Naturalis historia 37.202

37.202

quidquid est quo carere vita non debeat, nusquam est praestantius: fruges, vinum, oleum, vellera, lina, vestes, iuvenci. ne equos quidem in trigariis ullos vernaculis praeferunt. metallis auri, argenti, aeris, ferri, quamdiu licuit exercere, nullis cessit terris et nunc intra se gravida pro omni dote varios sucos et frugum pomorumque sapores fundit.

Whatever there is that the life of man ought not to feel in want of, is nowhere to be found in greater perfection than here; the cereals, for example, wine, oil, wool, flax, tissues, and oxen. As to horses, there are none, I find, preferred to those of Italy for the course; while, for mines of gold, silver, copper, and iron, so long as it was deemed lawful to work them, Italy was held inferior to no country whatsoever. At the present day, teeming as she is with these treasures, she contents herself with lavishing upon us, as the whole of her bounties, her various liquids, and the numerous flavours yielded by her cereals and her fruits. Next to Italy, if we except the fabulous regions of India, I would rank Spain, for my own part, those districts, at least, that lie in the vicinity of the sea. She is parched and sterile in one part, it is true; but where she is at all productive, she yields the cereals in abundance, oil, wine, horses, and metals of every kind. In all these respects, Gaul is her equal, no doubt; but Spain, on the other hand, outdoes the Gallic provinces in her spartum and her specular stone, the products of her desert tracts, in her pigments that minister to our luxuries, in the ardour displayed by her people in laborious employments, in the perfect training of her slaves, in the robustness of body of her men, and in their general resoluteness of character.