Daphnis was the frequent subject of pastoral poetry, being regarded as an ideal representation of the perfection of the shepherd’s culture and manner of life. Of this we have a proof in the epigram of Callimachus on the death of Astacides, and which concludes thus: “We (shepherds) will no longer sing of Daphnis, but of Astacides.” The poet’s design was to extol Astacides, by comparing him with Daphnis. According to Ælian (_l. c._) the first bucolic poems related to the blindness of Daphnis and its cause; and the first poet, who composed verses upon this subject, was Stesichorus of Himera in Sicily. In Theocritus the allusions to the beautiful story of Daphnis are very frequent[318], and his sad fate is described at length by contending shepherds or goatherds in the First and Seventh Idylls. We shall quote only his dying words, where he calls on Pan to leave the great Mænalus and the long ridges of Lycæus, and to come to Sicily in order to receive from his own hand the syrinx, on which he had been accustomed to play. Ἔνθ’ ᾦναξ, καὶ τάνδε φέρ’ εὐπάκτοιο μελίπνουν Ἐκ κηρῶ σύριγγα καλὰν, περὶ χεῖλος ἑλικτάν· Ἠ γὰρ ἐγὼν ὑπ’ ἔρωτος ἐς ἅδᾶν ἕλκομαι ἤδη. Come, mighty king, come, Pan, and take my pipe, Well join’d with wax and fitted to my lip; For now ’tis useless grown, Love stops my breath, I cannot pipe, but must be mute in death. _Creech’s Translation._ [318] Idyll v. 20. See also v. 80. In Idyll vi. Daphnis is one of the performers, and gives a description of Galatea. Pliny informs us, that in his time the wool of Apulia was in the highest repute; that throughout the South of Italy the best sheep were bred in the vicinity of Tarentum and Canusium; and that the wool of Tarentum was admired for its tinge of black, and that of Canusium for its fine brown or yellow color[319]. [319] See Appendix A. The directions for the management of sheep, given by Varro, Columella, Virgil, and other writers on rural affairs, all tend to show the pains taken by the Romans to improve the breed of sheep, and especially to produce wool of the finest quality. The first of these authors (_De Re Rustica_, L. ii. _Præf._) mentions his own flocks of sheep in Apulia. It appears from his account that every man was obliged to report the number of his sheep to the publican and to have them inscribed in a register, the earliest allusion, to a code of laws, which may probably have been in some respects similar to that now called “La Mesta” in Spain. Varro further speaks expressly of the summer and winter migrations of the flocks; and to show the great distances to which they were conducted on these occasions, he states that the sheep of Apulia were taken every year to pass the summer in the mountains of Samnium, and sometimes even in those of Reate[320]. [320] De Re Rustica, L. ii. c. 1. p. 161. ed. Bip. See also, c. 2. p. 167.