20 



of it as a necessary means of subsistence, not as the recreation of 

 the wealthy and powerful. With these it has ever been a favourite 

 sport, and among the Romans, a high degree of eclat was attached 

 to success in it, as we may infer from the artifice of Gargilius, (in 

 Horace) who bought a boar, and had it carried on a mule through 

 the forum, that he miglit enjoy the reputation of having killed it in 

 the chace. 



Gargilius qui mane, plagas, venabula, servos, 

 Differtum transire forum populumque jubebat, 

 Unus ut e multis, populo spectante, referret 

 Emptum mulus aprum. 



Independently then of their general interests, as embracing a know- 

 ledge of animated nature, it maybe inferred that the subjects of fishing 

 and hunting had peculiar attractions for a Roman ear. Taste, like 

 dress and equipage, has its changes and revolutions. If georgics were 

 a favourite topic, in the days of Virgil, field sports may not liave been 

 less so, in the daysof Oppian. Ovid,* if the disjointed fragment ascribed 

 to him be his, had written on Halieutics ; and Gratius Faliscus, his co- 

 temporary, on hunting. The writings of Seneca, Pliny, and Athenaeus 

 who devoted a considerable portion of his work to icthyology and 

 the writers on that subject, had awakened public attention. Add 

 to tliis that the games of the Circus, -f- and the frequent exhibition of 



* Ennius too, at a much earlier period, had written on 6shes See L. Apuleii Apologia. Q. 

 Ennius HJi/^o^nxoi; quae versibus scripsit, innumerabilia piscium enumerat. 



■\ Every species of wild beast was exhibited at these games; 



Quodcunque tremendum est 

 Dentibus, aut insigne jubis, aut nobile cornu, 

 Aut rigidum setis, capitur; decus orane timorque 

 Sylvarum, non caute latent, non mole resistant. 



Claudian. 



I 



