ANCIENT ESTIMATION OF EISH. 59 



first place in the opinion of our belly-gods, who ayer that no 

 other flsh will sustain a comparison with him. 



So far Pliny. That the turbotj too^ must have had 

 his day, is proved amidst other evidence by the adage, 

 nihil ad rhombum — ' nothing to a tm-bot ■/ but people at 

 length being sated of turbot, the dictum changed hands 

 from the connoisseur to the fishmonger, who would 

 sometimes quote it in vain. The ' skittish alose' also had 

 a season, and, like that of other saltatrices, a short one. 

 When eels first wriggled into public favour, is un- 

 certain, but they long continued to wind themselves 

 round the gourmet's afiection. Perch took his turn in 

 the market, — 



Nor famed of rivers shall my muse e'er slight 

 Thee, worthy of the sea, our board's dehght ;* 



and Galen having spoken of his tiny co-swimmer and 

 co-partner in the stream, the gudgeon, as equally worthy 

 of attention, the same poet at length appeared to sing his 

 praises, — 



Tu quoque flumiaeas inter memoranda cohortes 

 Oobio, non major geminis sine polhce pahnis, 

 Prsepiaguis, teres, ovipara oongestior alvo.t 



The fancy for particular species was often confined to 

 individuals caught in one locality; thus. while a Tiber 

 sturgeon, even in his palmiest days, would have been 

 held cheap, a labrax caught anywhere else was held in 

 no esteem. So discriminating were the patrons of 

 good cheer at Rome, as to pronounce at a bite whether 

 a given oyster was a native of the Lucrine Lake, or had 

 come over, in the first instance, from remote Britain ; 

 whether their mullet were fed and bred in aristocratic 

 stews, or were common ' lutarii,' that is, muddy plebeian 

 pond-fish; whether their turbot were really from Ancona, 



* Ausonius. t Idem. 



