GEOPONIKA 53 
to have been written about 1000 A.D., and to have been divided 
into twenty-two chapters. The author’s main object was to 
prove that fishers had been singularly favoured by Divine 
approbation ; but appended to the MS. was a full list of all 
viver fish, the baits used for taking them, and the suitable 
seasons for angling for each sort of fish.” 
For the existence of this work, vanished now for over sixty 
years, we have only the authority of Robert Blakey.! But 
this, if it do pass muster with Dr. Turrell, fails to satisfy 
Westwood and Satchell, who describe his book on Angling as 
“a slipshod and negligent work, devoid of all utility, a farrago 
of quotations incorrectly given, and of so-called original 
passages, the vagueness and uncertainty of which rob them 
of all weight and value. Mr. Blakey’s volume, it is but fair 
to add, is redeemed from utter worthlessness by the excellent 
bibliographical catalogue appended to it by the publisher !”’ 2 
The Geoponika, whether written or redacted by Cassianus 
Bassus or Cassius Dionysius, or merely translated from a 
treatise by an ancient Carthaginian author, treats generally 
of agriculture. The twentieth book, however, deals with fish- 
ponds, fishing, and baits : unlike the Roman writers on 
vivaria, who tell us nothing as to the capture of the fish in them, 
the writer gives us instructive tips on baits. 
One infallible recipe in chap. xviii. for collecting the fish— 
on the lines of Baiting the Swim—from its superstitious naivete 
compels quotation: ‘‘ Get three limpets, and having taken 
out the fish therein, inscribe on the shell the words, ‘law ZaBaw6, 
or ‘ Jehovah, Lord of Hosts’; you will immediately see the 
fish come to the same place in a surprising manner.” 3 The 
1 Angling Literature (London, 1856), p. 33. 
_ ® There is in existence a Byzantine MS. entitled Yapoadyos (lit. “‘ Fishbook,” 
i.e. anecdotes of fish), which K. Krumbacher, Geschichte der byzantinischen 
Littevatur, 3rd ed. (Miinchen, 1897), p. 884, states should be published. 
_3 The result of the work done during the last twenty years by German 
writers, such as W. Christ, Geschichte des griechischen Litteratur, ed. 3 
(Minchen, 1898), p. 664 f.; E. Oder, in Pauly-Winowa Real Enc. (Stuttgart, 
I9I0), VIL, 1221-1225; and F. Libker, Reallexikon des klassischen Altertums 
(Leipzig, 1914), p. 409, seems to show that our Geoponika is a reduction, c. 
95° A.D., by an unknown hand of an older compilation made in the sixth 
century by Cassianus Bassus. Behind him in turn are older works of the 
fourth century, viz. the cuvaywyh yewpyixav of Vindanius Anatolius in twelve 
books, and the yewpy:xé of the younger Didymos of Alexandreia in fifteen 
