CLEOPATRA'S ANGLING— OPPIAN'S REWARD 175 



and combines material based on observations with much extra- 

 ordinary information gathered from floating material. In the 

 last part of the treatise, the accounts given of the methods of 

 capturing fish by men on various coasts lend a few pictures akin 

 to independent Idylls. 



"Most of the poem, however, is very like Pliny's ATa^wm^ 

 History, put into verse. These didactic poems, as a whole, 

 have little relationship with the Piscatory Eclogue, other than 

 that implied in the fact that they are written in verse and tell 

 much about the practices of fishers." 



This grudging estimate of Oppian by Mr. Hall contrasts 

 strangely with the terms of highest eulogy which authors of 

 all ages have bestowed on him. Scaliger calls him " a divine 

 and incomparable poet." Sir Thomas Browne bewails with 

 wonder that " Oppian's elegant lines are so much neglected : 

 surely we hereby reject one of the best epic poets." Scahger 

 remarks that no author makes more frequent use than Oppian 

 of similes, which he praises warmly for their strength and 

 beauty, for their brilliancy and effect. 



In my humble opinion they occur far too frequently and 

 regularly. If we do not come across one at least in every 

 hundred lines, the effect is agreeable disappointment. The sub- 

 jects of comparison, moreover, are conventional and limited. 



But Oppian's poems were held in the very highest favour, 

 not only by our stingy stepmother. Posterity, but by his 

 contemporaries. The Emperor (whether he were Antoninus 

 — of all the Emperors 1 perhaps the keenest fisherman — 

 Caracalla, or Severus is not clear, as Oppian's exact date is 

 still unsettled 2) , on hearing the author recite his verses revoked 

 the decree of banishment on Oppian's father (to Malta), and 

 paid the poet a golden stater, or more than a guinea a verse. ^ 



1 Suetonius, Augustus, c. 83, classes fishing as one of Octavian's chief re- 

 laxations. 



2 W. Christ, Geschichle der griechischen Litteratur, ed. 3 (Miinchen, 1898), 

 p. 629, decides for Marcus AureUus. 



3 As there are 3506 hexameters, the reward was over 3506 guineas sterling, 

 which, without allowing for the increase in value of money between the second 

 century and the twentieth, contrasts remarkably with the fourpence halfpenny 

 a volume of Martial. According to Suidas, however, Oppian received from 

 the Emperor 20,000 staters, which would be a far larger reward than Octavia 

 bestowed on Virgil for his Mneid. It has been suggested that this largesse 



