Delphi Complete Works of Varro

by Marcus Terentius Varro

  Appius Axio, Si quinque milia hoc coieceris, inquit, et erit epulum ac triumphus, sexaginta milia quae vis statim in fenus des licebit multum. Tum mihi, tu dic illud alterum genus ornithonis, qui animi causa constitutus a te sub Casino fertur, in quo diceris longe vicisse non modo archetypon inventoris nostri ornithotrophion M. Laenii Strabonis, qui Brundisii hospes noster primus in peristylo habuit exhedra conclusas aves, quas pasceret obiecto rete, sed etiam in Tusculano magna aedificia Luculli. Quoi ego: Cum habeam sub oppido Casino flumen, quod per villam fluat, liquidum et altum marginibus lapideis, latum pedes quinquaginta septem, et e villa in villam pontibus transeatur, longum pedes DCCCCL derectum ab insula, quae est in imo fluvio, ubi confluit altera amnis, ad summum flumen, ubi est museum, circum huius ripas ambulatio sub dio pedes lata denos, ab hac est in agrum versus ornithonis locus ex duabus partibus dextra et sinistra maceriis altis conclusus. Inter quas locus qui est ornithonis deformatus ad tabulae litterariae speciem cum capitulo, forma qua est quadrata, patet in latitudinem pedes XLVIII, in longitudinem pedes LXXII; qua ad capitulum rutundum est, pedes XXVII. Ad haec, ita ut in margine quasi infimo tabulae descripta sit, ambulatio, ab ornithone plumula, in qua media sunt caveae, qua introitus in aream est. In limine, in lateribus dextra et sinistra porticus sunt primoribus columnis lapideis, pro mediis arbusculis humilibus ordinatae, cum a summa macerie ad epistylium tecta porticus sit rete cannabina et ab epistylio ad stylobaten. Hae sunt avibus omnigenus oppletae, quibus cibus ministratur per retem et aqua rivolo tenui affluit. Secundum stylobatis interiorem partem dextra et sinistra ad summam aream quadratam e medio diversae duae non latae oblongae sunt piscinae ad porticus versus. Inter eas piscinas tantummodo accessus semita in tholum, qui est ultra rutundus columnatus, ut est in aede Catuli, si pro parietibus feceris columnas. Extra eas columnas est silva manu sata grandibus arboribus, ut infima perluceat, tota saepta maceriis altis. Intra tholi columnas exteriores lapideas et totidem interiores ex abiete tenues locus est pedes quinque latus. Inter columnas exteriores pro pariete reticuli e nervis sunt, ut prospici in silvam possit et quae ibi sunt videri neque avis ea transire. Intra interiores columnas pro pariete rete aviarium est obiectum. Inter has et exteriores gradatim substructum ut theatridion avium, mutuli crebri in omnibus columnis impositi, sedilia avium. Intra retem aves sunt omnigenus, maxime cantrices, ut lusciniolae ac merulae, quibus aqua ministratur per canaliculum, cibus obicitur sub retem. Subter columnarum stylobaten est lapis a falere pedem et dodrantem alta; ipsum falere ad duo pedes altum a stagno, latum ad quinque, ut in culcitas et columellas convivae pedibus circumire possint. Infimo intra falere est stagnum cum margine pedali et insula in medio parva. Circum falere et navalia sunt excavata anatium stabula. In insula est columella, in qua intus axis, qui pro mensa sustinet rotam radiatam, ita ut ad extremum, ubi orbile solet esse, arcuata tabula cavata sit ut tympanum in latitudinem duo pedes et semipedem, in altitudinem palmum. Haec ab uno puero, qui ministrat, ita vertitur, ut omnia una ponantur et ad bibendum et ad edendum et admoveantur ad omnes convivas. Ex suggesto faleris, ubi solent esse peripetasmata, prodeunt anates in stagnum ac nant, e quo rivus pervenit in duas, quas dixi, piscinas, ac pisciculi ultro ac citro commetant, cum et aqua calida et frigida ex orbi ligneo mensaque, quam dixi in primis radiis esse, epitoniis versis ad unum quemque factum sit ut fluat convivam. Intrinsecus sub tholo stella lucifer interdiu, noctu hesperus, ita circumeunt ad infimum hemisphaerium ac moventur, ut indicent, quot sint horae. In eodem hemisphaerio medio circum cardinem est orbis ventorum octo, ut Athenis in horologio, quod fecit Cyrrestes; ibique eminens radius a cardine ad orbem ita movetur, ut eum tangat ventum, qui flet, ut intus scire possis.

