Volume 2 / Book 8 — BOOK VIII.

1. Polybius the Megalopolitan, speaking of the great happiness which exists in Lusitania (and that is a district of Iberia, which the Romans now call Spania), O most excellent Timocrates, in the thirty-fourth book of his Histories, says that in that country, on account of the excellent temperature of the air, both animals and men are exceedingly prolific; and the fruits, too, in that country never degenerate. "For there are roses there, and white violets, and asparagus, and other flowers and fruits like them, which last nine months in the year; and as for sea-fish, both in abundance, and in excellence, and in beauty, it is very superior to that produced in our seas. And a siclus (this is equal to a medimnus) of barley costs only a drachma; and one of wheat costs nine Alexandrian obols; and a measure of wine costs a drachma; and a moderate-sized kid costs an obol, and so does a hare. And of lambs, the price is three or four obols; and a fat pig, weighing a hundred minæ, costs five drachmæ; and a sheep costs two. And a talent weight of figs costs three obols; and a calf costs five drachmæ; and a draught-ox ten. And the meat of wild animals is scarcely ever valued at any price at all; but people throw that in to purchasers into the bargain, or as a present." But to us, whenever we sup with our excellent friend Laurentius, he makes Rome another Lusitania,—filling us with every sort of good thing every day, receiving us in a most princely manner with the greatest liberality, while we bring nothing from home as our contribution, except our arguments.

2. Now, as a long discussion had taken place about fish, it was plain that Cynulcus was annoyed at it; and so the excellent Democritus, anticipating him, said—But, O you men fish, as Archippus says, you have omitted (for I too must throw in a little contribution of my own) those which are called fossil fishes, which are produced at Heraclea, and near Tium, in Pontus, which is a colony of the Milesians, though Theophrastus gives us an account of them. And this very same philosopher has also told us about those that are congealed in ice the whole winter, so that they have no feeling whatever, and make not the slightest motion, until they are put into the saucepans and boiled. And these fish have this especial peculiarity, which also belongs in some degree to the fish which are called fossil fish in Paphlagonia. For it is said that ditches are dug in those places to an exceeding depth, where no overflow of rivers ever reaches, nor of any other waters whatever; and yet in those ditches there are found living fishes.

3. But Mnaseas of Patra, in his Periplus, says that the fish in the river Clitor are not dumb; though Aristotle has stated in writing that the only fishes which have any voice are the scarus and the river-hog. And Philostephanus, who was a Cyrenæan by birth, and a friend of Callimachus, in his treatise on Extraordinary Rivers, says that in the river Aroanius, which flows through Pheneum, there are fish which sing like thrushes, and that they are called the poiciliæ. And Nymphodorus the Syracusan, in his Voyages, says that there are pike in the river Helorus, and large eels, so tame that they take bread out of the hands of any who bring it to them. And I myself, and very likely many of you too, have seen cestres tamed to the hand in the fountain of Arethusa, near Chalcis; and eels, having silver and golden earrings, taking food from any one who offered it to them, and entrails from the victims, and fresh cheese. And Semus says, in the sixth book of his Delias—"They say that a boy once dipped a ewer into the well, and brought water to some Athenians who were sacrificing at Delos, to wash their hands with; and he brought up, as it happened, some fish in the ewer along with the water: and that on this the soothsayers of the Delians told them that they should become the lords of the sea."

AQUATIC ANIMALS.

4. And Polybius, in the thirty-fourth book of his Histories, says that behind Pyrene, as far as the river Narbo, the whole country is a plain, through which the rivers Illiberis and Rhoscynus proceed, flowing through cities of the same name as themselves, which are inhabited by some of the Celtæ; and in this plain he says that the above-mentioned fossil fish are also found. And he says that the soil of that plain is light, and that a great quantity of the herb agrostis grows in it; and that beneath it, as the soil is sandy for a depth of two or three cubits, the water flows, which wanders away from these rivers; and so the fish, too, leaving the rivers, and proceeding underground, in the course of these erratic underflowings, in quest of food (for they are exceedingly fond of the root of the agrostis), have caused the whole plain to be full of subterranean fish, which people catch when they dig up the plain. "And among the Indians," says Theophrastus, "there are fish which go forth out of the rivers over the land, and then, leaping back, return again to the water, just like frogs; being in appearance very like the fish which are called maxini."

5. But I am not ignorant of what Clearchus, the Peripatetic philosopher, has said about what he calls the exocoetus fish, or fish which comes out of the water to sleep, which he mentions in his work entitled A Treatise on Aquatic Animals. For he has said, (and I think that I recollect his exact words, which are as follows,) "The exocoetus fish, which some people call Adonis, has derived its name from constantly taking his rest out of the water. He is rather of a red colour, and from his gills down to his tail he has on each side of his body one white stripe reaching the whole length of his body. And he is round, but not being broad, he is equal in size to the cestrinisci which are found near the shore; and they are as near as may be about eight fingers in length. Altogether he is very like the fish called the sea-goat, except that the latter has a black place under his stomach, which they call the beard of the goat. And the exocoetus is one of the fish which keeps near to the rocks, and spends his life in rocky places. When it is calm weather he springs up with the waves and lies on the rocks for a considerable time, sleeping on the dry land, and turning himself so as to bask in the sun: and then, when he has had sufficient rest, he rolls towards the water again, until the wave, taking him again, bears him with the reflux back into the sea. And when he is awake on the dry land then he is on his guard against those birds which are called pareudistæ, such as the halcyon, the sandpiper, and the helorius, which is a bird like the rail. For these birds in calm weather feed on the dry land, and often attack the exocoetus; but when he sees them at a distance he flies, leaping and panting, until he dives beneath the water."

6. Moreover, Clearchus says this also more plainly than Philostephanus the Cyrenæan, whom I have previously mentioned. "There are some fish which, though they have no throats, can utter a sound. Such are those which are found near Cleitor, in Arcadia, in the river called Ladon. For they have a voice, and utter a very audible sound." And Nicolaus, of Damascus, in the hundred and fourth book of his History, says—"In the country around Apamea, in Phrygia, at the time of the Mithridatic wars, there were some earthquakes, after which there appeared in that district some lakes which previously had no existence, and rivers, and other springs which had been opened by the earthquake. Many also which had previously existed disappeared. And such a quantity of additional water, which was brackish and of a sea-green colour, burst up in that district, though it is at a very great distance from the sea, that all the neighbouring country was filled with oysters and fish, and all other productions of the sea." I know also that it has very often rained fishes. At all events, Phænias, in the second book of his Eresian Magistrates, says that in the Chersonesus it once rained fish uninterruptedly for three days; and Phylarchus, in his fourth book, says that people had often seen it raining fish, and often also raining wheat, and that the same thing has happened with respect to frogs. At all events, Heraclides Lembus, in the twenty-first book of his History, says—"In Pæonia and Dardania it has, they say, before now rained frogs; and so great has been the number of these frogs that the houses and the roads have been full of them; and at first, for some days, the inhabitants, endeavouring to kill them, and shutting up their houses, endured the pest; but when they did no good, but found that all their vessels were filled with them, and the frogs were found to be boiled up and roasted with everything they ate, and when besides all this, they could not make use of any water, nor put their feet on the ground for the heaps of frogs that were everywhere, and were annoyed also by the smell of those that died, they fled the country."

FISH.

