HALIEUTICA, I. 51-73 



path — for the tracks of the swimming tribes are 

 unseen — nor do they see where the fish will encounter 

 them and come -vnthin range of capture ; for not by 

 one path does the fish travel. In feeble hairs and 

 bent hooks of bronze and in reeds and nets the fishers 

 have their strength. 



Yet not bereft of pleasure art thou, if pleasure 

 thou desirest, but sweet is the royal sport. A ship 

 well-riveted, well-benched, hght exceedingly, the 

 young men drive with racing oars smiting the back 

 of the sea ; and at the stem the best man as steers- 

 man guides the ship, steady and true, to a wide space 

 of gently heaxing waves ; and there feed " infinite 

 tribes of feasting fishes which thy servants ever tend, 

 fattening them x^-ith abundant food, a ready choir of 

 spoil for thee, O blessed one, and for thy glorious 

 son, the flock of your capture. For straightway thou 

 lettest from thy hand into the sea the well-woven 

 Hne, and the fish qviickly meets and seizes the hook 

 of bronze and is speedily haled forth — not all un- 

 willing — by our king ; ^ and thy heart is gladdened, 

 O Lord of earth. For great delight it is for eye and 

 mind to see the captive fish tossing and turning. 



But be thou gracious imto me, thou who art king 



(Plin. ix. 168 ostrearum vivaria ; ibid. 170 reliquorum piscium 

 vivaria, viii. 115 for Deer, xiii. 211 vivaria eonim (sc. Wild 

 Swine) ceterarumque silvestrium), with its subdivisions, 

 leporarium (not confined to Hares, Varro, iii. 3. 1), aviarium 

 (Varro, iii. 3. 6) or ornithon (Varro, iii. 3. 1), etc. Cf. Ael. 

 viii. 4, xii. 30 : Juv. iv. 51 ; Mart. iv. 30 ; Aul. Gell. ii. 20. 4 f.; 

 Badham, pp. 35 ff. ; Radcliffe, pp. 224 ff. 



" Cf. Beaumont and Fletcher, ^Fhe Falie One, i. 2 " She 

 was used to take delight, with her fair hand | To angle in 

 the Nile, where the glad fish, | As if they knew who 'twas 

 sought to deceive them, i Contended to be taken " (quoted 

 Radcliffe, p, 173); Mart. i. 104 norunt cui serviant leones. 



205 



