Chap. 81.] PRESERVES FOB, MUREtfJE. 469 



more recently hit upon, of feeding the oysters of Brundisium 

 in Lake Lucrinus, famished as they must naturally be after so 

 long a journey. 



CHAP. 80. WHO WAS THE FIRST INVENTOR OF PRESERVES FOR 



OTHER FISH. 



In the same age, also, Licinius Murena 25 was the first to . 

 form preserves for other fish ; and his example was soon fol- 

 lowed by the noble families of the Philippi and the Hortensii. 

 Lucullus had a mountain pierced near Naples, at a greater out- 

 lay even, than that which had been expended on his villa ; 

 and here he formed a channel, 26 and admitted the sea to his 

 preserves ; it was for this reason that Pompeius Magnus gave 

 him the name of " Xerxes in a toga." 27 After his death, the fish 

 in his preserves was sold for the sum of four million sesterces. 



CHAP. 81. (55.) WHO INVENTED PRESERVES FOR MUREN^E. 



C. Hirrus 28 was the first person who formed preserves for 

 the murena ; and it was he who lent six thousand of these 

 fishes for the triumphal banquets of Caesar the Dictator ; on 

 which occasion he had them duly weighed, as he declined to 

 receive the value of them in money or any other commodity. 

 His villa, which was of a very humble character in the interior, 

 sold for four millions 29 of sesterces, in consequence of the valu- 

 able nature of the stock-ponds there. Next after this, there 

 arose a passion for individual fish. At Bauli, 30 in the territory 



25 He was the first of this family, a branch of the Licinian gens, who 

 bore the surname of Murena, from his love for that fish, it was said. He, 

 like his father P. Licinius, attained the rank of praetor, and was a contem- 

 porary of the orator, L. Crassus. 



26 "Euripum." 



27 "Xerxen togatum," or " the Roman Xerxes," in allusion to Xerxes 

 cutting a canal through the Isthmus, which connected the Peninsula of 

 Mount Athos with Chalcidice. See B. iv. c. 17, and the Note, vol. i. 

 p. 300. 



28 Probably the same person as the C. Hirrius Posthumius, who is 

 mentioned as a voluptuary by Cicero, De Fin. B. ii. c. 22, 70. Varro 

 speaks of him, as expending the rent of his houses, amounting to twelve 

 millions of sesterces, in bait for his murense. 



29 This is, probably, the meaning of " quadragies " here, though it has 

 been translated 400,000. 



3 See B. iii. c. 9. 



