42 OYSTERS, AND ALL ABOUT THEM. 



feeding grounds. Sergius Orata's name must descend to 

 posterity in connection with a very important and lucrative 

 trade. He was a successful cultivator of oysters, and could 

 always supply them to the Roman epicure from his own 

 pares. Let the storms blow as they list, and the waves of 

 the sea beat against the coast, Sergius Grata can always 

 provide the oyster-eater with the dainties he loves so 

 much. (/). 



But although in Orata's days no legislative enactments 



o ^ 



were in force forbidding the removal or sale of the molluscs, 

 yet it appears the course of oyster-rearing did not always 

 run smooth, for a certain Considius thought that Grata 

 was encroaching too much upon public property in the 

 buildings he had erected upon the Lucrine Lake, and the 

 great oyster-cultivator had to go to law in the matter. 

 What were the particular points touched upon by the 

 plaintiff, and what the defence on the other side, history 

 does not inform us ; but L. Crassus, the celebrated special 

 pleader, whose oratorical powers might possibly have been 

 aided by a preliminary enjoyment of a score of Lucrine 

 natives, was the defendant's counsel. All we know is, that 

 he assured his excellent friend Considius that he had made 

 a great mistake if he supposed Orata's removal from the 



(j) " Ne gulam Neptuni arbitrio subjectam haberet, peculiaria 

 sibi maria excogitavit, oestuariis intercipiendo fluctus, pisciumque 

 diversos greges separates molibus includendo, ut nulla tarn saeva tem- 

 pestas incideret, qua non Oratae mensae varietate ferculorum abun- 

 darent. JEdificiis etiam spatiosis et excelsis deserta ad id tempus ora 

 Lucrini lacus pressit, quo recentiore usu conchyliorum frueretur. Ubi 

 dum se publicae aquas cupidius immergit, cum Considio publicano 

 indicium nactus est. In quo L. Crassus, adversus ilium causam agens, 

 errare suum Considium, dixit, quod putaret Oratani, remotum a lacu, 

 cariturum ostreis ; namque ea, si inde petere non licuisset, in tegulis 

 reperturum." (Valerius Maximus, 9, I, I.) 



