Misled by the title, some critics have erroneously assigned to the Censor the _Disticha de Moribus_, now generally attributed to Dionysius Cato, who lived, according to Scaliger in the age of Commodus and Septimius Severus(46). The work of MARCUS TERENTIUS VARRO, On agriculture, has descended to us more entire than that of Cato on the same subject; yet it does not appear to be complete. In the early times of the republic, the Romans, like the ancient Greeks, being constantly menaced with the incursions of enemies, indulged little in the luxury of expensive and ornamental villas. Even that of Scipio Africanus, the rival and contemporary of Cato the Censor, and who in many other respects anticipated the refinements of a later age, was of the simplest structure. It was situated at Liternum, (now Patria,) a few miles north from Cumæ, and was standing in the time of Seneca. This philosopher paid a visit to a friend who resided in it during the age of Nero, and he afterwards described it in one of his epistles with many expressions of wonder and admiration at the frugality of the great Africanus(47). When, however, the scourge of war was removed from their immediate vicinity, agriculture and gardening were no longer exercised by the Romans as in the days of the Censor, when great crops of grain were raised for profit, and fields of onions sown for the subsistence of the labouring servants. The patricians now became fond of ornamental gardens, fountains, terraces, artificial wildernesses, and grottos, groves of laurel for shelter in winter, and oriental planes for shade in summer. Matters, in short, were fast approaching to the state described in one of the odes of Horace— “Jam pauca aratro jugera regiæ, Moles relinquent: undique latius Extenta visentur Lucrino Stagna lacu: platanusque cœlebs Evincet ulmos: tum violaria, et Myrtus, et omnis copia narium, Spargent olivetis odorem Fertilibus domino priori. Tum spissa ramis laurea fervidos Excludet ictus. Non ita Romuli Præscriptum, et intonsi Catonis Auspiciis, veterumque norma(48).” Agriculture, however, still continued to be so respectable an employment, that its practice was not considered unworthy the friend of Cicero and Pompey, nor its precepts undeserving to be delivered by one who was indisputably the first scholar of his age—who was renowned for his profound erudition and thorough insight into the laws, the literature, and antiquities of his country,—and who has been hailed by Petrarch as the third great luminary of Rome, being only inferior in lustre to Cicero and Virgil:— “Qui’ vid’ io nostra gente aver per duce Varrone, il terzo gran lume Romano, Che quanto ’l miro più, tanto più luce(49).”