Chap. 40.] 
411 
animals would not have fully sufficed for this purpose, but 
because he could not see a man so aptly torn to pieces all at 
once by any other kind of animal. It is said that these fish 
are driven to madness by the taste of vinegar. Their skin is 
exceedingly thin ; while that of the eel, on the other hand, is 
much thicker. Yerrius informs- us that formerly the children 
of the Eoman citizens, while wearing the prsetexta,^^ were 
flogged with eel- skins, and that, for this reason, no pecuniary 
penalty^* could by law be inflicted upon them. 
CHAP. 40. (24.) VAEIOTJS KINDS OF FLAT FISH., 
There is another kind of flatfish, which, instead of bones, has 
cartilage, such, for instance, as the raia,^^ the pastinaca,^^ the 
squatina,^"^ the torpedo,^^ and those which, under their respective 
Greek names, are known as the ox,^^ the lamia, the eagle,^^ and 
Until the Roman youth assumed the toga virilis, they wore the toga 
prsetexta, or senatorial gown. The toga virilis was assumed at the Liber- * 
alia, in the month of March ; and though no age appears to have been 
positively fixed for the ceremony, it probably took place, as a general rule, 
on the feast which next followed the completion of the fourteenth year ; 
though it is not certain that the completion of the fourteenth year was not 
always the time observed. So long as a male wore the praetexta, he was 
considered " impubes," and when he had assumed the toga virilis, he was 
pubes.'* Hence the word " investis," or " praetextatus,'* (here employed), 
was the same as impubes. 
Thus the " impubes " paid, as Hardouin says, not in money, but in 
skin." Isidorus, in his Glossary, says, " ' Anguilla ' is the name given to 
the ordinary ' scutica,' or whip with which boys are chastised at school." 
The witty Rabelais says, B. ii. c. 30, "Whereupon his master gave him 
such a sound lashing with an eel-skin, that his own would have been worth 
nothing to make bag-pipe bags of." The ray. 
®^ The sting-ray ; the Raia pastinaca of Linnaeus. 
^"^ The angel-fish ; the Squalus squatina of Linnaeus. 
The Raia torpedo of Linnaeus. 
^9 Galen, in his explanation of words used by Hippocrates, speaks of the 
f3ovg OaXdaaiog, which is also described by Oppian, Halieut. B. ii. 1. 141, 
et seq. He speaks of it as growing to the length of eleven or twelve cubits, 
and having small, weak teeth, which are not easily seen, and compares it 
in appearance to the roof of a house. Cuvier thinks, that although its 
horns are not mentioned, a species of large horned ray is alluded to, which 
is known by the modern naturalists by the name of Cephalopterus, and he 
thinks it very likely these horns may have given it its Greek appellation. 
Indeed Pliny himself, in another place, B. xxxii. c. 53, speaks of it under 
the name of "cornuta," the "horned-fish." 
^ A si)ecies of ray, most probably. 
®i Cuvier suggests that this was the mylobates, the Raia aquila of Lin-.. 
