just as some men
mow their meadows twice a year. Careful shepherds are wont to shear on
a mat so as not to lose any of the wool. A clear day should be chosen
for the shearing and it is usually done between the fourth and the
tenth hours (10 a.m.-4 p.m.) since wool sheared in the hot sun is
softer, heavier and of better colour by reason of the sweat of the
sheep. Wool which has been collected and packed in bags is called
_vellera_ or _velamina_, words derived from _vellere_, to pull, whence
it may be concluded that the practice of pulling wool is older than
shearing. Those who pull the wool today make a practice of starving
their sheep for three days before, because when they are weak the wool
yields more readily."

"Speaking of shearing," I said, "it is reported that the first
barbers were brought into Italy from Sicily in the year 453 after the
foundation of Rome (B.C. 300) by P. Ticinius Menas, as appears from
the inscription in the public square of Ardea. The statues of the
ancients show that formerly there were no barbers because most of them
have long hair and a heavy beard."[156]

Cossinius resumed:

"As the wool of the sheep serves to make clothes, so the hair of
goats is employed: on ships, in making military engines and certain
implements of industry. Certain nations, indeed, are clad in goat
skins, as in Gaetulia and Sardinia. Their use for this purpose by
the ancient Greeks is apparent, because old men in the tragedies are
called [Greek: diphtheriai], from the fact that they were clad in
goat skins: and it is the custom also in our comedies to dress rustic
characters in goat skins, like the youth in the _Hypobolimaeus_ (the
Counterfeit) of Caecilius, and the old man in the _Heautontimorumenos_
(the Self Tormentor) of Terence.

"It is the practice to shear goats in the greater part of Phrygia
because there the goats have heavy coats, of which cilicia (so called
because the practice of shearing goats began in the city of that name)
and other hair cloth materials of that kind are made."

With this Cossinius stopped, and, while he was waiting for criticism
of what he had said, Vitulus' freedman, coming into town from the
gardens [of his master] turned to us and said, "I was on my way to
your house to invite you to come early so as not to shorten the
holiday."

And so, my dear Turranius Niger, we separated: Scrofa and I going to
the gardens of Vitulus; the others, some home and some to see Menas.