he hungry pigs sniffing after the pail of the
farmer's wife:

"Vagatur omnis turba sordidae cortis
Argutus anser, gemmeique pavones
Nomenque debet quae rubentibus pennis,
Et picta perdix, Numidicaeque guttatae
Et impiorum phasiana Colchorum.
Rhodias superbi feminas prement galli
Sonantque turres plausibus columbarum,
Gemit hinc palumbus, inde cereus turtur
Avidi sequuntur villicae sinum porci:
Matremque plenam mollis agnus exspectat."]

[Footnote 163: The _sestertius_ was one quarter of a _denarius_, or,
say, the equivalent of five cents. It was also called _nummus_, as
we say "nickel." The ordinary unit used by the Romans in reckoning
considerable sums of money was 1,000 sesterces, which may accordingly
be translated as the equivalent of (say) $50. Axius' jackass thus cost
$2,000, while Seius' income from his villa was $2,500 per annum, that
of Varro's aunt from her aviary was $3,000, and that of Axius from
his farm $1,500. Cicero records that Axius was a money lender, which
explains the fun here made of his avarice.]

[Footnote 164: Columella, writing about one hundred years after Varro,
refers to this passage and says that luxury had so developed since
Varro's time that it no longer required an extraordinary occasion,
like a triumph, to bring the price of thrushes to three _denarii_ a
piece, but that that had become a current quotation.]

[Footnote 165: A minerval was the fee (of Minerva) paid to a school
teacher.]

[Footnote 166: The inventor of the auspices _ex tripudiis_ or the
feeding of chickens was evidently an ingenious poultry fancier who
succeeded in securing the care of his favourites at the public
charge.]

[Footnote 167: This was L. Marcius Philippus, the orator mentioned
by Horace (_Epist_. I, 7, 46), who was Consul in B.C. 91, and was
celebrated for his luxurious habits, which his wealth enabled him to
gratify. His son married the widow of C. Octavius and so became the
step-father of the Emperor Augustus.]

[Footnote 168: This was _turdus pilaris_, the variety of thrush which is
called field fare.]

[Footnote 169: The traveller by railway from Rome to Naples passes near
Varro's estate of Casinum, and if he stops at the mediaeval town of
San Germano to visit the neighbouring Badia di Monte Cassino, where
the "angelic doctor" Thomas Aquinas was educated, he will find Varro's
memory kept green: for he will be entertained at the _Albergo Varrone_
("very fair but bargaining