Columella: DE RE RUSTICA LIBRI XII

I. DE MINORE ASELLO. De minore pecore dicturis, Publi Silvine, principium tenebit minor in ora Arcadiae vilis hic volgarisque asellus, cuius plerique rusticarum rerum auctores in emendis tuendisque iumentis praecipuam rationem volunt esse. Nec iniuria, nam etiam eo rure, quod pascuo caret, contineri potest exiguo et qualicumque pabulo contentus, quippe vel foliis spinisque vepraticis alitur vel obiecto fasce stramentorum, paleis vero, quae paene omnibus regionibus abundant, etiam gliscit.

1. ON THE SMALLER DONKEY. As we are to speak about the smaller livestock, Publius Silvinus, the beginning will be held, on Arcadia’s lips, by this cheap and commonplace little donkey, for which most authors of rustic matters want there to be a principal consideration in the buying and the upkeep of beasts of burden. And not unjustly; for even in that countryside which lacks pasture it can be kept, content with scant and whatever sort of fodder—indeed it is fed either on the leaves and thorns of bramble-thickets, or with a bundle of straw thrown before it; and on chaff, which abounds in almost all regions, it even thrives.

[2] Tum inprudentis custodis violentiam neglegentiamque fortissime sustinet plagarum et penuriae tolerantissimus, propter quae tardius deficit quam ullum aliud armentum. Nam laboris et famis maxime patiens raro morbis adficitur. Huius animalis tam exiguae tutelae plurima et necessaria opera supra portionem respondent, cum et facilem terram, qualis in Baetica totaque Libye sit, levibus aratris proscindat et non minima pondere vehicula trahat.

[2] Then it most stoutly endures the violence and negligence of an imprudent keeper, being most tolerant of lashes and of penury, on account of which it gives out more slowly than any other herd-beast. For, most patient of labor and hunger, it is rarely afflicted with maladies. The very many and necessary services of this animal, under so scant a tutelage, answer beyond their portion, since it both breaks up easy ground, such as is in Baetica and all Libya, with light ploughs, and draws vehicles of no mean weight.

[3] Saepe etiam, ut celeberrimus poeta memorat,

[3] Often also, as the most celebrated poet recalls,

tardi costas agitator aselli
vilibus aut onerat pomis lapidemque revertens
incussum aut atrae massam picis urbe reportat.

the driver of the slow little ass goads its ribs,
or loads it with cheap apples, and returning
carries a stone to be driven in, or brings back from the city a mass of black pitch.

Iam vero molarum et conficiendi frumenti paene sollemnis est huius pecoris labor. Quare omne rus tamquam maxime necessarium instrumentum desiderat asellum, qui, ut dixi, pleraque utensilia et vehere in urbem et reportare collo vel dorso commode potest. Qualis autem species eius vel cura probatissima sit, superiore libro, cum de pretioso praeciperetur, satis dictum est.

And indeed, the labor of this livestock in mills and in the preparation of grain is almost customary. Wherefore every farm desires a donkey as a most necessary instrument, who, as I have said, can conveniently both convey most implements into the city and bring them back, on neck or on back. As to what sort its appearance is, or what care is most approved, in the previous book, when instruction was being given about the prized animal, enough has been said.

II. DE OVIBUS EMENDIS TUENDISQUE. Post huius quadripedis ovilli pecoris secunda ratio est, quae prima fit, si ad utilitatis magnitudinem referas. Nam id praecipue nos contra violentiam frigoris protegit corporibusque nostris liberaliora praebet velamina, tum etiam casei lactisque abundantia non solum agrestis saturat, sed etiam elegantium mensas iucundis et numerosis dapibus exornat.

2. ON SHEEP TO BE BOUGHT AND PROTECTED. After this quadruped, the second consideration is that of the ovine flock, which becomes the first if you refer to the magnitude of its utility. For it especially protects us against the violence of cold and supplies our bodies with more liberal coverings, then also the abundance of cheese and milk not only satiates country-folk, but also adorns the tables of the elegant with pleasant and numerous feasts.

[2] Quibusdam vero nationibus frumenti expertibus victum commodat, ex quo Nomadum Getarumque plurimigalaktopotai dicuntur. Igitur id pecus, quamvis mollissimum sit, ut ait prudentissime Celsus, valetudinis tutissimae est minimeque pestilentia laborat. Verum tamen eligendum est ad naturam loci, quod semper observari non solum in hoc, sed etiam in tota ruris disciplina Vergilius praecipit, cum ait: nec vero terrae ferre omnes omnia possunt.

[2] Indeed, to certain nations lacking grain it furnishes sustenance, whence very many of the Nomads and of the Getae are calledgalaktopotai (“milk‑drinkers”). Therefore that flock, although most gentle, as Celsus most prudently says, is of the safest health and hardly suffers from pestilence. Yet it must be selected according to the nature of the place—a rule which, as Vergil prescribes, is always to be observed not only in this matter but in the whole discipline of the countryside—when he says: “nor indeed can lands bear all things.”

[3] Pinguis et campestris situs proceras ovis tolerat, gracilis et collinus quadratas, silvestris et montosus exiguas. Pratis planisque novalibus tectum pecus commodissime pascitur, idque non solum generibus, sed etiam coloribus plurimum refert. Generis eximii Calabras Apulasque et Milesias nostri existimabant earumque optimas Tarentinas.

[3] A rich and campestral site supports tall sheep, a slender and hilly one square-built, a sylvan and mountainous one small. In meadows and level fallow-lands the fleeced (covered) flock is pastured most commodiously, and herein it matters very much not only in breeds, but also in colors. Of outstanding breed our people esteemed the Calabrians, Apulians, and Milesians, and the best of these the Tarentines.

Nunc Gallicae pretiosiores habentur earumque praecipue Altinates, item quae circa Parmam et Mutinam macris stabulantur campis.

Now the Gallic are held more precious, and among them especially the Altinates, likewise those which are stabled around Parma and Mutina in lean fields.

[4] Color albus cum sit optimus, tum etiam est utilissimus, quod ex hoc plurimi fiunt neque hic ex alio. Sunt etiam suapte natura pretio commendabiles pullus atque fuscus, quos praebet in Italia Pollentia, in Baetica Corduba nec minus Asia rutilos, quos vocant erythraious. Sed et alias varietates in hoc pecudis genere docuit usus exprimere.

[4] While the white color is the best, it is also the most useful, because from it very many (colors) are made, and this one is not made from another. There are also, by their very nature, commendable in price the dun and the brown, which Pollentia in Italy provides, and Corduba in Baetica, and no less Asia the rutilous ones, which they call erythraious. But use has also taught how to express other varieties in this kind of sheep.

Nam cum in municipium Gaditanum ex vicino Africae miri coloris silvestres ac feri arietes sicut aliae bestiae munerariis deportarentur, Marcus Columella patruus meus, acris vir ingeni atque inlustris agricola, quosdam mercatus in agros transtulit et mansuefactos tectis ovibus admisit.

For when into the Gaditan municipium, from neighboring Africa, feral, forest-bred rams of wondrous color—like other beasts—were being conveyed to the show-sponsors, Marcus Columella, my uncle, a man of keen ingenuity and an illustrious agriculturist, after purchasing some, transferred them into his fields and, once tamed, admitted them to the housed ewes.

[5] Eae primum hirtos, sed paterni coloris agnos ediderunt, qui deinde et ipsi Tarentinis ovibus inpositi tenuioris velleris arietes progeneraverunt. Ex his rursus quicquid conceptum est, maternam mollitiem, paternum et avitum rettulit colorem. Hoc modo Columella dicebat, qualemcumque speciem, quae fuerit in bestiis, per nepotum gradus mitigata feritate reddi.

[5] Those first produced lambs shaggy, but of the paternal color, who then, when set upon Tarentine ewes, themselves too generated rams of thinner fleece. From these in turn whatever was conceived reproduced the maternal softness and the paternal and ancestral color. In this way Columella used to say that whatever form there had been in beasts is returned, its savageness mitigated, through the steps of the grandchildren.

Set ad propositum revertar.

But let me return to the subject.

[6] Ergo duo genera sunt ovilli pecoris, molle et hirsutum, sed in utroque vel emendo vel tuendo plura communia, quaedam tamen sunt propria generosi, quae observari conveniat. Communia in emendis gregibus fere illa: si candor lanae maxime placet, numquam nisi candidissimos mares legeris, quoniam ex albo saepe fuscus editur partus, erythraeo vel pullo numquam generatur albus.

[6] Therefore there are two kinds of ovine livestock, soft and hirsute; but in both, whether in buying or in tending, more things are common, yet certain are proper to the well‑bred, which it is fitting to observe. The common points in buying flocks are roughly these: if the candor of the wool most pleases, never choose other than the very whitest males, since from a white parent a dark offspring is often brought forth, whereas from a reddish or dusky one a white is never generated.

III. DE ARIETIBUS ELIGENDIS. Itaque non solum ea ratio est probandi arietis, si vellere candido vestitur, sed etiam si palatum atque lingua concolor lanae est, nam cum eae corporis partes nigrae aut maculosae sunt, pulla vel etiam varia nascitur proles, idque inter cetera eximie talibus numeris significavit idem qui supra: illum autem, quamvis aries sit candidus ipse, nigra subest udo tantum cui lingua palato, reice, ne maculis infuscet vellera pullis nascentum.

3. ON CHOOSING RAMS. And so the criterion for approving a ram is not only that he is clothed with a white fleece, but also that the palate and the tongue are of like color with the wool; for when those parts of the body are black or spotted, a dusky or even variegated progeny is born; and the same writer mentioned above has signified this, among other things, excellently in such verses: but that one, although the ram himself be white, for whom only a black tongue lies beneath the moist palate, reject, lest he darken with spots the fleeces of the dark-hued newborn.

[2] Una eademque ratio est in erythraeis et nigris arietibus, quorum similiter, ut iam dixi, neutra pars esse debet discolor lanae multoque minus ipsa universitas tergoris maculis variet. Ideo nisi lanatas oves emi non oportet, quo melius unitas coloris appareat, quae nisi praecipua est in arietibus, paternae notae plerumque natis inhaerent.

[2] One and the same rule holds in red and in black rams, of which likewise, as I have already said, neither part ought to be of a color different from the wool, and much less should the totality of the hide itself be variegated with spots. Therefore sheep ought not to be bought unless they are in fleece, so that the unity of color may appear the better, which, unless it is preeminent in rams, the paternal marks for the most part adhere to the offspring.

[3] Habitus autem maxime probatur, cum est altus atque procerus, ventre promisso atque lanato, cauda longissima densique velleris, fronte lata, testibus amplis, intortis cornibus, non quia magis hic sit utilis - nam est melior mutilus aries - sed quia minime nocent intorta potius quam subrecta et patula cornua. Quibusdam tamen regionibus, ubi caeli status uvidus ventosusque est, capros et arietes optaverimus vel amplissimis cornibus, quae tam porrecta altaque maximam partem capitis a tempestate defendant.

[3] The habitus, moreover, is most approved when he is tall and long-limbed, with a prominent and woolly belly, with a very long tail and a dense fleece, a broad forehead, ample testicles, twisted horns—not because this one is more useful (for the hornless ram is better), but because twisted horns do the least harm rather than upright and spreading horns. Yet in certain regions, where the state of the sky is wet and windy, we should opt for bucks and rams even with very large horns, which, being so outstretched and high, protect the greater part of the head from the weather.

[4] Itaque si plerumque est atrocior hiems, hoc genus eligemus, si clementior, mutilum probabimus marem, quoniam est illud incommodum in cornuto, quod cum sentiat se velut quodam naturali telo capitis armatum, frequenter in pugnam procurrit et fit in feminas quoque procacior. Nam rivalem, quamvis solus admissurae non sufficit, violentissime persequitur nec ab alio tempestive patitur iniri gregem, nisi cum est fatigatus libidine.

[4] And so, if winter is for the most part more atrocious, we shall choose this kind; if more clement, we shall approve the hornless (polled) male, since there is that inconvenience in the horned one, that when he feels himself, as it were, armed with a certain natural weapon of the head, he frequently runs forth into combat and becomes more procacious toward the females as well. For he pursues a rival most violently, although by himself he does not suffice for the act of covering, and he does not suffer the flock to be entered by another in due time, except when he is wearied by lust.

[5] Mutilus autem, cum se tamquam exarmatum intellegat, nec ad rixam promptus et est in venere mitior. Itaque capri vel arietis petulci saevitiam pastores hac astutia repellunt: mensurae pedalis robustam tabulam configunt aculeis et adversam fronti cornibus religant; ea res ferum prohibet a rixa, quoniam stimulatum suo ictu ipsum se sauciat.

[5] The polled one, however, since he understands himself as, so to speak, disarmed, is not prompt to brawling and is milder in venery. Therefore the shepherds repel the petulant savagery of a he‑goat or a ram by this astuteness: they fasten spikes onto a sturdy board of a foot’s measure and bind it, facing the forehead, by the horns; this device restrains the brute from strife, since, goaded by its own blow, it wounds itself.

[6] Epicharmus autem Syracusanus, qui pecudum medicinas diligentissime conscripsit, adfirmat pugnacem arietem mitigari terebra secundum auriculas foratis cornibus, qua curvantur in flexum. Eius quadripedis aetas ad progenerandum optima est trima, nec tamen inhabilis usque in annos octo. Femina post bimatum maritari debet iuvenisque habetur quinquennis; fatiscit post annum septimum.

