Ill] OF FISH-PONDS 349 



about, Varro, which, when you were sacrificing near 

 the sea came up at the sound of a flute to the edge 

 of the shore and quite close to the altar, no one 

 daring to catch them — it was about the same time 

 that you saw the Lydian islands dancing ^ round 

 and round — well, these fishes of ours are equally 

 sacred, so sacred that no cook dares to call them 

 5 over' the coals. Our common friend Quintus Hor- 

 tensius had fish-ponds near Bauli ' which had cost 



* xopivovaag. Pliny devotes a chapter (ii, 95) to "islands which 

 always float," and mentions many such in Italy near Reate, 

 Statona, etc., as well as those in Lydia called, from the abund- 

 ance of reeds (caXa^oi) which grew on them, calaminae. With 

 regard to the latter he says : In Lydia quae vocantur Calaminae 

 mm ventis solum sed etiam contis quolibet impuhae muUorum 

 civium Mithridatico hello salus. So that Varro probably saw 

 these islands when he was one of Pompey's legati in 67 or 66 B.C. 

 Scaliger quotes the following passage from Martianus Capella 

 (which I have not consulted) : In Lydia Nympharum insulas 

 dicunt quas etiam recentior asserentium Varro se vidisse testatur 

 quae in medium stagnum a continenti procedentes cantu tihiarum 

 prima in circulum motae^ dehinc ad litora revertuntur. 



* In ius. Cicero somewhere in the Verrines makes the 

 same sort of pun, speaking of the ius Verrinum, i.e., 

 Verres's administration of justice, or "Boar's gravy." The 

 passage in the text means literally " to summon to ius, trial 

 or sauce." 



* Baulos. The modern Bacoli, about two miles from Baiae 

 (Baja). Ruins, now partly under water, of the very fish-ponds 

 mentioned here by Varro are still to be seen at Bacoli. Cf. Pliny 

 (ix, 55) : Apud Baulos in parte Baiana piscinam habuit Hor- 

 tensius Orator in qua murenam adeo dilexit ut exanimatam flesse 

 credatur. Cicero called Hortensius//jf:/«anMJ (Macrobius, ii, 

 II, and Cicero, Ad Atticum, i, 19). 



