FISHERIES AMONG THE ANCIENT GREEKS AND ROMANS. 15 



processes, both simple and complicated, according to which they were 

 differently named. 



It would detain us too long to give a complete list of those fish which, 

 when salted, were held in great esteem. The following are some for 

 which there was the greatest demand : the sea-eel, from Siuope ; the 

 tunny, from Byzantium ; the mackerel, from Spain ; the tunny, from 

 Cadiz ; the sword-fish, from Sicily ; the mullet, from Exone; the scarus, 

 from Ephesns; the "pagrus? from Italy; the eel, from Strymon; themor- 

 myrus, from the Nile, &c. The names of all these fish of acknowledged 

 excellence served as recommendations for those cities or countries which 

 had gained fame by their manner of preparing them. 



But most of these fish have lost in our days the reputation which they 

 formerly enjoyed. The mormyrus of the Nile, e. #., which Athenseus 

 described, and with which the learned Geoffroy St. Hilaire has made 

 us acquainted, is now scarcely known beyond the works of natural his- 

 torians. The same holds good of the tunny, which is now preserved in 

 oil, instead of being salted or dried as was the custom among the 

 ancients. The Komaus had learned from the Greeks a mode of pre- 

 serving it, which, with some modifications, is used even in our time 

 among the Italians and Spaniards ; it is called " escabeche." The fish 

 are first fried in oil with bay leaves, salt, and spices, and then boiling 

 vinegar is poured over them. This method was especially employed 

 with several kinds of mackerel, but likewise with other fish, such as the 

 " pagrus," the dorado, and even the larger kinds of perch. 



The inhabitants of the Greek Archipelago were the first to preserve 

 the tunny. This fish was salted on the islands of Eubcea, Samos, and 

 on the coast of Icaria, which acquired the surname, " the coast rich in 

 fish." The ancient names, Cetaria domitiana, (near Orbitello and Santo 

 Stephano,) and Terra cetaria, (stretching from Segarte to the promon- 

 tory now called Santo Vito,) designate places where the Eomans had 

 large stationary nets, and they show the importance of these fisheries. 



Tarentum, in the Tyrrhenian Sea, had gained a great reputation for 

 its salt fish, especially for its delicious tunny, which was exported to 

 remote districts. No less famous was the tunny from Sicily, especially 

 that kind salted in Cephalo. 



The ancient Oetobriga, a Phoenician colony on the southern coast of 

 Lusitania, near the mouth of the Guadiaua, maintained its former great 

 importance under the Eomans on account of its stationary nets, and the 

 immense quantities of tunnies which were salted on that coast. Eesen- 

 dius, (Antiquitates Lusitanise, 210,) assures us that even in his time, 

 the ruins of the salting establishments of Cetobriga could be seen. The 

 new town, Neoeetobriga, which rose not far from the old one, and which 

 the Portuguese have called Setubal, (Saint Ybes,) continued to carry on 

 the trade in salt tunny, which had once enriched the Greek town. 

 Castro, the historian, fully corroborates the statements of Eesendius. 

 He says the name of the town is derived from " briga," which in the old 



