De antiquis illustrissimus quisque pastor erat, ut ostendit et Graeca et Latina lingua et veteres poetae, qui alios vocant polyarnas, alios polymelos, alios polybutas; qui ipsas pecudes propter caritatem aureas habuisse pelles tradiderunt, ut Argis, Atreus quam sibi Thyesten subduxe queritur; ut in Colchide ad Aeetam, ad cuius arietis pellem profecti regio genere dicuntur Argonautae; ut in Libya ad Hesperidas, unde aurea mala, id est secundum antiquam consuetudinem capras et oves, Hercules ex Africa in Graeciam exportavit.
Of the ancients the most illustrious were all shepherds, as appears in both Greek and Latin literature, and in the ancient poets, who call some men rich in flocks, others rich in sheep, others rich in herds; and they have related that on account of their costliness some sheep actually had fleeces of gold'as at Argos the one which Atreus complains that Thyestes stole from him; or as in the realm of Aeetes in Colchis, the ram in search of whose golden fleece the Argonauts of royal blood are said to have fared forth; or as among the Hesperides in Libya, from which Hercules brought from Africa to Greece golden mala, which is the ancient manner of naming goats and sheep.
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