Chap. 81.] 
PRESERVES rOR MUREN^. 
469 
more recently hit upon, of feeding the oysters of Erundisium 
in Lake Lucrinus, famished as they must naturally be after so 
long a journey. 
CHAP. 80. WHO WAS THE FIRST INVENTOR OF PRESERVES FOR 
OTHER FISH. 
In the same age, also, Licinius Murena^^ was the first to 
form preserves for other fish ; and his example was soon fol- 
lowed by the noble families of the Philippi and the Hortensii. 
Lucullus had a mountain pierced near K aples, at a greater out- 
lay even, than that which had been expended on his villa ; 
and here he formed a channel, arid admitted the sea to his 
preserves ; it was for this reason that Pompeius Magnus gave 
him the name of Xerxes in a toga.'' After his death, the fish 
in his preserves was sold for the sum of four million sesterces. 
CHAP. 81. (55.) — WHO INVENTED PRESERVES FOR MTJREN^. 
C. Hirrus^^ was the first person who formed preserves for 
the murena ; and it was he who lent six thousand of these 
fishes for the triumphal banquets of Csesar the Dictator ; on 
which occasion he had them duly weighed, as he declined to 
receive the value of them in money or any other commodity. 
His villa, which was of a very humble character in the interior, 
sold for four millions of sesterces, in consequence of the valu- 
able nature of the stock-ponds there. Next after this, there 
arose a passion for individual fish. At Bauli,^^ in the territory 
25 He was the first of this family, a branch of the Licinian gens, who 
bore the surname of Murena, from his love for that fish, it was said. He, 
like his father P. Licinius, attained the rank of praetor, and was a contem- 
porary of the orator, L. Crassus. 
26 "Euripum." 
27 4' Xerxen togatum," or " the Roman Xerxes,'* in allusion to Xerxes 
cutting a canal through the Isthmus, which connected the Peninsula of 
Mount Athos with Chalcidice, See B. iv. c. 17, and the Note, vol. i. 
p. 300. 
28 Probably the same person as the C. Hirrius Posthumius, who is 
mentioned as a voluptuary by Cicero, De Fin. B. ii. c. 22, § 70. Varro 
speaks of him, as expending the rent of his houses, amounting to twelve 
millions of sesterces, in bait for his murense. 
29 This is, probably, the meaning of quadragies here, though it has 
been translated 400,000. 
30 See B. iii. c. 9. 
