172 MEDITERRANEAN PROVINCE. 



The seas of the Two Sicilies are wonderfully pro- 

 lific in animal life, and it is only in this region that 

 we have opportunities of comparing the products 

 of localities with what they were 2000 years ago. 

 Tarentum was the resort of the Roman epicures; 

 its abundant fish-markets gave it half its bad 

 reputation, encouraging its wealthy wool-dyers and 

 clothiers to indulge in fish dinners' of profuse ex- 

 travagance. The proud boast of the Tarentines, 

 " that others prepared by labour for the future, but 

 that they, by means of their banquets., were not 

 about to live, but were already living," was based 

 on the products of its inner and outer seas. 



" Pectinibus patulis jactat se molle Tarentum." 



The great inland bay, the " mare picolo," swarms 

 with scallops now as it did in the days of Horace. 

 It still affords the main support of the fishing popu- 

 lation. Mounds of pounded shells mark the sites of 

 the old dye-works of Tarentine purple ; indeed, its 

 old trade still lingers on, There the Murices are as 

 abundant as ever, so are the Mullets and the 

 Tunnies. 



The Syrian and Tarentine purples were of several 

 tints, and the shell-fish employed were of two sorts 

 at least ; one of these was certainly the Murex trun- 

 culus, which is most abundant here in the marginal 

 zone, and indeed throughout the whole of the Me- 

 diterranean. 



This copious marine Sicilian fauna has been 

 fully and even magnificently illustrated : there are, 



