Fawkes’s Translation.
[327] According to Montfaucon (Ant. Expliquée, Suppl. Tom. iii. p. 188.) the bagpipe was seen under the arm of a shepherd in the collection of Cardinal Albani at Rome.
The testimony afforded by Varro relative to the management of the South Italian sheep, having been given and illustrated, it is to be deplored that Italy, once so renowned for its sheep, can now boast little of this production of her bounteous clime. The Romans, whose dress was woollen, cultivated in an especial degree the fineness of the fleece; and it was not until the days of the Empire that the silk and cotton of the East began to supersede the ancient raiment of the Roman people. The finest wools of ancient Italy were produced in Apulia and Calabria, being the eastern parts of the present kingdom of Naples[328].
[328] It appears from the following passage of Varro, that the Apulian was sold at a higher price than some other kinds of wool which were equally beautiful, because it wore better. By lana Gallicana in this passage we must understand the wool of Gallia Cisalpina, of which we shall next treat.
Sic enim lana Gallicana et Appula videtur imperito similis propter speciem, cum peritus Appulam emat pluris, quod in usu firmior sit.
De Lin. Lat., lib. ix. 28. p. 484. ed. Spengel.
We now proceed to the other writers on Rural Affairs, viz., Columella and Palladius.
The first attests the high estimation in which the sheep of Calabria and Apulia were held by the Romans, especially before his own time, and he says that among them the Tarentine sheep were the best of all. In speaking of the practice so prevalent in this district of covering them with skins, he shows, that these “oves pellitæ” were also called “soft” (molles), and “covered” (tectæ). Indeed he makes the great distinction of sheep to be into the “genus molle,” i. e. the soft kind, and the “genus hirsutum,” or “hirtum,” i. e. the coarse kind. We further learn that the soft sheep were called by the Romans Greek sheep, because they were bred in Græcia Magna, and Tarentine, because the best of all were bred at Tarentum. According to Palladius they were also sometimes called Asiatic (Asianæ). It is to be observed that by Asia, Palladius and his contemporaries would understand the celebrated sheep-country of which Miletus was the centre[329]; and considering the frequent, long-established, and very friendly intercourse between Miletus and Tarentum[330], we may infer that the Milesians imported into Tarentum their fine breed of sheep, and at the same time introduced the art of dyeing and preparing the wool. The same sheep, which were called Greek by the Romans, were called Italian by the Egyptians and others, to whom the word Greek would not have been distinctive. Columella (vii. 4.) insists particularly on the great pains and care, which it was necessary to bestow upon this description of sheep, the “covered” or “soft,” in regard to food, warmth, and cleanliness, and he says that they were principally brought up in the house[331].
[329] Cellarii Ant. Orbis Notitia, iii. 1. 7, 8, 9.
[330] Herod. vi. 21. and Wesseling ad locum.