“And, to push your analogy further, it may be added,” said I, “that the pastoral life, like the tibia dextra, has led and given the cue to the agricultural life, as we have on the authority of that learned man Dicaearchus who, in his Life of Greece from the earliest times, shows us how in the beginning men pursued a purely pastoral life and knew not how to plough nor to plant trees nor to prune them; only later taking up the pursuits of agriculture; whence it may be said that agriculture is in harmony with the pastoral life but is subordinate to it, as the left pipe is to the right pipe.”

“Beware,” exclaimed Agrius, “of pushing your musical analogy too far, for you would not only rob the farmer of his cattle and the shepherd of his livelihood but you would even break the law of the land in which it is written that a farmer may not graze a young orchard with that pestiferous animal which astrology has placed in the heavens near the Bull.”

“See here, Agrius,” said Fundanius, “let there be no mistake about this.  The law you cite applies only to certain designated kinds of cattle, as indeed there are kinds of cattle which are the foes and the bane of agriculture such as those you have mentioned—­the goats—­for by their nibbling they ruin young plantations, and not the least vines and olives.  But, because the goat is the greatest offender in this respect, we have a rule for him which works both ways, namely:  that victims of his family are grateful offerings on the altar of one god but should never come near the fane of another; since by reason of the same hate one god is not willing even to see a goat and the other is pleased to see him killed.  So it is that goats found among the vines are sacrificed to Father Bacchus as it were that they should pay the penalty of their evil doing with their lives; while on the contrary nothing of the goat kind is ever sacrificed to Minerva, because they are said to make the olive sterile even by licking it, for their very spittle is poison to the fruit.  For this reason goats are never driven into the Acropolis of Athens, except once a year for a certain necessary sacrifice, lest the olive tree, which is said to have its origin there,[55] might be touched by a goat.”

“No kind of cattle,” said I, “are of any use to agriculture except those which aid in the cultivation of the land, as they do when they are yoked to the plough.”

“If this was so,” said Agrasius, “how could we afford to take cattle off the land, since it is from our flocks and herds that we derive the manure which is of the greatest benefit to our purely agricultural operations.”

“On your argument of convenience,” said Agrius, “we might claim that slave dealing was a branch of agriculture, if they were agricultural slaves which we dealt in.  The error lies in the assumption that because cattle are good for the land, they make crops grow on the land.  It does not follow, for by that reasoning other things would become part of agriculture which have nothing to do with it:  as for example spinsters and weavers and other craftsmen which you might keep on your farm.”