[6] Epicharmus the Syracusan, who most diligently composed the medicines of livestock, affirms that a pugnacious ram is mitigated by having his horns bored with a terebra next to the ears, where they curve into a bend. The age of this quadruped for progeneration is best at three years, nor, however, is he unfit even up to eight years. The female ought to be mated after the two-year mark and is accounted youthful at five; she gives out after the seventh year.

[7] Igitur, ut dixi, mercaberis ovis intonsas, variam et canam inprobabis, quod sit incerti coloris. maiorem trima dente minacem sterilem repudiabis; eliges bimam vasti corporis, cervice prolixi villi nec asperi, lanosi et ampli uteri, nam vitandus est glaber et exiguus.

[7] Therefore, as I said, you will purchase ewes unshorn; you will disapprove the variegated and the hoary-gray, because it is of uncertain color. You will repudiate as sterile any older one, formidable with a three-year tooth; you will choose a two-year-old of vast body, with a neck of long, not harsh fleece, woolly and of ample womb, for the bare and small is to be avoided.

[8] Atque haec fere communia sunt in conparandis ovibus, illa etiam tuendis: humilia facere stabula, sed in longitudinem potius quam in latitudinem porrecta, ut simul et hieme calida sint nec angustiae fetus oblidant. Ea poni debent contra medium diem, namque id pecus, quamvis ex omnibus animalibus sit vestitissimum, frigoris tamen inpatientissimum est nec minus aestivi vaporis. Itaque chors clausa sublimi macerie praeponi vestibulo debet, ut sit in eam tutus exitus aestuandi, deturque opera, ne quis umor consistat, ut semper quam aridissimis filicibus vel culmis stabula constrata sint, quo purius et mollius incubent fetae.

[8] And these things are, for the most part, common in procuring sheep, and also those in tending them: make the stalls low, but stretched out in length rather than in breadth, so that at once they may be warm in winter, and narrowness may not crush the offspring. They ought to be set facing the midday, for that herd, although of all animals it is the most clothed, is nevertheless most impatient of cold, and no less of the summer vapor. Therefore a yard enclosed with a lofty wall ought to be set before the vestibule, so that there may be a safe exit into it for basking, and care be given that no moisture collects, so that the stalls may always be strewn with the driest bracken or straw, whereby the breeding ewes may lie down more cleanly and more softly.

[9] Sintque illa mundissima, neque earum valitudo, quae praecipue custodienda est, infestetur uligine. Omni autem pecudi larga praebenda sunt alimenta, nam vel exiguus numerus, cum pabulo satiatur, plus domino reddit quam maximus grex, si sensit penuriam. Sequeris autem novalia non solum herbida, sed quae plerumque vidua sunt spinis, utamur enim saepius auctoritate divini carminis: si tibi lanitium curae est, primum aspera silva lappaeque tribolique absint.

[9] And let those be most clean, nor let their health, which is especially to be guarded, be infested by dampness. Moreover, to every head of cattle abundant nourishment must be provided; for even a small number, when it is sated with fodder, pays back more to the master than the greatest flock, if it has felt penury. Follow, moreover, fallow fields not only grassy, but those for the most part bereft of thorns; for let us more often employ the authority of divine song: if wool is your care, first let the rough woodland and burdocks and caltrops be absent.

[10] Quoniam ea res, ut ait idem, scabros ovis reddit, cum tonsis inlutus adhaesit sudor et hirsutis secuerunt corpora vepres, tum etiam cotidie minuitur fructus lanae, quae quanto prolixior in pecore concrescit, tanto magis obnoxia est rubis, quibus velut hamis inuncata pascentium tergoribus avellitur, molle vero pecus etiam velamen, quo protegitur, amittit, atque id non parvo sumptu reparatur.

[10] Since that matter, as the same man says, makes the sheep scabrous, when on the shorn ones unwashed sweat has stuck fast and, when shaggy, brambles have cut their bodies, then too the fructus of wool is diminished day by day; and the more prolix it grows upon the flock, so much the more it is obnoxious to brambles, by which, as though by hooks, caught and hooked-in, it is torn off from the backs of those grazing; indeed the soft-fleeced flock even loses the velamen by which it is protected, and this is repaired at no small expense.

[11] De admissurae temporibus inter auctores fere constitit, primum esse vernum Parilibus, si sit ovis matura, sin vero feta circa Iulium mensem; prius tamen haut dubie probabilius, ut messem vindemia, fructum deinde vineaticum fetura pecoris excipiat et totius autumni pabulo satiatus agnus ante maestitiam frigorum atque hiemis ieiunium confirmetur. Nam melior est autumnalis verno, sicut ait verissime Celsus, quia magis ad rem pertinet, ut ante aestivum quam hibernum solstitium convalescat, solusque ex omnibus animalibus bruma commode nascitur.

[11] On the times of admission (for breeding) it has been almost agreed among the authors that the first is the vernal one at the Parilia, if the ewe is mature, but if she has already brought forth, around the month of July; the former, however, is without doubt more probable, so that harvest may be followed by the vindemia, and then the vineatic fruit by the breeding (feture) of the flock, and the lamb, satiated with the fodder of the whole autumn, may be strengthened before the sadness of chills and the fast of winter. For the autumnal is better than the vernal, as Celsus most truly says, because it more pertains to the matter that it convalesce before the aestival rather than the hibernal solstice, and the lamb alone, out of all animals, is conveniently born at bruma, the winter solstice.

[12] Ac si res exigit, ut plurimi mares progenerandi sint, Aristoteles vir callidissimus rerum naturae praecepit admissurae tempore observare siccis diebus halitus septentrionales, ut contra ventum gregem pascamus et eum spectans admittatur pecus, at si feminae generandae erunt, austrinos flatus captare, ut eadem ratione matrices ineantur. Nam illud, quod priore libro docuimus, ut admissarii dexter vel etiam sinister vinculo testiculus obligetur, in magnis gregibus operosum est.

[12] And if the matter requires that very many males be progenerated, Aristotle, a man most shrewd in the nature of things, prescribed at the time of mating to observe, on dry days, the northern breaths, so that we may pasture the herd against the wind and, facing it, let the flock be admitted; but if females are to be generated, to catch the austral blasts, so that by the same method the matrices be covered. For that thing which in the prior book we taught, that the stud’s right or even left testicle be bound with a ligature, is laborious in large herds.

[13] Post feturam deinde longinquae regionis upilio vilicus fere omnem subolem pastioni reservat suburbanae, [villicus enim] teneros agnos, dum adhuc herbae sunt expertes, lanio tradit, quoniam et parvo sumptu devehuntur et his submotis fructus lactis ex matribus non minor percipitur. Submitti tamen etiam in vicinia urbis quintum quemque oportebit, nam vernaculum pecus peregrino longe est utilius;

[13] After breeding, then, the shepherd-overseer of a distant region generally reserves almost all the offspring for suburban pasturage; [for the overseer] hands over the tender lambs to the butcher while as yet the herbage is lacking, since they are conveyed at small expense and, with these removed, no less a yield of milk is received from the mothers. Nevertheless, even in the vicinity of the city it will be proper that every fifth one be reared, for vernacular (native-born) stock is by far more useful than foreign;

[14] nec committi debet, ut totus grex effetus senectute dominum destituat, cum praesertim boni pastoris vel prima cura sit annis omnibus in demortuarum vitiosarumque ovium locum totidem vel etiam plura capita substituere, quoniam saepe frigorum atque hiemis saevitia pastorem decipit et eas ovis interemit, quas ille tempore autumni ratus adhuc esse tolerabiles non submoverat;

[14] Nor should it be permitted that the whole flock, exhausted by old age, leave its master destitute, since especially the foremost care of a good shepherd is every year to substitute in the place of the dead and defective sheep just as many head, or even more, because often the frigidity and savagery of winter deceives the shepherd and kills those sheep which he, at the time of autumn, thinking them still to be tolerable, had not removed;

[15] quo magis etiam propter hos casus nisi quae validissima non conprendatur hiemi, novaque progenie repleatur numerus. Quod qui faciet, servare debebit, ne minori quadrimae neve ei, quae excessit annos octo, prolem submittat. Neutra enim aetas ad educandum est idonea, tum etiam quod ex vetere materia nascitur, plerumque congeneratum parentis senium refert, nam vel sterile vel inbecillum est.

[15] all the more, too, on account of these mishaps, let none be committed to the winter unless she is the most robust, and let the number be replenished with new progeny. He who will do this ought to observe not to submit offspring to one less than a four-year-old, nor to her who has exceeded eight years. For neither age is suitable for rearing, and also because what is born from old matter, being of the same kind, for the most part reflects the parent’s senility; for it is either sterile or feeble.

[16] Partus vero incientis pecoris non secus quam obstetricum more custodiri debet, neque enim aliter hoc animal quam muliebris sexus enititur saepiusque etiam, quanto est omnis rationis ignarum, laborat in partu. Quare veterinariae medicinae prudens esse debet pecoris magister, ut si res exigat vel integrum conceptum, cum transuersus haeret locis genitalibus, extrahat vel ferro divisum citra matris perniciem partibus educat, quod Graeci vocant embryoulkein.

[16] The parturition of livestock that is with young ought to be kept under watch no otherwise than after the midwives’ custom; for this animal brings forth not otherwise than the female sex, and more often too, inasmuch as it is ignorant of all reason, it labors in parturition. Wherefore the master of the herd ought to be prudent in veterinary medicine, so that, if the situation require, he may either extract the intact conceptus, when it is stuck crosswise in the genital parts, or, divided with iron, may bring it out in pieces without the mother’s destruction—what the Greeks call embryoulkein.

[17] Agnus autem, cum est editus, erigi debet atque uberibus admoveri, tum eius diductum os pressis umectare papillis, ut condiscat maternum trahere alimentum. Sed prius quam hoc fiat, exiguum lactis emulgendum est, quod pastores colostram vocant; ea nisi aliquatenus emittitur, nocet agno, qui primo biduo quo natus est cum matre claudatur, ut ea foveat partum suum.

[17] The lamb, moreover, when it is brought forth, should be raised up and brought to the udders, then its parted mouth should be moistened by squeezing the teats, so that it may learn to draw the maternal aliment. But before this is done, a small amount of milk must be milked out, which the shepherds call colostrum; unless this is emitted to some extent, it harms the lamb, which for the first two days after it is born should be shut in with the mother, that she may cherish her offspring.

[18] Mox deinde, quam diu non lascivit, obscuro et calido septo custodiatur, postea luxuriantem virgea cum conparibus hara claudi oportebit, ne velut puerili nimia exsultatione macescat, cavendumque est, ut tenerior separetur a validioribus, quia robustus angit inbecillum.

[18] Soon then, so long as it does not frisk, let it be kept in a dark and warm enclosure; afterward, when it is exuberant, it will be necessary to shut it with its peers in a wicker pen, lest, as by puerile excessive exultation, it become emaciated; and care must be taken that the more tender be separated from the more robust, because the robust presses hard upon the feeble.

[19] Satisque est mane, prius quam grex procedat in pascua, deinde etiam crepusculo redeuntibus saturis ovibus admiscere agnos. Qui cum firmi esse coeperunt, pascendi sunt intra stabulum cytiso vel Medica, tum etiam furfuribus aut, si permittit annona, farina hordei vel erui. Deinde ubi convaluerint, circa meridiem pratis aut novalibus villae continuis matres admovendae sunt et a septo mittendi agni, ut condiscant foris pasci.

[19] And it is enough in the morning, before the flock goes out into pasture, and then also at twilight when the ewes return sated, to admix the lambs. When they have begun to be firm, they are to be pastured within the stable on cytisus or Medick, and then also on bran, or, if the grain-supply permits, on barley or vetch meal. Then, when they have recovered strength, about midday the mothers should be brought to meadows or to the fallow lands contiguous to the villa, and the lambs sent from the pen, so that they may learn to feed outside.

[20] De genere pabuli iam et ante diximus et nunc eorum, quae omissa sunt, meminimus iucundissimas herbas esse, quae aratro proscissis arvis nascantur, deinde quae pratis uligine carentibus, palustris silvestrisque minime idoneas haberi. Nec tamen ulla sunt tam blanda pabula aut etiam pascua, quorum gratia non exolescat usu continuo, nisi pecudum fastidio pastor occurrerit praebito sale, quod velut aquae ac pabuli condimentum per aestatem canalibus ligneis inpositum, cum e pastu redierunt oves, lambunt, atque eo sapore cupidinem bibendi pascendique concipiunt.

[20] About the kind of fodder we have already said before, and now we recall, among the things that were omitted, that the most pleasant herbs are those which are born in fields furrowed by the plough, then those in meadows lacking dampness, while marshy and woodland are held least suitable. Nor, however, are there any fodders or even pastures so enticing that their appeal does not fade with continual use, unless the shepherd meets the flock’s fastidiousness by proffering salt, which, as a condiment of water and fodder, being set during the summer on wooden troughs, the sheep lick when they have returned from pasture, and by that savor they conceive a desire for drinking and feeding.

[21] At contra penuriae hiemis succurritur obiectis intra tectum per praesepia cibis, aluntur autem commodissime repositis ulmeis vel ex fraxino frondibus vel autumnali faeno, quod cordum vocatur. Nam id mollius et ob hoc iucundius est quam maturum.

[21] But on the contrary, the scarcity of winter is remedied by foods laid within shelter in the mangers; and they are fed most conveniently with stored elm leaves or leaves from ash, or with autumnal hay, which is called cordum. For this is softer, and on that account more agreeable, than the mature.

