Tarentine, because the best of all were bred at Tarentum. According to Palladius they were also sometimes called Asiatic (Asianæ). It is to be observed that by Asia, Palladius and his contemporaries would understand the celebrated sheep-country of which Miletus was the centre[1]; and considering the frequent, long-established, and very friendly intercourse between Miletus and Tarentum[2], we may infer that the Milesians imported 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 Romans, were called Italian by the Egyptians and others, to whom the word Greek would not have been distinctive. Columella (vii. 4.) insists particularly on the great pains and care, which it was necessary to bestow upon this description of sheep, the "covered" or "soft," in regard to food, warmth, and cleanliness, and he says that they were principally brought up in the house[3].
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 supposed 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, utters the following exclamation, showing that it was customary to give proper names to sheep, and thus confirming the fact,
- ↑ Cellarii Ant. Orbis Notitia, iii. 1. 7, 8, 9.
- ↑ Herod. vi. 21. and Wesseling ad locum.
- ↑ 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 Epirus, in regard to which countries positive evidence has been produced, we find that soft sheep, or "oves pellitæ" were kept by an inhabitant of Cynethæ in Arcadia (Polybius, L. ix. c. 17.), by the Roman settlers in the North of Gaul and in Spain.
