FISHERIES AMONG THE ANCIENT GREEKS AND ROMANS. 17 



from the oceau, which alone are fit for this purpose. The ' garum ' 

 from Klazomene, Pompeii, and Liptes is also highly praised ; and the 

 prepared fish from Antipoles, Thurium, and Dalmatia are no less to be 

 recommended." (Pliny, Hist. Nat., XXXI, 8.) Paul Jovius tells us 

 that the best " garum " was obtained in Africa. This " garum socioruni" 

 was chiefly prepared by a certain society of mackerel fishermen, (hence 

 the term " sociorum,") which in those times seems to have played a part 

 similar to that of the " Maatjes Hariugeu," herring-society, in the Neth- 

 erlands. 



Besides this prime article of " garum," other kinds formed an exten- 

 sive item of trade among the Eomans. Atkenaeus tells us, among other 

 things, of one kind prepared from the entrails of the u lykostome" a fish 

 which is closely related to the anchovy, and which is probably the same 

 as that still to be obtained at Antibes, although Martial ouly speaks of 

 " garum " prepared from tunnies. (Mart. Epigr. XII, 103.) A similar 

 preparation, called '• Incia," was frequently used in the time of Helio- 

 gabalus, for preserving fish. 



The epicure, Apicius, offered a great prize to any one who would 

 invent a new sauce or paste of the livers of mullets. But the name of 

 the man who secured the prize has been lost to posterity ; for, as Pliny 

 remarks, " it is easier said than done." 



We will only mention, in conclusion, that the Greeks preserved the 

 sea-eel iu salt and marjoram. They were the greatest masters in pickling 

 the dorado and iu preserving the scarus in brine. But the Eomans far 

 excelled them in the use of costly spices, and in pickled and preserved 

 fish, which still further increased the enormous prices paid for the rarest 

 fish brought at large expense from foreign countries. 



LOBSTERS. 



Of lobsters, Paul Jovius speaks thus in the fortieth chapter of his 



book: "Among the shell-fish, the lobster enjoys the greatest reputation. 



Theodoras thinks this is the animal which Aristotle calls the crab. But 



Oppianus understands by the term * crab,' what is commonly known 



as the 'lion,' and Theodoras calls this kind ' Commarus? For in the 



passage where he describes so vividly the combat between the mursena 



and the crab, he gives to the latter an indented pincer-like claw, with 



which it bites the neck of the lamprey." It is certain, however, that both 



the lobster and the crab were known to the ancients, besides some other 



kinds, such as the craw-fish, and those which Oppianus and the rest of 



the Greeks called ; ' Karidce. " Paul Jovius does not show any great 



knowledge of natural history, when he says that the lobster is red, and 



yet certainly quite as much as the French Academy of Sciences in the 



good city of Paris more than three hundred years later, since, not very 



many years ago, one could read in the great dictionary of that academy 



under the word " ecrevisse" the following remarkable definition : " animal 



rouge qui marche en reculant," i. e., " a red animal which walks b.ick- 

 2 F 



