103 



FISH-CTJLTTTEE, AS PEAOTISED BY THE ANCIENTS. 



By the Rev. Wji. Hooghton, F.L.S.— Read October 4th, 1883. 



Artiftoial pieces of water for the preservation of fish are ancient inventions ; 

 ponds with living fishf^s are exhibited in some pictorial relics of ancient Egypt. 

 The Assyrians also had ponds or stews for fish in their ornamental gardens. 

 Fish were kept in the vivaria, as they were termed, for two purposes, namely, as 

 sacred pets, or as food for the table. Varro speaking of certain Lydian fishes, 

 held sacred, says with a pun, " that no cook ever dares to summon them — to 

 sauce ! " jus is a Latin word, which means both " law " and " fish-sauce." 

 ^lian speaks of certain sacred fish which were dedicated to Jupiter which even 

 poachers would seldom dare to catch. Here is Martial's warning to any fisher- 

 man meditating a day's angling in the Baian lake, whose fish were sacred to 

 Domitian — 



" From the Baian Lake with awe 

 Angler, I advise, withdraw : 

 Lest of hallow'd blood unspilt 

 Thou should'st rash incur the guilt. 

 Sacred fishes, swimming bland. 

 Hail their lord and lick his hand : 

 Hand whose greater cannot wave, 

 Or to sacrifice or save. 

 Names respective know they .ill 

 And attend their Master's call. 

 Once a Lybian rued the deed 

 When he play'd the trembling reed. 

 Sudden light his eyes forsook, 

 Nor display "d the fish he took. 

 Now he well the hook may hate, 

 Clothed with so dire a bait ; 

 Where he, by the Baian pool, 

 Sits a-blinded, begging fooj. 

 Then, dear Angler, still by law 

 Innocent, do thou withdraw, 

 Throwing just a simple dish. 

 Venerate devoted fish ! " 



Epigram iv. 30. 



Fish were sometimes used in augury, as we learn from Julian (Nat. Anim. 

 viii., 5), who speaks of men who prophesied from fish in a certain town in Lycia. 

 Whether the Greeks kept fish in vivaria or not there is no definite information, 

 so far as I know ; but there is distinct notice that the people of Agrigentum, in 

 Sicily, constructed a fish-pond of great size and depth : it was about a mile in 

 circumference, and twenty cubits in depth. Water was brought into this reservoir 

 from rivers and fountains, and various kinds of fish— but no mention is made of 

 the kinds — were kept in it, both for amusement and pleasure. Numbers of swans 

 swam about on the water, which gave a pleasant prospect to the eye. In time, 

 however, the pond was allowed to fill up with mud, till at last it became dry ground. 

 Diodorus Siculus (.\i. 25) is the authority for this fact. But the most remarkable 

 thing connected with fish-preservation is that which Athenaeus records in the 40th 

 chapter of the 5th Book of the Deipnosophists. Hiero, king of the Syracusans, 

 ordered an enormous ship to be built, under the superintendence of Archimedes : 



