508 pliny's natueal htstoet. [Book XXXI. 



of garum is that prepared from the scomber/^ in the fisheries 

 of Carthago Spartaria :^^ it is known as " garum of ^^ the allies," 

 and for a couple of congii we have to pay but little less than 

 one thousand sesterces. Indeed, there is no liquid hardly, 

 with the exception of the unguents, that has sold at higher 

 prices of late ; so much so, that the nations which produce it 

 have become quite ennobled thereby. There are fisheries, 

 too, of the scomber on the coasts of Mauretania, and at Carteia 

 in Bajtica, near the Straits ^^ which lie at the entrance to the 

 Ocean ; this being the only use that is made of the fish. For 

 the production of garum, Clazomense is also famed, Pompeii, 

 too, and Leptis ; while for their muria, Antipolis,'^* Thurii, and 

 of late, Dalmutia,^^ enjoy a high -reputation. 



CUAP. 44. ALEX : EIGHT EEMEDIES. 



Alex, which is the refuse of garum, properly consists of the 

 dregs of it, when imperfectly strained : but of late they have 

 begun to prepare it separately, from a small fish that is other- 

 wise good for nothing, the apua^^ of the Latins, or aphua of 

 the Greeks, so called from the fact of its being engendered 

 from rain.^'' The people of Forum Julii *^ make their garum 

 from a fish to which they give the name of '^ lupus."'*^ In 

 process of time, alex has become quite an object of luxury, and 

 the various kinds that are now made are infinite in number. 

 The same, too, with garum, which is now prepared in imitation 

 of the colour of old honied wine, and so pleasantly flavoured 

 as to admit of being taken as a drink. Another kind, again, 

 is dedicated to those superstitious observances ^'^ which enjoin 

 strict chastity, and that prepared from fish without^^ scales, to 



^^ As to the ideutity of the Scomber, see B. ix. c. 19. 



**' See B. xix. c. 7. *- " Garum socionim." 



*2 The present Straits of Gibraltar. ** lu Gallia Narbonensis. 



*^ Sillig reads " Delmntia " here.. 



^s See B. ix. c. 74. The fry of larger fish, Cuvier says. 



*'' Ajasson considers this to be an absurd derivation ; and thinks it 

 much more probable, that the name is from a privative, and <pvco, " to 

 beget ;" it being a not uncommon notion that these small fish were pro- 

 duced spontaneously from mud and slime. 



^* The present Frejus, in the south of France. 



49 "Wolf." Not the fish of that name, Hardouin says, mentioned in 

 B. ix. c. 28. 



^^ The festivals of Ceres. The devotees, though obliged to abstain from 

 meat, were aUowcd tlie use of this garum, it would appear. 



^^ Gesuer proposes to read ^^ non careutibus," ^'■wUh scales" — fishes 



