MULLET—^ CIPENSER 257 



writers, which is often, if not convincingly, identified with the 

 Sturio, the " Sturgeon," and by Archestratus ^ is affirmed 

 but wrongly, to be the yaXtuq, enjoyed a long and glorious 

 reign of supremacy from the early times of the RepubHc down 

 to Vespasian. For it alone, with perhaps one exception, was 

 reserved the high honour of being served at a banquet to the 

 music of flutes and pipes, crowned itself, borne by slaves like- 

 wise crowned. 2 



Its praise and its price (Varro styles it muUifiMmmus) 

 seem alike exorbitant. We find the name of Gallonius the 

 glutton-auctioneer, the first to bring the fish into fashion, 

 occurring again and again. ^ On Ovid's {Hal. 134) " Tuque 

 peregrinis acipenser nobilissimus " may be piled passage upon 

 passage. Plautus in a fragment of his Bacaria * asks : 



" Ouis est mortalis tanta fortuna affectus umquam 

 Qua ego nunc sum ? quoius haec ventri portatur pompa : 

 Vel nunc qui mihi in mari acipenser latuit antehac, 

 Ouoius ego latus in latebras reddam meis dentibus et manibus." 



Cicero — no fish story-teller he — makes at least four refer- 

 ences to it. In De Fato, frag. 5, he sets forth the tale of the 

 Acipenser (' piscis ... in primis nobilis ') presented to 

 Scipio, to whom, as he persisted in inviting all and every one 

 who saluted him, Pontius anxiously whispered, " Do you know 

 what you are about ? Lo ! this is a fish fit only for a few 

 choice palates ! " 



As to its decline from its high estate, Pliny's definite 

 assertion (IX. 27), " Apud antiques piscium nobihssimus 

 habitus acipenser . . . nullo nunc in honore est," finds 

 corroboration by Martial, XIII. 91 : 



" Ad Palatinas acipensem mittite mensas ; 

 Ambrosias ornent munera rara dapes." ^ 



* Archestrat., ap. Athen, VII. 44. 



2 Cf. Macrobius, Sat., II. 12, and Athenaeus, VII. 44. 



3 Horace, Sat. II. 2, 46. 



* Macrobius, Sat., III. 16, i. 



* Pliny claims for the Acipenser that he " unus omnium squamis ad os 

 versis contra aquam nando meat." The reading of the last four words is 

 however much disputed. C. Mayhoff prints contra quam in nando meant. 

 Plutarch, De Sol. Anim., 28, of the Elops, " it always swims with the wind and 

 tide, not minding the erection or opening of the scales, which do not lie towards 

 the tail, as in other fish." 



