INTRODUCTION 



belonged to the tribus Galena, which furnished troops 

 for the LEGIO VI FERRATA, stationed at that 

 time in Syria. ^ Fi'om this inscription it is generally 

 believed that Columella died and was buried at 

 Tarentum. 



Columella is known to us by the twelve books of 

 his Res Rustica and the book De Arboribtis. 

 Cassiodorus,2 however, mentions sixteen books of his 

 authorship, a number thought by some ^ to have been 

 due to an error of transcription, but defended by 

 others,* who hold the opinion that the larger work is 

 an expansion of an earlier manual of three or four 

 books on the same subject, of which only the second,^ 

 De Arboribus, has survived. This view is supported 

 by the fact that the book on trees deals with the 

 same subjects that are discussed at greater length 

 in Books III-V of the Res Rustica. The De Arboribus 

 appears in the manuscripts and first printed editions 

 as the third book of the whole work, so that the book 

 now properly marked as the third stands in the 



^ The legion was stationed in Syria in a.d. 23 and remained 

 there during the rule of Tiberius; cf. H. M. D. Parlier, The 

 Roman Legions (Oxford, 1928), pp. 119, 129, 267. 



^ Div. Led. 28, sad Columella xvi libris per diversas agri- 

 culturae species eloquens ac facundus ilJabitur, disertis 

 potius quam imperitis accommodus, ut operis eius studiosi 

 non solum communi fructu, sed etiam gratissimis epulis 

 expleantur. 



3 Cf. Becher, De Col. Vit. et Scr., p. 58 ; M. L. W. Laistner 

 in Am. Jour. Phil. LIX. 116. 



* Cf. Gesner, Script. Rei Rust., Introd., p. 9; Hiiussner, 

 op. cit., p. 7 ; Becher, op. cit., p. 29. 



* That one book preceded is evident from De. Arb. I. 1, 

 Quoniam de cultu agrorum abunde primo volumine prae- 

 cepisse videmur, non intempestiva erit arborum virgulto- 

 rumque cura. 



