54 PROSE HALIEUTICS, 



Sander relates that, on Plato's censuring Aristippus for 

 his devotion to this delicacy, he told the philosopher 

 he had only given a small sum for it; 'but why,' gravely 

 remonstrated the great moralist, 'give even a small 

 sum?' ' Because,' replied the other, ' I am as fond of fish 

 as you seem to be of money.' The poet Alexis had a 

 noble aflFection for fish, but on being twitted for this 

 penchant by a fool, who wondered what he would best 

 like on the table at that moment, replied, ' a coxcomb 

 curried!' Another bard chancing to be at a fish enter- 

 tainment, marked the finest specimen, and then spat upon 

 it to secure it for himself. Stratonicus was called a ten 

 months' child by the old women of Corinth, from eat- 

 ing more fish than any nine months' man had ever done 

 before him. ' Once the north and south winds were the 

 only accidents that prevented fish from appearing in our 

 market,' says a disappointed connoisseur; ' but since Pha- 

 gillus has come amongst us, he robs the Agora of its 

 supplies, though the winds have ceased.' Demosthenes 

 publicly taxed Philocrates with being a profligate de- 

 bauchee and fish-eater, who bought mullets and mis- 

 tresses with money the wages of his treason. ' Now that 

 my callichthys is drest, prythee shut and bar the door, 

 ere that Protean plate-licker Agis comes in surrepti- 

 tiously to bear it off, and to rob me of the fruits of 

 my savoury labours. I dread that man's entry by some 

 one of the elements — the air, the fire, or the steam. 

 Nay, even as we sit down I shall fear, other expedients 

 having failed him, lest the ceiling open and he make a 

 descent upon my fish, like Jove upon Danae, and cir- 

 cimivent me at last!' To pass from Grecian to Roman 

 opsophagy. 



So extensive and almost cat-like was this propensity 

 from the earliest times at Rome, that Numa, to check 

 the inconveniences arising from it, issued a prohibitory 

 edict, to the effect that no caterers should be allowed to 



