THEOCRITUS 9 



SO, I and Eucritus and the fair Amyntichus, turned aside THEOCRITUS 

 into the house of Phrasidamus, and lay down with delight ^> rd Cent " B ' c ^' 

 in beds of sweet tamarisk and fresh cuttings from the vines, 

 strewn on the ground. Many poplars and elm-trees were waving 

 over our heads, and not far off the running of the sacred 

 water from the cave of the nymphs warbled to us : in the 

 shimmering branches the sun-burnt grasshoppers were busy with 

 their talk, and from afar the little owl cried softly out of the 

 tangled thorns of the blackberry; the larks were singing and 

 the hedge-birds, and the turtle-dove moaned; the bees flew 

 round and round the fountains, murmuring softly; the scent 

 of late summer and of the fall of the year was everywhere ; 

 the pears fell from the trees at our feet, and apples in number 

 rolled down at our sides, and the young plum-trees were bent 

 to the earth with the weight of their fruit. Idyll VII., 

 ' Thalysia; translated by Walter Pater. 



Marcus Porcius Cato the Censor, called by Livy 'a man of almost iron body M. PORCIUS 

 and soul' originally a Sabine farmer, he fought against Hannibal at the CATO (B.C. 

 battle of Metattrus : as l a plant that deserved a better soil" 1 he was trans- 2 34 -I 49)- 

 planted to Rome and became Quaxtor, Consul and Censor. A great orator, 

 more than 150 of his orations having been long preserved, and one of the first 

 Roman writers ' De Re Rusticd,'' or Farm Management fragments of his 

 ' Origines ' remain. At the age of eighty -fotir he conducted a law suit of his own. 



OLANT the Mariscan Fig in a chalky and exposed soil: put, 

 ^ on the contrary, into a rich and sheltered earth the sorts 

 from Africa, Cadiz, Sagonta, the black Telanus, with long stalks. 

 If you have a water-meadow, you will not want hay. If you 

 have it not, smoke the field, to have hay. 



Near the city, you will have gardens in all styles, every kind 

 of ornamental trees, bulbs from Megara, myrtle on palisades, 

 both white and black, the Delphic and Cyprian laurel, the 

 forest kind, hairless nuts, filberts from Prceneste and Greece. 

 A city garden, especially of one who has no other, ought to 

 be planted and ornamented with all possible care. De Re 

 Rustica. VIII. 



