Note 1379 — BOOK VII.835 MAN, HIS BIRTH, HIS ORGANIZATION, AND THE INVENTION OF THE ARTS. (continued 2)

Hardouin informs us, that in all the MSS. which he has consulted, this person is named Agricola, while in the printed editions of Pliny he is styled Agriopa, or Agriopas. Poinsinet, vol. iii. pp. 250, 251, endeavours to explain this, by supposing, that the word “Agricola” was the one employed by Pliny, but was used by him as a generic, not as an appellative term. Some of the earlier editors, however, conceiving that no agricultural operations could be carried on, before the invention of the necessary implements, had changed the name into Agriopa, derived from two Greek words, signifying “a man in the savage state, who is only capable of uttering inarticulate sounds.” This method of solving the difficulty will probably appear fanciful and too refined, but it is the only one which has been proposed.—B.