Fishing from the earliest times - Blog

——26oTHE NINE FISH MOST HIGHLY PRIZEDfar and near ; see Horace, Sat., II. 2, 31 ; Macrobius, Sat., II.12 ; and Juvenal, V. 103-8. The latter's " et solitus mediaecryptam penetrare Suburae " was rendered quite clear only in1743, when the remains of the Cloaca leading from the lowlyingground to the Tiber were excavated. From this greedyscavenging he is christened by Lucilius {Sat. 4, frag., 127,Baehrens) " the platter- Hcker " (catillo)" Hunc pontes Tiberinus duo inter captus catillo." ^The Doctors once more are at variance. The Court,unanimous that (in Walton's phrase) " its savour was excellent,"only by a majority (Galen and Celsus J.J.) upheld itsnutritive powers, Hicesius J. dissenting. Rondolet againstthe volume of authority affirms that the Lupus of the sea isof better quality than that of the river. Pliny 2 dubs theLupus " lanatus " —not from his wooUy appearance, or woollytaste, but from the whiteness of his flesh laudatissimus.But by the time of Domitian it has fallen from its proudestplace.Its Aristophanic title of " the wisest of fish " was earned byits cunning in escape from net or hook ;its method in the caseof the former is vouched for by Cassiodorus,^ and of the latterby Ovid.'*" quassatque caput, dum vulnere saevusLaxato cadat hamus et ora patentia linquat."PUny, commenting on the marvellous friendships andhatreds which exist among fish, instances the astoundingcombination of both in the lupus and the mugil (grey mullet)," who burn with mutual hate for some, yet live in concord forother, months of the year " —despite the cheery custom,hereditary in the lupus, of nibbHng off the tail of the mugil ;however, live, " quibus caudae sic amputentur." ^^ Cf. Macrobius, Sat.,\\. i2: "Lucilius . . . eum . . . quasi ligurritoremcatillonem appellat, scilicet qui proxime ripas stercus insectaretur." A proposof ' Catillo,' there is a quaint remark in the Gloss. Salom., "Nomen piscis acatino dictus ob cuius suavitatem homines catinum corrodunt " —the fish wasso delicious it made one fairly bite the dish 12 IX. 28.3 Epist., XI. 40.* Hal.. 41 f.6 N. H., IX., 88; Arist., H. A.. IX. 3.all,