A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

1224 VARRO. VARRO.
with agriculture proper, that is, with the cultivation very shattered condition, disfigured by nameols
of the ground in order to render it susceptible of blanks, corruptions and interpolations. It seemss
producing abundantly and profitably various crops, clear from the researches of MUiller that the whole
we are told that the science of tilling the earth of the MSS. now extant were derived fromn one
(agricultura) may be reduced to four great heads. common archetype, which at the period when the
A. A knowledge of the farm itself (cognitio different copies were made, was itself in a very
fundi), that is, of the locality which is to be the confused and mutilated state, many of the leaves
scene of the operations to be performed, including having been lost, others displaced, and even the
the situation, soil, climate, and buildings. most entire full of defects, arising partly from the
B. A knowledge of the instruments requisite for ignorance of transcribers, and partly from the
performing the necessary operations (qace in eo ravages of time. This work, judging from sundry
fundo opus sint ae debeant esse culturae causa). repetitions and contradictions which may be here
C. A knowledge of the operations to be per- and there detected, and from the general want of
formed (quae in eo fundo colendi causa sint fa- polish, was never finally revised by the author; and
cienda). may perhaps, as Miiller conjectures, never have
D. A knowledge of the time when each oper- been published under his sanction. We gather
ation ought to be performed (quo quid qid tempore from Cicero (ad Att. xiii. 12, Alccd. i. I ) and
in eofundofieri conveniat). from internal evidence (v. 100, vi. 13, 22, ed.
Each of these four heads must be divided into Miiller) that it must have been in progress during
two. the years B. C. 46-45, and must have been finished
sa. The things appertaining to the soil itself before the death of the orator, to whom the last
(qAXae ad solumpertinent terrae). twenty books are inscribed (v. 1. vi. 97, vii. 1)09,
b The thingrs appertaining to the buildings 110). It was portioned out into three great diviL (ad villas et stabula). sions.
B e. fb The human instruments. (I.) De lispositione Vocabulorznm, the origin of
*b. All other instruments. words and terms, fornled the subject of the first
a. The various crops to be cultivated. seven books. The first was introductoryand treated
b The localities suitable for each. of the history of the Latin language (De Origino
a. The time when with reference to the course Linguae Latinae. See Priscian, i. 7). The second,
of the sun. third, and fourth of etymology considered as a
b. The time when with reference to the course science (De Etyzologica 4 rte), what might be said
_ of the moon. for, against, and concerning it (contra eam-r-io
Again, each of these divisions is split up into a ea-de ea); the author then entered fairly on the
number of subdivisions, as for example origin of words (a quibus rebus vocabzula impositu
(1. The outward aspect of the ground. sznt), considering, in the fifth, the names of places
A. 2. The qulities of soil and of things in these places (De Vocabzlis Locorumu
3. The quantity of ground. et quae in his sent), the primary division of places
(4. The security of the farm. being into Heaven and Earth (De Coelo-L)e
1i. Their situation. Terra), and of the things in these places into
A. b. 2. Their size. things immortal and things mortal (Delnimortalibus
(3. The arrangement of the different parts. — De 11Iortallbaes), things mortal being again disB.f ali. Free labourers. tributed into, 1. Livinlg creatures (De Animralil)us);
B. (5 1t2. Slaves. 2. The vegetable king(rdom (De Firgultis et simzili-. Animate, such as oxen, horses, &c. bus); 3. The works of man (De A11lanautctis); the
B. b. 2. Inanimate, such as ploughs, harrows, &c. sixth comprehended words denoting time, and in
and so on for the rest. But even these last are which the notion of time is implied (De Vocabu7!is
sometimes broken down still farther, as in the case Temp1orum et earum rerusm qzae d icuntfur cure te))of B. a. 2, where we have slaves separated into orse aliqzo); and in the seventh poetical words
two classes -a. Servi soluti, /3. Servi vincti. were discussed (De;verbis quae a poetis sentpositua).
The second book treats of the management of (II.) Books eight to thirteen were devoted to the
stock, oxen, sheep, goats, swine, horses, asses, mules, inflections of nouns and verbs, the only two classes
together with supplemental chapters on shepherds of words acknowledged by Varro' (De Declinatioand dogs, on milk, cheese, and wool. nibiss). He here examined into the nature and obFillaticae pastiones form the subject of the third ject of these forms which he separated into two
hook, a term embracing not only the domestic divisions, the natural and the arbitrary, the former
fowls which we comprehend under poultry, but falling under &vaAoTya, the latter under d,',ta;Aia.
also animals kept in a half-wild state in parkis and (III.) Books fourteen to twenty-four were occuenclosures, such as boars, hares, deer, and the like, pied with the laws of syntax (Ut verba inter se coztogether with snails and dormice, the whole being juakjantur).
wound up by instructions for the management of The remains of this treatise, imperfect as they
fish-ponds, both salt and fresh-water. are, must be regarded as particularly valuable, iii
The books De Re Rustica were first printed by so far as they have been the means of preserving
Jenson in his Rei Rusticae Scriptores, fol. Venet. many terms and forms which would otherwise have
1472,' and will be found in all similar collections. been altogether lost or would have proved uninThey appear under their best form in the Scriptores telligible, and much curious information is here
Rei Rusticae veteres Latini of J. M. Gesner, 4to. treasured up connected with the ancient usages,
2 vols. Lips. 173.5, and of J. G. Schneider, 8vo. both civil and religious, of the Romans. The
4 vols. Lips. 1794-1797. principle also upon which Varro proceeds of conII. De Lingua Latina, a grammnatical treatise necting Latin words as far as possible with the
which extended to twenty. four books. Six only ancient dialects of Italy, instead of having recolurse
(v.-x.) have been preserved, and these are in a at once and exclusively to the Greek, as was the