[22] Cytiso quoque et sativa vicia pulcherrime pascuntur, necessariae tamen, ubi cetera defecerunt, etiam ex leguminibus paleae. Nam per se hordeum vel fresa cum faba cicercula sumptuosior est, quam ut suburbanis regionibus salubri pretio possit praeberi, sed sicubi vilitas permittit, haut dubie est optima.

[22] Cytisus too and cultivated vetch are pastured upon most excellently; yet, when the rest have failed, even chaff from legumes is necessary. For barley by itself, or cicercula bruised with bean, is too costly to be supplied in suburban regions at a wholesome price; but wherever cheapness permits, it is, without doubt, the best.

[23] De temporibus autem pascendi et ad aquam ducendi per aestatem non aliter sentio quam ut prodidit Maro:

[23] As for the times of pasturing and of leading to water through the summer, I am of no other opinion than as Maro has transmitted:

Luciferi primo cum sidere frigida rura
carpamus, dum mane novum, dum gramina canent
et ros in tenera pecori gratissimus herba.
Inde ubi quarta sitim caeli collegerit hora,
ad puteos aut alta greges ad stagna
perducamus medioque die, ut idem, ad vallem
sicubi magna Iovis antiquo robore quercus
ingentis tendit ramos aut sicubi nigrum
ilicibus crebris atra nemus accubat umbra.

With Lucifer’s first star let us crop the chilly fields,
while the morning is new, while the grasses are hoary,
and the dew—most pleasing to the herd—is on the tender herbage.
Then, when the fourth hour has gathered the sky’s thirst,
let us lead the flocks to the wells or to deep pools,
and at midday, likewise, to a valley,
wherever a great oak of Jove, with ancient strength,
stretches its huge branches, or wherever a dark
grove lies couched in black shade, thick with holm-oaks.

[24] Rursus deinde iam mitigato vapore compellamus aquam - etiam per aestatem id faciendum est - et iterum in pabula producamus solis ad occasum, cum frigidus aera vesper temperat et saltus reficit iam roscida luna. Sed observandum est sidus aestatis per emersum Caniculae, ut ante meridiem grex in occidentem spectans agatur et in eam partem progrediatur, post meridiem in orientem, si quidem plurimum refert, ne pascentium capita sint adversa soli, qui plerumque nocet animalibus oriente praedicto sidere.

[24] Again then, with the heat now mitigated let us drive to water - this too must be done even through the summer - and again lead them out to fodder until the sun’s setting, when cool evening tempers the air and the dewy moon already refreshes the woodland pastures. But the star of summer must be observed during the emergence of the Canicula (the Dog-star), such that before midday the herd be driven facing toward the west and advance in that direction, after midday toward the east, since it very much matters that the heads of the grazing animals not be opposite to the sun, which for the most part harms the animals when the aforesaid star is rising.

[25] Hieme et vere matutinis temporibus intra septa contineantur, dum dies arvis gelicidia detrahat. Nam pruinosa [iis diebus] herba pecudi gravedinem creat ventremque proluit, quare etiam frigidis umidisque temporibus anni semel [tantum] die potestas aquae facienda est. Tum qui sequitur gregem circumspectus ac vigilans - id quod omnibus et omnium quadripedum custodibus praecipitur - magna clementia moderetur.

[25] In winter and in spring at morning times let them be kept within the enclosures, until the day draws off from the fields the gelicidia; for hoar-frosted [on those days] grass creates heaviness for the cattle and rinses out the belly, wherefore even in the cold and wet seasons of the year access to water is to be granted once [only] a day. Then let him who follows the flock, circumspect and vigilant—that which is enjoined upon all keepers of all quadrupeds—govern with great clemency.

[26] Idemque propior quia silent et in agendis recipiendisque ovibus adclamatione ac baculo minetur nec umquam telum emittat in eas neque ab his longius recedat nec aut recubet aut considat. Nam nisi procedit, stare debet, quoniam quidem custodis officium sublimem celsissimamque oculorum veluti speculam desiderat, ut neque tardiores gravidas, dum cunctantur, neque agiles et fetas, dum procurrunt, separari a ceteris sinat, ne fur aut bestia halucinantem pastorem decipiat. Sed haec communia fere sunt in omni pecore ovillo; nunc quae sunt generosi propria dicemus.

[26] And the same man, keeping nearer because they are silent, should, in driving out and in taking back the sheep, threaten by acclamation and by staff, and should never launch a missile at them, nor withdraw farther from them, nor either lie down or sit. For unless he advances, he ought to stand, since indeed the office of a guard demands a lofty and most high watchtower of the eyes, as it were, so that he may allow neither the slower pregnant ones, while they delay, nor the nimble and those with young, while they run ahead, to be separated from the rest, lest a thief or a beast deceive a shepherd hallucinating (wandering in mind). But these things are almost common in all ovine cattle; now we shall tell the things that are proper to the well-born (generous) breed.

IV. DE OVIBUS TECTIS. Graecum pecus, quod plerique Tarentinum vocant, nisi cum domini praesentia est, vix expedit haberi, si quidem et curam et cibum maiorem desiderat. Nam cum sit universum genus lanigerum ceteris pecudibus mollius, tum ex omnibus Tarentinum est mollissimum, quod nullam domini aut magistrorum ineptiam sustinet multoque minus avaritiam nec aestus nec frigoris patiens.

4. ON SHEEP UNDER COVER. The Greek stock, which most call the Tarentine, unless when the master is present, is scarcely expedient to keep, since indeed it requires greater care and feed. For while the whole wool-bearing kind is softer than other livestock, yet of all, the Tarentine is the softest, which suffers no ineptitude of the master or of overseers, and much less avarice, and is tolerant of neither heat nor cold.

[2] Raro foris, plerumque domi alitur et est avidissimum cibi, cui si quid detrahitur fraude vilici, clades sequitur gregem. Singula capita per hiemem recte pascuntur ad praesepia tribus hordei vel frese cum suis valvulis fabae aut cicerculae quattuor sextariis, ut et aridam frondem praebeas aut siccam vel viridem Medicam cytisumve, tum etiam cordi feni septena pondo aut leguminum paleas adfatim.

[2] Rarely outdoors, for the most part at home it is nourished, and it is most avid for food; if anything is subtracted from it by the bailiff’s fraud, a calamity follows the flock. Each head in winter is properly fed at the mangers with three sextaries of barley, or of bruised barley with its little hulls; with four sextaries of bean or chickling vetch; and that you also provide dry frondage, or Medick dried or green, or cytisus; then also hay to their liking, seven pounds, or the chaff of legumes in sufficiency.

[3] Minimus agnis vendundis in hac pecude nec ullus lactis reditus haberi potest, nam et qui submoveri debent paucissimos post dies, quam editi sunt, inmaturi fere mactantur, orbaeque natis suis alienae suboli praebent ubera. Quippe singuli agni binis nutricibus submittuntur nec quicquam subtrahi submissis expedit, quo saturior lactens celeriter confirmetur et parta nutrici consociata minus laboret in educatione fetus sui. Quam ob causam diligenti cura servandum est, ut et suis cotidie matribus et alienis non amantibus agni subrumentur.

[3] The least revenue from selling lambs is had in this breed, and no return of milk can be had; for those which ought to be removed are generally slaughtered immature a very few days after they are brought forth, and mothers bereft of their young offer their udders to an alien brood. Indeed single lambs are put under two nurse-mothers, nor is it expedient that anything be subtracted from the assigned ones, so that the suckling, more well-sated, may be quickly strengthened, and the mother, having given birth, associated with a nurse, may labor less in the rearing of her offspring. For which cause it must be maintained with diligent care that lambs be allowed to suck daily both their own mothers and alien ones not loving them.

[4] Plures autem in eius modi gregibus quam in hirtis masculos enutrire oportet. Nam prius quam feminas inire possint, mares castrati, cum bimatum expleverunt, enecantur, et pelles eorum propter pulchritudinem lanae maiore pretio quam alia vellera mercantibus traduntur. Liberis autem campis et omni surculo ruboque vacantibus ovem Graecam pascere meminerimus, ne, ut supra dixi, et lana carpatur et tegumen.

[4] Moreover, in flocks of this kind it is proper to rear more males than in the shaggy ones. For, before they can enter the females, the males are castrated; when they have completed two years, they are put to death, and their skins, on account of the beauty of the wool, are handed over to merchants at a higher price than other fleeces. In open fields, however, and cleared of every shoot and bramble, we should remember to pasture the Greek sheep, lest, as I said above, both the wool be plucked and the covering be damaged.

[5] Nec tamen ea minus sedulam curam foris, quia non cotidie procedit in pascua, sed maiorem domesticam postulat, nam saepius detegenda et refrigeranda est, saepius eius lana deducenda vinoque et oleo insucanda, non numquam etiam tota est eluenda, si diei permittit apricitas, idque ter anno fieri sat est. Stabula vero frequenter everrenda et purganda umorque omnis urinae deverrendus est, qui commodissime siccatur perforatis tabulis, quibus ovilia consternuntur, ut grex supercubet.

[5] Nor, however, does it on that account demand less sedulous care outdoors, since it does not go out daily into pasture, but it requires greater domestic care; for it must more often be uncovered and cooled, its wool more often drawn out and smeared with wine and oil; sometimes even the whole animal must be washed, if the day’s apricity permits, and it is enough that this be done three times in the year. The stables, moreover, must be frequently swept out and cleansed, and all the moisture of urine must be swept away, which is most conveniently dried by perforated planks with which the sheepfolds are floored, so that the flock may lie above.

[6] Nec tantum caeno aut stercore, sed exitiosis quoque serpentibus tecta liberentur, quod ut fiat, disce et odoratam stabulis incendere cedrum galbaneoque agitare graves nidore chelydros. Saepe sub inmotis praesepibus aut mala tactu vipera delituit caelumque exterrita fugit aut tecto adsuetus coluber. Quare, ut idem iubet, cape saxa manu, cape robora, pastor, tollentemque minas et sibila colla tumentem deice, vel, ne istud cum periculo facere necesse sit, muliebris capillos aut cervina saepius ure cornua, quorum odor maxime non patitur stabulis praedictam pestem consistere.

[6] And let the shelters be freed not only from mud or dung, but also from baneful serpents; that this be brought about, learn too to set alight fragrant cedar in the stalls, and to drive the weighty chelydri by the reek of galbanum. Often beneath unmoved mangers either a viper, harmful to the touch, has hidden and, terrified, flees to the open sky, or a coluber accustomed to the roof. Wherefore, as the same author bids, take stones in hand, take oaken cudgels, shepherd, and strike down the one lifting threats and swelling his neck with hisses; or, so that it not be necessary to do this with peril, burn more often women’s hair or deer’s horns, whose odor most of all does not allow the aforesaid pest to settle in the stables.

[7] Tonsurae certum tempus anni per omnes regiones servari non potest, quoniam nec ubique tarde nec celeriter aestas ingruit, et est modus optimus considerare tempestates, quibus ovis neque frigus, si lanam detraxeris, neque aestum, si nondum detonderis, sentiat. Verum ea quandoque detonsa fuerit, ungui debet tali medicamine: sucus excocti lupini veterisque vini faex et amurca pari mensura miscentur eoque liquamine tonsa ovis inbuitur,

[7] A fixed time of the year for shearing cannot be observed through all regions, since summer does not set in everywhere either late or quickly in the same way, and the best method is to consider the weather, so that the sheep may feel neither cold, if you remove the wool, nor heat, if you have not yet shorn it. But whenever it shall have been shorn, it ought to be anointed with such a medicament: the juice of boiled lupine, the dregs of old wine, and amurca are mixed in equal measure, and with that liquor the shorn sheep is imbued,

[8] atque ubi per triduum delibuto tergore medicamina perbibit, quarto die, si est vicinia maris, ad litus deducta mersatur, si minus, caelestis aqua sub dio salibus in hunc usum durata paulum decoquitur eaque grex perluitur. Hoc modo curatum pecus toto anno scabrum fieri non posse Celsus adfirmat, nec dubium est, quin etiam ob eam rem lana quoque mollior atque prolixior renascatur.

[8] and when for three days, with the hide anointed, it has drunk in the medicaments, on the fourth day, if there is a vicinity of the sea, led down to the shore it is immersed; if not, celestial water (rainwater) under the open sky, hardened with salts for this use, is boiled down a little, and with this the flock is rinsed through. In this way Celsus affirms that a flock thus treated cannot become scabby for a whole year, nor is it doubtful that for this reason the wool too grows back softer and longer.

V. MEDICINAE PECORIS OVILLI. Et quoniam censuimus cultum curamque recte valentium, nunc quem ad modum vitiis aut morbo laborantibus subveniundum sit, praecipiemus, quamquam pars haec exordii paene tota iam exhausta est, cum de medicina maioris pecoris priore libro disputaremus, quia cum sit fere eadem corporis natura minorum maiorumque quadripedum, paucae parvaeque morborum et remediorum differentiae possunt inveniri. Quae tamen quantulaecumque sunt, non omittentur a nobis.

5. THE MEDICINE OF OVINE LIVESTOCK. And since we have assessed the cultivation and care of those rightly healthy, now we shall prescribe in what manner succor ought to be brought to those laboring with defects or disease, although this part of the exordium has now been almost entirely exhausted, when we were disputing in the prior book about the medicine of the larger livestock; because, since the bodily nature of lesser and greater quadrupeds is almost the same, few and slight differences of diseases and remedies can be found. These, however, whatever small ones they are, will not be omitted by us.

[2] Si aegrotat universum pecus, ut et ante praecepimus et nunc, quia remur esse maxime salutare, iterum adseveramus, in hoc casu quod est remedium praesentissumum, pabula mutemus et aquationes totiusque regionis alium quaeramus statum caeli curemusque, si ex calore et aestu concepta pestis invasit, ut opaca rura, si invasit frigore, ut eligantur aprica.

