ecause the fruits they mature
are most necessary to life, and by their aid the land yields food and
drink.

_Fourth_: I invoke Robigus and Flora by whose influence the blight is
kept from crop and tree, and in due season they bear fruit (for which
reason is the annual festival of the _robigalia_ celebrated in honour
of Robigus, and that of the _floralia_ in honour of Flora).[43]

_Next_: I supplicate Minerva, who protects the olive; and Venus,
goddess of the garden, wherefore is she worshipped at the rural wine
festivals.

_And last_: I adjure Lympha, goddess of the fountains, and Bonus
Eventus, god of good fortune, since without water all vegetation is
starved and stunted and without due order and good luck all tillage is
in vain.

* * * * *

And so having paid my duty to the gods, I proceed to rehearse some
conversations[44] concerning agriculture in which I have recently taken
part. From them you will derive all the practical instruction you
require, but in case any thing is lacking and you wish further
authority, I refer you to the treatises of the Greeks and of our own
countrymen.

The Greek writers who have treated incidentally of agriculture are
more than fifty in number. Those whom you may consult with profit
are Hieron of Sicily and Attalus Philometor, among the philosophers;
Democritus the physicist; Xenophon the disciple of Socrates; Aristotle
and Theophrastus, the peripatetics; Archytas the pythagorean; likewise
the Athenian Amphilochus, Anaxipolis of Thasos, Apollodorus of Lemnos,
Aristophanes of Mallos, Antigonus of Cyme, Agathocles of Chios,
Apollonius of Pergamum, Aristandrus of Athens, Bacchius of Miletus,
Bion of Soli, Chaeresteus and Chaereas of Athens, Diodorus of Priene,
Dion of Colophon, Diophanes of Nicaea, Epigenes of Rhodes, Evagon
of Thasos, Euphronius of Athens, and his name sake of Amphipolis,
Hegesias of Maronea, the two Menanders, one of Priene, the other of
Heraclaea, Nicesius of Maronea, Pythion of Rhodes. Among the rest
whose countries I do not know, are Andiotion, Aeschrion, Aristomenes,
Athenagoras, Crates, Dadis, Dionysius, Euphiton, Euphorion, Eubulus,
Lysimachus, Mnaseas, Menestratus, Plentiphanes, Persis, and
Theophilus.

All those whom I have named wrote in prose, but there are those also
who have written in verse, as Hesiod of Ascra and Menecrates of
Ephesus.

The agricultural writer of the greatest reputation is, however, Mago
the Cart