The history of silk, cotton, linen, wool, and other fibrous ... - Cd3wd.com

PASTORAL LIFE OF THE ANCIENTS. 267
As sheep in flocks thick-pasturing on the plain
Attend the footsteps of the shepherd-swain,
His well-known call they hear, and fully fed,
Pace slowly on, their leader at their head ;
Who pipes melodious, as he moves along.
On sprightly reeds his modulated song :
Thus charm'd with tuneful sounds the scaly train
Pursued the flying vessel o'er the main.
Fawkes's Translation.
The testimony aflbrded by Varro relative to the management
of the South- ItaUan sheep, having been given and illustrated,
it is to be deplored that Italy, once so renowned for its sheep,
can now boast httle of this ])roduction of her bounteous clime.
The Romans, whose dress was woollen, cultivated in an espe-
cial degree the fineness of the fleece ; and it was not until the
days of the Empire that the silk and cotton of the East began
to supersede the ancient raiment of the Roman people. The
finest wools of ancient Italy were produced in Apulia and Cala-
bria, being the eastern parts of the present kingdom of Naples*.
We now proceed to the other writers on Rural Affairs, viz.,
Columella and PaUadius.
The first attests the high estimation in which the sheep of
Calabria and ApuUa were held by the Romans, especially be-
fore his own time, and he says that among them the Tarentine
sheep were the best of all. In speaking of the practice so prev-
alent in this district of covering them with skins, he shows,
that these " oves pellitse" were also called " soft" {molles), and
" covered" {tecta). Indeed he makes the great distinction of
sheep to be into the ^' genus molle,'^ i. e. the soft kind, and the
"genus hirsutum," or "hirtum," i. e. the coarse kind. We
further learn that the soft sheep were called by the Romans
•Greek sheep, because they were bred in Grsecia Magna, and
* It appears from the following passage of Varro, that the Apulian was sold at
a higher price than some other kinds of wool which were equally beautiful, be-
cause it wore better. By lana GuUirana in this passage we must understand
the wool of Gallia Cisalpina, of which we shall next treat.
Sic enim lana Gallicana et Appula videtur imperito similis propter speciem,
oum peritus Appulam emat pluris, quod in usu firmior sit.
De Lin. Lot., lib. ix. 28. p. 484. ed. Spengel.