Dic, toga, facundi gratum mihi munus amici, Esse velis cujus fama, decusque gregis? Appula Ledæi tibi floruit herba Phalanthi, Quà saturat Calabris culta Galesus aquis? An Tartessiacus stabuli nutritor Iberi Bætis in Hesperia te quoque lavit aqua? An tua multifidum numeravit lana Timavum, Quem prius astrifero Cyllarus ore bibit? Te nec Amyclæo decuit livere veneno; Nec Miletus erat vellere digna tuo. Lilia tu vincis, nec adhuc dilapsa ligustra, Et Tiburtino monte quod albet ebur. Spartanus tibi cedet olor, Phaphiæque columbæ: Cedet Erythræis eruta gemma vadis. Sed licet hæc primis nivibus sint æmula dona, Non sunt Parthenio candidiora suo. Non ego prætulerim Babylonica picta superbè Texta, Semiramia quæ variantur acu. Non Athamantæo potius me mirer in auro, Æolium dones si mihi, Phryxe, decus. O quantos risus pariter spectata movebit Trita Palatina nostra lacerna toga! Say, grateful gift of mine ingenious friend, What happy flock shall to thy fleece pretend? For thee did herb of famed Phalantus blow, Where clear Galesus bids his waters flow? 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.