i62 THE SCARUS— " FISHING PROHIBITED " 



Although Phny (IX. 29) definitely asserts " Nunc scaro datur 

 principatus," we find Martial within a few years dismissing the 

 fish as of poor flavour — its only redeeming point the trail, 

 which is excellent, 



" Hie scarus, aequoreis qui venit obesus ab undis, 

 Visceribus bonus est, cetera vile sapit." 



(XIII. 84).! 



In the curious and rare Ichtyophagia (the omission of the 

 second ' h ' of the theta may be a printer's error) by the learned 

 Doctor Ludovicus Nonnius, published at Antwerp in 1616 — a 

 treasure-house from which I quote much and take more — 

 an attempt is made to explain these diametrically opposed 

 estimates. Nonnius asserts that as among the common herd 

 only those fish which have fat flesh find favour or yield good 

 flavour, and as the Scarus possesses a drier and more flaky 

 flesh, " a plebis illis palatis spernebatur." 



This deals a nasty knock to poor Martial, who plumed 

 himself on his taste as a gourmet, acquired (he fails to add) 

 at the banquets and entertainments of his patrician friends 

 or wealthy patrons. 



^Medical controversy, rarely absent, as to wholesomeness 

 for once hardly exists. Galen, Diphilus, Xenocrates all agree 

 as to the Scarus, although the last warns us that it is " hard 

 to pass off in perspiration ! " {^v(TSia(i)upi]Tog) .^ Galen pro- 

 nounces fish who haunt the rocks the most wholesome 3 : of 

 these, the Scarus is by far the best. Diphilus the Siphnian 

 on the whole agrees, but condemns it as dangerous when fresh (!) 

 because it hunts and feeds on the poisonous sea-hare and so 

 frequently causes cholera morbus. * 



But according to .^lian, IX. 51, the Mullet (rpiyXii) was 

 held by the initiates of the Eleusinian Mysteries in the greatest 

 honour, for one or other of two curious reasons : the first, 



1 Another reading is adesiis. Cf, Xenocrates, de Alimento ex Aquatilibus. 

 c. 14, of the scarus, which was fresh-caught and not vivarium-V.e'pt, being ttoWoIs 

 iyKdrois fCtrroyuoy. 



2 See Liddell and Scott. 



3 VI. 718 (Kiihn). 

 * Athen., VIII. 51. 