7. I am aware, too, that Posidonius the Stoic makes this statement about the abundance of the fish:—"When Tryphon of Apamea, who seized upon the kingdom of Syria, was attacked by Sarpedon, the general of Demetrius, near the city of Ptolemais, and when Sarpedon, being defeated, retired into the inland parts of the country with his own troops, but the army of Tryphon, having been victorious in the battle, were marching along the shore, on a sudden, a wave of the sea, rising to a great height, came over the land, and overwhelmed them all, and destroyed them beneath the waters, and the retreating wave also left an immense heap of fish with the corpses. And Sarpedon and his army hearing of what had happened, came up, and were delighted at the sight of the corpses of their enemies, and carried away an enormous quantity of fish, and made a sacrifice to Neptune who puts armies to flight, near the suburbs of the city."

8. Nor will I pass over in silence the men who prophesy from fish in Lycia, concerning whom Polycharmus speaks, in the second book of his Affairs of Lycia; writing in this manner:—"For when they have come to the sea, at a place where there is on the shore a grove sacred to Apollo, and where there is an eddy on the sand, the persons who are consulting the oracle come, bringing with them two wooden spits, having each of them ten pieces of roast meat on them. And the priest sits down by the side of the grove in silence; but he who is consulting the oracle throws the spits into the eddy, and looks on to see what happens. And after he has put the spits in, then the eddy becomes full of salt water, and there comes up such an enormous quantity of fish of such a description that he is amazed at the sight, and is even, as it were, alarmed at the magnitude of it. And when the prophet enumerates the different species of fish, the person who is consulting the oracle in this manner receives the prophecy from the priest respecting the matters about which he has prayed for information. And there appear in the eddy orphi, and sea-grayling, and sometimes some sorts of whales, such as the phalæna, or pristis, and a great many other fish which are rarely seen, and strange to the sight."

And Artemidorus, in the tenth book of his Geography, says that—"It is said by the natives that a fountain springs up in that place of sweet water, to which it is owing that these eddies exist there; and that very large fish are produced in that eddying place. And those who are sacrificing throw to these fish the first-fruits of what they offer, piercing them through with wooden spits, being pieces of meat, roasted and boiled, and cakes of barley and loaves. And both the harbour and the place is called Dinus."[9]

9. I know, too, that Phylarchus has spoken, somewhere or other, about large fish, and about fresh figs which were sent with them; saying that Patroclus, the general of Ptolemy, sent such a present to Antigonus the king, by way of a riddle, as the Scythians sent an enigmatical present to Darius, when he was invading their country. For they sent (as Herodotus relates) a bird, and an arrow, and a frog. But Patroclus (as Phylarchus tells us, in the third book of his Histories) sent the before-mentioned fishes and figs; and the king, at the time that they arrived, happened to be drinking with his friends, and when all the party were perplexed at the meaning of the gifts, Antigonus laughed, and said to his friends that he knew what was the meaning of the present; "for," says he, "Patroclus means that we must either be masters of the sea, or else be content to eat figs."

10. Nor am I unaware that all fishes are called by one generic name, camasenes, by Empedocles the natural philosopher, when he says—

How could the mighty trees and sea-born camasenes . . .

And the poet, too, who wrote the Cyprian poems (whether he was a Cyprian or a man of the name of Stasinus, or whatever else his name may have been), represents Nemesis as pursued by Jupiter, and metamorphosed into a fish, in the following lines:—

And after them she brought forth Helen third, A marvel to all mortal men to see; Her then the fair-hair'd Nemesis did bear, Compell'd by Jove, the sovereign of the gods. She indeed fled, nor sought to share the love Of that great father, son of Saturn, Jove; For too great awe did overpower her mind: So Nemesis did flee o'er distant lands, And o'er the black and barren waves o' the sea;

FISH.

But Jove pursued her (and with eagerness His soul desired her). In vain she took The form of some large fish who bounds along, Borne on the vast high-crested roaring wave; Sometimes she fled along the ocean, where The earth's most distant boundaries extend; Sometimes she fled along the fertile land; And took all shapes of every animal Which the land bears, to flee from amorous Jove.

11. I know, also, what is related about the fish called apopyris, which is found in the lake Bolbe; concerning which Hegesander, in his Commentaries, speaks thus:—"Around Apollonia of Chalcis two rivers flow, the Ammites and the Olynthiacus, and they both fall into the lake Bolbe. And on the river Olynthiacus there is a monument of Olynthus, the son of Hercules and Bolbe. And in the months Anthesterion and Elaphebolion, the natives say that Bolbe sends Apopyris to Olynthus; and that about this time a most enormous number of fish ascend out of the lake into the river Olynthiacus: and this is a shallow river, scarcely deep enough to wet a man's ankles; but for all that there does not the less come a great number of fish, so that all the people of the district get enough cured fish for their use for the year. And it is a wonderful fact that they never pass above the monument of Olynthus. They say, in explanation of this, that the people of Apollonia did formerly, in the month Elaphebolion, celebrate sacrifices to the dead, but that they do so now in the month Anthesterion; and that on this account this ascent is made by the fish in those months alone in which the natives are accustomed to pay honour to their national heroes."

12. And this is the state of the case, O men fish; for you, having collected together every kind of thing, have thrown us out to be food for fishes, instead of giving them as food for us,—making such long speeches as not even Ichthys, the philosopher of Megara, nor Ichthyon (and this also is a proper name), who is mentioned by Teleclides in his Amphictyons, would make to us. And, on your account, I will give this advice to the servant, as it is said in the Ant-Men of Pherecrates:—

Mind that you never, O Deucalion, (Even if I bid you,) set a fish before me.

For in Delos, as we are told by Semus the Delian, in the second book of the Delias, when they sacrifice to Brizo,—and she is a deity who prophesies to people asleep (for the ancients used βριόζω as synonymous with καθεύδω, to sleep, saying—

Then sleeping (ἀποβρίξαντες) there we waited for the dawn)—

so, when the Delian women sacrifice to this deity, they bring her, as their offering, boats full of all kinds of good things, except fish; because they address prayers to her on every subject, and especially for the safety of their vessels.

13. But, my friends, though I admire Chrysippus, the leader of the sect of the Stoics, on many accounts, I also praise him especially for having always classed Archestratus, that man who is so famous for his treatise on Cookery, with Philænis, to whom that indelicate composition about Amatory Pleasures is attributed; which, however, Æschrion, the iambic poet of Samos, says was written by Polycrates the sophist, and attributed to Philænis for the sake of calumniating her, when she was a most respectable woman. And the iambics, in which this is stated, run as follows:—

I am Philænis, famous among men; And here I lie, o'erwhelm'd by long old age. Do not, O foolish sailor, pass this cape Laughing and scorning and reproaching me. For now I swear by Jove, and by the gods Who reign below, I never lustful was, I never made myself a sport to man. But one Polycrates, of Attic race, A trashy chatterer, and a false accuser, Wrote what he wrote; I know not what it was.

Therefore that admirable Chrysippus, in the fifth book of his treatise on Honour and Pleasure, says—"The books, too, of Philænis, and the Gastronomy of Archestratus, and all the drugs calculated to provoke appetite or sensual desires, and also all the servants who are skilled in such motions and such figures, and whose occupation it is to attend to these things." And again he says—"That they learn such things, and get hold of the books written on such subjects by Philænis and Archestratus, and by those who have written similar works." And in his seventh book he says—"Just as it would not be advisable to study the writings of Philænis or the Gastronomy of Archestratus, as tending to make a person live better."

RECOMMENDATIONS TO PRESENT ENJOYMENT.

