I.— HISTORICAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE CONDITION OF THE 

 FISHERIES AMONG THE ANCIENT GREEKS AND ROMANS, 

 AND ON THEIR MODE OF SALTING AND PICKLING FISH. 



By J. K. Smidth.* 



If it is interesting to follow the great and rapid progress which pis- 

 ciculture has made and is still making in our times, it is, on the other 

 hand, of no small importance to go back through the ages aud inquire 

 into the position which this sister of agriculture held in antiquity, 

 especially among those two great nations, the Greeks and Eomans 

 concerning which we have the most accurate and ample information in 

 the writings of their poets, historians, and scientists. Although this 

 rich aud almost perfect literature is known, at least in part, to many 

 persons through the study of the classical texts themselves, and by 

 means of more or less faithful translations of the same, but few, per- 

 haps, are aware of the fact that a large portion of these writings treats 

 of the life of the seas. They describe its inhabitants and their mode of 

 living, and inform us that in those times -fish were used as an article of 

 food, or put to medicinal and other uses. It would be a great mistake 

 to suppose that we would find a few obscure names only, as having dis- 

 cussed this subject ; on the contrary, they begin with Homer, and are 

 found throughout the entire wide range of classic literature. 



If any one should ask for the reason of this ardent attachment of the 

 ancient writers for the sea and everything connected with it, the best 

 answer will be found in Buffon's Natural History of Fish, where this 

 famous natural historian says : " Fruitfulness, beauty, and long life are 

 essential characteristics of the inhabitants of the ocean." This is the 

 reason why Greek mythology, which, so far as regards the ultimate cause 

 of its imagery, was much better informed than we usually suppose, and 

 which produced ideals of undying beauty, placed the cradle of the god- 

 dess of love and beauty in the ocean, and represents her as springing 

 from the foaming waves surrounded by her sacred fish, glittering with 

 gold and azure. This allegory, as beautiful as it is instructive, is by no 

 means astonishing, for we find that the ancient Greeks had observed the 



"Nogle historiske Bemserkningerom Fiskeriernes Tilstand paa Grsekernes og Romer- 

 nes Tid saint om de dengang brngte Tilberedelsesmaader af saltet og mariueret Fisk. 

 Af J. K. Smidth. < Tidsskrift for Fiskeri. Udgivet af H. V. Fiedler, og Arthur Fedder- 

 Ben.— lite Aargang. Kj^beuhavn. Jacob Erslovs Boghatulel. 1871. pp. 34-02. 



