CHAPTER X 
THE SCARUS—THE EARLIEST ACCLIMATISATION OF FISH 
—-THE FIRST NOTICE ‘‘ FISHING PROHIBITED ”’ 
From the wealth of copious yet conflicting accounts of this 
famous fish in Greek and Roman writers, a large monograph 
might be produced.! I restrict myself to a short notice of the 
acclimatisation of the fish, and of the controversies on its 
value, as (A) a Dainty, and (B) a Diet. 
The original habitat of the Scarus was in the seas off Asia 
Minor, especially in the Carpathian Sea. During the Augustan 
age it was rarely taken in Italian waters, and then only when 
driven thither by storms. Thus Horace complains that neither 
Lucrine oysters nor Rhombi come his way, 
“ aut scari, 
Si quos Eois intonata fluctibus 
Hiems ad hoc vertat mare.” 
(Ep., II. 50 ff.) 
Pliny (IX. 29), after attributing to the Scavus the unique 
characteristic of being herbivorous and never feeding on other 
fish and asserting that of its own accord it never passes from 
the Carpathian Sea beyond Cape Troas, goes on to tell us that 
1 “Jl est peu de poissons et méme d’animaux quiaient été, pour les premiers 
peuples civilisés de l’Europe, l’objet de plus de recherches, d’attention, et 
d’éloges que le Scare’ (Lacépéde). On the family of the Labrid@ (of which the 
Scarus forms a genus) the same author asserts that Nature has not conferred 
either strength or power, but they have received as their share of her favours, 
agreeable proportions, great activity of fin, and adornment with all the colours 
of the rainbow. . Of the two cousins of the Scarus, the Turdus and the Julis, 
his eulogy can not be omitted: ‘‘ Le feu du diamant, du rubis, de la topaz, 
de 1’émeraude, du saphir, de l’améthyste, du grenat scintille sur leures écailles 
polies: et brille sur leure surface en gouttes, en croissants, en raies, en bandes, 
en anneaux, en ceintures, en zones, en ondes; il se méle A l’éclat de l’or et 
d’argent qui y resplendit sur de grandes places, les teintes obscures, les aires 
pales, et pour ainsi dire décolorées.” Nicander of Thyatira (cp. Athen. 7, 
113) states that there were two kinds of Scavus, one aidAos of many diverse 
colours, the other évias of a dull grey tint. 
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