14. But you, who are constantly making mention of this Archestratus, have made this entertainment full of intemperance; for what of all the things which could unduly excite men has this fine epic poet omitted?—he, the only imitator of the life of Sardanapalus the son of Anacyndaraxes, who, Aristotle says, is made more obscure still by adding the name of his father; on whose tomb, Chrysippus says, the following inscription was engraved:—

Knowing that you are mortal, feed your soul On banquets and delights; for in the grave There's no enjoyment left. I now am dust Who once was king of mighty Nineveh; The things which I did eat, the joys of love, The insolent thoughts with which my wealth did fill me, Are all I now have left; for all my power And all my happiness is gone for ever. This is the only prudent rule of life, I never shall forget it, let who will Hoard boundless treasures of uncounted gold.

And the great poet has said of the Phæacians—

To dress, to dance, to sing, our sole delight, The feast or bath by day, and love by night.

And another person, not unlike Sardanapalus in disposition, gives this advice and these rules to those who are deficient in wisdom:—

I to all mortals now give this advice: Live for the day with pleasure; he who dies Is nought; an empty shade beneath the earth: Man lives but a short space, and therefore should, While life remains, enjoy himself.

And Amphis the comic poet, in his Ialemus, says—

The man who knows that he is but a mortal, And yet seeks not enjoyment while alive, Leaving all other cares, is but a fool In mine and all wise men's opinion, And most unhappy in his destiny.

And, in his play entitled the Gynæcocracy, he says nearly the same—

Drink and play, our mortal life On earth can but a brief space last; Death alone will last for ever. When once our too brief term is past.

And a man of the name of Bacchides, who lived on the same principles as Sardanapalus, after he was dead had the following inscription placed on his tomb:—

Eat, drink, indulge thy soul with all delights, This stone is all that now remains for Bacchides.

15. Alexis, in his Tutor of Intemperate Men—(as Sotion the Alexandrian says, in his Commentary on the Silli of Timon; for I myself have never met with the play, though I have read more than eight hundred plays of what is called the Middle Comedy, and have made extracts from them, but still I have never fallen in with the Tutor of Intemperate Men, nor do I recollect having seen any mention of it in any regular list of such plays; for Callimachus has not inserted it in his catalogue nor has Aristophanes, nor even those scholars at Pergamus, who have handed down to us lists of plays,)—however, Sotion says that in that play a slave, named Xanthias, was represented as exhorting all his fellow-slaves to a life of luxury, and saying—

Why do you talk such stuff, why run about To the Lyceum and the Academy, To the Odeum's gates, hunting in vain For all the sophists' nonsense? there's no good in it; Let us drink, drink, I say. O Sicon, Sicon! Let us amuse ourselves; while time allows us To gratify our souls.—Enjoy yourself, My good friend Manes! nothing is worth more To you than your own stomach. That's your father; That only is your mother;—as for virtues, And embassies, and military commands, They are but noisy boasts, vain empty dreams. Fate at its destined hour will come to chill you; Take all that you can get to eat and drink; Pericles, Codrus, Cimon, are but dust.

16. But it would be better, says Chrysippus, if the lines inscribed on the tomb of Sardanapalus were altered thus—

Knowing that thou art mortal, feed thy soul On wise discourse. There is no good in eating. For I am now no good, who once did eat All that I could, and sought all kinds of pleasure. Now what I thought and learnt and heard of wisdom Is all I now have left; my luxuries And all my joys have long deserted me.

And Timon says, very beautifully,—

Of all bad things the chief is appetite.

17. But Clearchus, in his essay on Proverbs, says that Terpsion was the tutor of Archestratus, who was also the first person who wrote a book on Gastronomy; and he says that he gave precepts to his pupils as to what they ought to abstain from; and that Terpsion once extemporised the following line about a turtle:—

FISH.

Eat now a turtle, or else leave it alone;

which, however, others read—

Eat now a turtle's flesh, or leave it alone.

18. But whence is it, O you wisest of men, that Dorion, who wrote a list of fish, has been mentioned as if he were the writer of some valuable history?—a fellow who, I know, has been named a musician and a fish-devourer, but certainly not a historian. Accordingly Machon, the comic poet, speaks of him as a musician, saying—

Dorion the musician once did come To Mylon, all in vain; for he could find No resting-place which he could hire at all; So on some sacred ground he sat him down, Which was by chance before the city gates, And there he saw the keeper of the temple Prepare a sacrifice.—"I pray thee, tell me, In chaste Minerva's name, and all the gods', What deity is it that owns this temple?" The keeper thus replied: "This is, O stranger, Of Jupiter-Neptune the sacred shrine." "How then," said Dorion, "could any man Expect to find a lodging in a place Which in one temple crowds a pair of gods?"

And Lynceus the Samian, the pupil of Theophrastus, and the brother of Duris, who wrote the Histories, and made himself tyrant of his country, writes thus in his Apophthegms— "When a man once said to Dorion the flute-player, that the ray was a good fish, he said—'Yes, about as good as if a man were to eat a boiled cloak.' And once, when some one else praised the entrails of tunny-fish, he said—'You are quite right, but then a man must eat them as I eat them;' and when the man asked him how that was, he said—'How? why willingly.' And he said that crawfish had three good qualities,—exercise, good food, and contemplation. And once, at Cyprus, when he was supping with Nicocreon, he praised a goblet that there was there; and Nicocreon said—'Whatever there is here that you fancy, the artist will make you another like it.' 'Let him make that,' he replied, 'for you; but do you give me this one.'" And this was a clever speech of the flute-player; for there is an old saying that—

'Tis not that God denies a flutist sense, But when he comes to blow it flies away.

19. And Hegesander, in his Commentaries, says this of him—"Dorion, the great fish-eater, once, when his slave had neglected to buy fish, scourged him, and ordered him to tell him the names of the best fish; and when the boy had counted up the orphus, and the sea-grayling, and the conger, and others of this sort, he said—'I desired you to tell me the names of fishes, and not of gods.'" The same Dorion, ridiculing the description of a tempest in the Nautilus of Timotheus, said that he had seen a more formidable storm in a boiling saucepan. And Aristodemus, in the second book of his Memorials of Laughable Circumstances and Sayings, says—"Dorion the musician was club-footed; and once, in some entertainment, he lost the slipper of his lame foot; on which he said, 'I will not wish anything more to the thief than that the slipper may fit him.'" But that this Dorion was notorious for his epicurism in fish, is plain from what Mnesimachus the comic poet says in his drama called Philip—

No, but all night Dorion the dish-piper Does stay indoors with us.

20. I know, too, the sportive sayings which Lasus of Hermione has uttered about fishes; which Chamæleon of Heraclea has recorded in writing, in his book on this very Lasus, where he says—"They say that Lasus called raw fish ὀπτὸς (which means roasted or visible); and when many people wondered why he did so, he thus began to prove what he had said; arguing thus: 'As whatever a person can hear (ἀκοῦσαι) is properly called ἀκουστὸν, and as whatever a person can understand by his intellect (νοῆσαι) is properly called νοητὸν, so whatever any one can see (ὄπτεσθαι) is clearly ὀπτόν; as therefore it was possible to see the fish, he evidently was ὀπτός.' And once, in a joke, he stole a fish from a fisherman, and having taken it, he gave it to one of the bystanders; and when the fisherman put him to his oath, he swore that he had not got it himself, and that he had not seen any one else take it; because, in fact, he himself had taken it, but some one else had got it. And then he prompted the other man, on the other hand, to swear that he had not taken it himself, and that he was not acquainted with any one else who had it; for, in fact, Lasus had taken it, and he himself had it." And Epicharmus jests in the same way; as, in his Logus and Logina,—

FISH.

