In Greece and Italy 3 1 3 



knowledge of bee-keeping from the Greeks, who, wander- 

 ing in colonies to Italy and Sicily, pursued bee-culture as a 

 part of their agricultural life. 



The Roman Varro wrote upon bees just before Virgil ; 

 and Columella, who a little later than Virgil also wrote 

 upon agriculture and bee-keeping, tells us that his tutor 

 Hyginus, the bee-master, was the most learned of bee-men 

 in his time, that he had gathered together the works of his 

 contemporaries and predecessors, and had added valuable 

 information that came as a result of his own observations. 

 Hyginus's works are unfortunately lost, but there remains to 

 us the poet Virgil, who devoted his fourth " Georgic " to 

 bees, and there tells us what was known concerning the 

 management of bees as well as many of the curious 

 superstitions about them. 



There is a long line of lesser lights, of which there are 

 not less than seventy names of Greek agriculturists known, 

 whose writings, unfortunately lost, contained- treatises on 

 bee-keeping. 



According to some writers, no less than six hundred 

 philosophers gave themselves to the study of these interest- 

 ing insects. But in spite of this, httle was gained beyond 

 what Aristotle had already recorded, even Pliny's somewhat 

 voluminous work upon bees being little more than an ornate 

 version of Aristotle. About the time that Pliny was writing 

 his elaborate "Natural History" Columella was engaged 

 upon his agricultural work in which he describes a smoker 

 designed and used for quieting bees, showing to what an 

 extent the industry of bee-keeping was followed in his 

 time. 



The ideas, right and wrong, of the ancients have already 

 been considered in connection with the life history of the 

 bees. 



Bee-keeping in ancient Greece and Italy was of great 



