Spargent olivetis odorem
Fertilibus domino priori.
Tum spissa ramis laurea fervidos
Excludet ictus. Non ita Romuli
Præscriptum, et intonsi Catonis
Auspiciis, veterumque norma[48].”
Agriculture, however, still continued to be so respectable an employment, that its practice was not considered unworthy the friend of Cicero and Pompey, nor its precepts undeserving to be delivered by one who was indisputably the first scholar of his age—who was renowned for his profound erudition and thorough insight into the laws, the literature, and antiquities of his country,—and who has been hailed by Petrarch as the third great luminary of Rome, being only inferior in lustre to Cicero and Virgil:—
“Qui’ vid’ io nostra gente aver per duce
Varrone, il terzo gran lume Romano,
Che quanto ’l miro più, tanto più luce[49].”