222 FISH IN SACRIFICES—VIVARIA—ARCHIMEDES 
although it did not bulk so big in early Mediterranean religion 
as L. Siret would make out.! 
The taxes or duties derived from fish or fishing furnished the 
peculiar of the Temples at Delos, Ephesus, and elsewhere: at 
Byzantium and some other places they went to the city. After 
the Roman conquests these imposts were paid not to the cities 
(Cyzicus and other places were the exceptions), but to the State, 
and were gathered by the intermediary “ publicans.”’ 2 
With stories before him, such as those of the suppers recorded 
by the dozen in Athenzus, and given to and by the Emperor 
Vitellius, for which the fish were brought in ships of war from: 
the Carpathian Sea and the Straits of Spain, it is no wonder 
that a modern author is driven to conclude that the ancients 
thought more of the edible than the sporting qualities of the 
fish. They ransacked the habitable globe for side-dishes, but 
did not trouble themselves about the precepts of Mrs. Glasse. 
Apart from this ransacking of the globe, the Romans 
developed, as the demand for fish by rich and poor alike grew 
ever greater, the Egyptian and Assyrian vivarium to a marvel- 
lous extent. 
Built at first (as Columella avers 3) simply for the purpose 
of supplying fresh fish for the table, they found such favour 
that no self-respecting Roman could afford to be without his 
vivarium. With the rich they were the occasion of most costly 
ostentation and extravagant expenditure. 
Whether Sergius Aurata (or Orata) took or not his cognomen* 
from the fish Aurata, all writers identify him as the first to 
build a vivarium for oysters. From their sale, from the income 
derived from the vapour baths (pensiles balineas), of which he 
was also the pioneer, and from the villas erected on his property, 
close to Baie, the baths, and the oysters, he amassed an 
‘ L. Siret, Questions de chronologie et ethnographie ibéviques (Paris, 1913), 
Index. s.v. ‘ Poulpe.’ 
2 Cf. Tacitus, Annals, XII. 63. ; 
3 De Re Rustica, VIII. 16, “ Our ancestors shut up saltwater fishes also in 
fresh waters. For that ancient rustic progeny of Romulus and Numa valued 
themselves mightily upon this and thought it a great matter, that, if a rural 
re msn casi with a city life, it did not come short in any part of riches 
4“ Orata,” according to Festus, p. 196, 26 ff. Lindsay, *' genus piscis 
appellatur a colore auri, quod rustici orum dicebant.” 
