre — and this althouffh 

 hitherto there were no marble pillars in any public 

 place : of so recent a date is luxurious wealth ! And 

 at that date so much greater distinction was added to 

 mansions by trees that Domitius actually would not 

 keep to the price suggested by a quarrel without the 

 timber in question being thrown in. 



In forraer generations people even got their surnames Meii's names 

 from trees ; for instance Frondicius, the soldier ^yho •^''^"* ""^*^*" 

 performed such remarkable exploits against Hanni- 

 hal, swimming across the Volturno with a screen of 

 fohage on his head, and the Licinian family of the 

 Stolones — stolo being the word for the useless suckers 

 growing on the actual trees, on account of which the 

 first Stolo received the name from his invention of a 

 process of trimming vines. In early daj-s trees cven 

 werc protected by the law, and the Twelve Tables 

 provided that anybody wrongfuUy felhng another 

 man's trees should be fined 25 ass^s for each tree. 

 What are we to think ? That people of old who rated 

 even fruit-trees so highlv beUeved that trees woukl 

 rise to the value mentioncd above ? And in the Vaimbie 

 rnatter of fruit-trees no less marvellous are many of •^''""""'*^*' 

 those in the districts surrounding the city, the produce 

 of which is every year knocked down to bids of 2000 

 sesterces per tree, a single tree yielding a larger return 

 than farms used to do in old days. It was on this 

 account that grafting, and the practice of adultery 

 even by trees, was devised, so that not even fruit 



