252 FISHERIES OF THE ORIENTAL REGION, 



says : — " The masters in gastronomy inform us that the Mullet 

 when dying assumes a variety of colours and succession of shades, 

 and that the hue of the red scales, growing paler and paler, 

 gradually changes, raoi^e especially if it is looked at enclosed in 

 glass. M. Apicius, a man who displayed great ingenuity in all 

 that related to luxury, states that it is a most excellent plan to 

 let the Mullet die in the pickle known as the ' Garum 

 Suciorum ;' "* for we tind that even this has found a surname ; 

 and he offered a prize for anyone who should invent a new sauce 

 made from the liver of this tish. I find it much easier to relate 

 this fact than to state who it was that gained the prize. 



In Book XX., chapter 23, treating of garlic, he says that it is 

 a remedy for leprosy when reduced to ashes and applied as an 

 ointment with oil and garum. 



Horace refers to Garum in the 8th Satii'e, line 46. This 

 poeui, as most readers will remember, I'elates the particulars of 

 the supper given by Nasidienus to Maecenas, Horace, and some 

 of his friends. In the conversation a contemptuous description 

 of the fare is given, with ridiculous comments from the host by 

 way of making every dish pass for something extraordinax-y. 

 Speaking of a lamprey he says : — 



" His mistum jus est oleo quod prima Venafri 



Pi'essit cella, Garo de succis piscis Iberi, 



Vino quinquenni, &c ;" 

 Or, this sauce is of the primest Venafrian oil mixed with 

 Garum, made from the juice of Spanish tish, five-year-old wine, 

 Ac." Commentators vary in their interpretation of the passage. 

 Some say that the Garum was a juice or pickle of certain fishes 

 called Gain which were suffered to dissolve in salt. It is, how- 

 ever, a gratuitous assumption that there ever were such fishes, 

 and if there were it is hird to believe that they were so very soft 

 as to let themselves be dissolved in brine. It is difiieult to 

 reconcile this with any kind of evolution which made them salt- 

 water fishes. 



* Bostock and Riley translate this expression as " rraruni of the Allies," 

 but I prefer to leave it as it is, regarding it as a popular name for the 

 sauce in qiiestion. 