  Cum haec loqueremur, clamor fit in campo. Nos athletae comitiorum cum id fieri non miraremur propter studia suffragatorum et tamen scire vellemus, quid esset, venit ad nos Pantuleius Parra, narrat ad tabulam, cum diriberent, quendam deprensum tesserulas coicientem in loculum, eum ad consulem tractum a fautoribus competitorum. Pavo surgit, quod eius candidati custos dicebatur deprensus.

  [5.1] “I shall, however, as I suppose you prefer, Axius, discuss the aviary which is built for profit — the place from which fat fieldfares are taken, and not the place where they are taken. Well, there is built a large domed building, or a peristyle covered with tiles or netting, in which several thousand fieldfares and blackbirds can be enclosed; [2] though some breeders add besides other birds which, when fattened, bring a high price, such as ortolans and quails. Into this building water should be conducted through a pipe and allowed to spread preferably through narrow channels which can easily be cleaned (for if the water spreads there in pools, it more easily becomes foul and is not good for drinking), and the superfluous drip-water from these should run out through a pipe, so that the birds may not be troubled by mud. [3] It should have a low, narrow door, and preferably of the kind which they call coclia, such as usually are seen in the pit where bullfights are held. The windows should be few, and so arranged that trees and birds outside cannot be seen; for the sight of these, and the longing for them, makes the imprisoned birds grow thin. It should have only enough openings for light to enable the birds to see where to perch, and where the food and water is. It should be faced around the doors and windows with smooth plaster, so that no mice or other vermin can enter anywhere. [4] Around the walls of this building on the inside there should be a number of poles for the birds to perch on; and, in addition, rods sloping from ground to wall, with transverse rods fastened to them in steps at moderate intervals, after the fashion of the balustrades of the theatre or the arena. At the bottom, on the ground, there should be water for them to drink, and here should be placed cakes for their food. These are usually made by kneading a mixture of figs and spelt. Twenty days before the breeder desires to remove fieldfares, he feeds them more liberally, giving larger quantities and beginning to feed them on spelt ground finer. In this building there should be recesses, equipped with several shelves, as a supplement to the perches; [5] it is here, facing the perches, that the caretaker usually keeps on hand the birds which have died in the place, so as to render account to his master. When it become necessary to remove from this aviary birds which are fit for market, they should be taken out and put into a smaller aviary, called the seclusorium (coop), which is connected by a door with the larger aviary and better lighted. When he has the number which he desires to take shut up here, he kills them all. [6] The reason for doing this privately in a separate room is to prevent the others, if they should see it, from moping and dying at a time which would be inopportune for the seller. Fieldfares do not rear their young here and there as do the other migratory birds, storks in the field, swallows under the roof [and though their name (turdi) is masculine, there are in fact females too; nor is the case otherwise as regards blackbirds (merulae) — though they have a feminine name, there are also males]. [7] Again, birds being partly migratory, as swallows and cranes, and partly indigenous, as hens and doves, fieldfares belong to the former class, the migratory, and fly yearly across the sea into Italy about the time of the autumnal equinox, and back again whence they came about the spring equinox, as do turtle-doves and quail at another season in vast numbers. The proof of this is seen in the near-by islands of Pontiae, Palmaria, and Pandateria; for when they arrive in these at the first migration, they remain there for a few days to rest, and do the same when they leave Italy for their return across the sea.

