BOOK XIX. XIX. 55-58 



against tlie hot weather, and plans are devised to 



keep snow cold tor the months that are stranjjers to 



it. Other people first boil their water and then 



brin<r even that to a winter temperature. Assuredly 



mankind wants nothing to be as nature likes to have 



it. .Shall even a particular kind of plant be reared 



to serve onlv the rich man's table? Can nobody 



have been warned by the Sacred Mount or the 



Aventine Hill, and the secessions of the angry b.c. 494 and 



Commons ? Doubtless the provision-market will level '^^'•*- 



up persons whom money divides into classes. And so, 



I vow, no impost at Rome bulked larger than the 



market dues in the outcry of the common people, 



who denounced them before all the chiefs of state 



until the tax on this commodity was remitted, and 



it was discovered that there was no method of rating 



that was more productive or safer and less governed 



by chance : as this payment is trusted to the 



poorest, the surety is in the soil, and the revenues lie 



in open dayHght, just as does the surface of their 



land, rejoicing in the sky whatever be its aspect. 



Cato sings the praises of garden cabbages ; people Eariij 

 in old days used to estimate farmers by their garden- 'in^Z^abies. 

 produce and thus at once to ffive a verdict that there ni^- 



OLVl. 1 



was a bad mistress in the house where the garden 

 outside, which used to be called the woman's 

 responsibiHty, was neglected, as it meant having to 

 depend on the butcher or the market for victuals. 

 Nor did people approve very highly of vegetables as 

 they do now, since they condemned deHcacies that 

 require another delicacy to help them down. This 

 meant economizing oil, since it was actually counted 

 as a reproach to need a rich sauce *. Those products 

 of the garden were most in favour which needed no 



457 