[2] If the entire herd is sick, as we have prescribed before and now, because we deem it most salutary, we again assert that, in this case, the most present remedy is this: that we change the fodders and the waterings, and seek another state of the sky (climate) of the whole region, and take care that, if a pest conceived from heat and sultriness has invaded, shaded countrysides be chosen; if it has invaded by cold, that sunny ones be selected.

[3] Sed modice ac sine festinatione prosequi pecus oportebit, ne inbecillitas eius longis itineribus adgravetur, nec tamen in totum pigre ac segniter agere. Nam quem ad modum fessas morbo pecudes vehementer agitare et extendere non convenit, ita conducit mediocriter exercere et quasi torpentis excitare nec pati veterno consenescere atque extingui. Cum deinde grex ad locum fuerit perductus, in lacinias colonis distribuatur.

[3] But it will be proper to accompany the flock moderately and without haste, lest its weakness be aggravated by long journeys, nor, however, to conduct it altogether lazily and sluggishly. For just as it is not fitting to drive violently and to overextend sheep wearied by disease, so it is advantageous to exercise them to a moderate degree and to rouse them as if torpid, and not to allow them to grow old in lethargy and be extinguished. When then the flock has been brought through to the place, let it be distributed in strips among the tenant-farmers.

[4] Nam particulatim facilius quam universus convalescit, sive quia ipsius morbi halitus minor est in exiguo numero seu quia expeditius cura maior adhibetur paucioribus. Haec ergo et reliqua, ne nunc eadem repetamus, quae superiore exordio percensuimus, observare debemus, si universae laborabunt, illa si singulae.

[4] For in parts the herd convalesces more easily than as a whole, either because the very halitus of the disease is lesser in a small number, or because greater care is more expeditiously applied to fewer. Therefore these things and the rest—which, so as not to repeat the same now, we have run through in the preceding exordium—we ought to observe: these if all will be ailing, those if they are individual.

[5] Ovis frequentius quam ullum aliud animal infestatur scabie, quae fere nascitur, sicut noster memorat poeta, cum frigidus imber altius ad vivum persedit et horrida canobruma gelu, vel post tonsuram, si remedium praedicti medicaminis non adhibeas, si aestivum sudorem mari vel flumine non abluas, si tonsum gregem patiaris silvestribus spinis ac rubis sauciari, si stabulo utaris, in quo mulae aut equi aut asini steterunt; praecipue tamen exiguitas cibi maciem, macies autem scabiem facit.

[5] The sheep is more frequently than any other animal infested with scabies, which generally arises, as our poet recounts, when the cold rain has settled deeper to the quick and the horrid canobruma with its frost, or after shearing, if you do not apply the remedy of the aforesaid medicament; if you do not wash off the summer sweat in the sea or in a river; if you allow the shorn flock to be wounded by woodland thorns and brambles; if you use a stable in which mules or horses or asses have stood; but especially, the scantness of food makes leanness, and leanness makes scabies.

[6] Haec ubi coepit inrepere, sic intellegitur: vitiosum locum pecudes aut morsu scalpunt aut cornu vel ungula tundunt aut arbori adfricant parietibusve detergent. Quod ubi aliquam facientem videris, conprehendere oportebit et lanam diducere, nam subest aspera cutis et velut quaedam porrigo, cui primo quoque tempore occurrendum est, ne totam progeniem coinquinet, si quidem celeriter cum et alia pecora tum praecipue oves contagione vexentur.

[6] When this begins to creep in, it is understood thus: the cattle scratch the faulty spot either with a bite, or beat it with horn or hoof, or they rub against a tree and wipe it off on walls. And when you see any doing this, you ought to apprehend it and draw apart the wool; for there is a rough skin beneath, and as it were a certain scurf, which must be met at the earliest possible time, lest it contaminate the whole progeny, since indeed by contagion both other livestock, but especially sheep, are quickly vexed.

[7] Sunt autem conplura medicamina, quae idcirco enumerabimus, non quia cunctis uti necesse sit, sed quia non nullis regionibus quaedam reperiri nequeunt, ut ex pluribus aliquod inventum remedio sit. Facit autem commode primum ea conpositio, quam paulo ante demonstravimus, si ad faecem et amurcam sucumque decocti lupini misceas portione aequa detritum album helleborum.

[7] There are, moreover, several medicaments, which we will therefore enumerate, not because it is necessary to use them all, but because in not a few regions certain ones cannot be found, so that out of many some one discovered may serve as a remedy. But the first works suitably—that composition which we showed a little before—if to the dregs and amurca and the juice of boiled lupine you mix, in equal portion, ground white hellebore.

[8] Potest etiam scabritiem tollere sucus viridis cicutae, quae verno tempore, cum iam caulem nec adhuc semina facit, decisa contunditur atque expressus umor eius fictili vase reconditur duabus urnis liquoris admixto salis torridi semodio. Quod ubi factum est, oblitum vas in stercilino defoditur ac toto anno fimi vapore concoctum mox promitur tepefactumque medicamentum inlinitur scabrae parti, quae tamen prius aspera testa defricta vel pumice redulceratur.

[8] The green juice of hemlock too can remove the scabrousness, which, in springtime, when it already makes a stalk and not yet seeds, having been cut down is pounded, and its expressed moisture is stored in an earthen vessel, with two urns of liquid, a half‑modius of parched salt having been mixed in. When this has been done, the smeared‑over vessel is buried in the dung‑heap, and, cooked by the vapor of the manure for a whole year, it is then brought out, and the warmed medicament is smeared on the scabrous part, which, however, first is rubbed with a rough potsherd or with pumice and made raw again.

[9] Eidem remedio est amurca duabus partibus decocta, item vetus hominis urina testis candentibus inusta. Quidam tamen hanc ipsam subiectis ignibus quinta parte minuunt admiscentque mensura pari sucum viridis cicutae, deinde singulis urnis eius liquaminis singulos fricti salis sextarios infundunt.

[9] For the same remedy there is amurca boiled down by two parts, likewise old human urine seared with white‑hot potsherds. Certain persons, however, reduce this very liquid by a fifth with fires applied beneath, and mix in an equal measure of the juice of green hemlock; then for each urn of that liquor they pour in a single sextarius of toasted salt.

[10] Facit etiam sulpuris triti et picis liquidae modus aequalis igne lento coctus, sed Georgicum carmen adfirmat nullam esse praestantiorem medicinam,

[10] An equal measure of ground sulfur and liquid pitch, cooked over a slow fire, also is effective, but the Georgic poem affirms that there is no medicine more preeminent,

quam si quis ferro potuit rescindere summum
ulceris os: alitur vitium vivitque tegendo.

than if someone has been able with iron to resect the top,
the mouth of the ulcer: the vice is nourished and lives by being covered.

Itaque reserandum est et ut cetera vulnera medicamentis curandum. subicit deinde aeque prudenter, febricitantibus ovibus de talo vel inter duas ungulas sanguinem emitti oportere, nam plurimum, inquit, profuit incensos aestus avertere et inter ima ferire pedis salientem sanguine venam.

Therefore it must be laid open and, as the other wounds, treated with medicaments. he then adds with equal prudence that, for sheep in fever, blood ought to be let from the ankle or between the two hooves; for, he says, it has profited very much to avert inflamed heats and to strike, among the lowest parts of the foot, the vein leaping with blood.

[11] Nos etiam sub oculis et de auribus sanguinem detrahimus. Clavi quoque dupliciter infestant ovem, sive cum subluvies atque intertrigo in ipso discrimine ungulae nascitur, seu cum idem locus tuberculum habet, cuius media fere parte canino similis exstat pilus eique subest vermiculus.

[11] We also draw off blood beneath the eyes and from the ears. Corns likewise afflict the sheep in a twofold way, either when sullage and intertrigo arise in the very cleft of the hoof, or when the same spot has a tubercle, from almost its middle part there stands out a hair, similar to a canine’s, and beneath it there is a little worm.

[12] Subluvies et intertrigo pice [per se] liquida vel alumine et sulpure atque aceto mixtis litae eruentur vel tenero Punico malo, prius quam grana faciat, cum alumine pinsito superfusoque aceto vel aeris rubigine infriata vel conbusta galla cum austero vino levigata et inlita.

[12] Subluvies and intertrigo, when smeared with liquid pitch [by itself] or with mixtures of alum and sulphur and vinegar, will be eradicated; or with tender pomegranate, before it makes its grains, with alum pounded and vinegar poured over, or rubbed in with the rust of copper (verdigris), or with burnt gall smoothed with austere wine and smeared on.

[13] Tuberculum, cui subest vermiculus, ferro quam cautissime circumsecari oportet, ne dum amputatur etiam quod infra est animal vulneremus. Id enim cum sauciatur, venenatam saniem mittit, quae respersum vulnus ita insanabile facit, ut totus pes amputandus sit. Sed cum tuberculum diligenter circumcideris, candens sevum vulneri per ardentem tedam instillato.

[13] The little tubercle, beneath which there is a little worm, ought to be cut around with iron with the utmost caution, lest, while it is being cut off, we also wound the animal that is beneath. For when that is wounded, it sends forth poisonous sanies, which makes the spattered wound so incurable that the whole foot must be amputated. But when you have carefully cut around the tubercle, let glowing suet be instilled upon the wound through a burning torch.

[14] Ovem pulmonariam similiter ut suem curari convenit inserta per auriculam radicula, quam veterinarii consiliginem vocant. De ea iam diximus, cum maioris pecoris medicinam traderemus. Sed is morbus aestate plerumque concipitur, si defuit aqua, propter quod vaporibus omni quadripedi largius bibendi potestas danda est.

[14] A sheep with pulmonary disease ought to be treated similarly to a swine, by a little root inserted through the ear, which the veterinarians call consiligo. Of this we have already spoken, when we handed down the medicine for larger livestock. But this disease is for the most part contracted in summer, if water has been lacking; on which account, in the vapors (heat), every quadruped must be granted a more liberal leave to drink.

[15] Celso placet, si est in pulmonibus vitium, acris aceti tantum dare, quantum ovis sustinere possit, vel humanae veteris urinae tepefactae trium heminarum instar per sinistram narem corniculo infundere atque axungiae sextantem faucibus inserere.

[15] Celsus approves that, if there is a disease in the lungs, to give as much sharp vinegar as the sheep can sustain, or to pour, by a little horn, through the left nostril, an amount like three heminae of warmed old human urine, and to insert into the throat a sextans of axunge.

[16] Est etiam insanabilis sacer ignis, quam pusulam vocant pastores. Ea nisi conpescitur intra primam pecudem, quae tali malo correpta est, universum gregem contagione prosternit, si quidem nec medicamentorum nec ferri remedia patitur, nam paene ad omnem tactum excandescit. Sola tamen fomenta non aspernatur lactis caprini, quod infusum tactu suo velut eblanditur igneam saevitiam, differens magis occidionem gregis quam prohibens.

[16] There is also an incurable sacred fire, which the shepherds call the pustule. Unless it is checked within the first sheep that has been seized by such an evil, it lays low the whole flock by contagion, since indeed it endures neither the remedies of medicaments nor of iron, for it almost flares up at every touch. Only the fomentations of goat’s milk it does not disdain, which, poured in, by its touch as it were coaxes the fiery savagery, rather deferring the occision of the flock than preventing it.

[17] Sed Aegyptiae gentis auctor memorabilis Bolus Mendesius, cuius commenta, quae appellantur Graece cheirokmeta, sub nomine Democriti falso produntur, censet propter hanc pestem saepius ac diligenter ovium terga perspicere, ut si forte sit in aliqua tale vitium deprehensum, confestim scrobem defodiamus in limine stabuli et vivam pecudem, quae fuerit pusulosa, resupinam obruamus patiamurque super obrutam meare totum gregem, quod eo facto morbus propulsetur.

[17] But Bolus of Mendes, a memorable author of the Egyptian nation, whose commentaries, which are called in Greek cheirokmeta, are falsely published under the name of Democritus, advises, on account of this pestilence, to examine the backs of the sheep more often and carefully, so that if by chance in any one such a defect is detected, we should immediately dig a pit in the threshold of the stable and bury supine the living sheep which has been pustular, and allow the whole flock to pass over the buried one, because by that act the disease is repelled.

[18] Bilis, aestivo tempore non minima pernicies, potione depellitur humanae veteris urinae, quae ipsa remedio est etiam pecori arquato. At si molesta pituita est, cunelae bubulae vel surculi nepetae silvestris lana involuti naribus inseruntur versanturque, donec sternuat ovis. Fracta pecudum non aliter quam hominum crura sanantur involuta lanis oleo atque vino insucatis et mox circumdatis ferulis conligata.

[18] Bile, in the summertime no small peril, is driven off by a draught of old human urine, which itself is also a remedy for livestock arquate (arched in spasm). But if troublesome phlegm is present, little shoots of cunila bubula or sprigs of wild nepeta, wrapped in wool, are inserted into the nostrils and moved about until the sheep sneezes. Broken legs of sheep are healed in no other way than those of humans, wrapped in wools soaked with oil and wine and then, with splints placed around, bound up.

[19] Est etiam gravis pernicies herbae sanguinariae, qua si pasta est ovis, toto ventre distenditur contrahiturque et spumat et quaedam tenuia taetri odoris excernit. Celeriter sanguinem mitti oportet sub cauda in ea parte, quae proxima est clunibus, nec minus in labro superiore vena solvenda est. Suspiriose laborantibus ovibus auriculae ferro rescindendae mutandaeque regiones, quod in omnibus morbis ac pestibus fieri debere censemus.

