CHAPTER XVI 
LEGAL REGULATIONS OF ROME AS REGARDS FISHING 
PREVIOUS instances of taking fish belonging to another have 
so far only been attended by divine or superhuman punish- 
ment. I venture now a few sentences on what were the Roman 
(I have discovered no Greek) legal regulations—for there does 
not appear to have existed at Rome any special /aw on Fishing— 
and how the rights of fisheries and fishers were protected. 
From the evidence available it is clear— 
(1) That among Res Nuillius, or things belonging to no 
one, were fish and wild animals in a state of nature. The 
Digest, 41. 1. 1, lays down that ‘‘ omnia animalia, que terra, 
mari, celo capiuntur, id est fere bestia, volucres, et pisces, 
capientum fiunt.’’ 
(2) That they became the property of the person who first 
““reduces them into possession,” 7.e. captures them. 
(3) That the sea and public rivers were not capable of 
individual ownership. 
(4) That no citizen could be prevented from fishing in the 
sea and such rivers by any person. To this rule there are 
several exceptions ; for instance, (a) a cove of the sea bordering 
on a man’s land—perhaps if enclosed with stakes, etc.—could 
be exclusively occupied for fishing (Digest, 47. 10, ss. 13 and 14) ; 
(0) a right of fishing in a recess or backwater of a public river 
could be acquired by prescription, and would then be protected 
by a possessory Interdict against any one who tried to fish 
this water (Ibid., 44. 3. 7). 
It is hard to define precisely what constituted a public 
river and what a private river. Under the term “ public” 
came all rivers of any size, not merely those that were tidal. 
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