ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE OYSTER. 37 



" Not a grove, 



Citron, or pine, or cedar ; not a grot, 

 Sea-worn and mantled with the gadding vine, 

 But breathes enchantment." 



So says Rogers. But, assuredly, in no spot on earth are 

 the skies brighter, or the waters more pellucid and serene. 



In the wide and sunny expanse of blue waters that 

 stands near this far-famed city, no part was calmer or more 

 beautiful than the recess in the northern part of its bay, 

 between Baiae and Puteoli. Naturally sheltered by the 

 surrounding coasts, it seemed of itself to invite the gratifi- 

 cation of luxurious ease, and the formation of a mercantile 

 harbour. Baiae was resorted to by the Romans, as 

 Brighton and Cheltenham have been in our times, by invalids 

 and the restless in fashionable life ; while Puteoli, on the 

 'opposite side of this inner bay, was, on a small scale, what 

 Liverpool is to England. Between them was an enclosed 

 reach of water, called the Lucrine Lake, over which 

 coloured sails wafted the small yachts of fashionable 

 visitors, and which contained the oyster-beds for the 

 luxurious tables of Rome. 



Martial says, in one of his epigrams-: 



" No praise, no price, a gilt head e'er will take 

 Unfed with oysters of the Lucrine Lake ;" 



for those were greatly preferred which, being brought from 

 other places, were deposited in these waters, where they 

 grew remarkably fat. The oysters were then most highly 

 esteemed which had the edges of the mouth of a deep 

 brown hue, and, indeed, almost black. To these they 

 gave a special name it is said to have been calliblephara ; 

 but the term is supposed to have become corrupted. 



That was in the days when luxury was rampant, and 

 when men of great wealth, like Licinius Crassus, the levia- 



