Fishing from the earliest times - Blog

••*VI.i62THE SCARUS—" FISHING PROHIBITED"Although Phny (IX. 29) definitely asserts " Nunc scaro daturprincipatus," we find Martial within a few years dismissing thefish as of poor flavour—its only redeeming point the trail,which is excellent," Hie scarus, aequoreis qui venit obesus ab undis,Visceribus bonus est, cetera vile sapit."(XIII. 84).In the curious and rare Ichtyophagia (the omission of thesecond h ' 'of the theta may be a printer's error) by the learnedDoctor Ludovicus Nonnius, published at Antwerp in 1616—treasure-house from which I quote much and take morean attempt is made to explain these diametrically opposedestimates. Nonnius asserts that as among the common herdonly those fishwhich have fat flesh find favour or yield goodflavour, and as the Scarus possesses a drier and more flakyflesh, " a plebis illis palatis spernebatur."This deals a nasty knock to poor Martial, who plumedhimself on his taste as a gourmet, acquired (he fails to add)at the banquets and entertainments of his patrician friendsor wealthy patrons.Medical controversy, rarely absent, as to wholesomenessfor once hardly exists. Galen, Diphilus, Xenocrates all agreeas to the Scarus, although the last warns us that it is " hardto pass off in perspiration !" {^vahia(p6pi]Toq).'^ Galen pronouncesfish who haunt the rocks the most wholesome ^ : ofthese, the Scarus is by far the best. Diphilus the Siphnianon the whole agrees, but condemns it as dangerous when fresh (!)because ithunts and feeds on the poisonous sea-hare and sofrequently causes cholera morbus. *But according to .Lilian, IX. 51, the Mullet (rp/yXrj) washeld by the initiates of the Eleusinian Mysteries in the greatesthonour, for one or other of two curious reasons : the first,^^ Another reading is adesus. Cf. Xenocrates, de Alimento ex Aquatilibus,c. 14, of the scarus, which was fresh-caught and notvivarium-'ke-pt, being iToWohiyKOLTOis etjarofios.- See Liddell and Scott.718 (Kiihn).^ Athen., VIII. 51.