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In Greece and Italy: Virgil

The Roman Varro wrote upon bees just before Virgil; and Columella, who a little later than Virgil also wrote upon agriculture and bee-keeping, tells us that his tutor Hyginus, the bee-master, was the most learned of bee-men in his time, that he had gathered together the works of his contemporaries and predecessors, and had added valuable information that came as a result of his own observations. Hyginus's works are unfortunately lost, but there remains to us the poet Virgil, who devoted his fourth "Georgic" to bees, and there tells us what was known concerning the management of bees as well as many of the curious superstitions about them.

There is a long line of lesser lights, of which there are not less than seventy names of Greek agriculturists known, whose writings, unfortunately lost, contained treatises on bee-keeping.

According to some writers, no less than six hundred philosophers gave themselves to the study of these interesting insects. But in spite of this, little was gained beyond what Aristotle had already recorded, even Pliny's somewhat voluminous work upon bees being little more than an ornate version of Aristotle. About the time that Pliny was writing his elaborate "Natural History" Columella was engaged upon his agricultural work in which he describes a smoker designed and used for quieting bees, showing to what an extent the industry of bee-keeping was followed in his time.

The ideas, right and wrong, of the ancients have already been considered in connection with the life history of the bees.

Bee-keeping in ancient Greece and Italy was of great importance to the farmer, the proceeds in wax and honey forming a valuable part of his revenue. Even the poorest peasants kept their bees, placing the hives in the open air of field or forest.