A. Jupiter 'tis who did invite me, giving A feast (γ̓ ἔρανον) to Pelops. B. 'Tis a sorry food, That crane (γέρανος), to my mind. A. But I did not say A crane (γέρανον), but a feast (ἔρανόν γε), as you might well have heard.

21. And Alexis, in his Demetrius, ridicules, in his comic manner, a man of the name of Phayllus, as very fond of fish, in these lines:—

First of all, whether the wind blew north or south, As long as it blew hard, it was not possible For anybody to get fish to eat. But now, besides that pair of stormy winds, We've a third tempest risen in Phayllus; For when this last storm bursts upon the market, He buys up all the fish at all the stalls, And bears it off; so that we are reduced To squabble for the vegetables remaining.

And Antiphanes, in his Female Fisher, enumerating some people as exceedingly fond of fish, says—

Give me some cuttle-fish first. O Hercules! They've dirtied every place with ink; here, take them And throw them back again into the sea, To wash them clean: or else they'll say, O Dorion, That you have caught some rotten cuttle-fish: And put this crawfish back beside the sprats. He's a fine fish, by Jove. O mighty Jove, O you Callimedon, who now will eat you? No one who's not prepared to pay his share. I've giv'n you your place here on the right, You mullets, food of great Callisthenes; Who eats his patrimony in one dish; Next comes the mighty conger from Sinope, With his stout spines; the first who comes shall have him; For Misgolas has no great love for such. But here's a citharus, and if he sees him He never will keep off his hands from him; For he, indeed, does secretly adhere As close as wax to all the harp-players (κιθαρῳδοῖς). I ought to send this best of fish, this tench, Still all alive, and leaping in his dish, To the fair Pythionica, he's so fine: But still she will not taste him, as her heart Is wholly set on cured fish.—Here I place These thin anchovies and this dainty turtle Apart for Theano, to counterbalance her.

22. And it is a very clever way in which Antiphanes thus jested upon Misgolas, as devoting all his attention to beautiful harp-players and lyre-players; for Æschines the orator, in his speech against Timarchus, says this of him—"Misgolas, the son of Naucrates, of Colyttus, O men of Athens, is a man in other respects brave and virtuous, and no one can find any fault with him in any particular; but he is known to be exceedingly devoted to this kind of business, and always to have about him some harp-players, and people who sing to the music of the harp. And I say this, not by way of disparaging him, but in order that you may be aware what sort of person he is." And Timocles, in his Sappho, says—

Misgolas is not seen to enter in, Excited as he is by blooming youth.

And Alexis, in his Agonis, or the Little Horse, says—

O mother, do not threaten me, I pray, With Misgolas, for I am not a harp-player.

23. But Antiphanes says that Pythionica is fond of cured fish, since she had for lovers the sons of Chærephilus, the seller of salt-fish; as Timocles says, in his Icarians,—

When that stout Anytus to Pythionica Does come, to eat with her; for she invites him, As people say, whenever she does get Two noble tunnies from Chærephilus; So fond is she of all things that are large.

And again he says—

And Pythionica will receive you gladly, And very likely will devour the gifts Which you have lately here received from us, For she's insatiable. Still do you Bid her give you a basket of cured fish; For she has plenty; and she has indeed A couple of saperdæ; ugly fish, Ill salted, and broad nosed.

And before this she had a lover whose name was Cobius.

24. But with respect to Callimedon, the son of Carabus, Timocles, in his Busybody, tells us that he was fond of fish, and also that he squinted:—

Then up came Carabus Callimedon, And looking on me, as it seem'd to me, He kept on speaking to some other man. And I, as it was likely, understanding No word of what they said, did only nod. But all the girls do keep on looking at him, While they pretend to turn their eyes away.

FISH.

And Alexis, in his Crateua, or the Apothecary, says—

A. I am now, these last four days, taking care of These κόραι for Callimedon. B. Had he then Any κόραι (damsels) for daughters? A. I mean κόραι, The pupils of the eyes; which e'en Melampus, Who could alone appease the raging Proetides, Would e'er be able to keep looking straight.

And he ridicules him in a similar manner in the play entitled The Men running together. But he also jests on him for his epicurism as to fish, in the Phædo, or Phædria, where he says—

A. You shall be ædile if the gods approve, That you may stop Callimedon descending Like any storm all day upon the fish. B. You speak of work for tyrants, not for ædiles; For the man's brave, and useful to the city.

And the very same iambics are repeated in the play entitled Into the Well; but, in his Woman who has taken Mandragora, he says—

If I love any strangers more than you, I'll willingly be turn'd into an eel, That Carabus Callimedon may buy me.

And in his Crateua he says—

And Carabus Callimedon with Orpheus.

And Antiphanes says, in his Gorgythus,—

'Twould harder be to make me change my mind Than to induce Callimedon to pass The head of a sea-grayling.

And Eubulus, in his Persons saved, says—

Others prostrating them before the gods, Are found with Carabus, who alone of men Can eat whole salt-fish out of boiling dishes So wholly as to leave no single mouthful.

And Theophilus, in his Physician, ridiculing his coldness of expression, says—"And the slave put before the young man himself with great eagerness a little eel: his father had a fine cuttle-fish before him. 'Father,' says he, 'what do you think of your crawfish?' 'It is cold,' says he; 'take it away,—I don't want to eat any orators.'"[10]

And when Philemon says, in his Canvasser,—

Agyrrius, when a crawfish was before him, On seeing him exclaim'd, Hail, dear papa! Still what did he do? He ate his dear papa!

And Herodicus the Cratetian, commenting on this in his Miscellaneous Commentaries, says that Agyrrius was the name of the son of Callimedon.

25. The following people, too, have all been great epicures about fish. Antagoras the poet would not allow his slave to touch his fish with oil, but made him wash it; as Hegesander tells us. And when in the army, he was once boiling a dish of congers, and had his clothes girt round him, Antigonus the king, who was standing by, said, "Tell me, Antagoras, do you think that Homer, who celebrated the exploits of Agamemnon, ever boiled congers?" And it is said that he answered, not without wit, "And do you think that Agamemnon, who performed those exploits, ever busied himself about inquiring who was cooking congers in his army?" And once, when Antagoras was cooking a bird of some kind, he said that he would not go to the bath, because he was afraid that the slaves might come and suck up the gravy. And when Philocydes said that his mother would take care of that, "Shall I," said he, "entrust the gravy of game to my mother?" And Androcydes of Cyzicus, the painter, being very fond of fish, as Polemo relates, carried his luxury to such a pitch that he even painted with great care the fish which are around Scylla.

26. But concerning Philoxenus of Cythera, the dithyrambic poet, Machon the comic poet writes thus:—

They say Philoxenus, the ancient poet Of dithyrambics, was so wonderfully Attach'd to fish, that once at Syracuse He bought a polypus two cubits long, Then dress'd it, and then ate it up himself, All but the head—and afterwards fell sick, Seized with a sharp attack of indigestion. Then when some doctor came to him to see him, Who saw that he was greatly out of order; "If," said the doctor, "you have any business Not well arranged, do not delay to settle it, For you will die before six hours are over." Philoxenus replied, "All my affairs, O doctor, are well ended and arranged, Long, long ago. By favour of the gods, I leave my dithyrambics all full-grown, And crown'd with many a prize of victory;

HYPERIDES.

