Fishing from the earliest times - Blog

MULLET—ACIPENSER 257writers, which is often, if not convincingly, identified with theSturio, the " Sturgeon," and by Archestratus 1 is affirmedbut wrongly, to be the yaXtog, enjoyed a long and gloriousreign of supremacy from the early times of the RepubHc downto Vespasian. For it alone, with perhaps one exception, wasreserved the high honour of being served at a banquet to themusic of flutes and pipes, crowned itself, borne by slaves hkewisecrowned. 2Its praise and its price (Varro styles it muUinummus)seem ahke exorbitant. We find the name of Gallonius theglutton-auctioneer, the first to bring the fish into fashion,occurring again and again. 3 On Ovid's {Hal. 134) " Tuqueperegrinis acipenser nobiHssimus " may be piled passage uponpassage. Plautus in a fragment of his Bacaria * asks :" Quis est mortalis tanta fortuna affectus umquamQua ego nunc sum ? quoius hsec ventri portatur pompa :Vel nunc qui mihi in mari acipenser latuit antehac,Quoius ego latus in latebras reddam meis dentibus et manibus."Cicero—no fish story-teller he—makes at least four referencesto it. In De Fato, frag. 5, he sets forth the tale of theAcipenser (' piscis ... in primis nobihs ')presented toScipio, to whom, as he persisted in inviting all and every onewho saluted him, Pontius anxiously whispered, " Do you knowwhat you are about ? Lo ! this is a fish fit only for a few"choice palates !As to its decline from its high estate, Pliny's definiteassertion (IX. 27)," Apud antiques piscium nobiHssimushabitus acipenser . . . nullo nunc in honore est," findscorroboration by Martial, XIII. 91 :" Ad Palatinas acipensem mittite mensas ;Ambrosias ornent munera rara dapes." ^1 Archestrat., ap. Athen, VII. 44.- Cf. Macrobius, Sat., II. 12, and Athenaeus, VII. 44.^ Horace, Sat. II. 2, 46.* Macrobius, Sat., III. 16, i.* Pliny claims for the Acipenser that he " unus omnium squamis ad osversis contra aquam nando meat." The reading of the last four words ishowever much disputed. C. MayhofC prints contra quam in nando meant.Plutarch, De Sol. Anim., 28, of the Elops, " it always swims with the wind andtide, not minding the erection or opening of the scales, which do not lie towardsthe tail, as in other fish."