371Hedges too must be woven and all cattle kept out, especially while the foliage is tender and unacquainted with hardships; 373for besides harsh winters and the powerful sun, wild oxen and persistent goats continually make sport of it, and sheep and greedy heifers feed on it. 376Neither cold stiffened with white frost nor heavy summer brooding on the parched rocks has harmed it so much as the flocks and the venom of their hard tooth, and the scar stamped on the gnawed stem. 380For no other crime is a goat slain to Bacchus at every altar, and the ancient plays come onto the stage, and the sons of Theseus set up prizes for talent round villages and crossroads, and, merry among their cups, leapt on oiled wineskins in the soft meadows.
385So too the Ausonian farmers, a race sent from Troy, make sport with rough verses and unbridled laughter, and put on hideous masks of hollowed bark, and call on you, Bacchus, in glad songs, and hang soft little images for you from the tall pine. 390From this every vineyard ripens with generous fruit, and hollow valleys and deep glades are filled, and every place towards which the god has turned his comely face. 393So we will duly give Bacchus his due honour in the songs of our fathers, and bring dishes and cakes, and the sacred goat, led by the horn, will stand at the altar, and we will roast the rich entrails on hazel spits.