And I commit them to the guardianship Of my dear foster-sisters, the Nine Muses, And join to them both Bacchus and fair Venus. This is my will. But now, since Charon gives No time, but, as in the Niobe of Timotheus, Keeps crying out, 'Now cross;' and deadly fate Calls me away, who can't be disobey'd, That I may go below with all my goods, Bring me the relics of that polypus."

And in another part he says—

Philoxenus of Cythera, as men say, Wished that he had a throat three cubits long; "That I might drink," said he, "as long as possible, And that my food may all at once delight me."

And Diogenes the Cynic, having eaten a polypus raw, died of a swelling in the belly. But concerning Philoxenus, Sopater the parodist also speaks, saying—

For, between two rich courses of fine fish, He pleased himself by looking down the centre Of Ætna's crater.

27. And Hyperides the orator was an epicure in fish; as Timocles the comic writer tells us, in his Delos, where he enumerates all the people who had taken bribes from Harpalus: and he writes thus—

A. Demosthenes has half-a-hundred talents. B. A lucky man, if no one shares with him. A. And Moerocles has got a mighty sum. B. He was a fool who gave them; lucky he Who got them. A. Demon and Callisthenes Have also got large sums. B. Well, they were poor, So that we well may pardon them for taking them. A. And that great orator Hyperides. B. Why, he will all our fishmongers enrich; An epicure! Gulls are mere Syrians, Compared to him.

And in the Icarians, the same poet says—

Then cross Hyperides, that fishy river, Which with a gentle sound, bubbling with boasts Of prudent speeches, with mild repetitions * * * * * And hired, bedews the plain of him who gave it.

And Philetærus, in his Æsculapius, says that Hyperides, besides being a glutton, was also a gambler. As also Axionicus, in his Lover of Euripides, says that Callias the orator was; and his words are—"A man of the name of Glaucus came to this place, bringing from Pontus a kind of shark, a fish of extraordinary magnitude,—a great dainty for epicures in fish, and, in fact, for all men who are devoted to the pleasures of the table. And he brought it on his shoulders, and said, 'Whom shall I instruct how to dress it, and how shall it be dressed? Will you have it soaked in a sauce of green herbs, or shall I baste its body with basting of warm brine, and then dress it on a fierce fire? And a man named Moschio, a great flute-player, cried out that he should like to eat it boiled in warm pickle-juice. And this was meant as a reproof for you, O Calaides! for you are very fond of figs and cured fish; and yet you will not taste a most exquisite fish which you have served up to you in pickle." Reproaching him with the figs as if he were a sycophant; and perhaps concealing under the mention of the cured fish, some intimation of his having been implicated in discreditable conduct. And Hermippus says, in the third book of his treatise on the Pupils of Isocrates, that Hyperides was in the habit of taking a walk, the first thing in the morning, in the fish-market.

28. And Timæus of Tauromenium says that Aristotle the philosopher was a great epicure in respect of fish. Matron the sophist, also, was a great fish-eater: and Antiphanes, in his Harp-player, intimates this; for that play begins thus—

He tells no lie . . . . A man dug out his eye, as Matron does The eyes of fish when he comes near to them.

And Anaxilas says, in his Morose Man,—

Matron has carried off and eaten up A cestris' head; and I am quite undone.

It being the very extravagance of gluttony to carry a thing off while eating it, and such a thing too as the head of a cestris; unless, perhaps, you may suppose, that those who are skilful in such things are aware of there being some particular good qualities in the head of a cestris; and if so, it belonged to Archestratus's gluttony to explain that to us.

29. But Antiphanes, in his Rich Man, gives us a catalogue of epicures, in the following lines:—

Euthymus too was there, with sandals on, A ring upon his finger, well perfumed, Silently pondering on I know not what.

EPICURES.

Phœnicides too, and my friend Taureas, Such great inveterate epicures that they Would swallow all the remnants in the market; They at this sight seem'd almost like to die. And bore the scarcity with small good-humour; But gather'd crowds and made this speech to them:— "What an intolerable thing it is That any of you men should claim the sea, And spend much money in marine pursuits, While not one fin of fish comes to this market! What is the use of all our governors Who sway the islands? We must make a law That there should be copious importation Of every kind of fish. But Matron now Has carried off the fishermen; and then There's Diogeiton, who, by Jove, has brought The hucksters over to keep back for him All the best fish; and he's not popular For doing this, for there is mighty waste In marriage-feasts and youthful luxury."

But Euphron, in his Muses, says,—

But when at some fine banquet of young men Phœnicides perceived a smoking dish Full of the sons of Nereus, he held back His hands, with rage excited. Thus he spoke:— "Who boasts himself a clever parasite At eating at the public cost? who thinks To filch the dainty dishes from the middle? Where's Corydus, or Phyromachus, or Nillus? Let them come here, they shall get nought of this."

30. But Melanthus the tragic poet was a person of the same sort; and he also wrote elegies. But Leucon, in his Men of the same Tribe, cuts his jokes upon him in the fashion of the comic writers, on account of his gluttony; and so does Aristophanes in the Peace, and Pherecrates in his Petale. But Archippus, in his play called The Fishes, having put him in chains as an epicure, gives him up to the fishes, to be eaten by them in retaliation. And, indeed, even Aristippus, the pupil of Socrates, was a great epicure,—a man who was once reproached by Plato for his gluttony, as Sotion and Hegesander relate. And the Delphian writes thus:—"Aristippus, when Plato reproached him for having bought a number of fish, said that he had bought them for two obols; and when Plato said, 'I myself would have bought them at that price,' 'You see, then,' said he, 'O Plato! that it is not I who am an epicure, but you who are a miser.'" And Antiphanes, in his Female Flute-player, or the Female Twins, laughing at a man named Phœnicides for his gluttony, says—

Menelaus warr'd for ten whole years against The Trojan nation for one lovely woman. Phœnicides, too, attacks Taureas For one fine eel.

31. But Demosthenes the orator reproaches Pherecrates, because, with the gold which he received for his treason, he bought himself courtesans and fish, and charges him with debauchery and gluttony. But Diocles the epicure, as Hegesander says, when a man once asked him which of the two fish was the best, the conger or the pike, said—"The one when it is boiled, and the other when it is roasted." And Leonteus the Argive also was an epicure: he was a tragedian, and a pupil of Athenion, and a slave of Juba, king of Mauritania; as Amarantus relates, in his treatise on the Stage, saying that Juba wrote this epigram on him, because he had acted the character of Hypsipyle very badly:—

If you should wish to see the genius Of that devoted artichoke-devourer Leonteus the tragedian, don't regard The sorrow-stricken heart of Hypsipyle. I once was dear to Bacchus, and his taste Is ne'er perverted by base bribes t'approve Untuneful sounds. But now the pots and pans, And well-fill'd dishes have destroyed my voice, While I've been anxious to indulge my stomach.

32. And Hegesander tells us that Phoryscus, the fish-eater, once, when he was not able to take exactly as much fish as he wished, but when a greater part of it was following his hand, as he was helping himself, said,—

But what resists is utterly destroy'd,

and so ate up the whole fish. And Bion, when some one had been beforehand with him, and had already taken the upper part of the fish, having turned it round himself, and eating abundantly of it, said, after he had done,—

But Ino finish'd all the rest o' the business.

EPICURES.

