ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE OYSTER. 43 



lake would prevent him rearing oysters, for if not allowed 

 to cultivate them there, he would grow them upon the roof 

 of his house. (/) 



M. Coste (/) informs us that two antique vases have 

 been discovered in Italy, upon which vivaria are depicted : 

 "These monuments," he says, "consist of two glass 

 funereal vases. Their form is that of an antique bottle, 

 wide in the body and long in the neck. Their exterior 

 surface is covered with perspective designs in which, in 

 spite of the clumsy drawing, we can recognize vivaria con- 

 tiguous to certain edifices and communicating with the sea 

 by arcades. And were it possible to have any doubts as to 

 their situation and topographical position, these would be 

 dissipated by the accompanying inscription. We read on 

 the base of one of them .... STAC.NTM PALATITM 

 (a name formerly borne by the villa possessed by Nero on 

 the shores of the Lucrine) and lower down OSTREARIA. 

 The other vase, which had been preserved in the Borgiano 

 Museum at Rome, and now in the Propaganda, of which 

 M. G. B. de'Rossi has given an excellent description, bears 

 the following inscription written above the objects figured, 



STA(;XTM XI RONIS, OSTREARIA. STAGNUM, SYLYA, 15A1A, 



which plainly shows that the prospect represented has been 

 drawn from buildings and places on the famous shore of 

 Baia and Pozzuoli." 



M. Coste has given an engraving of these vases in his 

 valuable work. But although to Sergius Grata is evidently 

 due the merit of having first established oyster-pares 

 amongst the Romans, it appears from the fragments of 

 Agatharchides (circ. B.C. 140) preserved by Photius (m} 



(k) "Edinburgh Review," 1868. 



(/) "Voyage d' Exploration," p. 98. 



(in) "Photii Bibliotheca," c. 13, p. 1354, ed. Hoeschellius, 1653. 



