Argument. ‘Our palaces and fish-ponds and ornamental gardens are supplanting the cultivation of corn and vines and olives. This is not the spirit of Romulus or of Cato. Their rule was private thrift, public magnificence; private houses of turf, public buildings and temples of hewn stone.’—W.
1 Iam = presently.
1-2 regiae moles = princely piles. moles, lit. masses, of huge buildings.
2-4 undique . . . lacu = and fish-ponds (stagna) of wider extent than the L. lake will be sights to see (visentur).—Wickham.
4 platanus caelebs = the bachelor plane, so called because vines were not wedded to it (i.e. trained upon it).—Gow.
6 omnis copia narium = all that is sweet to smell. Lit. all the fulness of the nostrils.
10 ictus (sc. solis). The point is that formerly trees were stripped to admit the sun to the vines and olives: nowadays the sun is excluded.—Gow.
11 intonsi (= antiqui) = old-fashioned. Cf. Cic.’s use of barbatus.
13 census erat brevis = list of property was short.
14 commune (= τὸ κοινόν) = the common (public) stock.