“I propose to tell about asses as well I may, because I am from Reate where the best and the largest are found; indeed, I have sold to the Arcadians themselves asses of this race and of my own breeding.  He who wishes to establish a good herd of asses should see in the first place that he procures jacks and jennies of prime age so that they may breed as long as possible, strong, well made in all parts, of full body and of a good breed, that is to say derived from those localities whence the best specimens come; thus the Peloponnesians, so far as possible, buy asses bred in Arcadia and we in Italy those from the valley of Reate.  For if the best of those delicious fish we call muraenae flutae are taken on the coast of Sicily and the best sturgeons at Rhodes, it does not follow that they are of equal delicacy in all seas.

“There are two kinds of asses, one wild, which is called the onager, of which there, are many herds in Phrygia and Lycaonia; the other domestic, as they are all over Italy.  The onager is fit for use for breeding because he is easily tamed and once domesticated never reverts to a wild life.[138]

“Because their young take after their parents, it is important to choose both jack and jenny of good conformation.  The conditions of buying and selling asses are much the same as for other kinds of cattle and include stipulations as to their health and against tort.  They are best fed on corn and barley bran.  The jennies are bred before the solstice so that they may have their foals at the same season in the following year, for their period of gestation is twelve months.  The jennies should be relieved from work while in foal for fatigue at that time injures the offspring:  but the jacks, on the contrary, are worked all the time, because it is lack of exercise which is bad for them.

“In the matter of rearing, practically the same rules apply to asses as to horses.  The foals are not separated from their dams for the first year after they are born:  during the second year they are permitted to stay with their dams at night, but they should then be tied with a loose halter or some other such restraint.  In the third year you begin to break them for whatever service they are intended.

“As to the number:  they are not usually kept in herds unless it may be for transport service; generally they are used to turn the mill, or for carrying about the farm, or even for the plough where the soil is light, as in Campania.  Herds of asses are some times employed by merchants, like those who transport wine, or oil, or corn, or any other commodity, from Brundisium or Apulia to the sea, by pack trains.”

Of horses

VII.  Here Lucienus took up the discourse.  “It is my turn,” he said, “to open the barrier and drive in my horses:  and they are not only stallions, of which, like Atticus, I keep one for every ten breeding mares, but mares as well, such as Q. Modius Equiculus, that gallant soldier, was wont to esteem for use even in war nearly as much as stallions.[139]