[19] There is also a grave peril from the sanguinary herb, by which, if a sheep has fed, it is distended and contracted in the whole belly, and it foams and excretes certain thin discharges of a foul odor. Blood ought quickly to be let under the tail in that part which is nearest to the buttocks, and no less a vein is to be opened in the upper lip. For sheep laboring with sighing breathlessness, the auricles are to be cut with iron, and the regions are to be changed—something which we judge ought to be done in all diseases and plagues.

[20] Agnis quoque succurrendum est vel febricitantibus vel aegritudine alia defectis; qui ubi morbo laborant, admitti ad matres non debent, ne in eas perniciem transferant. Itaque separatim mulgendae sunt oves, et caelestis aqua pari mensura lacti miscenda est, atque ea potio febricitantibus danda. Multi lacte caprino isdem medentur, quod per corniculum infunditur faucibus.

[20] Succor must also be given to lambs, either fevering or debilitated by some other ailment; who, whenever they labor under disease, ought not to be admitted to the mothers, lest they transfer pernicious harm into them. And so the ewes must be milked separately, and rain-water must be mixed in equal measure with the milk, and that drink must be given to the feverish. Many treat these same with goat’s milk, which is poured through a little horn into the throats.

[21] Est etiam mentigo, quam pastores ostiginem vocant, mortifera lactentibus. Ea plerumque fit, si per inprudentiam pastoris emissi agni vel etiam haedi roscidas herbas depaverunt, quod minime committi oportet. Sed cum id factum est, velut ignis sacer os atque labra foedis ulceribus obsidet.

[21] There is also mentigo, which the shepherds call ostigo, deadly to sucklings. It for the most part occurs if, through the imprudence of the shepherd, lambs, or even kids, let out, have grazed dewy herbs—which ought by no means to be permitted. But when this has happened, like a sacred fire it besets the mouth and lips with foul ulcers.

[22] Remedio sunt hyssopum et sal aequis ponderibus contrita; nam ea mixtura palatum atque lingua totumque os perfricatur. Mox ulcera lavantur aceto et tunc pice liquida cum adipe suilla perlinuntur. Quibusdam placet rubiginis aeneae tertiam partem duabus veteris axungiae portionibus commiscere tepefactoque uti medicamine.

[22] The remedy is hyssop and salt ground in equal weights; for with that mixture the palate and the tongue and the whole mouth are thoroughly rubbed. Soon the ulcers are washed with vinegar and then are smeared over with liquid pitch together with swine-fat. Some approve mixing a third part of bronze-rust (verdigris) with two portions of old axle-grease, and using the remedy when it has been made lukewarm.

Non nulli folia cupressi trita miscent aquae et ita perluunt ulcera atque palatum. Castrationis autem ratio iam tradita est, neque enim alia in agnis quam in maiore quadripede servatur.

Some mix ground leaves of cypress with water and thus thoroughly bathe the ulcers and the palate. But the method of castration has already been handed down; for no other is observed in lambs than in the larger quadruped.

VI. DE CAPRIS. Et quoniam de oviario satis dictum est, ad caprinum pecus nunc revertar. Id autem genus dumeta potius quam campestrem situm desiderat asperisque etiam locis ac silvestribus optime pascitur, nam nec rubos aversatur nec vepribus offenditur et arbusculis frutectisque maxime gaudet. Ea sunt arbutus atque alaternus cytisusque agrestis nec minus ilignei querneique frutices, qui in altitudinem non prosilierunt.

6. ON GOATS. And since enough has been said about the ovine matter, I will now return to the caprine herd. This kind, moreover, prefers thickets rather than a campestral site, and is very well pastured even in rough and sylvan places; for it neither shuns brambles nor is it offended by briers, and it especially delights in small trees and shrubberies. These are the arbutus and the alaternus and the wild cytisus, and no less the holm-oak and oak shrubs which have not sprung up into height.

[2] Caper, cui sub maxillis binae verruculae collo dependent, optimus habetur, amplissimi corporis, cruribus crassis, plena et brevi cervice, flaccidis et praegravantibus auribus, exiguo capite, [nigro] densoque et nitido atque longissimo pilo, nam et ipse tondetur usum in castrorum ac miseris velamina nautis.

[2] The he-goat, for whom beneath the jaws two little warts hang from the neck, is held the best, of the most ample body, with thick legs, a full and short neck, flaccid and over-heavy ears, a small head, with [black] hair dense and shining and very long; for even he himself is shorn for use in the camps and as coverings for wretched sailors.

[3] Est autem mensum septem satis habilis ad progenerandum, quoniam inmodicus libidinis, dum adhuc uberibus alitur, matrem stupro supervenit et ideo ante sex annos celeriter consenescit, quod inmatura veneris cupidine primis pueritiae temporibus exhaustus est, itaque quinquennis parum idoneus habetur feminis inplendis.

[3] He is, at seven months, quite able for procreation, since, immoderate in libido, while he is still nourished at the udders, he comes upon his mother in illicit intercourse; and therefore before six years he quickly grows old, because he has been exhausted by an immature desire of Venus in the earliest times of boyhood; and so a five-year-old is held as scarcely suitable for impregnating females.

[4] Capella praecipue probatur simillima hirco, quem descripsimus, si etiam est uberis maximi et lactis abundantissimi. Hanc pecudem mutilam parabimus quieto caeli statu, nam procelloso atque imbrifero cornutam. Semper autem et omni regione maritos gregum mutilos esse oportebit, quia cornuti fere perniciosi sunt propter petulantiam.

[4] The she-goat is especially approved, most similar to the he-goat which we have described, if she also has a very great udder and most abundant milk. This flock-animal we will procure hornless with a quiet state of sky, but in procellous and imbriferous weather, horned. But always and in every region the husbands of the flocks ought to be hornless, because the horned are generally pernicious on account of petulance.

[5] Sed numerum generis huius maiorem quam centum capitum sub uno clauso non expedit habere, cum lanigerae mille pariter commode stabulentur. Atque ubi caprae primum conparantur, melius est unum gregem totum quam ex pluribus particulatim mercari, ut nec in pastione separatim laciniae deducantur et in caprili maiore concordia quiete consistant. Huic pecudi nocet aestus, sed magis frigus, et praecipue fetae, quia gelicidiosior hiemps conceptum vitiat.

[5] But it is not expedient to have more than one hundred head of this kind under one enclosure, whereas wool-bearers (sheep) to the number of one thousand can be conveniently stabled together. And when goats are first procured, it is better to purchase one entire herd than to buy piecemeal from several, so that portions are not led apart separately in pasturing, and in the goat-pen they may abide in greater concord and quiet. Heat harms this livestock, but cold more, and especially the pregnant, because a more freezing winter vitiates the conception.

Nec tamen ea sola creant abortus, sed etiam glans cum citra satietatem data est. Itaque nisi potest adfatim praeberi, non est gregi permittenda.

Nor, however, do those alone produce abortions, but the acorn also, when it is given short of satiety. Therefore, unless it can be furnished amply, it is not to be permitted to the herd.

[6] Tempus admissurae per autumnum fere ante mensem Decembrem praecipimus, ut iam propinquante vere gemmantibus frutectis, cum primum silvae nova germinant fronde, partus edatur. Ipsum vero caprile vel naturali saxo vel manu constratum eligi debet, quoniam huic pecori nihil substernitur diligensque pastor cotidie stabulum converrit nec patitur stercus aut umorem consistere lutumve fieri, quae cuncta sunt capris inimica.

[6] We prescribe the time of admitting (for breeding) during autumn, generally before the month December, so that, with spring already approaching and the thickets budding, when first the woods germinate with new frondage, the birth may be delivered. The goat-shed itself ought to be chosen as paved either with natural stone or laid by hand, since for this flock nothing is strewn beneath; and the diligent shepherd sweeps the stall daily and does not allow dung or moisture to settle or to become mud, all of which are inimical to goats.

[7] Parit autem, si est generosa proles, frequenter duos, non numquam trigeminos. Pessima est fetura, cum matres binae ternos haedos efficiunt; qui ubi editi sunt, eodem modo, quo agni educantur, nisi quod magis haedorum lascivia conpescenda et artius cohibenda est. Tum super lactis abundantiam samera vel cytisus aut hedera praebenda vel etiam cacumina lentisci aliaeque tenues frondes obiciendae sunt.

[7] Moreover, if the progeny is well-born, it frequently bears two, sometimes triplets. The worst breeding is when two mothers produce three kids; and when these have been brought forth, they are reared in the same way as lambs, except that the wantonness of kids must be more restrained and more tightly held in check. Then, over and above an abundance of milk, samera or cytisus or ivy must be provided, and even the tips of the mastic-tree and other delicate fronds are to be set before them.

Sed ex geminis singula capita, quae videntur esse robustiora, in supplementum gregis reservantur, cetera mercantibus traduntur.

But out of each pair of twins, the single head which seems to be more robust is reserved for the supplement of the flock, the rest are handed over to merchants.

[8] Anniculae vel bimae capellae - nam utraque aetas partum edit - submitti haedum non oportet, neque enim educare nisi trima debet. Sed anniculae confestim depellenda suboles, bimae tam diu admittenda, dum possit esse vendibilis. Nec ultra octo annos matres servandae sunt, quod adsiduo partu fatigatae steriles existant.

[8] Yearling or two-year-old she-goats - for both ages bring forth offspring - ought not to have a kid put under them; for only a three-year-old should rear. But the offspring of a yearling must at once be driven off, while that of a two-year-old is to be admitted so long as it can be vendible. Nor should the mothers be kept beyond eight years, because, fatigued by assiduous bearing, they become sterile.

[9] Magister autem pecoris acer, durus, strenuus, laboris patientissimus, alacer atque audax esse debet, ut qui per rupes, per solitudines, per vepres facile vadat et non ut alterius generis pastores sequatur, sed plerumque et antecedat gregem. Maxime strenuum pecus est capella praecedens; subinde quae incedit compesci debet, ne procurrat, sed placide ac lente pabuletur, ut et largi sit uberis et non strigosissimi corporis.

[9] The master of the herd ought to be keen, hard, strenuous, most patient of toil, lively and audacious, as one who easily goes through crags, through solitudes, through brambles, and not so as, like shepherds of another sort, to follow, but for the most part even to go before the flock. The most strenuous creature is the she-goat that goes in front; from time to time she who advances must be checked, lest she run ahead, but let her pasture placidly and slowly, so that she may be of a copious udder and not of a very gaunt body.

VII. MEDICINAE EARUM. Atque alia genera pecorum, cum pestilentia vexantur, prius morbo et languoribus macescunt, solae capellae quamvis optimae atque hilares subito concidunt et velut aliqua ruina gregatim prosternantur. Id autem accidere maxime solet ubertate pabuli, quam ob rem, dum adhuc paucas pestis perculit, omnibus sanguis detrahendus nec toto die pascendae, sed mediis quattuor horis intra saepta claudendae.

CHAPTER 7. THEIR MEDICINES. And other kinds of livestock, when they are vexed by pestilence, first grow lean from disease and languors; the she-goats alone, though excellent and blithe, suddenly collapse and, as if by some ruin, are laid low in a body. This, however, is especially wont to happen from the uberty of fodder; wherefore, while as yet the plague has struck only a few, blood must be drawn from all, and they must not be pastured for the whole day, but for the middle four hours they must be shut within the enclosures.

[2] Sin alius languor infestat, poculo medicantur harundinis et albae spinae radicibus, quas cum ferreis pilis diligenter contudimus, admiscemus aquam pluviatilem solamque potandam pecori praebemus. Quod si ea res aegritudinem non depellit, vendenda sunt pecora vel, si neque id contingere potest, ferro necanda saliendaque. Mox interposito spatio conveniet olim gregem reparare, nec tamen ante quam pestilens tempus anni, sive id fuit hiemis, vertatur aestate sive autumnum vere mutetur.

[2] But if another languor infests, they are medicated with a potion of the roots of reed and white-thorn, which, when we have carefully bruised with iron pestles, we mix with rain-water and provide to the herd as the sole drink. But if that remedy does not dispel the illness, the livestock are to be sold, or, if not even that can come about, to be slain with the iron and salted. Soon, an interval having been interposed, it will be fitting at length to repair the flock, yet not before the pestilential season of the year—whether it was of winter—has been turned to summer, or autumn has been changed to spring.

[3] Cum vero singulae morbo laborabunt, eadem remedia, quae etiam ovibus, adhibebimus. Nam cum distendetur aqua cutis, quod vitium Graeci vocant hydropa, sub armo pellis leviter incisa perniciosum transmittat umorem, tum factum vulnus pice liquida curetur.

[3] But when individuals shall labor with disease, we will apply the same remedies as also for sheep. For when the skin is distended with water, which ailment the Greeks call hydrops, let the skin be lightly incised under the shoulder so that it may transmit the pernicious humor; then let the wound that has been made be treated with liquid pitch.

[4] Cum effetae loca genitalia tumebunt aut secundae non responderint, defruti sextarius vel, cum id defuerit, boni vini tantundem faucibus infundatur et naturalia ceroto liquido repleantur. Sed ne nunc singula persequar, sicut in ovillo pecore praedictum est, caprino medebimur.

[4] When the genital places of those that have given birth swell, or the secundines do not come away, let a sextarius of defrutum, or, when that is lacking, just as much good wine, be poured into the throat, and let the natural parts be filled with liquid cerate. But, lest I now pursue the particulars one by one, as has been said in the ovine stock, we shall treat the caprine.