And Theocritus the Chian, when the wife of Diocles the epicure died, and when the widowed husband, while making a funeral feast for her, kept on eating delicacies and crying all the time, said—"Stop crying, you wretched man; for you will not remedy your grief by eating all that fish." And when the same Diocles had also eaten up his land through gluttony, and was one day, while bolting down some hot fish, complaining that his palate (οὐρανὸς) was burnt, Theocritus, who was present, said to him—"Then it only remains for you to drink up the sea, and then you will have got rid of the three greatest things in the world,—earth, and sea, and heaven (οὐρανός)." And Clearchus, in his Lives, describing some person who was fond of fish, says—"Technon, one of the old flute-players, when Charmus the flute-player died, (and he, too, was very fond of fish,) sacrificed to the dead man a large dish of every sort of fish on his tomb." Alexis the poet, also, was a great epicure in fish, as Lynceus the Samian tells us; and being once ridiculed by some chattering fellows on account of his epicurism, when they asked him what he liked most to eat, Alexis said, "Roasted chatterers."

33. Hermippus mentions also Nothippus the tragic poet, in his Tales, thus—

But if such a race of men Were to wage a present war With those who now exist on earth, And if a roast ray led them on, Or a fine side of well-fed pork, The rest might safely stay at home, And trust Nothippus by himself, For he alone would swallow up The whole Peloponnesus:—

and that the man meant here was the poet, Teleclides shows plainly, in his Hesiods.

Myniscus, the tragic actor, is ridiculed by Plato, the comic writer, in his Syrphax, as an epicure in respect of fish; where he says—

A. Here is an Anagyrasian orphus for you, Which e'en my friend Myniscus the Chalcidean Could hardly finish. B. Much obliged to you.

And for a similar reason, Callias, in his Pedetæ, and Lysippus, in his Bacchæ, ridicule Lampon the soothsayer. But Cratinus, in his Female Runaways, speaking of him, says—"Lampon, whom nothing which men said of him could keep away from any banquet of his friends;" and adds, "But now again he is belching away; for he devours everything which he can see, and he would fight even for a mullet."

34. And Hedylus, in his Epigrams, giving a list of epicures in fish, mentions a man named Phædo, in these lines:—

But Phædo, that great harpist, praises phyces, And sausages, he's such an epicure.

And he mentions Agisoto, in these lines:—

The fish is boil'd, now firmly bar the doors, Lest Agis, Proteus of the dishes, enter; For he'll be fire, water,—what he likes; But bar the door . . . . . . For he, transform'd, like Jupiter, to gold Will hasten to this rich Acrisian dish.

He also speaks of a woman named Clio, on a similar account, saying—

Clio's an epicure. Let's shut our eyes. I beg you, Clio, by yourself to feed. This conger costs a drachma; leave a pledge, A band, an earring, or some ornament. But we cannot endure the sight of you; You're our Medusa; and we're turn'd to stone, Not by the Gorgon, but by that whole conger.

35. And Aristodemus, in his Catalogue of Laughable Sayings, says that Euphranor the epicure, having heard that another epicure in fish was dead from having eaten a hot slice of fish, cried out, "What a sacrilegious death!" And Cindon the fish-eater, and Demylus (and he also was an epicure in fish), when a sea-grayling was set before them, and nothing else, the former took one eye of the fish, and then Demylus seized hold of Cindon's eye, crying, "Let his eye go, and I will let your's go." And once at a feast, when a fine dish of fish was served up, Demylus, not being able to contrive any way by which he might get the whole of it to himself, spat upon it. And Zeno the Cittiæan, the founder of the Stoic school, when he had lived a long time with a great epicure in fish, (as Antigonus the Carystian tells us, in his life of Zeno,) once, when a very large fish was by chance served up to them, and when no other food was provided, took the whole fish from the platter, pretending to be about to eat it all himself; and, when the other looked at him, said—"What do you think, then, that those who live with you must suffer every day, if you cannot endure my being a glutton for a single day?" And Ister says that Choerilus the poet used to receive four minæ every day from Archelaus, and that he spent them all on fish, of which he was so exceedingly fond.

EPICURES.

I am aware, also, that there have been boys who were great fish-eaters, who are mentioned by Clearchus, in his book on Sands; which says that Psammitichus, king of Egypt, bred up some boys to eat nothing but fish, when he was anxious to discover the source of the Nile; and that he accustomed others to endure a great degree of thirst, who were to be employed in exploring the sands in Libya; of whom, however, very few escaped in safety. I know, too, that the oxen around Mosynus, in Thrace, eat fish, which are given to them in their cribs. And Phœnicides, having set fish before men who had brought their contribution for a banquet, said that the sea was common, but that the fish in it belonged to those who bought them.

36. And, my friends, the noun ὀψοφάγος (an eater of fish), and the verb ὀψοφάγω (to eat fish), are both used. Aristophanes, in his second edition of the Clouds, says—

Not to eat fish (ὀψοφάγειν) nor to giggle.

And Cephisodorus, in his Pig, says—

Not a fish-eater (οψοφαγος) nor a chatterer.

Machon, in his Letter, says—

I am a fish-eater (ὀψοφάγος), and this is now The whole foundation of the art we practise. And he who wishes not to spoil the dishes Served up to others, should be pleased himself. For he who rightly cares for his own eating Will not be a bad cook. And if you keep Your organs, sense and taste, in proper order, You will not err. But often taste your dishes While you are boiling them. Do they want salt? Add some;—is any other seasoning needed? Add it, and taste again—till you've arrived At harmony of flavour; like a man Who tunes a lyre till it rightly sounds. And then, when everything is well in tune, Bring in a troop of willing damsels fair, Equal in number to the banqueters.

In addition to these epicures in fish, my friends, I am aware also that Apollo is honoured among the Eleans, under the title of Fish-eater: and Polemo mentions this name of his in his letter to Attalus. I am aware, also, that in Pisa there is a picture consecrated in the temple of Diana Alpheosa (and it is the work of Cleanthes the Corinthian), in which Neptune is represented as bringing a tunny to Jupiter in labour; as Demetrius tells us, in the eighth book of his Trojan Array.

37. These, then, are the things, said Democritus, which I myself have brought in the way of my contribution, not going to eat fish myself, for the sake of my excellent friend Ulpian; who, on account of the national customs of the Syrians, has deprived us of our fish, continually bringing forward one thing after another. And Antipater of Tarsus, the Stoic philosopher, in the fourth book of his treatise on Superstition, tells us that it is said by some people that Gatis, the queen of the Syrians, was so exceedingly fond of fish, that she issued a proclamation that no one should eat fish without Gatis being invited (ἄτερ γάτιδος); and that the common people, out of ignorance, thought her name was Atergatis, and abstained wholly from fish. And Mnaseus, in the second book of his History of Asia, speaks thus—"But I think that Atergatis was a very bad queen, and that she ruled the people with great harshness, so that she even forbad them by law to eat fish, and ordered them to bring all the fish to her, because she was so fond of that food; and, on account of this order of hers, a custom still prevails, when the Syrians pray to the goddess, to offer her golden or silver fish; and for the priests every day to place on the table before the god real fish also, carefully dressed, both boiled and roasted, which the priests of the goddess eat themselves." And a little further on, he says again—"But Atergatis (as Xanthus the Lydian says), being taken prisoner by Mopsus, king of Lydia, was drowned with her son in the lake near Ascalon, because of her insolence, and was eaten up by fishes."

