VIVARIA. 37 



in two senses^ the iresh-water stew, which entails little 

 outlay or trouble, may justly be called sweet (dulcis), 

 whilst the sea-pond, in consequence of all the heavy 

 outlays it occasions, deserved, also in a double sense, its 

 epithet ' amarum,' or bitter. Some, however, herein 

 more knowing than their neighbours, availed themselves 

 of the public taste for fish to construct vivaria as a 

 source of income ; making the ' ses in presenti' required 

 in their fabrication yield a by no means inconsiderable 

 paulo-post-future revenue by the sale of stock. Sergius 

 Orata, in particular, who took his second name out of 

 compliment to the fish which had lifted him to afiluence, 

 became a millionnaire by thus turning fishmonger on his 

 own account ; and though no others were so eminently 

 successful, a good many who had simk capital in stews, 

 found them by no means a bad investment. In de- 

 scribing these stews we shall follow the order observed 

 by Varro, in his enumeration of the expenses they en- 

 tailed ; these, he tells us, were of a tripartite character, 

 each part making large separate demands upon the 

 owner's purse : to quote the words of this author, ' they 

 were expensive at once to make, to stock, and to keep 

 up:'* that contingent on making the stew could not 

 have been inconsiderable, for though one piscina, or 

 common fresh-water tank, is held to be enough, says 

 Varro, one plain piece of artificial sea- water is what no 

 amateur ever dreams of. After going to a great ex- 

 pense in constructing, he divides and then subdivides it 

 into partitions, almost as multilocular as a painter's box 

 of colours, and in each compartment places some diffe- 

 rent fish or shell-fish : confirmatory of which, PHny tells 

 use that Fulvius Hirpinus had not less than four stews 

 for winkles only, viz. one for the famous Rieti species. 



* Primum, sedifloantur magho : secundo, implentur magno : 

 tertio, alxmtur magno. 