VIII. DE CASEO FACIENDO. Casei quoque faciendi non erit omittenda cura utique longinquis regionibus, ubi mulctram devehere non expedit. Is porro si tenui liquore conficitur, quam celerrime vendendus est, dum adhuc viridis sucum retinet, si pingui et opimo, longiorem patitur custodiam.

8. ON MAKING CHEESE. The care of making cheese is not to be omitted, especially in far-off regions, where it is not expedient to convey milk. This, moreover, if it is made with a thin liquor, must be sold as swiftly as possible, while, still green, it retains its juice; if with a fat and opulent one, it permits a longer custody.

Sed lacte fieri debet sincero et quam recentissimo - nam requietum vel aqua mixtum celeriter acorem concipit - et id plerumque cogi agni aut haedi coagulo, quamvis possit et agrestis cardui flore conduci et seminibus cneci nec minus ficulneo lacte, quod emittit arbor, si eius virentem saucies corticem.

But it ought to be made from sincere and the freshest possible milk — for milk that has rested or been mixed with water quickly conceives acidity — and it is for the most part to be curdled by the rennet of a lamb or a kid, although it can also be induced by the flower of the rustic thistle and by the seeds of cnecus, and no less by fig-tree milk, which the tree emits if you wound its green bark.

[2] Verum optimus caseus est, qui exiguum medicaminis habet. Minimum autem coagulum recipit sinum lactis argentei pondus denarii, nec dubium quin fici ramulis glaciatus caseus iucundissime sapiat.

[2] Truly, the best cheese is that which has a scant amount of medicament. As a minimum, a bowl of milk takes rennet (coagulum) in the amount of the weight of a silver denarius; nor is it doubtful that cheese chilled with little twigs of the fig tastes most delightfully.

[3] Sed mulctra cum est repleta lacte, non sine tepore aliquo debet esse, nec tamen admovenda est flammis, ut quibusdam placet, sed haut procul igne constituenda, et confestim cum concrevit liquor, in fiscellas aut in calathos vel formas transferendus est. Nam maxime refert primo quoque tempore serum percolari et a concreta materia separari.

[3] But when the milk-pail is filled with milk, it ought not to be without some warmth; nor, however, should it be brought to the flames, as it pleases some, but it should be set not far from the fire; and immediately, when the liquid has congealed, it must be transferred into small baskets or into baskets or molds. For it matters very much that the whey be filtered at the earliest possible time and be separated from the congealed matter.

[4] Quam ob causam rustici ne patiantur quidem sua sponte pigro umore defluere, sed cum paulo solidius caseus factus est, pondera superponunt, quibus exprimatur serum; deinde ut formis aut calathis exemptus est, opaco ac frigido loco, ne possit vitiari, quamvis mundissimis tabulis conponitur, aspargitur tritis salibus, ut exsudet acidum liquorem, atque ubi duratus est, vehementius premitur, ut conspissetur, et rursus torrido sale contingitur rursusque ponderibus condensatur.

[4] For which cause the rustics do not even allow it to flow off of its own accord in sluggish moisture, but when the cheese has been made a little more solid, they place weights on top, by which the whey may be expressed; then, when it has been removed from the forms or baskets, in a shady and cold place, lest it can be spoiled, it is set upon very clean boards, it is sprinkled with ground salts, so that it may exude a sour liquor, and when it has hardened, it is pressed more vehemently, so that it may become compact; and again it is touched with parched salt and again is condensed by weights.

[5] Hoc cum per dies novem factum est, aqua dulci abluitur et sub umbra cratibus in hoc factis ita ordinatur, ne alter alterum caseus contingat et ut modice siccetur, deinde quo tenerior permaneat, clauso neque ventis obnoxio loco stipatur per conplura tabulata. Sic neque fistulosus neque salsus neque aridus provenit, quorum vitiorum primum solet accidere si parum pressus, secundum si nimio sale inbutus, tertium si sole exustus est.

[5] When this has been done for nine days, it is washed with fresh water and under the shade it is arranged on hurdles made for this, in such a way that one cheese does not touch another and that it may dry moderately; then, in order that it may remain the more tender, it is packed in a closed place not obnoxious to the winds, on several tiers of boards. Thus it turns out neither fistulous nor salty nor arid, of which faults the first is wont to occur if it has been pressed too little, the second if it has been imbued with excessive salt, the third if it has been scorched by the sun.

[6] Hoc genus casei potest etiam trans maria permitti; nam is, qui recens intra paucos dies absumi debet, leviore cura conficitur, quippe fiscellis exemptus in salem muriamque demittitur et mox in sole paulum siccatur. Non nulli ante quam pecus numellis induant, virides pineas nuces in mulctram demittunt et mox super eas emulgent nec separant, nisi cum transmiserunt in formas coactam materiam. Ipsos quidam virides conterunt nucleos et lacti permiscent atque ita congelant.

[6] This kind of cheese can even be sent across the seas; for that which is fresh and must be consumed within a few days is prepared with lighter care, since, taken out of the little baskets, it is let down into salt and brine and soon is dried a little in the sun. Some, before they put little halters on the herd, drop green pine nuts into the milking-pail and soon milk over them, nor do they separate them until they have transferred the coagulated matter into the molds. Certain men crush those very green kernels and mix them with the milk and thus congeal it.

[7] Sunt qui thymum contritum cribroque colatum cum lacte cogant. Similiter qualiscumque velis saporis efficere possis, adiecto quod elegeris condimento. Illa vero notissima est ratio faciundi casei, quem dicimus manu pressum, namque is paulum gelatus in mulctra, dum est tepefacta, rescinditur et fervente aqua perfusus vel manu figuratur vel buxeis formis exprimitur.

[7] There are those who coagulate thyme, crushed and sifted through a sieve, with the milk. Similarly, you can produce whatever flavor you wish, by adding the condiment you have chosen. But most well-known is the method of making cheese which we call hand-pressed; for it, slightly congealed in the milking-pail while it is tepid, is cut up, and, after being doused with boiling water, is either shaped by hand or pressed out in boxwood forms.

Est etiam non ingrati saporis muria praeduratus atque ita malinis lignis vel culmi fumo coloratus. Sed iam redeamus ad originem.

There is also, of not unpleasing savor, one pre-hardened in brine and thus colored by the smoke of apple-wood or of straw. But now let us return to the origin.

IX. DE SUIBUS. In omni genere quadripedum species maris diligenter eligitur, quoniam frequentius patri similior est progenies quam matri. Quare etiam in suillo pecore probandi sunt totius quidem corporis amplitudine eximii, sed qui quadrati potius quam longi aut rotundi sint, ventre promisso, clunibus vastis nec proinde cruribus aut ungulis proceris, amplae et glandulosae cervicis, rostri brevis et resupini, maximeque ad rem pertinet quam salacissimos esse ineuntes.

9. ON SWINE. In every kind of quadrupeds the male type is diligently selected, since the progeny is more frequently more similar to the father than to the mother. Wherefore also in porcine stock those are to be approved who are, indeed, outstanding in amplitude of the whole body, but who are square rather than long or round, with a projecting belly, with vast haunches, and not correspondingly long in shanks or hoofs, of a large and glandular neck, of a snout short and upturned; and most to the point it pertains that, when they go to mount, they be most salacious.

[2] Ab annicula aetate commode progenerant, dum quadrimatum agant, possunt tamen etiam semestres inplere feminam. Scrofae probantur longissimi status, set ut sint reliquis membris similes descriptis verribus. Si regio frigida et pruinosa est, quam durissimae densaeque et nigrae setae grex eligendus est, si temperata atque aprica, glabrum pecus vel etiam pistrinale album potest pasci.

[2] From a one-year-old age they breed readily, so long as they are in their fourth year; nevertheless even six-month-olds can impregnate the female. Sows are approved of a very long build, but that they be similar in the remaining limbs to the boars described. If the region is cold and frosty, a herd with very hard, dense, and black bristles is to be chosen; if temperate and sunny, a smooth stock, or even a pistrinal white, can be pastured.

[3] Femina sus habetur ad partus edendos idonea fere usque in annos septem, quae quanto fecundior est celerius senescit. Annicula non inprobe concipit, sed iniri debet mense Februario, quattuor quoque mensibus feta quinto parere, cum iam herbae solidiores sunt, ut et firma lactis maturitas porcis contingat et, cum desierint uberibus ali, stipula pascantur ceterisque leguminum caducis frugibus.

[3] The female pig is held suitable for bringing forth litters almost up to seven years, and the more fecund she is, the more swiftly she senesces. A yearling does not conceive amiss, but she ought to be covered in the month of February, being big with young for four months and to bear in the fifth, when the grasses are already more solid, so that both a firm maturity of milk may befall the piglets and, when they have ceased to be nourished at the teats, they may be pastured on stubble and on the other fallen fruits of legumes.

[4] Hoc autem fit longinquis regionibus, ubi nihil nisi submittere expedit, nam suburbanis lactens porcus hara mutandus est; sic enim mater non educando labori subtrahitur celeriusque iterum conceptum partum edet, idque bis anno faciet. Mares vel cum primum ineunt semenstres aut cum saepius progeneraverunt trimi aut quadrimi castrantur, ut possint pinguescere.

[4] This, however, is done in far-off regions, where nothing is expedient except to put to breed; for in suburban areas the milk-fed pig must be moved from the sty; for thus the mother is withdrawn from the labor of rearing and more quickly will bring forth again a conceived litter, and she will do this twice in a year. The males are castrated either when they first go to cover, at six months, or, when they have often begotten, at three or four years, so that they may be able to fatten.

[5] Feminis quoque vulvae ferro exulcerantur et cicatricibus clauduntur, ne sint genitales, quod facere non intellego quae ratio compellat nisi penuria cibi. Nam ubi est ubertas pabuli, submittere prolem semper expedit.

[5] In females as well, the vulvas are exulcerated with iron and closed by cicatrices, so that they may not be generative; which thing I do not understand what rationale compels, unless a penury of food. For where there is an abundance of fodder, to let progeny be bred is always expedient.

[6] Omnem porro situm ruris pecus hoc usurpat, nam et montibus et campis commode pascitur, melius tamen palustribus agris quam sitientibus. Nemora sunt convenientissima, quae vestiuntur quercu, subere, fago, cerris, ilicibus, oleastris, termitibus, corylis pomiferisque silvestribus, ut sunt albae spinae, Graecae siliquae, iuniperus, lotus, pampinus, cornus, arbutus, prunus et paliurus atque achrades piri. Haec enim diversis temporibus mitescunt ac paene toto anno gregem saturant.

[6] Moreover, this kind of livestock makes use of every situation of the countryside; for it grazes conveniently both on mountains and on plains, yet better in marshy fields than in thirsty ones. Groves are most suitable, which are clothed with oak, cork-oak, beech, Turkey oak, holm-oaks, wild olives, terebinths, hazels, and fruit-bearing wild trees, such as white thorns, Greek siliquae (carob), juniper, lotus, the vine, cornel, arbutus, plum, and paliurus, as well as the wild pears. For these ripen at different times and almost throughout the whole year fill the herd to satiety.

[7] At ubi penuria est arborum, terrenum pabulum consectabimur et sicco limosum praeferemus, ut paludem rimentur effodiantque lumbricos atque in luto volutentur, quod est huic pecudi gratissimum, quin et aquis abuti possint; namque [et] id fecisse maxime aestate profuit et dulcis eruisse radiculas aquatilis silvae, tamquam scirpi iuncique et degeneris harundinis, quam vulgus cannam vocant.

[7] But where there is a scarcity of trees, we shall pursue terrestrial fodder and prefer the muddy to the dry, so that they may rummage in the marsh, dig out earthworms, and wallow in the mire, which is most pleasing to this livestock; indeed, that they may also make full use of the waters; for in fact to have done this has been especially profitable in summer, and to have dug up the sweet little roots of the aquatic thicket, such as of bulrush and rush and of a degenerate reed, which the common folk call cane.

[8] Nam cultus quidem ager opimas reddit sues, cum est graminosus et pluribus generibus pomorum consitus, ut per anni diversa tempora mala, pruna, pirum, multiformes nuces ac ficum praebeat. Nec tamen propter haec parcetur horreis, nam saepe de manu dandum est, cum foris deficit pabulum, propter quod plurima glans vel cisternis in aquam vel fumo tabulatis recondenda est.

[8] For indeed a cultivated field yields fat swine, when it is grassy and planted with many genera of fruit-trees, so that through the diverse seasons of the year it provides apples, plums, pears, multiform nuts, and figs. Nor, however, on account of these things should the granaries be spared, for often it must be given from the hand, when fodder fails outside; for which reason a very great quantity of acorns must be laid up either in water in cisterns or, with smoke, in boarded lofts.

[9] Fabae quoque et similium leguminum, cum vilitas permittit, facienda est potestas et utique vere, dum adhuc lactent viridia pabula, quae subus plerumque nocent. Itaque mane, prius quam procedant in pascua, conditivis cibis sustinendae sunt, ne inmaturis herbis citetur alvus eoque vitio pecus emacietur, nec ut ceteri greges universi claudi debent, sed per porticus harae faciendae sunt, quibus aut a partu aut etiam praegnates includantur. Nam praecipue sues catervatim atque inconditae, cum sint pariter inclusae, super alias aliae cubant et fetus elidunt.