38. And you, perhaps, my friends, have willingly passed by (as if it were some sacred fish) the fish mentioned by Ephippus the comic poet, which he says was dressed for Geryon, in his play called Geryon. The lines are these:—

A. When the natives of the land Catch a fish which is not common, But fine, as large as the whole isle Of Crete, he furnishes a dish Able to hold a hundred such; And orders all who live around, Sindi, and Lycians, and Paphians, Cranai, and Mygdoniotæ, To cut down wood, because the king Is boiling this enormous fish. So then they bring a load of wood, Enough to go all round the city,

EPICURES.

And light the fire. Then they bring A lake of water to make brine, And for eight months a hundred carts Are hard at work to carry salt. And around the dish's edge Five five-oar'd boats keep always rowing; And bid the slaves take care the fire Burns not the Lycian magistrates. B. Cease to blow this cold air on us, King of Macedon, extinguish The Celts, and do not burn them more.

But I am not ignorant that Ephippus has said the very same thing in his play called the Peltast; in which the following lines also are subjoined to those which I have just quoted:—

Talking all this nonsense, he Raises the wonder of the youths With whom he feasts, though knowing not The simplest sums and plainest figures; But drags his cloak along the ground With a most lordly, pompous air.

But, with reference to whom it is that Ephippus said this, it is now proper for you to inquire, my good friend Ulpian, and then to tell us; and in this inquiry—

If you find aught hard and inexplicable, Repeat it over, understand it clearly,— For I have much more leisure than I like;

as Prometheus says in Æschylus.

39. And on this Cynulcus exclaimed:—And what great subject of inquiry,—I do not say great fish,—can this fellow admit into his mind?—a man who is always picking out the spines of hepseti and atherinæ, and even of worse fish than these, if there be any such, passing over all finer fish.

For, as Eubulus says, in the Ixion,—

As if a man at a luxurious feast, When cheese cakes are before him, chooses nought But anise, parsley, and such silly fare, And ill-dress'd cardamums . . . .

so, too, this Pot-friend, Ulpian,—to use a word of my fellow-Megalopolitan, Cercidas,—appears to me to eat nothing that a man ought to eat, but to watch those who are eating, to see if they have passed over any spine or any callous or gristly morsel of the meat set before them; never once considering what the admirable and brilliant Æschylus has said, who called his tragedies, "Relics of the noble banquets of Homer." But Æschylus was one of the greatest of philosophers,—a man who, being once defeated undeservedly, as Theophrastus or Chamæleon (whichever was really the author of the book), in his treatise on Pleasure, has related, said that he committed his tragedies to time, well knowing that, he should hereafter receive the honour due to him.

40. But whence could Ulpian know what Stratonicus the harp-player said about Propis the Rhodian harp-player? For Clearchus, in his book on Proverbs, says that Stratonicus, when he had seen Propis, who was a man of great size, but a very inferior artist, with a mind much less than his body, said to some one who asked him what sort of player he was,

οὐδεὶς κακὸς μέγας ἰχθῖς;

speaking enigmatically, and saying, first of all, that he is οὐδεὶς, no one, or good-for-nothing; secondly, that he is κακὸς, bad; and, in addition to this, that he is μέγας, great; and, lastly, ἰχθὺς, a fish, as having no voice. But Theophrastus, in his book on The Laughable, says that this was a proverb originating with Stratonicus, but applied to Simmychas the actor; for that he uttered the proverb, dividing the words distinctly—

μέγας οὐδεὶς σαπρὸς ἰχθῦς.

And Aristotle, in his Constitution of the Naxians, speaks thus of this proverb—"Of the rich men among the Naxians, the greater part lived in the city, but the remainder lived scattered about in the villages. Accordingly, in one of these villages, the name of which was Lestadæ, Telestagoras lived, a man of great riches and of very high reputation, and greatly honoured by the people in other respects, and also with daily presents which they used to send him. And whenever people from the city, going down to the market, wanted to drive a hard bargain for anything they wished to purchase, the sellers would say that they would rather give it to Telestagoras than sell it for such a price as was offered. So some young men, buying a large fish, when the fisherman made this speech, being annoyed at hearing this so often, having already drunk a good deal, went to his house to sup; and Telestagoras received them in a very friendly and hospitable manner, but the young men insulted him, and his two marriageable daughters. At which the Naxians were very indignant, and took up arms and attacked the young men; and there was a great sedition, Lygdamis being the leader of the Naxians, who, having got the chief command in this sedition, became the tyrant of his country."

STRATONICUS.

41. And I do not think it unseasonable myself, since I have mentioned the harp-player Stratonicus, to say something also concerning his readiness in repartee. For when he was teaching people to play the harp, and as he had in his school nine statues of the nine Muses, and one of Apollo, and had also two pupils, when some one asked him how many pupils he had, he said, "Gods and all, twelve." And once when he had travelled to Mylassa, and saw there a great number of temples, but very few citizens, standing in the middle of the forum, he cried out—

᾿ακούετε ναοί.[11]

And Macho has recorded some memorials of him in these lines:—

Once Stratonicus travell'd down to Pella, And having heard from many men before That the baths of that city were accustom'd To give the bathers spleen; and finding, too, That many of the youths did exercise Before the fire, who preserved their colour And vigour of their body unimpair'd; He said that those who told him so were wrong. But finding afterwards, when he left the bath, A man whose spleen was twice his belly's size,— "This man," said he, "appears to me here now To sit and keep the garments of the men Who go to bathe, and all their spleens beside, That all the people may have room enough." A miserable singer once did give A feast to Stratonicus and his friends, And, while the cup was freely going round, Exhibited his art to all the company. And as the feast was rich and liberal, Poor Stratonicus, wearied with the song, And having no one near him he could speak to, Knock'd down his cup, and asked for a larger. And when he'd drunk full many a draught, he made A last libation to the glorious sun, And then composed himself to sleep, and left The rest to fortune. Presently more guests Came, as good luck would have it, to the singer, To feast with him; still Stratonicus slept, Heavy with wine; and when they ask'd him why A man so much accustom'd to drink wine Had been so soon o'ercome by drink this day, "This treacherous, cursed singing man," said he, "Treated me like a bullock in a stall; For first he fed me up, and then he kill'd me." Once Stratonicus to Abdera went, To see some games which there were celebrated; And seeing every separate citizen Having a private crier to himself, And each of them proclaiming a new moon Whene'er he pleased, so that the criers were Quite out of all proportion to the citizens, He walk'd about on tiptoes through the city, Looking intently on the ground beneath. And when some stranger ask'd him what had happen'd To his feet, to make him look so gravely at them:— He said, "I'm very well all over, friend, And can run faster to an entertainment Than any parasite; but I'm in fear Lest I should tread by hazard on some κῆρυξ,[12] And pierce my foot with its spikes and lame myself." Once, when a wretched flute-player was preparing To play the flute at a sacred festival, "Let us have only sounds of omen good," Said Stratonicus; "let us pour libations And pray devoutly to the mighty gods." There was a harper, and his name was Cleon, But he was nicknamed Ox; he sang most vilely Without th' accompaniment of the lyre. When Stratonicus heard him, then he said, "I've often heard of asses at the lyre, But now I see an ox in the same case." The harper Stratonicus once had sail'd To Pontus, to see king Berisades. And when he'd staid in Pontus long enough, He thought he would return again to Greece. But when the king refused to let him go, They say that Stratonicus said to him— "Why, do you mean to stay here long yourself?" The harper Stratonicus once was staying Some time at Corinth; when an aged woman One day stood looking at him a long time, And would not take her eyes off: then said he, "Tell me, I pray you, in God's name, good mother, What is't you wish, and why you look thus on me?" "I marvell'd," said she, "how 'twas your mother Held you nine months, without her belly bursting, While this town can't endure you one whole day." Fair Biothea, Nicotheon's wife, Once at a party with a handmaid fair Made some strange noise; and after that, by chance, She trod upon a Sicyonian almond. Then Stratonicus said, "The noise is different." But when night came, for this heedless word, He wash'd out his free-speaking in the sea.

