BOOK XMII. viT. 32-34 



Scaevola's farmhonse would not hold the produce of 

 his farm and Lucullus's farm was not big enough for 

 his house — a sort of extravagance that occasiont^d 

 the censor's rcbuke that there was less ground to 

 plough than floor-space to sweep. The proper 

 arrangement requires a certain amount of technical 

 skill. Quitc recently Gaius Marius, who vvas seven 

 times consul, built a country house in the district of 

 Miseno, but he reUed on the skill he had acquired 

 in planning the lay-out of a camp,so that even Sulla" 

 the Fortunate declared that all the others had been 

 blind men in comparison with Marius. It is agreed 

 that a country house ought not to be put near a 

 marsh nor with a river in front of it — although 

 Homer has stated with the greatest truth that in 

 any case * there are always unhealthy currents of air 

 rising from a river before dawn. In hot localities 

 the house should look north, in cold ones south and 

 in temperate situations due east. 



As to proofs by which the quality of the land Quaiitijof 

 itself can be judged, we may possibly be thought to '""'*■ 

 have spoken of these with sufficient fullness when 

 discu^^sing the bcst kind of soil, but nevertheless we xvil.ioff. 

 will still supplcment the indications we have given by 

 some words of Cato '^ more particularly : ' The dane- 

 wort or the wild plum or the bramble, the small- 

 bulb, trefoil, meadow grass, oak, wild pears and wild 

 apple are indications of a soil fit for corn, as also is 

 black or ash-coloured earth. All chalk land will 

 scorch the crop unless it is an extremely thin 

 soil, and so will sand unless it also is extremely 

 fine ; and the same soils answer much better for 

 plantations on level ground than for those on a 

 slope.' 



211 