  [8] “If you put 5,000 birds into this aviary,” said Appius to Axius, “and there comes a banquet and a triumph, you may at once put at high interest that 60,000 sesterces which you want.” Then, turning to me, he said: “Do you now describe that other kind of aviary which I am told you built for your amusement near Casinum, in the construction of which you are reputed to have far surpassed not only the archetype left by its inventor, our friend Marcus Laenius Strabo, our host at Brundisium, who was the first to keep birds penned up in a recess in his peristyle, feeding them through a net covering, but also Lucullus’ huge buildings on his place at Tusculum.” [9] I repli
ed: “I own, near the town of Casinum, a stream which runs through my villa, clear and deep, with a stone facing, 57 feet wide, and requiring bridges for passage from one side of the villa to the other; it is 950 feet in a straight line from the island in the lowest part of the stream, where another stream runs into it, to the upper part of the stream, where the Museum is situated. [10] Along the banks of this stream there runs an uncovered walk 10 feet broad; off this walk and facing the open country is the place in which the aviary stands, shut in on two sides, right and left, by high walls. Between these lies the site of the aviary, shaped in the form of a writing-tablet with a top-piece, the quadrangular part being 48 feet in width and 72 feet in length, while at the rounded top-piece it is 27 feet. [11] Facing this, as it were a space marked off on the lower margin of the tablet, is an uncovered walk with a plumula extending from the aviary, in the middle of which are cages; and here is the entrance to the courtyard. At the entrance, on the right side and the left, are colonnades, arranged with stone columns in the outside rows and, instead of columns in the middle, with dwarf trees; while from the top of the wall to the archway the colonnade is covered with a net of hemp, which also continues from the archway to the base. These colonnades are filled with all manner of birds, to which food is supplied through the netting, while water flows to them in a tiny rivulet. [12] Along the inner side of the base of the columns, on the right side and on the left, and extending from the middle to the upper end of the open quadrangle, are two oblong fish-basins, not very wide, facing the colonnades. Between these basins is merely a path giving access to the tholos, which is a round domed building outside the quadrangle, faced with columns, such as is seen in the hall of Catulus, if you put columns instead of walls. Outside these columns is a wood planted by hand with large trees, so that the light enters only at the lower part, and the whole is enclosed with high walls. [13] Between the outer columns of the rotunda, which are of stone, and the equal number of slender inner columns, which are of fir, is a space five feet wide. Between the exterior columns, instead of a wall there is a netting of gut, so that there is a view into the wood and the objects in it, while not a bird can get out into it. In the spaces between the interior columns the aviary is enclosed with a net instead of a wall. Between these and the exterior columns there is built up step by step a sort of little bird-theatre, with brackets fastened at frequent intervals to all the columns as bird-seats. [14] Within the nettings are all manner of birds, chiefly songsters, such as nightingales and blackbirds, to which water is supplied by means of a small trench, while food is passed to them under the netting. Below the base of the columns is stone-work rising a foot and nine inches above the platform; the platform itself rises about two feet above a pond, and is about five feet wide, so that the guests can walk in among the benches and the small columns. At the foot of the platform inside, is the pond, with a border a foot wide, and a little island in the middle. Along the platform also docks have been hollowed out as shelters for ducks. [15] On the island is a small column, and on the inside of it is a post, which holds up, instead of a table, a wheel with spokes, in such fashion that on the outer rim, where the felloe usually stands, there is a curved board with raised edges like a tambourine, two and a half feet in width and a palm in height. This is revolved by a single manservant in such a way that everything to drink and eat is placed on it at once and moved around to all the guests. [16] From the side of the platform, on which there are usually coverlets, the ducks come out into the pond and swim about; from this pond a stream runs into the two fish-basins which I have described, and the minnows dart back and forth, while it is so arranged that cold and warm water flows for each guest from the wooden wheel and the table which, as I have said is at the ends of the spokes, by the turning of cocks. [17] Inside, under the dome of the rotunda, the morning-star by day and the evening-star at night circle around near the lower part of the hemisphere, and move in such a manner as to show what the hour is. In the middle of the same hemisphere, running around the axis, is a compass of the eight winds, as in the horologium at Athens, which was built by the Cyrrestrian; and there a pointer, projecting from the axis, runs about the compass in such a way that it touches the wind which is blowing, so that you can tell on the inside which it is.”

  [18] While we were thus conversing, a shouting arose in the Campus. We old hands at politics were not surprised at this occurrence, as we knew how excited an election crowd could become, but still we wanted to know what it meant; thereupon Pantuleius Parra comes to us, and tells us that a man had been caught, while they were sorting the ballots in the office, in the act of casting ballots into the ballot-box; and that he had been dragged off to the consul by the supporters of the other candidates. Pavo arose, as it was the watcher for his candidate who was reported to have been arrested.

  VI.

