], and Mount Taurus in Syria after the
bull, and Mount Cantherius in the Sabine country after the horse, and
the Thracian, as well as the Cimmerian, Bosphorus, after the ox:
and again many place names on land like the town in Greece known as
[Greek: hippion Argos], or horse breeding Argos. Yea, Italy itself
derives its name, according to Piso, from _vitula_, our word for
heifer.

"Who can deny that the Roman people themselves are sprung from a race
of shepherds, for every one knows that Faustulus, the foster father
of Romulus and Remus, who brought them up, was a shepherd. Is it not
proof that they were shepherds that they chose the Parilia, or feast
of the goddess of the shepherds, in preference to all other days, for
the founding of the city; that a penalty even to this day is assessed
in terms of cattle or sheep, according to the ancient custom; that our
most ancient money, the _as_ of cast copper, always bore the effigy of
some domestic animal; that whenever a town was founded the limits of
the walls and the gates were laid off with a plough drawn by a bull
and a cow yoked together; that when the Roman people are purified it
is done by driving around them a boar, a ram and a bull, whence the
sacrifice is known as the Suovetaurilia; that we have many family
names among us derived from both the great and small cattle: thus
from small cattle Porcius, Ovinius, Caprilius, and from great cattle
Equitius, Taurius, and some of our families have received from cattle
cognomens which signify for what they are esteemed, as, for instance,
the Annius family are called Capra, the Statilius family are called
Taurus and the Pomponius family are called Vitulus, and so many others
are derived from cattle.

"It remains now to discuss the art of animal husbandry, and on this
subject our friend Scrofa, to whom this age has awarded the palm for
excellence in all branches of farm management, will say what ever is
to be said, as he is better qualified than am I."

When all eyes had been turned upon him, Scrofa began:

"Doubtless the art of breeding and of feeding cattle consists in
getting the maximum profit out of those things from which the very
name of money is derived, for our word for money (_pecunia_) comes
from _pecus_, cattle, which is the foundation of all wealth.

"Our enquiry may be divided into nine subjects, or three parts each
with three subdivisions, namely: (i) concerning small cattle, of which
the three kinds are shee