BOOK IX.] History of Nature. 175 



in by Pollio Vedius : and there remained living still two 

 more of that Age, and of the same Kind. And since we 

 mention Fish-ponds, we should do well to write a little more 

 of them before we give over this Discourse of Creatures of 

 the Water. 



CHAPTER LIV. 

 Of Oyster-beds, and who first invented them. 



THE first who invented Oyster-beds was Sergius Grata, 

 who made them at Bajanum, in the Time of L. Crassus the 

 Orator, before the Marsian War. And this he did, not for 

 his Appetite, but for Profit ; and by this Invention, and 

 others, he gathered great Revenues : for he it was that in- 

 vented the Hanging-baths, and so sold his Villa to better 

 Advantage. He was the first Man who pronounced the 

 Lucrine Oysters to be of the most excellent Taste : for the 

 same Kinds of Creatures of the Water in one Place are better 

 than in another : as the Lupus-fish in the River Tiber, be- 

 tween the two Bridges : the Rhomnus (Turbot) at Ravenna : 

 the Mursena in Sicily : the Elops at Rhodes, and in like 

 Manner of other Sorts of Fishes ; for I do not intend to give 

 a long Criticism on Cookery. At this Time the British 

 Shores were not employed to prepare them when Grata 

 ennobled those of the Lucrine Lake ; but afterwards it was 

 thought profitable to seek Oysters from Brundusium, in the 

 furthest Part of Italy. And to prevent Controversy between 

 opposite Tastes, it was of late devised that the Oysters, 

 which in the long Carriage from Brundusium were almost 

 famished, should be fed in the Lucrine Lake. A little before 

 this same Time, Licinius Murena invented Ponds for keeping 

 other Fishes ; and his Example was followed by Noblemen, 

 as Philippus and Hortensius. Lucullus cut through a Moun- 

 tain near Naples (for this Purpose), and let in an Arm of the 

 Sea into his Fish-ponds ; the Cost of which was greater than 

 that of the House which he had built. For this Reason 

 Pompey the Great gave him the Name of Xerxes Togatus. 

 The Fishes of that Pond, after his death, were sold for thirty 

 hundred thousand Sesterces (three millions of Sesterces). 



