GEOPONIKA 53 



to have been written about looo a.d., and to have been divided 

 into twenty-two chapters. The author's main object was to 

 prove that fishers had been singularly favoured by Divine 

 approbation ; but appended to the MS. was a full Hst of all 

 river fish, the baits used for taking them, and the suitable 

 seasons for anghng for each sort of fish." 



For the existence of this work, vanished now for over sixty 

 years, we have only the authority of Robert Blakey.i But 

 this, if it do pass muster with Dr. Turrell, fails to satisfy 

 Westwood and Satchell, who describe his book on Anghng as 

 " a sUpshod and negligent work, devoid of all utiHty, a farrago 

 of quotations incorrectly given, and of so-called original 

 passages, the vagueness and uncertainty of which rob them 

 of all weight and value. Mr. Blakey's volume, it is but fair 

 to add, is redeemed from utter worthlessness by the excellent 

 bibUographical catalogue appended to it by the publisher ! " ^ 



The Geoponika, whether written or redacted by Cassianus 

 Bassus or Cassius Dionysius, or merely translated from a 

 treatise by an ancient Carthaginian author, treats generally 

 of agriculture. The twentieth book, however, deals with fish- 

 ponds, fishing, and baits : unhke the Roman writers on 

 vivaria, who tell us nothing as to the capture of the fish in them, 

 the writer gives us instructive tips on baits. 



One infalUble recipe in chap, xviii. for collecting the fish- 

 on the fines of Baiting the Swim— from its superstitious naivete 

 compels quotation : " Get three hmpets, and having taken 

 out the fish therein, inscribe on the shell the words, 'law ^aftawO, 

 or ' Jehovah, Lord of Hosts ' ; you will immediately see the 

 fish come to the same place in a surprising manner." ^ The 



1 Angli?ig Literature (London, 1856), p. 33. 



' There is in existence a Byzantine MS. entitled ^'apo\6yoi (lit. " Fishhook," 

 i.e. anecdotes of fish), which K. Kriimbacher, Geschichte der hyzantinischen 

 Litteratur, 3rd ed. (Miinchen, 1897), p. S84, states should be pubHshed. 



' The result of the work done during the last twenty years by German 

 writers, such as W. Christ, Geschichte des griechischen Litteratur, ed. 3 

 (Miinchen, 1898), p. 664 f . ; E. Oder, in Tauly-V^'inowa /?ffl/ Etw. (Stuttgart, 

 1910), VII., 1221-1225 ; and F. Liibker, Reallexikon des klassischeyi Altertums 

 (Leipzig, 1914), p. 409, seems to show that our Geoponika is a reduction, c. 

 950 A.D., by an unknown hand of an older compilation made in the sixth 

 century by Cassianus Bassus. Behind him in turn are older works of the 

 fourth century, viz. the (rwaywy)] yfwpyiKcov of Vindanius Anatohus in twelve 

 books, and the yiwpyiKd of the younger Didymos of Alexandreia in fifteen 



