Fishing from the earliest times - Blog

—Some2OYSTERS—CESAR'S ENGLISH PEARLS 223enormous fortune. He posed as the Pontiff of the Palate ; hiswas the final decision, from which lay no appeal, as to which sea orwhich part of what river produced the best of the various fishes.From the not unnatural bias of owner and founder headjudged the Lucrine oysters finest of all. Pliny's words(IX. 79) that, when Grata " ennobled " the Lucrine, Britishoysters had not yet reached Rome convey a gratifying complimentto our insular pride, somewhat dashed by Pliny plumpingfor the Circeian.iGysters throve with travelling and a change to new waters.The Brundisian oyster when planted in Lake Lucrinus not onlykept its own flavour, but took on that of its new home.Apicius, not our gourmet M. Gabius, but an initiallesssuccessor, would have proved an admirable Quartermaster-General. 3 When " Trajan was in Parthia at a distance ofmany days' journey from the sea, he sent him oysters, which hekept fresh by a clever contrivance of his own invention ;oysters not likerealthe sham anchovies which the cook of Nicomedes,king of the Bithynians, made for him," when far inlandand yearning for oysters.In a comedy by Euphron,* a chef sings his teacher's marvellousskill :' I am the pupil of SoteridesWho when his king was distant from the seaFull twelve days' journey and in winter's depthFed him with rich anchovies to his wishAnd made the guests to marvel.B. How was that ?A. He took a female turnip, shred it fineInto the figure of the delicate fish."1 See ante, p. 146. If he praise our oysters, he straightly condemns thepearls from them, as being " small and discoloured ;" wherefore (IX. 57)Julius Caesar, when he presented a thorax to Venus Genetrix, had it made ofBritish " pearls," a very poor requital to a goddess, who, if Suetonius is to betrusted, had so often stood him in good stead, both as a distant ancestress, andin other connections ! really fine pearls have been found in Scotlandand Wales : the best known of these, got at Conway in the eighteenth century,was presented to Catherine of Braganza, and is still preserved in the Crownjewels. Wright, op. cit., p. 220.« Pliny, XXXII. 21.* Athen., I. 13; cf. Suidas, s.v. oarpea.* Euphron, inceri. fab. frag, i, quoted by Athen., I. 13.