BOOK III. VIII. 5-ix. 2 



remind us that Italy is most responsive to care 

 bestowed by mankind, in that she has learned to 

 produce the fruits of almost the entire world when 

 her husbandmen have applied themselves to the 

 task. Therefore our doubts should be lessened as 

 to that fruit which is a native, as it were, belonging 

 to and born of our soil. For there is no doubt 

 that, of all the vines that the earth sustains, those 

 of the Massic, Surrentine, Alban, and Caecuban 

 lands hold first place in the excellence of their wine. 

 IX. The fruitfulness of these vines may leave 

 something to be desired, but even this may be aided 

 by diligence on the part of the vine-dresser. For, 

 as I said a little before, if nature, that most bounteous 

 parent of all things, has endowed every people and 

 land with their own peculiar gifts, though in such a 

 way as not to deprive others entirely of like endow- 

 ments, why should we doubt that she has observed 

 the aforesaid rule also in the case of vines ? So that, 

 although she has willed that some varieties be 

 especially prolific, such as the Bituric and Basilic, yet 

 she has not made the Aminean variety so barren that, 

 of many thousands of them, there may not be 

 found at least a very few fruitful vines, just as those 

 Alban sisters among the humankind of Italy. Not 2 

 only would this be highly probable, but what is 

 more, experience has taught us the truthfulness of 

 it ; for on my place at Ardea, which I owned many 

 years ago, and also on my estates at Carseoli and 

 Alba," I had marked vines of the Aminean variety, 



" Ardea, Carseoli, and Alba were ancient towns of Latium. 



^^ notattis Sa, Sobel;- guamlectione7nprobavU Schn.: notatis 

 A : notas cM : huiusmodi notae vulgo. 



277 