  Axius, De pavonibus, inquit, libere licet dicas, quoniam discessit Fircellius, qui, secus siquid diceres de iis, gentilitatis causa fortasse an tecum duceret serram. Quoi Merula, De pavonibus nostra memoria, inquit, greges haberi coepti et venire magno. Ex iis M. Aufidius Lurco supra sexagena milia nummum in anno dicitur capere. Ii aliquanto pauciores esse debent mares quam feminae, si ad fructum spectes; si ad delectationem, contra; formosior enim mas. Pascendi greges agrestes. Transmarini esse dicuntur in insulis, Sami in luco Iunonis, item in Planasia insula M. Pisonis. Hi ad greges constituendos parantur bona aetate et bona forma. Huic enim natura formae e volucribus dedit palmam. Ad admissuram haec minores bimae non idoneae nec iam maiores natu. Pascuntur omne genus obiecto frumento, maxime hordeo. Itaque Seius iis dat in menses singulos hordei singulos modios, ita ut in fetura det uberius, antequam salire incipiant. In has a procuratore ternos pullos exigit eosque, cum creverunt, quinquagenis denariis vendit, ut nulla avis hunc assequatur fructum. Praeterea ova emit ac supponit gallinis, ex quibus excusos pullos refert in testudinem eam, in qua pavones habet. Quod tectum pro multitudine pavonum fieri debet et habere cubilia discreta, tectorio levata, quo neque serpens neque bestia accedere ulla possit; praeterea habere locum ante se, quo pastum exeant diebus apricis. Utrumque locum purum esse volunt hae volucres. Itaque pastorem earum cum vatillo circumire oportet ac stercus tollere ac conservare, quod et ad agri culturam idoneum est et ad substramen pullorum. Primus hos Q. Hortensius augurali aditiali cena posuisse dicitur, quod potius factum tum luxuriosi quam severi boni viri laudabant. Quem cito secuti multi extulerunt eorum pretia, ita ut ova eorum denariis veneant quinis, ipsi facile quinquagenis, grex centenarius facile quadragena milia sestertia ut reddat, ut quidem Abucius aiebat, si in singulos ternos exigeret pullos, perfici sexagenas posse.

  [6.1] “You may speak freely about peafowl,” said Axius, “since Fircellius has gone; if you should say anything out of the way about them, he would perhaps have a bone to pick with you for the credit of the family.” To whom Merula said: “As to pea-fowl, it is within our memory that flocks of them began to be kept and sold at a high price. From them Marcus Aufidius Lurco is said to receive an income of more than 60,000 sesterces a year. There should be somewhat fewer males than females if you have an eye to the financial returns; but the opposite if you look at the pleasure, for the male is handsomer. [2] They should be pastured in flocks in the fields. Across the water they are said to be reared in the islands — on Samos, in the grove of Juno, and likewise in Marcus Piso’s island of Planasia. For the forming of a flock they are to be secured when they are young and of good appearance; for nature has awarded the palm of beauty to this fowl over all winged things. The hens are not suited for breeding under two years, and are no longer suited when they get rather old. [3] They eat any kind of grain placed before them, and especially barley; so Seius issues a modius of barley a month per head, with the exception that he feeds more freely during the breeding season, before they begin to tread. He requires of his breeder three chicks for each hen, and these, when they are grown, he sells for fifty denarii each, so that no other fowl brings in so high a revenue. [4] He buys eggs, too, and places them under hens, an
d the chicks which are hatched from these he places in that domed building in which he keeps his peafowl. This building should be made of a size proportioned to the number of peafowl, and should have separate sleeping quarters, coated with smooth plaster, so that no serpent or animal can get in; [5] it should also have an open place in front of it, to which they may go out to feed on sunny days. These birds require that both places be clean; and so their keeper should go around with a shovel and pick up the droppings and keep them, as they are useful for fertilizer and as litter for chicks. [6] It is said that Quintus Hortensius was the first to serve these fowl; it was on the occasion of his inauguration as aedile, and the innovation was praised at that time rather by the luxurious than by those who were strict and virtuous. As his example was quickly followed by many, the price has risen to such a point that the eggs sell for five denarii each, the birds themselves sell readily for 50 each, and a flock of 100 easily brings 40,000 sesterces — in fact, Abuccius used to say that if one required three chicks to every hen, the total might amount to 60,000.

  VII.

