476 PROSE HALIEUTICS. 



and knowing beforehand that all citizens who had money 

 would have this delicacy at any rate, they imposed their 

 own price; till their proceedings at length became so 

 nefarious, that the state was compelled to interpose its 

 authority to check the nuisance. ' I bought a conger 

 this morning/ is the confession of an Athenian cor- 

 morant, ' at such a price as Priam might haye refused 

 AchiUes for the ransom of Hector's body.'* A cook 

 here, says Pliny, speaking of Rome, sometimes costs as 

 much as a triumph ; and a fine fish will frequently fetch 

 as much as a cook ; no wonder, then, that to ' go to mar- 

 ket rich and to return poor/ became at length quite a 

 proverbial expression. 'These ichthyopoUsts had needs be 

 rich, since they every day carry ofi" the tenth part of the 

 revenue of the State. If Neptime received but one- 

 twentieth of the proceeds iniquitously wrung by these 

 men from the public by the sale of his marine stores, 

 he would be by far the wealthiest of the gods.' These 

 traders were further accused of never wiUingly selling 

 fresh fish at all, and, if compelled to do so, of parting 

 with them in such croaking accents and with such si- 

 nister looks, as to make customers feel uncomfortable at 

 their purchase ; when however the gills were become 

 livid, the scales dry, and the smell unsavoury, each ras- 

 cal's face would beam with pleasure, his voice be pitched 

 in a different key, and his tongue wax eloquent in main- 

 taining that every article in his basket was fresh as a 

 cucumber, and scented like a rose. Juvenal's picture 

 of an esurient Greek, which we subjoin in a note,t is 

 in perfect keeping with what is elsewhere copiously re- 



* Exanimtunque auro corpus vendebat Achilles. — Yirg. 



f In what security the villaiii lies ! 



In what warm tones suspicion he defies ! 

 Sunbeams and thunderbolts boldly he cites, 

 And aU the darts of Cirrha's lord invites ; 