[9] Beans also and similar legumes, when cheapness permits, must be made available, and especially in spring, while the green fodders are still milky, which for sows for the most part are harmful. Therefore in the morning, before they proceed into pasture, they must be sustained with astringent foods, lest the bowel be excited by unripe herbs and by that defect the herd be emaciated; nor, as other herds, ought they all to be shut in, but along the porticoes of the sty pens must be made, in which either those after giving birth or even the pregnant may be enclosed. For sows especially, in droves and unordered, when they are enclosed together, lie some upon others and crush the offspring.

[10] Quare, ut dixi, iunctae parietibus harae construendae sunt in altitudinem pedum quattuor, ne sus transsilire septa queat; nam contegi non debet, ut a superiore parte custos numerum porcorum recenseat et, si quem decumbens mater oppresserit, cubanti subtrahat. Sit autem vigilax, inpiger, industrius, navus; omnium quas pascit et matricum et minorum meminisse debet, ut uniuscuiusque partum consideret. Semper observet enitentem claudatque, ut in hara fetum edat.

[10] Wherefore, as I said, sties joined to the walls must be constructed to a height of four feet, lest the sow be able to leap over the enclosures; for it ought not to be covered, so that from the upper part the keeper may review the number of pigs, and, if the mother while lying down has crushed any, he may draw it out from under the one lying down. Let him be vigilant, un-sluggish, industrious, nimble; he ought to keep in mind all of those he feeds, both dams and the smaller ones, so that he may consider each one’s delivery. Let him always watch the one in labor and shut her in, so that she may bring forth her young in the sty.

[11] Tum denotet protinus, quot et quales sunt nati, et curet, ne quis sub nutrice aliena educetur, nam facillime porci, si evaserint haram, miscent se, et scrofa cum decubuit aeque alieno ac suo praebet ubera.

[11] Then let him denote promptly how many and of what sort have been born, and take care that no one be reared under a foreign nurse, for most easily the piglets, if they have escaped the sty, mingle themselves, and the sow, when she has lain down, offers her teats equally to another’s as to her own.

[12] Itaque porculatoris maximum officium est, ut unamquamque cum sua prole claudat. Qui si memoria deficitur, quo minus agnoscat cuiusque progeniem, pice liquida eandem notam scrofae et porcis inponat, sive per litteras sive per alias formas unumquemque fetum cum matre distinguat. Nam in maiore numero diversis notis opus est, ne confundatur memoria custodis.

[12] And so the greatest duty of the swineherd is to confine each sow with her own progeny. If he is deficient in memory, so that he does not recognize the progeny of each, let him impose the same mark upon the sow and the piglets with liquid pitch, and either by letters or by other shapes let him distinguish each young one with its mother. For when the number is greater, diverse marks are needed, lest the custodian’s memory be confounded.

[13] At tamen quia id facere gregibus amplis videtur operosum, commodissimum est haras ita fabricare, ut limen earum in tantam altitudinem consurgat, quantam possit nutrix evadere, lactens supergredi non possit. Sic nec alienus inrepit et in cubili suam quisque matrem nidus exspectat, qui tamen non debet octo capitum numerum excedere, non quia ignorem fecunditatem scrofarum maioris esse numeri, sed quia celerrime fatiscit, quae pluris educat. Atque eae, quibus partus submittitur, cocto sunt hordeo sustinendae, ne ad maciem summam perducantur et ex ea ad aliquam perniciem.

[13] But yet, because to do that for ample herds seems laborious, it is most commodious to fabricate the sties in such a way that their threshold rises to such a height as the nurse can get over, while the suckling cannot overstep. Thus neither does an alien creep in, and in the couch each nest awaits its own mother, which nevertheless ought not to exceed the number of eight heads, not because I am unaware that the fecundity of sows is of a greater number, but because she who rears more very quickly grows exhausted. And those to whom a litter is submitted must be sustained with cooked barley, lest they be brought to extreme leanness and from it to some harm.

[14] Diligens autem porculator frequenter suile converrit et saepius haras, nam quamvis praedictum animal in pabulationem spurce versetur, mundissimum tamen cubile desiderat. Hic fere cultus est suilli pecoris recte valentis; sequitur ut dicamus, quae sit cura vitiosi.

[14] A diligent swineherd, moreover, frequently sweeps the sty and more often the pens, for although the aforesaid animal behaves filthily in its pabulation, it nevertheless desires a most clean couch. This is, in general, the cultivation of the swine herd being in sound health; it follows that we should say what the care of the diseased is.

X. MEDICINAE EARUM. Febricitantium signa sunt, cum obstipae sues transversa capita ferunt ac per pascua subito, cum paululum procurrerunt, consistunt et vertigine correptae concidunt.

10. THEIR MEDICINES. The signs of the febrile are, when the stiff sows bear their heads crosswise, and through the pastures suddenly, when they have run forward a little, they halt and, seized by vertigo, fall down.

[2] Earum notanda sunt capita, quam in partem proclinent, ut ex diversa parte de auricula sanguinem mittamus. Item sub cauda duobus digitis a clunibus intermissis venam feriamus, quae est in eo loco satis ampla, eamque sarmento prius oportet verberari, deinde ab ictu virgae tumentem ferro rescindi detractoque sanguine conligari saligneo libro vel etiam ulmeo.

[2] Their heads must be noted, to which side they incline, so that from the opposite side we may let blood from the auricle (ear). Likewise, under the tail, with two fingers’ space left from the haunches, let us strike the vein, which in that place is quite ample; and it ought first to be beaten with a switch, then, swelling from the stroke of the rod, to be incised with iron, and, the blood having been drawn off, to be bound with a band of willow bark or even elm bark.

[3] Quod cum fecerimus, uno aut altero die sub tecto pecudem continebimus et aquam modice calidam quantam volent farinaeque hordeaceae singulos sextarios praebebimus. Strumosis sub lingua sanguis mittendus est, qui cum profluxerit, sale trito cum farina triticea confricari totum os conveniet. Quidam praesentius putant esse remedium, cum per cornum singulis ternos cyathos gari demittunt.

[3] When we have done this, we shall keep the animal under a roof for one or two days, and we shall provide as much moderately warm water as they wish, and one sextarius each of barley meal. For the strumous, blood must be let beneath the tongue; when it has flowed out, it will be fitting that the whole mouth be rubbed with ground salt with wheat flour. Some think the remedy more immediate, when through a horn they send down three cyathi of garum for each.

Deinde fissas taleas ferularum lineo funiculo religant et ita collo suspendunt, ut strumae ferulis contingantur.

Then they bind the split slips of ferula with a linen cord and thus hang them from the neck, so that the strumae are touched by the rods.

[4] Nauseantibus quoque salutaris habetur eburnea scobis sali fricto et fabae minute fresae conmixta ieiunisque prius quam in pascua prodeant obiecta. Solet etiam universum pecus aegrotare, ita ut emacietur nec cibos capiat productumque in pascua medio campo procumbat et quodam veterno pressum somnos aestivo sub sole captet.

[4] For those suffering nausea, ivory shavings mixed with roasted salt and with fava-beans finely ground, and offered to them while fasting before they go out to pasture, is held to be salutary. It also often happens that the whole herd falls ill, so that it grows emaciated and does not take food, and, when led out to pasture, it sinks down in the middle of the field and, pressed by a certain lethargy, snatches sleep under the summer sun.

[5] Quod cum facit, totus grex tecto clauditur stabulo atque uno die abstinetur potione et pabulo. Postridie radix anguinei cucumeris trita et conmixta cum aqua datur sitientibus, quam cum pecudes biberunt, nausea correptae vomitant atque expurgantur, omnique bile depulsa cicercula vel faba dura muria consparsa, deinde sicut hominibus aqua calida potanda permittitur.

[5] When this is done, the whole herd is shut within a roofed stable and for one day they are kept from drink and fodder. On the next day the root of the serpentine cucumber, ground and mixed with water, is given to the thirsty; when the cattle have drunk it, seized by nausea they vomit and are purged, and with all bile driven out, chickling-vetch or hard bean, sprinkled with brine, is given, then, as for human beings, hot water is permitted to be drunk.

[6] Sed cum omni quadripedi per aestatem sitis sit infesta, tum suillo maxime est inimica. Quare non ut capellam vel ovem sic et hoc animal bis aquam duci praecipimus, sed si fieri potest, iuxta flumen aut stagnum per ortum Caniculae detineri, quia cum sit aestuosissimum, non est contentum potione aquae, nisi obesam inluviem atque distentam pabulis alvum demerserit ac refrigeraverit, nec ulla re magis gaudet quam rivis atque caenoso lacu volutari.

[6] But although thirst in summertime is troublesome to every quadruped, yet to the swine-kind it is especially inimical. Wherefore, not as for a she-goat or a sheep do we likewise prescribe that this animal be led to water twice, but, if it can be done, that it be kept near a river or a pool during the rising of the Dog-star, because, since it is most sweltry, it is not content with a potion of water, unless it has plunged and cooled its belly, obese with filth and distended with fodders; nor does it take delight in anything more than in wallowing in streams and a muddy lake.

[7] Quod si locorum situs repugnat, ut ita fieri possit, puteis extracta et large canalibus inmissa praebenda sunt pocula, quibus nisi adfatim satiantur, pulmonariae fiunt; isque morbus optime sanatur auriculis inserta consiligine, de qua radicula diligenter ac saepius iam locuti sumus.

[7] But if the siting of the places opposes, so that it cannot be done thus, draughts drawn from wells and copiously sent into troughs are to be provided, and unless they are satisfied with these in full measure, they become pulmonary; and this disease is best cured by consiligo inserted into the ears, about the little root of which we have already spoken diligently and rather often.

[8] Solet etiam vitiosi splenis dolor eas infestare, quod accidit, cum siccitas magna provenit et, ut Bucolicum loquitur poema, strata iacent passim sua quaeque sub arbore poma. Nam pecus insatiabile suis dulcedinem pabuli consectantur et supra modum aestate splenis incremento laborant. Cui succurritur, si fabricentur canales tamaricis et rusco repleanturque aqua et sitientibus admoveantur, quippe ligni sucus medicabilis epotus intestinum tumorem compescit.

[8] The pain of a faulty spleen is also wont to infest them, which happens when great drought comes on and, as the Bucolic poem says, their apples lie strewn everywhere beneath each tree. For the insatiable herd, the swine, pursue the sweetness of fodder, and in summer they suffer beyond measure from an increment of the spleen. This is succored if troughs are fashioned of tamarisks and butcher’s-broom (ruscus), filled with water, and brought to the thirsty; for the medicable juice of the wood, when drunk, restrains the intestinal tumor.

XI. DE CASTRATIONE. Castrationis autem in hoc pecore duo tempora servantur, veris et autumni, et eius administrandae duplex ratio: prima illa, quam iam tradidimus, cum duobus vulneribus inpressis per unamquamque plagam singuli exprimuntur testiculi, altera est speciosior, sed magis periculosa, quam tamen non omittam.

11. ON CASTRATION. As for castration in this livestock, two seasons are observed, spring and autumn, and there is a twofold method of administering it: the first is that which we have already handed down, when, with two wounds incised, through each gash a single testicle is expressed; the other is more seemly, but more perilous, which, however, I shall not omit.

[2] Cum virilem partem utramque ferro reseratam detraxeris, per inpressum vulnus scalpellum inserito et mediam quasi cutem, quae intervenit duobus membris genitalibus, rescindito atque uncis digitis alterum quoque testiculum educito; sic una fiet cicatrix adhibitis ceteris remediis, quae prius docuimus. Illud autem, quod pertinet ad religionem patris familiae, non reticendum putavi:

[2] When you have drawn down both portions of the virile part, opened with the iron, insert the scalpel through the inflicted wound and cut through the middle, as it were, skin which intervenes between the two genital members, and with hooked fingers draw out the other testicle as well; thus a single cicatrix will be made, the other remedies having been applied which we have previously taught. As to that, however, which pertains to the religious scruple of the paterfamilias, I have not thought it should be passed over in silence:

[3] sunt quaedam scrofae, quae mandunt fetus suos, quod cum fit, non habetur prodigium. Nam sues ex omnibus pecudibus inpatientissimae famis aliquando sic indigent pabuli, ut non tantum alienam, si liceat, subolem, sed etiam suam consumant.

[3] there are certain sows that devour their offspring; and when this happens, it is not held a prodigy. For swine, of all herd-beasts, are most impatient of hunger, sometimes so in need of pabulum (fodder) that they consume not only another’s offspring, if it be permitted, but even their own.

XII. DE CANIBUS. De armentis ceterisque pecudibus et magistris, per quos quadripedum greges humana sollertia domi forisque curantur atque observantur, nisi fallor, satis adcurate disserui. Nunc ut exordio priore sum pollicitus, de mutis custodibus loquar, quamquam falso canis dicitur mutus custos.

12. ABOUT DOGS. About the herds and the other flocks and about the keepers, through whom by human ingenuity the herds of quadrupeds are cared for and observed at home and out of doors, unless I am mistaken, I have discoursed quite accurately enough. Now, as I promised at the earlier outset, I will speak about mute guardians—although it is wrongly that the dog is called a mute guard.

Nam quis hominum clarius aut tanta vociferatione bestiam vel furem praedicat quam iste latratu, quis famulus amantior domini, quis fidelior comes, quis custos incorruptior, quis excubitor inveniri potest vigilantior, quis denique ultor aut vindex constantior? Quare vel in primis hoc animal mercari tuerique debet agricola, quod et villam et fructus familiamque et pecora custodit.

For who among men proclaims a beast or a thief more clearly, or with so great a vociferation, as this one does by his bark; what servant more loving of his master, what more faithful companion, what more incorruptible guard, what watchman can be found more vigilant, who finally a more steadfast avenger or vindicator? Wherefore, and indeed first of all, the farmer ought to buy and to protect this animal, because it guards both the villa and the produce and the household and the herds.