  Interea venit apparitor Appi a consule et augures ait citari. Ille foras exit e villa. At in villam intro involant columbae, de quibus Merula Axio: Si umquam peristerotrophion constituisses, has tuas esse putares, quamvis ferae essent. Duo enim genera earum in peristerotrophio esse solent: unum agreste, ut alii dicunt, saxatile, quod habetur in turribus ac columinibus villae, a quo appellatae columbae, quae propter timorem naturalem summa loca in tectis captant; quo fit ut agrestes maxime sequantur turres, in quas ex agro evolant suapte sponte ac remeant. Alterum genus columbarum est clementius, quod cibo domestico contentum intra limina ianuae solet pasci. Hoc genus maxime est colore albo, illud alterum agreste sine albo, vario. Ex iis duabus stirpibus fit miscellum tertium genus fructus causa, atque incedunt in locum unum, quod alii vocant peristerona, alii peristerotrophion, in quo uno saepe vel quinque milia sunt inclusae. Peristeron fit ut testudo magna, camara tectus, uno ostio angusto, fenestris punicanis aut latioribus reticulatis utrimque, ut locus omnis sit illustris, neve quae serpens aliudve quid animal maleficum introire queat. Intrinsecus quam levissimo marmorato toti parietes ac camarae oblinuntur et extrinsecus circum fenestras, ne mus aut lacerta qua adrepere ad columbaria possit. Nihil enim timidius columba. Singulis paribus columbaria fiunt rutunda in ordinem crebra, ordines quam plurimi possunt a terra usque ad camaram. Columbaria singula esse oportet ut os habeat, quo modo introire et exire possit, intus ternarum palmarum ex omnibus partibus. Sub ordines singulos tabulae fictae ut sint bipalmes, quo utantur vestibulo ac prodeant. Aquam esse oportet quae influat, unde et bibere et ubi lavari possint. Permundae enim sunt hae volucres. Itaque pastorem columbarum quotquot mensibus crebro oportet everrere; est enim quod eum inquinat locum appositum ad agri culturam, ita ut hoc optimum esse scripserint aliquot. Siquae columba quid offenderit, ut medeatur; siquae perierit, ut efferatur; siqui pulli idonei sunt ad vendendum, promat. Item quae fetae sunt, certum locum ut disclusum ab aliis rete habeat, quo transferantur, e quo foras ex peristerone evolare possint matres. Quod faciunt duabus de causis: una, si fastidiunt aut inclusae consenescunt, quod libero aere, cum exierint in agros, redintegrentur; altera de causa propter inlicium. Ipsae enim propter pullos, quos habent, utique redeunt, nisi a corvo occisae aut ab accipitre interceptae. Quos columbarii interficere solent duabus virgis viscatis defictis in terra inter se curvatis, cum inter eas posuerint obligatum animal, quod petere soleant accipitres, qui ita decipiuntur, cum se obleverunt visco. Columbas redire solere ad locum licet animadvertere, quod multi in theatro e sinu missas faciunt, atque ad locum redeunt, quae nisi reverterentur, non emitterentur. Cibus apponitur circum parietes in canalibus, quas extrinsecus per fistulas supplent. Delectantur milio, tritico, hordeo, piso, fasiolis, ervo. Item fere haec, in turribus ac summis villis qui habent agrestes columbas, quoad possunt, imitandum. In peristeronas aetate bona parandum, neque pullos neque vetulas, totidem mares quot feminas. Nihil columbis fecundius. Itaque diebus quadragenis concipit et parit et incubat et educat. Et hoc fere totum annum faciunt; tantummodo intervallum faciunt a bruma ad aequinoctium vernum. Pulli nascuntur bini, qui simulac creverunt et habent robur, cum matribus pariunt. Qui solent saginare pullos columbinos, quo pluris vendant, secludunt eos, cum iam pluma sunt tecti. Deinde manducato candido farciunt pane; hieme hoc bis, aestate ter, mane meridie vesperi; hieme demunt cibum medium. Qui iam pinnas incipiunt habere, relincunt in nido inlisis cruribus et matribus, uberius ut cibo uti possint, obiciunt. Eo enim totum diem se et pullos pascunt. Qui ita educantur, celerius pinguiores fiunt quam alii, et candidae fiunt parentes eorum. Romae, si sunt formosi, bono colore, integri, boni seminis, paria singula volgo veneunt ducenis nummis nec non eximia singulis milibus nummum. Quas nuper cum mercator tanti emere vellet a L. Axio, equite Romano, minoris quadringentis denariis datorum negavit. Axius, Si possem emere, inquit, peristerona factum, quem ad modum in aedibus cum habere vellem, emi fictilia columbaria, iam issem emptum et misissem ad villam. Quasi vero, inquit Pica, non in urbe quoque sint multi. An tibi columbaria qui in tegulis habent, non videntur habere peristeronas, cum aliquot supra centum milium sestertium habeant instrumentum? E quis alicuius totum emas censeo, et antequam aedificas rure, magnum condiscas hic in urbe cotidie lucrum assem semissem condere in loculos. Tu, Merula, sic perge deinceps.