214 FISH MANIA— VITELLIUS—APICIUS— COOKS 



garum made from the scomber was in Pliny's words " lauda- 

 tissimum," while the aX^jj, or muria, fabricated from the 

 intestines and nothing else of the tunny was cheap and inferior. 



Apart from their gastronomic popularity, the medical 

 efficacy of the various gara as paeaned by Pliny must, like the 

 Waverley Pen, have " come as a boon and a blessing to men," 

 in the wide range of their cures, i For ulcers of the mouth 

 and ears, one mirifice prodest. On the application of other 

 gara, " dumb-foundered flee away " burns, blains, dysenteries, 

 bites of dogs, maximeque crocodili, etc. Chapter 44 might 

 indeed easily pass as the leaflet of an advance agent for a 

 patent pill. 



With the knowledge and use of the various internal parts 

 of fish, it is strange to find Caviare, made out of the roe of 

 the Sturgeon, first in a recipe of the ninth century. Soft and 

 hard roes then, as now, were generally exported, but as a 

 separate article it became known only in Byzantine times. 2 



With the hungry desire for fish among all classes and 

 with the deep pockets of the rich enabling them to go to any 

 extreme price, is it any wonder that the trade of a fishmonger 

 at Athens and Rome was most lucrative ? Several fish- 

 mongers acquired large fortunes and high position. The 

 Athenians even raised to the rank of citizens the sons of 

 Chaerephilus, for the adequate reason that he sold such 

 excellent pickled fish ! 3 



At Athens, and probably at Rome, there existed a Society 

 or Corporation of Fishmongers, akin to our own Fishmongers' 

 Company, one of the many trade guilds of mediaeval times. 

 Its power and political pull often defeated or evaded the 

 stringent regulations, which from time to time fixed the 

 price of fish. In early times fish were sold by the fishermen 

 themselves, as soon as the Fish-Market at Rome had been 

 opened by the ringing of its bell. 



1 Cf. XXXI. 44, and XXXII. 25. 



* If O.Keller, op. cit., 338, be right in his authorities, Blakey's, " the praise 

 of Caviare is frequent," is far astray. Despite the view of Hullmann's Handels- 

 gesch. d. Gr., 149, Athenaeiis deals merely with garum and oxygarutn, while the 

 classical cookery books maintain a uniform silence. 



» Athen., III. 90. 



