Fishing from the earliest times - Blog

i66THE SCARUS—" FISHING PROHIBITED"If we cannot absolutely claim for Martial the first mentionof the jointed Fishing Rod and the natural or artificial Fly, weare safe in acclaiming him the author of the first notice," Fishing strictly prohibited," or " Chasse defendue," in his" Baiano procul a lacu recede,Piscator :fuge, ne nocens recedas."(IV. 30.)This epigram furnishes Bunsmann with one of the onlythree acts of Impietas which he can allege against theblamelessrace of fishermen. Martial here solemnl}^ warns a fellowcraftsman against fishing in the lake of Baiae, because (i) thefish there are sacred to the Emperor Domitian, (2)a previousintruder was smitten blind in the very act of landing his fish,so that—and here comes a touch of the true angler — " he couldnot see his spoil."The pretty compliment, veiled in the words " sacred fish,"ranks Domitian as a god, because, as at many temples of thegods fish were held sacred, so athis Baian abode the fish hadbeen shown by divine action to be sacred. But the fulsomebluntness of " than whom in the whole world there is nonemightier " mars the effect. Lest, however, his friend mightthink that " Not twice in this world shall the Gods do thus,"or deem the superhuman sanction played out. Martial adjureshim to throw to the fish some plain bookless food, and " dumpotes, innocens recede."These Baian fish were evidently not as sophisticated or asdiscriminating as their neighbours, the Melanuri, which greedilysnatch food thrown into the sea, but to any bit whatsoevercontaining a hook they approach neither delicately, nor at all. ^In case some reader, fired by the fame of Theocritus orMartial,imagine an easy affluence by writing Fisher Ecloguesor Fisher Epigrams, I refer him to Martial's other warning,where he states that a written copy of one of his books couldbe bought for about fourpence halfpenny (considerably cheaperthan a printed one now) and that with a profit to the bookseller2!1 Pliny. XXXII. 8. ' Ep., 3, 13.