CLEOPATRA’S ANGLING—OPPIAN’S REWARD 175 
and combines material based on observations with much extra- 
ordinary information gathered from floating material. In the 
last part of the treatise, the accounts given of the methods of 
capturing fish by men on various coasts lend a few pictures akin 
to independent Idylls. 
‘Most of the poem, however, is very like Pliny’s Natural 
History, put into verse. These didactic poems, asa whole, 
have little relationship with the Piscatory Eclogue, other than 
that implied in the fact that they are written in verse and tell 
much about the practices of fishers.” 
This grudging estimate of Oppian by Mr. Hall contrasts 
strangely with the terms of highest eulogy which authors of 
all ages have bestowed on him. Scaliger calls him “a divine 
and incomparable poet.” Sir Thomas Browne bewails with 
wonder that “‘ Oppian’s elegant lines are so much neglected : 
surely we hereby reject one of the best epic poets.” Scaliger 
remarks that no author makes more frequent use than Oppian 
of similes, which he praises warmly for their strength and 
beauty, for their brilliancy and effect. 
In my humble opinion they occur far too frequently and 
regularly. If we do not come across one at least in every 
hundred lines, the effect is agreeable disappointment. The sub- 
jects of comparison, moreover, are conventional and limited. 
But Oppian’s poems were held in the very highest favour, 
not only by our stingy stepmother, Posterity, but by his 
contemporaries. The Emperor (whether he were Antoninus 
—of all the Emperors! perhaps the keenest fisherman— 
Caracalla, or Severus is not clear, as Oppian’s exact date is 
still unsettled 2), on hearing the author recite his verses revoked 
the decree of banishment on Oppian’s father (to Malta), and 
paid the poet a golden sfatery, or more than a guinea a verse.? 
1 Suetonius, Augustus, c. 83, classes fishing as one of Octavian’s chief re- 
laxations. 
2 W. Christ, Geschichte dey griechischen Litteratuy, ed. 3 (Miinchen, 1898), 
p. 629, decides for Marcus Aurelius. 
3 As there are 3506 hexameters, the reward was over 3506 guineas sterling, 
which, without allowing for the increase in value of money between the second 
century and the twentieth, contrasts remarkably with the fourpence halfpenny 
a volume of Martial. According to Suidas, however, Oppian received from 
the Emperor 20,000 stateys, which would be a far larger reward than Octavia 
bestowed on Virgil for his Zeid. It has been suggested that this largesse 
