BOOK XVIII. III. 13-1V. 17 



consequently elections were not allowed to be liold 

 on market-days, so that the common pcople of the 

 comitry might not be callcd away from their homes. 

 Beds of straw were ased for a siesta and for sleeping 

 on. Finally the actual wox*d ' glory ' used to be 

 ' adory '," owing to the honour in which emmer was 

 held. For my own part I admire even actual words 

 ased in their old signification ; for the following 

 sentence oecurs in the Memoraiida of the Priesthood : 

 ' Let a day be fixed for taking augury by the 

 sacrifice of a dog before the corn comes out of the 

 sheath and before it penetrates through into the 

 sheath.''' 



IV. Aecordingly these being the customs not only Lowprue>. 

 were the harvests sufficient for them without any of ^'',™'^'^ 

 the provinces providing food for Italy, but even the 

 market price of corn was unbeHevably low. Manius 

 Mai'cius when aedile of the plebs for the first time 456 b.c. 

 provided the peoplc with corn at the price of an 

 as a peck. Lucius Minucius AuguriniLs, who had pro- 

 cured the conviction of Spurius MaeHus, when he was 

 eleventh '^ tribune of the people reduced the price 

 of emmer to an as for a fortnight, and consequently 

 had his statue erectcd outside the Triplets' Ciate, 

 the cost being met by pubHc subscription. Titus 

 Seius during his aedileship supplied the pubHc with 345 u.c. 

 corn at an as a peck, on account of whieh he too 

 had statues erected to him on the Capitol and the 

 Palatine, and he himself at the end of his Hfe was 

 carried to his crcmation on the shouklers of the 

 populace. Then it is recorded that in the summer 

 of the year in which the Mother of the Gods was 

 carried to Rome '' there was a hirger harvest than in 

 the preceding ten years. Marcus Varro states that 



199 



