262 VARRO ON FARMING [bk. 



taken from your ^ river was set before him. He 

 tasted it, then spat it out with the remark, I'll be 

 lo hanged if I didn't think it was fish. Then our 

 generation, not content with the extravagant exten- 

 sion of its warrens, has pushed its fish-ponds up to 

 the sea and summoned to them swarms of deep-sea 

 fishes. Was it not from these that Sergius Orata ^ 

 (gold-fish) and Licinius Murena (lamprey) got their 

 names? And who but knows — so famous are they — 

 of the fish-ponds of Philippus, Hortensius, and the 

 Luculli? Well, Axius, tell me, where do you want 

 me to begin? 



discussion, he says, * What the deuce have I to do with these 

 idiots? How much better it would be for us to go and drink 

 mulsum mixed with Greek wine, and eat a real fine lupus 

 caught between the two bridges ' " (Macrobius, ii, 12, end). 



Pliny (xxxii, 2) says that the lupus is not so intelligent as 

 the mugil, " which knows that the bait conceals a hook," but 

 is more vigorous, for '*when it is hooked it dashes wildly 

 backwards and forwards, making the wound wider, until at 

 last the hook comes away." 



^ E tuojlumine. Cf iii, 5, 9: Cum habeam sub oppido Casino 

 Jlumen quod per villamjluat. This was the river Vinius, now 

 called // Rapido. 



- Sergius Orata. Cf. Columella, viii, 16,. 5: Velut ante de- 

 victarum gentium Numantinus et Isauricus, ita Sergius Orata 

 et Licinius Muraena captorum piscium laetabantur vocabulis. 

 Sergius Orata first had hanging baths, ' ' first laid down oyster 

 beds at Baiae," etc. (Macrobius, il, 11). 



