468 
PLTNT'S HISTOET. 
[Book IX. 
gius Orata/^ who established them at Baise, in the time of L. 
Grassus, the orator, just before the Marsic War. This was 
done by him, not for the gratification of gluttony, but of ava- 
rice, as he contrived to make a large income by this exercise 
of his ingenuity. He was the first, too, to invent hanging 
baths, and after buying villas and trimming them up, he 
would every now and then sell them again.^^ He, too, was the 
first to adjudge the pre-eminence for delicacy of flavour to the 
oysters of Lake Lucrinus for every kind of aquatic animal 
is superior in one place to what it is in another. Thus, for in- 
stance, the wolf-fish of the river Tiber is the best that is caught 
between the two bridges, and the turbo t of Ravenna is the 
most esteemed, the murena of Sicily, the elops of Ehodes ; the 
same, too, as to the other kinds, not to go through all the items 
of the culinary catalogue. The British shores had not as yet 
sent their supplies, at the time when Grata thus ennobled the 
Lucrine oysters : at a later period, however, it was thought 
worth while to fetch oysters all the way from Brundisium, at 
the very extremity of Italy ; and in ordfer that there might 
exist no rivalry^"* between the two flavours, a plan has been 
He was a contemporary of L. Crassiis, and was distinguished for his 
great wealth, and his love of luxury and refinement, but possessed an un- 
blemished character. His surname, Grata or Aurata, was given to him, it 
is said, because he was remarkably fond of gold-fish — auratse pisces — 
though, according to other authorities, it was because he was in the habit 
of wearing two very large gold rings. 
1^ ^' Pensiles balineas." This expression has been differently rendered by 
various commentators, but it is now generally supposed to refer to the 
manner in which the flooring of the bathing rooms was suspended over the 
hollow cells of the hypocaust or heating furnace. This is called by Vi- 
truvius, " Suspensura caldariorum." 
^0 '<Ita mangonicatas villas subinde vendendo." — By the use of the 
word ita," Pliny may possibly mean that he was in the habit of filling 
up the villas with the " balinese pensiles," which he had invented. Man- 
gonizo" was to set off or trim up a thing, that it might sell again all the 
better. 
21 Varro speaks of those of Tarentum, as being the best. The Greeks 
preferred the oysters of Abydos ; the Romans, under the empire, those of 
Eritain. 
22 It does not appear to be known what two bridges are here alluded to ; 
the Sublician, or wooden bridge, was probably one of them, and, perhaps, 
the Palatine bridge was the other. The former was built by Ancus 
Martius. 
23 For some further account of the British oyster, see B. xxxii. c. 21. 
2* See B. xxxii. c. 21. 
