416 
plint's katfeal histoet. 
[Book XYI. 
under these circumstances that Tiberius Caesar gave orders 
for the larches to be cut in Ehaetia, that were required for 
the purpose of rebuilding the bridge of the l^aumachia after 
it had been destroyed by fire. Some persons say that the 
moon ought not only to be in conjunction, but below the ho- 
rizon as well, a thing that can only happen in the night. If the 
conjunction should chance to fall on the very day of the winter 
solstice, the timber, they say, that is then felled will be of ever- 
lasting duration ; the next best being the timber that is cut 
when the conjunction coincides with the constellations pre- 
viously mentioned. There are some, too, who add the rising 
of the Dog-star as a favourable time, and say that it was at 
this period that the timber was cut which was employed in 
building the Eorum of Augustus. 
"Wood which is intended for timber ought to be cut neither 
when too young nor too old. Some persons, too — and the prac- 
tice is by no means without its utility — cut round the tree as 
far as the pith, and then leave the timber standing, so that all 
the juices may be enabled to escape. Going back to ancient 
times, it is a remarkable fact, that in the first Punic War the 
fleet commanded by Duillius was on the water within sixty 
days from the time the timber was cut : and, what is still 
more so, Piso relates that King Hiero had two hundred and 
twenty ships whoHy constructed in forty-five days : in the 
second Punic War, too, the fleet of Scipio was at sea the fortieth 
day after the axe had been put to the tree. Such is the 
energy and dispatch that can be displayed on occasions of 
emergency. 
CHAP. 75. THE OPIXIOI^ or CATO ON THE rELLma OE TIMBER. 
Cato,^' a man of consummate authority in all practical mat- 
ters, expresses himself in relation to timber to the following 
effect : — Por making presses, employ the wood of the sappinus 
iu pre^ference. When you root up the elm, the pine, the nut- 
95 This was the name of mimic sea-fights, exhibited at Eome in the 
Circus or amphitheatres, or else in lakes dug expressly for the purpose. 
Hardouin says, there were five Naumachiae at Eome, in the 14th region of 
the City. 
^6 This practice is no longer followed. 
97 De Re Eust. c. 31 ; also cc. 17 and 37. 
