Did thy wool count the streamlets, more than seven,
Of him, who slaked the warrior horse of heaven?
Or did Tartessian Guadalquiver lave
Thy matchless woof in his Hesperian wave?
Thou didst not need to taste Amyclæ'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 Erythrean 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 Æolian gold.
But O! what laughter will the contrast crown,
My worn lacerna on th' imperial gown!
It may be observed, that in this ingenious epigram, as well as in two of the preceding, which relate to togas, Martial supposes the Tarentine wool to be white: for the Roman toga was of that color except in mourning, 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 Apulia.
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 lines Martial alludes to the large and numerous flocks of Apulia, and to the whiteness of their wool.
