ANTONIA’S RECORD—FISH-BREEDING 229 
its savage nature no other could inhabit the same vivariwm, the 
many stories of its tameness and docility ?—that one of the 
direst of imprecations ran that in the underworld your enemy’s 
lungs should be mangled by Murene |} 
In times preceding these infatuated extravagant ages, the 
purpose for which vivaria were first created was steadfastly 
kept in mind and wonderfully advanced by practical pisci- 
culturists. From being a mere pond for keeping fish alive till 
needed for the table, vivaria developed in the course of time into 
spawning grounds. 
The pisciculturists went even farther. They turned lakes 
and rivers into natural vivaria by depositing in them not only 
adult fish, but the spawn of all such species as are in the habit, | 
although born at sea, of pushing some distance up estuaries 
and streams. Columella instances specially the rivers Velinus, 
Sabatinus, Ciminus, and Volsinius as examples of the great 
success of this experiment in fish propagation.? 
Comacchio on the Adriatic, from its extraordinary ad- 
vantages of position and of fish-food, can hardly have escaped 
being utilised for similar purposes by the Romans. For many 
1 Aristophanes, Frogs, 474 f., Taprnola ptpalva, a great dainty (Varro, 
ap. Gell., 6. 16. 5), is of course meant to suggest Tartarus. Contrast with this, 
the popularity of the fish, as attested by its frequent mention, especially in 
Plautus, and by the fact which Helbig (Camp. Wandgemalde (Leipzig, 1868), 
Index, p. 496, s.v. “‘ Murane’’) brings out, that on the mural decorations of 
Pompeii no fish finds more frequent representation. 
2 De Re Rustica, VIII. 16, ‘‘Quamobrem non solum piscinas, quas ipsi 
construxerant, frequentabant sed etiam quos rerum natura lacus fecerat 
convectis marinis seminibus replebant. Et lupos auratasque procreaverunt 
ac siqua sint alia piscium genera dulcis undz tolerantia.” 
“What fish Columella meant by Aurata is not settled: it is certainly not 
the “ goldfish,” as some translate, for they are not sea-fish. Facciolati, after 
saying that the name came from the fish having golden eyebrows, goes on that 
““some folk deny that he can be identified with the ‘ gilthead’ or ‘ dory.’” 
Perhaps the fish is one of the Sparid@ group, which pass at certain seasons of 
the year from the Mediterranean into salt-water fish marshes, as observed by 
Aristotle, and confirmed by M. Duhamel. Or can it be the smelt ? 
Faber, pp. 37, 38, ‘‘ of fresh-water fishes, twenty-one species, among them 
the fresh-water Perch, are also common to the sea: amongst the sea fishes, 
the flounder frequents brackish water, and sometimes enters the rivers: 
others only occasionally frequent the lagoons and brackish waters, among them 
the Gilthead,” a statement incidentally confirmed by Martial (Ep. XIII. 90) 
in his helluous pronunciamento, that practically the only really good Aurata was 
that whose haunt was the Lucrine lake, and whose whole world was its oyster ! 
of which fish Martial (XIII. 90) seems only appreciative, 
“, . , cui solus erit concha Lucrina cibus.” 
