Thyrsis his sheep, and tuneful Corydon
His goats, which bore their treasur’d milk along;
Arcadians both, both skill’d in amœbean song.
At a considerable distance to the North-East of Mantua lay Altinum, which is mentioned by Columella[335], Tertullian, and Martial, as one of the principal places for the produce of white wool. Martial says, that it ranked in this respect next to Parma[336], and we must understand him as referring to the same region in Book viii. Epig. 28, where he asks, “Did thy wool count the many streams of the Timavus, which Cyllarus previously drank with his starry mouth?” The Timavus was indeed a considerable way still further towards the North-East, and must have been very insignificant in connection with the sheep-breeding of the Altinates. The poet introduces it here only on account of its picturesque and mythological interest, just as we have seen that the Galesus, a small, though clear and very beautiful stream, is repeatedly named in order to designate the pastoral region about Tarentum. It may also be observed, that in this epigram, where Martial alludes to three of the principal places for the growth of white wool, he indicates each of them by its river, the three rivers being the Galesus, the Bætis, and the Timavus; and he probably did so on account of the supposed effect of the waters of these rivers in improving the wool.
[335] L. vii. cap. 2.
[336] L. xiv. Ep. 155.
We can make no question, after what we have seen of the universal practice of both ancient and modern times, that the sheep, which in the winter were pastured in the plains and lower grounds about Altinum, were taken to pass the summer in the vallies of the Carinthian Alps about the sources of the Brenta, the Piave, and the Tagliamento. We may also trace the wool, after it was manufactured, in its progress towards Rome, where was the chief demand for garments of this description. For Strabo says, that Patavium (Padua), which was situated at no great distance from Altinum on the way to Rome, was a great and flourishing mart for all kinds of merchandize intended to be sent thither, and especially for every kind of cloth[337]. It appears, therefore, that the wool-growers and clothiers of the country to the North-East of Padua, the modern Trevisano, employed that city as an entrepôt where they disposed of their goods to the Roman dealers. At the same time we learn, that this place served as a market for carpets and blankets made of a stronger and more substantial material, which, according to the same authority[338], was produced in its more immediate vicinity.
[337] L. v. cap. 1. § 6, 7. Strabo alludes to the pastoral occupations of the territory about Altinum and the Timavus.
[338] Strabo.
In the North-Western portion of Cisalpine Gaul the wool was generally coarse, and according to Strabo (l. c.) the garments made of it were used by the Italians for the ordinary clothing of their domestic establishments. Nevertheless, black wool of superior value was grown at Polentia, now Polenza, on the Stura, which is a tributary of the Po[339]. The following two Epigrams of Martial (l. xiv. 157 and 158.) allude to the use of the dark wool of Polentia for mourning and for the dress of inferior domestic servants.