[Sidenote: Columella.] Many scientific treatises were written at this time, as in the previous period, but two only are extant: the treatise _On Agriculture_ (_De Re Rustica_), by Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella, and the _Geography_ (_Chorographia_), by Pomponius Mela. Columella was born at Gades (Cadiz), and served in the army in Syria. He possessed land in Italy, and in his work he has the agriculture of Italy chiefly in mind. The work is divided into twelve books, and is the most complete ancient treatise on agriculture extant—more complete than those of Cato and Varro. It is written in a simple and dignified style, more like the prose of the Augustan period than the artificial rhetoric of most contemporary writings. In this respect Columella is a precursor of the classical revival under the Flavian emperors. The tenth book, on gardening, is written in hexameters, to serve as a fifth book of Virgil’s _Georgics_, because Virgil had hardly touched upon this branch of his subject.[95] The entire work is dedicated to Publius Silvinus, and it was due to a suggestion from him and another friend that the tenth book was written in verse. Columella’s verse is simple and classical, but is greatly inferior to that of Virgil, and less admirable than his prose. [Sidenote: Mela.] Mela, like Columella, was a Spaniard. His native place was Tingentera. His three books on geography were written soon after 40 A. D., and form the earliest systematic treatise on the subject extant. The style is far inferior to that of Columella, for Mela writes in the affected manner of his times. The work is enlivened by descriptions of peoples, places, and customs, and is valuable as a source of information, since it is based upon good authorities. [Sidenote: Various writers.] Historical explanations of five orations of Cicero by Quintus Asconius Pedianus (about 3-88 A. D.) are preserved in a fragmentary condition. They show great care and diligence, and are written in simple classical style. Of other works by Asconius some fragments are preserved in the commentary of Servius on Virgil. The works of the orators of this period are all lost, as are the legal writings of Proculus and Gaius Cassius Longinus (consul in 30 A. D.), who continued the schools of Labeo and Capito. [Sidenote: Probus.] The most important grammarian of this time was Marcus Valerius Probus, of Berytus, to whom Jerome assigns the date 56 A. D. He prepared and published editions of Terence, Lucretius, Virgil, Horace, and Persius, paying attention to various readings, punctuation, and the like, and commenting upon the text. He also wrote grammatical treatises, though the grammar preserved under his name is not his work. His only extant works are a list of abbreviations and parts of the commentaries on Virgil. CHAPTER XIV THE FLAVIAN EMPERORS—THE SILVER AGE