BOOK VIII. XVI. 2-5 



they, therefore, not only stocked the fish-ponds which 

 they had themselves constructed, but also filled the 

 lakes which nature had formed, with fish-spawn 

 brought from the sea. Hence the Veline " and 

 Sabatine ^ lakes, also the Volsinian " and Ciminian <* 

 lakes produced basse and gilt-head, and all the fishes 

 to be found anywhere which can live in fresh water. 

 Then an age followed which abandoned this method 3 

 of keeping fish and the extravagance of the wealthy 

 enclosed the vexy seas and Neptune himself, so that 

 within the memory of our grandfathers the action 

 and speech of Marcius Philippus * M^as on everyone's 

 lips as being very witty, whereas it was the action 

 and speech of a luxurious man. For once when he 

 happened to be dining at a friend's house at Casinum,/ 

 and after having tasted a pike from a neighbouring 

 river which was set before him had spit it out, he 

 followed this opprobrious action with the words : 

 " Plague take me if I did not think that it was a 

 fish." This oath caused many people to put more 4 

 refinement into their gluttony and has taught learned 

 and educated palates to loathe the basse unless 

 it were one which had been wearied by struggling 

 against the current of the Tiber. Therefore Terentius 

 Varro says : 9 There is no paltry or foppish fellow in 

 these days who does not now declare that he cares not 

 whether he has a fish-pond crowded with this sort of 

 fish or with frogs. Yet in the very times to which 5 

 Varro ascribed this luxury, the austerity of Cato was 

 highly commended, who, nevertheless, himself as the 

 guardian of Lucullus sold his ward's fish-ponds for the 



* This story is borrowed from Varro, R.R. III. 3. 9. 



/ The modem Monte Cassino in the north of Campagna. 



» Loc. cit. 



403 



