18 



mind, and left it effete.* The investigation might be followed to a 

 much later period, with a similar result. But this may suffice to 

 show that Oppian did not appear in a barbarous age, nor among 

 a people unimbued with taste, or incapable of appreciating poetical 

 excellence. 



No reason has been assigned for Oppian 's selection of fishing, as 

 a subject favourable to the design he had formed of recommending 

 himself to the imperial family at Rome. It is not to be doubted, 

 however, that it was congenial to his own taste, and that of the 

 age. He gives it the epithet of " $§a,Tiii/}iv,'' beloved ; and his works 

 contain abundant evidence that they could be composed by no one 

 who was not passionately addicted to the pleasures which they de- 

 scribe. The Romans were exceedingly fond of aquatic excur- 

 sions, and the representation of naval engagements on their lakes. 

 To these Lucretius alludes in the beginning of his second book ; 



Fervere quom videas classem, lateque vagari. 



Augustus dug a lake near the Tiber, and Domitian built a theatre, 

 for these entertainments. But Claudius, to give them a higher zest, 

 at the draining of the Fucine lake, had a real battle between two 

 fleets, the one of Rhodes, the other of Sicily, each consisting of 

 twelve vessels of three banks of oars, whose crews were composed of 

 condemned malefactors, to the number of 19,000. The signal was 

 given by a silver triton, raised by mechanism out of the lake. The 

 conflict was bloody, and the majority of the combatants perished. — 

 Caligula delighted to sail along the coast of Campania, in gallies 

 of cedar magnificently app(vinted. Tigillinus gave a splendid feast 



* The French Encyclopedie, in the article Age, having spoken of Horace, Ovid, Cicero, 

 &c. adds '• Fatigue d'avoir donne le jour a tant d'hommes immortels, la nature se repose 

 pendant plusieurs siecles !" This is in the true Gallic style. 



