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

268 SHEEP BREEDING AND
Taientine, because the best of all were bred at Tarentum.
According to Palladius they were abo sometimes called Asiatic
{AsiancB). It is to be observed that by Asia, Palladius and
his contemporaries would understand the celebrated sheep-
country of which Miletus was the centre* ; and considering the
frequent, long-established, and very friendly intercourse be-
tween Miletus and Tarentumt, we may infer that the Milesi-
ans unported into Tarentum their fine breed of sheep, and at
the same time introduced the art of dyeing and preparing the
wool. The same sheep, which were called Greek by the Ro-
mans, were called Italian by the Egj^tians and others, to
whom the word Greek would not have been distinctive. Col-
umella (vii. 4.) insists particularly on the great pains and care,
which it was necessary to bestow upon tliis description of sheep,
the ' covered" or ''•
soft," in regard to food, warmth, and cleanli-
ness, and he says that they were principally brought up in the
hoiiset.
As there was in general a great affinity between the manners
and ideas of Sicily and South Italy, we might infer that the
pastoral habits of these two districts were in many respects
similar. Theocritus accordingly lays the scene of some of his
Idylls on the coast opposite to Sicily. The fifth Idyll describes
a contest between a shepherd and a goatherd, who are sup-
posed to have been employed as hired servants in the vicinity
of Sybaris. The shepherd, observing some of his sheep to be
feeding on an oak, which could not be very good for them, ut-
ters the followmg exclamation, sho^^^ng that it was customary
to give proper names to sheep, and thus confirming the fact,
* Cellarii Ant. Orbis Notitia, iii. 1. 7, 8, 9.
t Herod, vi. 21. ajid Wesseliiig ad locum.
X According to Bochart (Hieroz. cap. 45. p. 486, ed. Leusden), the Talmud and
another rabbinical book, lambs soon after their birth were invested with garments
fastened upon them with thongs or buckles.
In the sheep-breeding countries of Europe the practice seems to have been
very general. Besides South Italy, Attica, Megaris, and Eplrus, in regard to
which countries positive evidence has been produced, we find that soft sheep, or
" eves pellitse" were kept by an inhabitant of Cpiethae in Arcadia (Polybius, L.
ii. c. 17.), by the Roman settlers in the North of Gaul and in Spain.