226 FISH IN SACRIFICES— VIVARIA— ARCHIMEDES 



trellised Vineyard, her Temple to Venus, her Library with its 

 floor of mosaics exhibiting a series of subjects taken from the 

 Iliad, and, lastly, in the bow by the side of the huge reservoir of 

 21,000 gallons, her water-tight well, made of planks lined with 

 lead, and filled with s^^-water, in which a great number of fish 

 were always kept — if all these wonders of a ship, launched over 

 2200 years ago, do not cause us to think a little, and to abate 

 our boasts over our Imperators and Olympics, then to the 

 cocksure conceit of the twentieth century naught is of avail, 

 not even the account given b}^ Moschion. ' 



Disregarding the practical directions of Varro (whom 

 Schneider - stamps, with regard to fish, etc., as a mere plagiarist 

 of Greek authors^ of Columella, and in a lesser degree of Pliny 

 how to construct and conduct paying stew-ponds, and turning 

 a deaf ear to Varro's warning that " to build, stock, and keep 

 them up was most costly," the Romans thought no money, 

 no time, too much to expend on vivaria.^ Possession and 

 cultivation of fish in vivaria, which were sometimes made in 

 the dining-room, became the one delight of these " Tritones 

 Piscinarum," as Cicero dubs two of his friends. 



The primary cause for their existence, a ready supply of 

 fresh fish in a hot climate, was forgotten. Other owners 

 resembled Hortensius, who (according to Varro) " not only was 

 never entertained by his fish at table, but was scarcely ever 

 easy, unless engaged in entertaining or fattening them." The 

 death of " his friend," the MurcBfia, between whom and himself 

 such a close attachment existed, almost broke his heart. ^ 



^ The existence of such gigantic craft has been called in question, but is 

 proved by an inscription from the temple of the Paphian Aphrodite in Cyprus, 

 which commemorates a builder of an ei/coo-^pr/s and a rpiaKovrrip-ns (W. Ditten- 

 berger, Orientis Grceci Inscriptiones Selected (Lipzias, 1903), I. 64, no. 39). See 

 also, L. Whibley, A Companion to Greek Studies (Cambridge, 1916), p. 5S4 f. 

 Athen., V. 40-44. Caligula built two ships for cruising and fishing up and 

 down the Campanian coast: their poops blazed with jewels. They were 

 fitted up with ample baths, galleries, and saloons, while a great variety of 

 vines and fruit trees were cultivated. Suetonius, Cal. 37. Divers have 

 discovered at the bottom of Lake Nemi two imperial house-boats of enormous 

 size, the timbers of which are decked with bronze reliefs of magnificent work- 

 manship. See V. Malfatti, Le yiavi romane del lago di Nemi, 1905. 



- Op. cit., p. 246. 



» Cf. Tibullus, II. 3. 45. 



"Claudit et indomitum moles mare, lentus ut intra 

 Neglegat hibernas piscis adesse minas." 



•» Phny. IX. 81. 



