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274 SHEEP BREEDING AND
Scutana, which is the modern Sciiltenna, a tributary of the
Po, rising in the Apennines ; Secondly, the coarse kind, grown
in Liguria and the country of the Insubres, which was very
much used for the common wearing apparel of the Italians
and Thirdly, the middle kind, grown about Patavium (now
Padua) and employed for making valuable carpets and various
descriptions of blankets*. By comparing the statements of
this author with those of Columella and Martial it will appear,
that the whole region watered by the parallel rivers Parma,
Gabellus, and Scultenna, and known by the name of Macri
Ca??ipi, or the Barren Plains, was esteemed for the production
of the fine white wool.
That the tending of both sheep and goats was a principal
occupation of the people of Mantua w^e learn from Virgil, a
native of that city, who places the scene of most of his pasto-
rals in its vicinity. His First and Ninth Eclogues more particu-
larly relate to the calamities, which the Mantuans were com-
pelled to sustain, w^hen Augustus seized on their lands to re-
ward his veteran soldiers after the battle of Philippi. These
eclogues mention flocks both of sheep and goats, and show that
those who had the care of them cultivated music and poetry
after the manner of the SiciUans. The commencement of the
Seventh Eclogue is especially instructive, because it gives us
reason to believe, that while many of the Arcadians left their
country in consequence of that excess of population, to wdiich
mountainous regions are subject, in order to become foreign
mercenaries, others, on the contrary, entered into foreign service
as sliepherds and goatherds, and in this condition not only
made themselves useful by their experience, skill, and fidelity,
but also introduced at the same time their native music to-
gether with that refinement of manners and feelings which it
promoted. The poet thus describes two such individuals, who
had been employed in tending flocks upon the banks of the
Mincius (Z. 12, 13), and who were either born in Arcadia, or
were at least of Arcadian origin.
Two blooming swains had joiuM their flocks in one,
Thyrsis his sheep, and tuneful Corydon
* Strabo, L. v. c. 1. § 12. p. 119. ed. Siebenkees.
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