BOOK I. IV. 9-v. 2 



as Thebes in Boeotia is said to be, which are com- 

 paratively free from heat in midsummer but become 

 frightful and unbearable with the cold of winter; 

 there are places which are mild in ^vinter but glow 

 ^vith a most cruel heat in summer, as they say 

 of Chalcis in Euboea. Let there be sought, then, 10 

 an atmosphere free from excesses of heat and cold ; 

 this is usually maintained halfway up a hill, because, 

 not being in a hollow, it is not numbed with winter's 

 frosts or baked Avith steaming heat in summer, and, 

 not being perched on the top of a mountain, it is 

 not fretted at every season of the year with every 

 little breeze or rain. The best situation, then, is 

 halfway up a slope, but on a little eminence, so that 

 when a toiTent formed by the rains at the summit 

 pours around it the foundations will not be torn 

 away. 



V. Let there be, moreover, a never- failing spring 

 either within the steading or brought in from out- 

 side ; a wood-lot and pasture near by. If running 

 water is wanting, make a search for a well close by, 

 to be not too deep for hoisting the water, and not 

 bitter or brackish in taste. If this too fails, and if 2 

 scanty hope of veins of water compels it, have large 

 cisterns built for people and ponds for cattle ; this 

 rain-water is after all most suitable to the body's 

 health, and is regarded as uncommonly good if it is 

 conveyed through earthen pipes into a covered 

 cistern. Next to this is flowing water which, having 

 its source in the mountains, comes tumbling down 

 over rocks as on Mount Gaurus in Campania. The 



' ut . . . Campaniae om. 9, in niarg. A. Gaurano Lund- 

 sfrdm, praeeunte Cliiverio; ac sic maluerunt Gesn. et Schn. : 

 Guarceno R, edd. vulgo. 



