Fishing from the earliest times - Blog

—DOMITIAN'S TVRBOT—LUPUS 259It ran often to immense size. Martial's fish (XIII. 81), although" latior patella," can hold no candle to the one presented toDomitian.iThat Emperor, thoug^i deeming himself and insisting onhis subjects acclaiming him, of god-like attributes, was not.equal to solving the knotty question of how to cook and toserve his fish whole, " Derat pisci patinse mensura " —if itsproportions were in the same street with a Rhotnbus vouchedfor by Rondolet, viz. three metres long, two broad, and onethick, the fact excites no wonder—so he straightway summoneda special meeting of the Senate. 2Discover, Montanus advises, a new Prometheus capable ofmodelHng the amplest trencher instantly, but, since to a godlike Domitian (he flatteringly adds), offerings of huge fishwill frequently be made" But, Caesar, thus forewarned make no campaign,Unless some potters follow in your train."5. The Lupus ^— Lahrax lupus— " common Bass " at Athensenjoyed the choicest preference. Aristophanes absolutelyrefused tobe disturbed while feasting on a Milesian Labrax.Archestratus eulogises it as " god-begotten " (^eoTratSa).During the early Roman Republic it indeed ranked (withthe Asellus) only second to the Acipenser.*The fish throve best and grew fattest in sewage ; hencethose " from between the two bridges " of the Tiber were famed1 Juv., IV. 37 ff.2 With this meeting compare that summoned post-haste by Nero in theRevolution (which led to his death), when to anxious and breathless senatorshe imparted the important news that he had just effected an improvement ofthe hydraulic organ, by which the notes were made to sound louder andsweeter. His i^evp-riKa conflicts somewhat with the account in Suetonius{Nero, 41). The Emperor evidently had a bent and a Uking for mechanicalinvention, for according to C. M. Cobern, New ArchcBological Discoveries, etc.,191 7, in one of his palaces were elevators which ran from the ground to thetop floor, and a circular dining-room which revolved with the sun.3 The part played by fish in recovering episcopal keys and rings has beendwelt on elsewhere. Sad it is that in the case of St. Lupus the rdle is performednot by his namesake fish, but by a barbel, in whose belly was found, just previousto the return of the bishop to his See of Sens the selfsame ring which on beingexiled by Clothaire II. he had cast into the moat. Let us, disregarding allgeographical habitats, trust that Barbel was here an ichthyic inexactitude forLupus. Cf. S. Baring Gould, The Lives of the Saints, Vol. X. 7, Edinburgh,1914.* Pliny, IX. 28.