226 FISH IN SACRIFICES—VIVARIA—ARCHIMEDES 
trellised Vineyard, her Temple to Venus, her Library with its 
floor of mosaics exhibiting a series of subjects taken from the 
Iliad, and, lastly, in the bow by the side of the huge reservoir of 
21,000 gallons, her water-tight well, made of planks lined with 
lead, and filled with sea-water, in which a great number of fish 
were always kept—if all these wonders of a ship, launched over 
2200 years ago, do not cause us to think a little, and to abate 
our boasts over our Imperators and Olympics, then to the 
cocksure conceit of the twentieth century naught is of avail, 
not even the account given by Moschion.! 
Disregarding the practical directions of Varro (whom 
Schneider 2 stamps, with regard to fish, etc., as a mere plagiarist 
of Greek authors), of Columella, and in a lesser degree of Pliny 
how to construct and conduct paying stew-ponds, and turning 
a deaf ear to Varro’s warning that “‘ to build, stock, and keep 
them up was most costly,’ the Romans thought no money, 
no time, too much to expend on vivaria.? Possession and 
cultivation of fish in vivaria, which were sometimes made in 
the dining-room, became the one delight of these ‘“ Tritones 
Piscinarum,” as Cicero dubs two of his friends. 
The primary cause for their existence, a ready supply of 
fresh fish in a hot climate, was forgotten. Other owners 
resembled Hortensius, who (according to Varro) ‘‘ not only was 
never entertained by his fish at table, but was scarcely ever 
easy, unless engaged in entertaining or fattening ¢them.’’ The 
death of ‘‘ his friend,” the Murena, between whom and himself 
such a close attachment existed, almost broke his heart.4 
1 The existence of such gigantic craft has been called in question, but is 
proved by an inscription from the temple of the Paphian Aphrodite in Cyprus, 
which commemorates a builder of an elxoofpns and a tpiaxovrfpns (W. Ditten- 
berger, Ovientis Greci Inscriptiones Selecta (Lipziz, 1903), I. 64, no. 39). See 
also, L. Whibley, A Companion to Greek Studies (Cambridge, 1916), p. 584 f. 
Athen., V. 40-44. Caligula built two ships for cruising and fishing up and 
down the Campanian coast: their poops blazed with jewels. They were 
fitted up with ample baths, galleries, and saloons, while a great variety of 
vines and fruit trees were cultivated. Suetonius, Cal. 37. Divers have 
discovered at the bottom of Lake Nemi two imperial house-boats of enormous 
size, the timbers of which are decked with bronze reliefs of magnificent work- 
manship. See V. Malfatti, Le navi romane del lago di Nemi, 1905. 
2 Op. cit., p. 246. 
3 Cf. Tibullus, IT. 3. 45. 
“Claudit et indomitum moles mare, lentus ut intra 
Neglegat hibernas piscis adesse minas.”” 
4 Pliny, IX. 81. 
