104 



she was intended for the transport of corn. At first Hiero called this ship the 

 "Syracusan," but he afterwards altered its name to the "Alexandrian." Trees 

 from mount iEtna were felled in sufficient numbers to build 60 triremes. Great 

 numbers of woodmen were employed ; and 300 carpenters were day and night at 

 work. The vessel was launched by Archimedes ; she was a three-decker, with 20 

 rows of rowers. The floors of the rooms were mosaics, exhibiting the whole story 

 of the Iliad " in a marvellous manner." The ceilings, doors, and furniture were 

 all finished in a remarkable manner. She was furnished with a gymnasium and 

 walks ; artificial gardens of great beauty, enriched with all sorts of plants, and 

 shaded by roofs of lead or tiles, were a prominent feature ; there was a trelissed 

 vineyard and avenue of trees to shade the walks on deck ; an aphrodisium, or 

 temple devoted to "Venus, inlaid with Silician agates and panels of cypress ; an 

 academic saloon, a library, a bath-room, beautifully variegated with marble, ten 

 stalls for horses, and rooms for grooms, harness, and accoutrements. To state no 

 further particulars of this remarkable vessel, it will be enough to say that near 

 the bows was a large reservoir containing 2000 measures of water, made of wood 

 closely compacted with pitch and canvas ; next to this cistern there was a large 

 water-tight well for fish, constructed of beams and lead ; this was kept full of 

 sea water, and great numbers of fish were kept in it. 



Our chief information however, concerning ancient vivaria is derived from 

 the writers on Roman husbandry (Seriptores de Re Rusticd), as Columella and 

 Varro, from whom much curious informati(m of a useful and practical kind may 

 be derived, and which may be profitably read by modern pisciculturists. I will 

 give a translation of what Columella, who treats the matter more copiously than 

 Varro, has handed down to us ; you will then be able to gather some good gen- 

 eral idea of pisciculture as it was practised by the ancient Romans. You will 

 see that fish-culture was pursued not only for the sake of amusement, as some- 

 times erroneously asserted, but for the sake of profit. True it is, that in the days 

 of the later Roman Empire fish-culture had lapsed into a luxurious and most ex- 

 pensive amusement ; but from the beginning it was not so. The Romans were 

 well aware of the importance of fish-culture in an economic point of view ; and 

 though they were entirely ignorant of the art of the artificial fecundation of fish, 

 they well knew the desirability of stocking both fresh water and sea water ponds 

 with such fishes as experience had taught them would thrive therein respectively. 

 Columella writes as follows : — 



"Since I have spoken of aquatic animals," — he had been discoursing on ducks, 

 geese, water-fowl-aviaries, &c. — "it is not inopportune to speak of the cultiva- 

 tion of fishes ; and although one would think a digression on this subject quite 

 foreign to the agriculturist, — for what is more opposed than earth and water? — 

 still, I shall not pass the matter over, for our ancestors have rendered the study 

 even of these things celebrated, to such an extent as to have confined sea-fishes 

 in fresh water, and to have bestowed the same care in feeding the grey-mullet 

 and the scarus, as they now bestow on the mureena and basse. For that rural 

 offspring of Romulus and Remus considered it a great matter, that, if country 

 life was to be put into comparison with town life, it should be in no respect 



