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272 SHEEP BREEDING AND
Did thy wool count the streamlets, more than seven,
Of him, who slaked the warrior horse of heaven?
Or did Tartessian Guadalquiver lavo
Thy matchless woof in his Hesperian wave ?
Thou didst not need to taste Amyclaj's bane,
And wouldst have tried Milesian art in vain.
With thee the lily and the privet pale
Compared, and Tibur's whitest ivory fail.
The Spartan swan, the Paphian doves deplore
Their hue, and pearls on Erj'threan shore.
But, though the boon leave new-fall'n snows behind,
It is not purer than the donor's mind.
I would prefer no Babylonian vest,
Superbly broider'd at a queen's behest
Nor better pleased should I my limbs behold,
Phryxus, in webs of thine ./Eolian gold.
But O ! what laughter will the contrast crown.
My worn lacema on th' imperial gown I
It may be observed, that in this ingenious epigram, as well
as in two of the preceding, w^hich relate to togas, Martial supposes
the Tarentine wool to be white : for the Roman toga was
of that color except in mournmg, and one object of the last-cited
epigram is to praise the whiteness of the particular toga, which it
describes. The Tarentines therefore must have produced both
dark-colored and white fleeces.
The fifth passage of Martial (xii. 64.), which mentions the
sheep of the Galesus, more directly refers to those of Spain, and
will therefore be quoted under that head.
Besides the epigrams, now cited, in which Martial commends
the wool of Tarentum in particular, we find others, in which
he celebrates that of Apulia in general. In Book xiv. Ep. 155.
he gives an account of the principal countries, which yielded
white wools, and informs us that those of the first quality were
from Apuha.
White Wools.
The first Apulia's ; next is Parma's boast
And the third fleece Altinum has engrost.
;
Elphinston's Translation.
Also in the following Unes Martial alludes to the large and nu-
merous flocks of Apulia, and to the whiteness of their wool.
;