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In Greece and Italy: Pliny

The Roman Pliny, some four hundred years later than Aristotle, wrote an elaborate treatise on bees as a part of his "Natural History." His work has survived, and to-day is the best known of the ancient works on nature, including bees, though there were many other books written before his time in which bees were considered. He himself tells us: "It is not surprising that there have been persons who have made bees their exclusive study; Aristomachus of Soli, for instance, who for a period of fifty-eight years did nothing else; Philiscus of Thasos, also, surnamed Agrius (or the 'wild man'), who passed his life in desert spots, tending swarms of bees. Both of these have written works on this subject."

The Romans attained the greater part of their practical 1 Page 285.

In Greece and Italy knowledge of bee-keeping from the Greeks, who, wandering in colonies to Italy and Sicily, pursued bee-culture as a part of their agricultural life.