220 FISH IN SACRIFICES—VIVARIA—ARCHIMEDES 
copper coin of Carteia ! depicts an angler, possibly Mercury— 
a god of fishing. Sinope, and many other places, have left 
similar numismatic representations. Of most interest from a 
monetary point of view are the Greek diobols of Tarentum. 
Those bearing the figure of Taras on his dolphin passed as 
current token in the fish market.? 
Famous for the beauty of their execution were some of the 
Syracusan coins, representing the head of Arethusa surrounded 
by dolphins. The accounts of the legend vary. Shortly, the 
TWO MEN FISHING, FROM COINS OF CARTEIA. 
From A. Heiss, 49, 20-21. See N. 1. 
lovely maid of the train of Artemis fled the embraces of her 
lover Alpheus, 
“* Arethusa arose 
From her couch of snows 
In the Acroceraunian Mountains,” 
and prevailed on Oceanus to open a way through his waves till 
that a pig of metal was sometimes called deAgis. These fish-shaped pieces may 
be the degenerate representatives of similar-shaped pigs of bronze.” He refers 
to Ardaillon, Les Mines du Laurin, p. 111, who compares the French saumon 
with the meaning of “a pig of metal.” 
1 In Pitra, op. cit., pp. 508-512, will be found a list of 156 coins, gems, etc., 
illustrating the connection of various fishes with deities and places. For the 
coins of Carteia, see A. Heiss, Description générale des monnaies antiques de 
V Espagne, Paris, 1870, p. 331 f., pl. 49, 19-21 (= my Fig. supra). The saisa- 
mentum of this town was in special request ; its boasted excellence might be 
perhaps accounted for by Strabo’s statement that the diet of the Tunnies off 
Carteia consisted of acorns which grew in that sea, just as land acorns with an 
occasional truffle achieve, according to gourmets, for the Spanish pig the 
primacy of hams. Alas! for such conjecture, science shows that the Tunny 
throve on Fucus vesiculosus, not acorns. Cf. Keller, op. cit. 383. 
2B. V. Head, Historia Mumorum, Oxford, 1911, p. 67: ‘‘ These little 
coins formed the staple of the common currency in the Tarentine fish-markets, 
as well as in the rural districts subject to Tarentum, and even beyond its 
territories—in Apulia and Samnium for instance.” 
