Fishing from the earliest times - Blog

HORTENSIUS—BEJEWELLED FISH 227Macrobius testifies that Crassus, " first among all the greatestmen of Rome, mourned a murcena " (probably it of the earringsand necklace of precious stones) " found dead in hisvivarium even as a daughter." It was on the occasion ofDomitius twitting him with " Did you not weep when yourfish died " ? that Crassus got back with " Did you not burythree wives and never weep at all ?Of Hortensius Varro continues :2 " His mullet give himinfinitely more concern than my mules and asses do ;" ^for whileI, with one lad, support all my thrifty stud on a little barley,etc., the fish-servants of Hortensius are not to be counted.He has fishermen in fine weather toiling to procure them food ;when the weather is too boisterous for fishing, then a wholetroup of butchers and dealers in provisions send in theirestimates for keeping his alumni fat.his mullet as to forget his men ;Hortensius so looks aftera sick slave has less chance ofgetting a draught of cold water in a fever than these favouredfish of being kept cool in their stews in Midsummer."The fish often answered to their names when called by theirmaster, or their keeper. The latter, nomenclator, made a veryhandsome income from the admiring crowds, who flocked tosee the fish perform their exercises with wagging tails or headsbedecked with rich jewels.^^ Plutarch, De Sol. Anim., 23.* De Re Rustica, III. 17. This abstinence on the part of Hortensius fromeating his " mulh barbati " is the more to be appreciated, when we rememberthat, according to Sophron, the savour of the " barbati " was far pleasanterthan that of any other mullet. Athen., VII. 126.3 Martial, Ep., IV. 30, 4." Qui norunt dominum manumque lambuntJ Ham, qua nihil est in orbe maius.Quid quod nomen habent et ad magistriVocem quisque sui venit citatus "?and Martial, X. 30, 22." Natat ad magistrum delicata muraena,Nomenculator mugilem citat notum,Et adesse jussi prodeunt senes mulli."Cicero, Ep. ad Att., XX. I, " Our leading people think that they attain untoHeaven if they own in their ponds bearded mullets, who will come to them tobe stroked." Cf. Lucian (De Dea Syria, 45-48). ^-lian, VIII. 4, confirmsthese statements, and in 12. 30, tells of a spring in Caria sacred to Zeus, inwhich were kept eels decked with earrings and chains of gold, while Pliny,XXXII. 8, writes that at the Temple of Venus at Hierapolis, of which Lucianspeaks as an eye-witness, " adveniunt pisces exornati aiiro." This practiceis, and has been, world wide. " Fishes though little have long ears," is an old