[2] Eius autem parandi tuendique triplex ratio est. Namque unum genus adversus hominum insidias eligitur et id villam quaeque iuncta sunt villae custodit, at alterum propellendis iniuriis hominum ac ferarum et id observat domi stabulum, foris pecora pascentia; tertium venandi gratia conparatur idque non solum nihil agricolam iuvat, sed et avocat desidemque ab opere suo reddit.

[2] But its threefold method of providing and safeguarding is as follows. For one kind is chosen against the ambushes of men, and it guards the villa and whatever things are joined to the villa; but another is for driving off the injuries of men and wild beasts, and it keeps watch over the stable at home, and outside the grazing herds; a third is procured for the sake of hunting, and this not only helps the farmer nothing, but even calls him away and makes him idle from his work.

[3] De villatico igitur et pastorali dicendum est, nam venaticus nihil pertinet ad nostram professionem. Villae custos eligendus est amplissimi corporis, vasti latratus canorique, prius ut auditu maleficum, deinde etiam conspectu terreat et tamen non numquam nec visus quidem horribili fremitu suo fuget insidiantem. Sit autem coloris unius, isque magis eligitur albus in pastorali, niger in villatico, nam varius in neutro est laudabilis.

[3] Therefore it is to be spoken about the villatic and the pastoral, for the venatic concerns nothing of our profession. A guardian of the villa is to be chosen of the most ample body, with a vast bark and resonance, so that first by hearing he may terrify the malefactor, then also by sight; and yet sometimes, not even when seen, should he put to flight the ambusher by his horrible growl. Moreover, let him be of a single color, and this is more chosen: white in the pastoral, black in the villatic; for variegated in neither is praiseworthy.

Pastor album probat, quoniam est ferae dissimilis, magnoque opus interdum discrimine est in propulsandis lupis sub obscuro mane vel etiam crepusculo, ne pro bestia canem feriat.

The shepherd approves the white one, since it is dissimilar to a wild beast, and at times there is need of great discrimination in repelling wolves in the dim dawn or even at crepuscle, lest he strike the dog instead of the beast.

[4] Villaticus, qui hominum maleficiis opponitur, sive luce clara fur advenit, terribilior niger conspicitur, sive noctu, ne conspiciatur quidem propter umbrae similitudinem, quam ob rem tectus tenebris canis tutiorem adcessum habet ad insidiantem. Probatur quadratus potius quam longus aut brevis, capite tam magno, ut corporis videatur pars maxima, deiectis et propendentibus auribus, nigris vel glaucis oculis acri lumine radiantibus, amplo villosoque pectore, latis armis, cruribus crassis et hirtis, cauda brevi, vestigiorum articulis et unguibus amplissimis, qui Graece drakes appellantur. Hic erit villatici status praecipue laudandus.

[4] The farmyard dog (villaticus), which is set against the malefices of men, whether in bright light a thief comes, the black one is seen as more terrible; or whether by night, he is not seen at all because of the similitude of a shadow, for which reason, covered by darkness, the dog has a safer access to the ambusher. He is approved square-built rather than long or short, with a head so large that it seems the greatest part of the body, with ears drooping and pendent, with black or glaucous eyes radiating with a keen light, with a broad and shaggy chest, broad shoulders, thick and hirsute legs, a short tail, and very large joints of the feet and nails, which in Greek are called “drakes.” This will be the condition of the farmyard dog especially to be laudable.

[5] Mores autem neque mitissimi nec rursus truces atque crudeles, quod illi furem quoque adulantur, hi etiam domesticos invadunt. Satis est severos esse nec blandos, ut non numquam etiam conservos iratius intuantur, semper excandescant in exteros. Maxime autem debent in custodia vigilantes conspici nec erronei, sed adsidui et circumspecti magis quam temerarii.

[5] As for character, neither the meekest nor, on the other hand, savage and cruel—for those of the former sort even flatter a thief, while these of the latter even attack domestics. It is enough that they be severe and not bland, so that they sometimes even look more angrily upon fellow-slaves, and always flare up against outsiders. Above all, in their custodianship they ought to be seen as vigilant and not errant, but assiduous and circumspect rather than rash.

Nam illi, nisi quod certum conpererunt, non indicant, hi vano strepitu et falsa suspicione concitantur.

For the former, unless they have ascertained something certain, do not indicate; the latter are stirred by empty clamor and false suspicion.

[6] Haec idcirco memoranda credidi, quia non natura tantum, sed etiam disciplina mores facit, ut et, cum emendi potestas fuerit, eius modi probemus et, cum educabimus domi natos, talibus institutis formemus.

[6] For this reason I believed these things were to be remembered, because not nature only, but also discipline makes morals, so that both, when there shall be the power of buying, we may approve those of this sort, and, when we educate those born at home, we may form them by such institutes.

[7] Nec multum refert, an villatici corporibus graves et parum veloces sint; plus enim comminus et in gradu quam eminus et in spatioso cursu facere debent. Nam semper circa septa et intra aedificium consistunt, immo ne longius quidem recedere debent satisque pulchre funguntur officio, si et advenientem sagaciter odorantur et latratu conterrent nec patiuntur propius accedere vel constantius adpropinquantem violenter invadunt. Primum est enim non adtemptari, secundum est lacessitum fortiter et perseveranter vindicari.

[7] Nor does it much matter whether the villatic dogs are heavy in body and not very swift; for they ought to do more at close quarters and at a stand than from afar and in a spacious run. For they always take their stand around the enclosures and within the building—indeed, they ought not to withdraw farther—and they quite handsomely perform their office if they both sagaciously scent the newcomer and deter him with barking, nor allow him to approach nearer, or, if he advances more steadfastly, they assail him violently. For the first point is not to be attempted; the second, if provoked, is to be vindicated bravely and perseveringly.

atque haec de domesticis custodibus, illa de pastoralibus.

and these things about domestic guardians, those about pastoral.

[8] Pecuarius canis neque tam strigosus aut pernix debet esse, quam qui dammas cervosque et velocissima sectantur animalia, nec tam obesus aut gravis quam villae horreique custos;

[8] The pastoral dog ought not to be so wiry or so nimble as those who pursue fallow-deer and stags and the swiftest animals, nor so obese or heavy as the custodian of the villa and granary;

[9] sed et robustus nihilo minus et aliquatenus promptus ac strenuus, quoniam et ad rixam pugnamque nec minus ad cursum conparatur, cum et lupi repellere insidias et raptorem ferum consequi fugientem praedamque excutere atque auferre debeat. Quare status eius longior productiorque ad hos casus magis habilis est quam brevis aut etiam quadratus, quoniam, ut dixi, non numquam necessitas exigit celeritate bestiam consectandi. Ceteri artus similes membris villatici canis aeque probantur.

[9] but also robust nonetheless and in some measure prompt and strenuous, since he is prepared both for brawl and for battle and no less for running, since he ought both to repel the ambushes of wolves and to overtake the fierce raptor as he flees, and to shake the prey from him and carry it off. Wherefore a longer and more extended build is more handy for these contingencies than a short or even square-built one, since, as I have said, sometimes necessity demands the pursuit of the beast with speed. The other limbs, similar to the members of the villa-dog, are equally approved.

[10] Cibaria fere eadem sunt utrique generi praebenda. Nam si tam laxa rura sunt, ut sustineant pecorum greges, omnis sine discrimine hordeacea farina cum sero commode pascit. Sin autem surculo consitus ager sine pascuo est, farreo vel triticeo pane satiandi sunt, admixto tamen liquore coctae fabae, sed tepido, nam fervens rabiem creat.

[10] Provisions are to be furnished almost the same for each kind. For if the fields are so spacious as to sustain herds of livestock, barley meal with whey conveniently feeds them all without distinction. But if the land planted with cuttings is without pasture, they are to be satisfied with spelt- or wheaten-bread, with the liquid of boiled beans mixed in—yet tepid, for boiling hot creates rabies.

[11] Huic quadripedi neque feminae neque mari nisi post annum permittenda venus est, quae si teneris conceditur, carpit et corpus et vires animosque degenerat. Primus effetae partus amovendus est, quoniam tiruncula nec recte nutrit et educatio totius habitus aufert incrementum. Mares iuveniliter usque in annos decem progenerant, post id tempus ineundis feminis non videntur habiles, quoniam seniorum pigra suboles existit.

[11] For this quadruped, neither to the female nor to the male should venery be permitted except after a year; if it is granted to the tender, it nibbles away the body and the forces and makes the spirits degenerate. The first litter, after she has been delivered, must be taken away, since the novice does not nurse properly, and the rearing removes the increment of her whole habit (constitution). Males beget youthfully up to ten years; after that time they do not seem fit for going in to females for mating, since the progeny of elders proves sluggish.

Feminae concipiunt usque in annos novem nec sunt utiles post decimum.

The females conceive up to nine years and are not useful after the tenth.

[12] Catulos sex mensibus primis, dum corroborentur, emitti non oportet nisi ad matrem lusus ac lasciviae causa. Postea catenis per diem continendi et noctibus solvendi, nec umquam eos, quorum generosam volumus indolem conservare, patiemur alienae nutricis uberibus educari, quoniam semper et lac et spiritus maternus longe magis ingenii atque incrementa corporis auget.

[12] Puppies in the first six months, while they are being strengthened, ought not to be let out except to the mother for the sake of play and playfulness. Afterwards they are to be kept on chains by day and released at night, nor shall we ever allow those whose generous inborn nature we wish to conserve to be reared at the teats of a foreign nurse, since both the milk and the maternal spirit always far more augments the disposition and the growth of the body.

[13] Quod si et feta lacte deficitur, caprinum maxime conveniet praeberi catulis, dum fiant mensum quattuor. Nominibus autem non longissimis appellandi sunt, quo celerius quisque vocatus exaudiat, nec tamen brevioribus quam quae duabus syllabis enuntiantur, sicuti Graecum est skylax, Latinum Ferox, Graecum lakon, Latinum Celer, vel femina, ut sunt Graeca spoude, alke, rome, Latina Lupa, Cerva, Tigris.

[13] But if the dam too is deficient in milk, caprine milk will be most suitable to be provided to the puppies, until they become four months old. As for names, they are to be called by names not very long, so that each one, when called, may heed more quickly; yet not by ones shorter than those that are pronounced in two syllables, as there is the Greek skylax, the Latin Ferox, the Greek lakon, the Latin Celer; or for a female, as there are the Greek spoude, alke, rome, the Latin Lupa, Cerva, Tigris.

[14] Catulorum caudas post diem quadragensimum, quam sint editi, sic castrare conveniet. Nervus est, qui per articulos spinae prorepit usque ad ultimam partem caudae; is mordicus conprehensus et aliquatenus eductus abrumpitur, quo facto neque in longitudinem cauda foedum capit incrementum, et, ut plurimi pastores adfirmant, rabies arcetur, letifer morbus huic generi.

[14] After the fortieth day from when they have been whelped, it will be fitting to dock the puppies’ tails in this way. There is a nerve that creeps through the joints of the spine all the way to the farthest part of the tail; this, seized with the teeth and drawn out somewhat, is snapped off, with which done the tail does not take on an unsightly increase in length, and, as very many shepherds affirm, rabies is warded off, a death-bearing disease for this kind.

XIII. MEDICINAE EORUM. Fere autem per aestatem sic muscis aures canum exulcerantur, saepe ut totas amittant; quod ne fiat, amaris nucibus contritis linendae sunt. Quod si ulceribus iam praeoccupatae fuerint, coctam picem liquidam suillae adipi mixtam vulneribus stillari conveniet.

13. THEIR MEDICINES. Generally, moreover, during the summer the ears of dogs are so ulcerated by flies that they often lose them entirely; to prevent this, they must be smeared with crushed bitter nuts. But if they have already been preoccupied by ulcers, it will be fitting that boiled liquid pitch, mixed with swine lard, be dripped onto the wounds.

Hoc eodem medicamine contacti ricini decidunt, nam manu non sunt vellendi, ne, ut et ante praedixeram, faciant ulcera.

By this same medicament, ticks, when touched, fall off; for they are not to be plucked by hand, lest, as I had also foretold before, they make ulcers.

[2] Pulicosae cani remedia sunt sive cyminum tritum pari pondere cum veratro aquaque mixtum et inlitum seu cucumeris anguinei sucus vel, si haec non sunt, vetus amurca per totum corpus infusa. Si scabies infestavit, gypsi et sesami tantundem conterito et cum pice liquida permisceto vitiosamque partem linito, quod medicamentum putatur etiam hominibus esse conveniens. Eadem pestis si fuerit vehementior, cedrino liquore aboletur; reliqua vitia, sicut in ceteris animalibus praecepimus, curanda erunt.

[2] Remedies for a flea-ridden dog are either cumin ground with hellebore in equal weight, mixed with water and smeared on, or the juice of the serpentine cucumber; or, if these are not at hand, old amurca poured over the whole body. If mange has infested him, pound equal parts of gypsum and sesame, and mix with liquid pitch, and smear the diseased part— which medicament is thought to be suitable even for human beings. If the same pest is more vehement, it is abolished by cedar-oil; the remaining ailments, as we have prescribed in the other animals, will have to be treated.

[3] Hactenus de minore pecore. Mox de villaticis pastionibus, quae continent volucrum pisciumque et silvestrium quadripedum curam, sequente volumine praecipiemus.

[3] Thus far concerning the lesser herd. Soon, on villatic pasturings—which comprise the care of birds, fishes, and sylvan quadrupeds—we will give instructions in the following volume.