History of All Cloven-Hoofed Quadrupeds

The calf.

[The calf] is [highly esteemed], especially in infancy, however it may be prepared: for we read that the calf was once specifically fattened in suitable places so that its flesh might be rendered more savory for the preparation of feasts and the celebration of banquets. Delicacies of this kind that sorceress prepared for King Saul, and the father of the family ordered to be served for his lost son. But it is also well established that adult oxen were held in such honor among the ancients that they were even served to kings, as Homer indicates by the example of Menelaus serving one to Telemachus at supper: for he says:
Odyssey, Book 4.

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So he spoke, and set before them the fat loins of an ox,
Roasted, taking them in his hands, which portion they had set before him;
And they stretched forth their hands to the ready food placed before them.

Book 7.

Ananius, moreover, a most ancient writer of iambics, as cited in Athenaeus, when he had indicated at what times of the year certain of the more celebrated fish are more pleasing to the palate, adds: “A fattened ox, we think, is a pleasant food both at midnight and by day.” Indeed, they say the name itself is derived from nourishing: for bo-o means to feed; yet it provides this not by its flesh alone, but also by its labor. For it appears that it was born chiefly for wagons and plows, both because of the exceptional strength of its body and because nature gave it a neck specifically suited for bearing the yoke, as Cicero left attested where he examines divine providence in other living creatures: “What shall I say of oxen?” he says, “Their very backs declare they were not shaped for receiving a burden; but their necks were born for the yoke, and the strength of their shoulders and their breadth for drawing plows.” Hence the ox holds a prerogative among other cloven-footed animals; because it was made a companion of our labors in agriculture, supplying grain quite copiously every year, and therefore among the Athenians it was held to be the minister of Ceres and Triptolemus.
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Book 2, On the Nature of the Gods.

The sheep. In Problems.

That the sheep was also highly valued by the ancients and held in great honor is known from the fact that they used coins which, as Plutarch witnesses, were stamped with the image of an ox [and a sheep]; and since they held all their substance in all their livestock, it is clear that they especially cherished these two animals, were intent upon rearing them, and held them as their principal resources. For this reason, a patrimony was called a peculium, as Columella witnesses in these words: “In husbandry, the method of grazing is either the most ancient, or it is the most profitable; because of which even the names of money (pecunia) and of private property (peculium) seem to be derived from livestock (pecus), since the ancients possessed only this, and among certain nations this one kind of wealth is still employed.” Pliny witnesses the same: “Money itself,” he says, “was named from livestock, and even now in the censorial tables all things from which the people have revenue are called pastures (pascua), because this had been the only tribute.” The Greeks also, as Joseph Scaliger mentions in his notes on Varro, call sheep probata, naming them from profit (proventus); and probasis in Homer is "increase," because, he says, their abundance is in the herd. And you may see in Homer polymelos and polyarnes—that is, possessing many sheep and lambs—used more than once for the opulent and the wealthy. Likewise, he very frequently calls Agamemnon (whom elsewhere he makes the commander over the other kings who accompanied him to the siege of Troy) the poimena laon, that is, the "shepherd of the people," which Hesychius and others interpret as the king of the throngs or the multitude of people. If we weigh the dignity of both types of livestock and the utilities they supply, the ox undoubtedly surpasses the sheep.
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Whence "peculium" is named. In the preface to Book 6.

Money. Book 18, ch. 3.

What is a pasture.

Greater utility from the ox.

Theologians enumerate five benefits of the ox and four of the sheep: The ox, they say, is sacrificed, it plows, it feeds with its flesh, it gives milk, and its hide supplies various uses. The sheep, indeed, is sacrificed, it is eaten, and it provides milk and wool. Hence it is written in Exodus: “If any man shall steal an ox or a sheep, and kill or sell it, he shall restore five oxen for one ox, and four sheep for one sheep.” Moreover, although both are sacrificed, from oxen, to use Pliny’s words, the best victims were obtained, and the propitiation of the gods was most sumptuous. Likewise, they called oxen "greater hosts" and sheep "lesser hosts"; and they sacrificed the former to the greater gods, the latter to the lesser. Furthermore, they slaughtered the former for those who entered the City in triumph, and the latter for those merely in ovation. and although the wealth of the ancients was placed in all livestock, this was indicated chiefly by the type of oxen, and that in the Sacred Scriptures: for in Matthew, where it is said, “My oxen and my fatlings are killed,” St. Jerome witnesses that royal riches are indicated through metaphor. And by an old Scythian adage, those who possessed two oxen were called Octapodes ("eight-feet"), speaking of those who abounded in rustic wealth. On the contrary, in a certain passage from the version of the Seventy interpreters, the high cost of provisions is indicated by the scarcity of oxen: “The fig tree shall not bring forth fruit, and there shall be no shoots in the vines; the labor of the olive shall lie, and the fields shall yield no food; the sheep have failed from what they might eat, and there are no oxen in the stalls.” This passage is explained in the fourteenth chapter of Proverbs, where it is said: “Where there are no oxen, the crib is empty; but where much grain appears, there the strength of the ox is manifest.” I add: where the stalls are full, there also the granaries are full of wheat. For which reason, we also, in this work on cloven-footed animals, shall assign the first parts to the ox—
Chapter 22.

The best victim.

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Chapter 22.