rnished with statues, or mine where there is no trace of the
artists Lysippus or Antiphilus, but there are many of the farm hand
and the shepherd?

"And since there can be no villa where there is no farm and that well
cultivated, how can you call this house of yours a villa which has no
land appurtenant to it and no cattle or horses? Again, tell me, pray,
how does your villa compare with that of your grandfather and great
grandfather, for one cannot see at yours, as one could always see at
theirs, cured hay in the mows, the vintage in the cellar, and the
harvest in the granary? Because, forsooth, a house is situated out of
town, it is no more a villa for that reason than the houses of those
who dwell beyond the Porta Flumentaria or in the Aemiliana suburb."

"Since it appears that I do not know what a villa is," replied Appius,
smiling, "I wish you would be good enough to instruct me, so that I
may not make a fool of myself, as I am planning to buy from M. Seius
his villa at Ostia: for if a mere house is not a villa unless it is
equipped with a jackass costing forty thousand sesterces ($2,000),
like that you showed me at your place, I fear that I would be making
a mistake in buying Seius' house on the shore at Ostia in the belief
that it is a villa. But it was our friend Merula here who put me in
mind of buying this house, for he told me that he had spent several
days there and that he had never seen a more delightful villa, and yet
he saw there no paintings, nor any bronze or marble statues, neither
did he see any wine press, or oil mill, or oil jars."

"And what kind of a villa is this," said Axius, turning to Merula,
"where there are neither the ornaments of a town house nor the
utensils of a farm?"

"Do you consider," said Merula, "that your house on the bank of
Velinus, which neither painter nor architect has ever seen, is any
less a villa than the one you have in Rosea so elegantly decorated
with the work of an architect and which you share with your famous
jackass?"

Axius admitted, with a nod, that a simple farm house was as much
entitled to be called a villa as any house which united the
characteristics of both town and country, and asked what he deduced
from this.

"What?" said Merula. "Why, if your estate in Rosea is to be approved
by reason of the husbandry which you carry on, and is properly called
a villa because there cattle are fed and stabled, then, by the same
reasoning, all those houses should