FISHES. 



577 



his triumphs, distributed six thousand among his friends. Licinius 

 Crassus was celebrated among wealthy Romans for the splendour of 

 his eel-ponds. They obeyed his voice, he said, and when he called 

 them they darted towards him in order to be fed by his hands. The 

 same Licinius Crassus, and Quintus Hortensius, another wealthy 

 Roman patrician, wept the loss of their mursenas on one occasion, 

 when they all died in their ponds from some disease. This, however, 

 was only a matter of taste, passion, or fashion, sometimes, however, 

 accompanied by cruelty and gross corruption. 



It was thought among the Romans that muraenas fed with human 



Fig. 376. The Sea-Eel (Muraena Helena). 



flesh were the most delicately flavoured. A rich freedman, named 

 Pollion, who must not, however, be confounded with the orator of 

 the name, had the cruelty to order such of his slaves as he thought 

 deserving of death, and sometimes even those who had done nothing 

 to excite his anger, to be thrown to them. On one occasion, when 

 he entertained the Emperor Augustus, a poor slave who attended had 

 the misfortune to break a precious vase; Pollion immediately ordered 

 him to be thrown to the eels. But the indignant Emperor gave the 

 slave his freedom, and, in order to manifest his indignation with 

 Pollion, he ordered his attendants to break every vase of value which 

 the freedman had collected in his mansion. 



In the present day sea-eels are little esteemed in a gastronomic point 

 of view. Nevertheless they are still sought for on the coast of Italy, 

 and the fishermen avoid with great care the bites of their sharp teeth. 



