se of his military service that he visited
Cilicia and Syria: ii. 10, 18, 'hoc semen Ciliciae Syriaeque
regionibus ipse vidi.'

His uncle, M. Columella, was a leading man in the province of Baetica
(v. 5, 15); and he himself possessed land in Italy: iii. 9, 2, 'cum et
in Ardeatino agro, quem multis temporibus ipsi ante possedimus, et in
Carseolano itemque in Albano generis Aminei vites huius modi notae
habuerimus.'

He was a contemporary of the younger Seneca, who is spoken of as alive
(iii. 3, 3).

His chief work is _De Re Rustica_ in twelve Books, dedicated to P.
Silvinus--a practical treatise on husbandry for 'negotiosi agricolae'
(ix. 2, 5). Book x., on gardening, is in hexameter verse, and was
written at the suggestion of Silvinus and another friend, to fill the
gap which Virgil had left in the Georgics (iv. 147-8); cf. the
preface, 'Cultus hortorum ... sicut institueram, prosa oratione
prioribus subnecteretur exordiis, nisi propositum expugnasset frequens
postulatio tua, quae pervicit, ut poeticis numeris explerem Georgici
carminis omissas partes, quas tamen et ipse Vergilius significaverat,
posteris se memorandas relinquere.'

The last two Books were added as an afterthought; xi. 1, 2, 'numerum
quem iam quasi consummaveram voluminum excessi.'

Columella wrote before A.D. 65 (see above); later than Celsus, but
earlier than the elder Pliny.

There is also extant a book _De Arboribus_, which formed Book ii. of
an earlier treatise on agriculture: cf. i. 1, 'Quoniam de cultu
agrorum abunde primo volumine praecepisse videmur, non intempestiva
erit arborum virgultorumque cura.' It covers the same ground as _De
R.R._ iii.-v.

Columella also wrote 'adversus astrologos' (xi. 1, 31), and projected
a treatise on the religious rites connected with agriculture (ii. 22,
5, 'lustrationum ceterorumque sacrificiorum, quae pro frugibus fiunt,
morem priscis usurpatum').

POMPONIUS MELA.

The geographer Pomponius Mela was a native of Tingentera in Spain (ii.
96). His date can be inferred from iii. 49; the 'principum maximus'
mentioned there as triumphing over Britain might be either Claudius
(in A.D. 40) or Caligula (in 44); but the earlier date is favoured by
Mela's division of Africa according to the system abolished by
Caligula in 42 (i. 25-30). The title of his work is _De Chorographia_,
in three Books: the dryness of its details (i. 1, 'opus impeditum et
facundiae minime capax') is relieved by word-painting, _