336 
MURjENA. 
understood that he would be repaid only by the return of 
an equal quantity of these fish by weight. Pliny adds, his 
villa was of a very humble character on the inside, but 
when it was sold, in consequence of the value set on his 
ponds, it reached the price of four millions of sesterces 
(quadrigies.) A noble of the family of Licinius is said to 
have expended a large sum in forming ponds for fish; and 
we may suppose that the Mursena had a place in them, since 
he is said to have received an addition to his name on 
account of his love for it, although it should be observed 
that the name of Muraena belonged to a family of Eomans 
long before this time. But former examples were outdone by 
Lucullus, who expended enormous sums in forming a passage 
through a mountain near Naples, to admit the water of the 
sea into his ponds; and so high was the value ascribed to 
this work, that after his death these ponds were sold for the 
same price as the villa and ponds of Hirius, the latter of 
whom was accustomed to expend the rent of his houses, 
which, according to Varro, amounted to twelve millions of 
sesterces, in food for his Muraense. But, as far as regarded 
these fish, the labour of Lucullus in bringing the salt water 
might have been spared, since it is found that they will live 
and thrive in fresh water just as well as in the sea. 
A choice of food, as also abundance of it, appears to have 
been of no small consequence in preparing these fish for the 
market, and it is known that they are eager in searching for 
it, as also that they are ferocious in their attack, as well as 
in self-defence, in which their teeth are so capable of inflicting 
injury by laceration as to have given occasion to the opinion 
among fishermen that some poison is connected with the bite. 
The voracity of the Murajna had indeed grown into a proverb 
among the Greeks, and the poet iEschylus couples it in this 
respect with the viper, its connectioft with the latter being 
the subject of some legends, of which an explanation is 
scarcely difficult. Aristophanes, in his comedy of the “Frogs,” 
reckons his Tartesian Mura3nEe (from near Cadiz, whence, 
according to epicures, the best were obtained) as among the 
monsters that will tear the entrails of the wicked in hell. 
Even by respectable authority a wound by these teeth was 
judged a serious affair; and that eminent physician Paulus 