STRATONICUS.

Once, when at Ephesus, as rumour goes, A stupid harper was exhibiting One of his pupils to a band of friends; Stratonicus, who by chance was present, said, "He cannot make himself a harp-player, And yet he tries to teach the art to others."

42. And Clearchus, in the second book of his treatise on Friendship, says,—"Stratonicus the harp-player, whenever he wished to go to sleep, used to order a slave to bring him something to drink; 'not,' says he, 'because I am thirsty now, but that I may not be presently.'" And once, at Byzantium, when a harp-player had played his prelude well, but had made a blunder of the rest of the performance, he got up and made proclamation, "That whoever would point out the harp-player who had played the prelude should receive a thousand drachmæ." And when he was once asked by some one who were the wickedest people, he said, "That in Pamphylia, the people of Phaselis were the worst; but that the Sidetæ were the worst in the whole world." And when he was asked again, according to the account given by Hegesander, which were the greatest barbarians, the Bœotians or the Thessalians, he said, "The Eleans." And once he erected a trophy in his school, and put this inscription on it—"Over the bad harp-players." And once, being asked by some one which was the safer kind of vessel, the long one or the round one,—"Those," quoth he, "are the safest which are in dock." And once he made a display of his art at Rhodes, and no one applauded; on which he left the theatre, and when he had got into the air he said, "When you fail to give what costs you nothing, how can I expect any solid pay from you?" "Let the Eleans," said he, "celebrate gymnastic contests, and let the Corinthians establish choral, and the Athenians theatrical exhibitions; and if any one of them does anything wrong, let the Lacedæmonians be scourged,"—jesting upon the public scourgings exhibited in that city, as Charicles relates, in the first book of his treatise on the City Contests. And when Ptolemy the king was talking with him in an ambitious kind of way about harp-playing, "The sceptre," said he, "O king, is one thing, and the plectrum another;" as Capito the epic poet says in the fourth book of his Commentaries addressed to Philopappus. And once being invited to hear a flute-player, after he had heard him, he said—

The father granted half his prayer, The other half denied.

And when some one asked him which half he granted, he said, "He granted to him to play very badly, and denied him the ability to sing well." And once, when a beam fell down and slew some wicked man, "O Men," said he, "I think (δοκῶ) there are gods; and if not, there are beams (δόκοι)."

43. Also, after the before-mentioned witticisms of Stratonicus, he put down besides a list of these things following.

Stratonicus said once to the father of Chrysogonus, when he was saying that he had everything at home in great abundance, for that he himself had undertaken the works, and that of his sons, one could teach[13] and another play the flute; "You still," said Stratonicus, "want one thing." And when the other asked him what that was, "You want," said he, "a theatre in your house." And when some one asked him why he kept travelling over the whole of Greece, and did not remain in one city, he said—"That he had received from the Muses all the Greeks as his wages, from whom he was to levy a tax to atone for their ignorance." And he said that Phaon did not play harmony,[14] but Cadmus. And when Phaon pretended to great skill on the flute, and said that he had a chorus at Megara, "You are joking," said he; "for you do not possess anything there, but you are possessed yourself." And he said—"That he marvelled above all things at the mother of Satyrus the Sophist, because she had borne for nine months a man whom no city in all Greece could bear for nine days." And once, hearing that he had arrived in Ilium at the time of the Ilian games, "There are," said he, "always troubles in Ilium." And when Minnacus was disputing with him about music, he said—"That he was not attending to what he said, because he had got in above his ankles." At another time he said of a bad physician—"That he made those who were attended by him go to the shades below the very day they came to him." And having met one of his acquaintances, when he saw his sandals carefully sponged, he pitied him as being badly off, pretending to think that he would never have had his sandals so well sponged if he had not sponged them himself. And as it was a very mixed race of people who lived at Teichius, a town in the Milesian territory, when he saw that all the tombs about were those of foreigners, "Let us begone, O boy," said he; "for all the strangers, as it seems, die here, and none of the citizens." And when Zethus the harper was giving a lecture upon music, he said that he was the only person who was utterly unfit to discuss the subject of music, inasmuch as he had chosen the most unmusical of all names, and called himself Zethus[15] instead of Amphion. And once, when he was teaching some Macedonian to play on the harp, being angry that he did nothing as he ought, he said, "Go to Macedonia."

STRATONICUS.

44. And when he saw the shrine of some hero splendidly adorned, close to a cold and worthless bathing-house, when he came out, having had a very bad bath, "I do not wonder," said he, "that many tablets are dedicated here; for every one of the bathers naturally offers one, as having been saved from drowning." And at another time he said—"In Ænus there are eight months of cold and four of winter." At another time he said, "that the people of Pontus had come out of a great sea"—as though he had said (great) trouble. And he called the Rhodians White Cyrenæans, and the city he called the City of Suitors; and Heraclea he called the Man-Corinth; and Byzantium he called the Arm-pit of Greece; and the Leucadians were Stale Corinthians; and the Ambraciotes he called Membraciotes. And when he had gone out of the gates of Heraclea, and was looking round him, when some one asked him what he was looking at, he said that "he was ashamed of being seen, as if he were coming out of a brothel." And once, seeing two men bound in the stocks, he said—"This is suited to the disposition of a very insignificant city, not to be able to fill such a place as this." And once he said to a man who professed to be a musician, but who had been a gardener before, and who was disputing with him about harmony,—

Let each man sing the art in which he's skill'd.

And once at Maronea, when he was drinking with some people, he said,—"That he could tell in what part of the city he was, if men led him through it blindfold;" and then when they did so lead him, and asked him where he was, "Near the eating-house," said he, because all Maronea seemed a mere eating-house. And once, when he was sitting next to Telephanes, and he was beginning to blow the flute, he said, "Higher, like men who belch." And when the bathing-man in Cardia brought him some bad earth and salt water to cleanse himself with, he said that he was being besieged both by land and sea.

45. And when he had conquered his competitors at Sicyon, he set up a trophy in the temple of Æsculapius, and wrote upon it, "Stratonicus, conqueror of those who played badly on the harp." And when some one had sung, he asked what tune he had been singing; and when he said that it was an air of Carcinus,[16] "More like that," said he, "than the air of a man." He also said, on another occasion, that there was no spring at Maronea, only heat. And once at Phaselis, when the bathing-man was wrangling with his boy about the money, (for the law was that foreigners should pay more for bathing than natives,) "Oh, you wretched boy!" said he, "you have almost made me a citizen of Phaselis, to save a halfpenny." And once, when a person was praising him in hopes to get something by it, he said, "that he himself was a greater beggar." And once, when he was teaching in a small town, he said, "This is not a city (πόλις), but hardly one (πόλις)." And once, when he was at Pella, he came to a well, and asked whether it was fit to drink; and when those who were drawing water from it said, "At all events we drink it;" "Then," said he, "I am sure it is not fit to drink:" for the men happened to be very sallow-looking. And when he had heard the poem of Timotheus, on the subject of Semele in Labour, he said, "But if she had brought forth an artisan, and not a god, what sounds would she have uttered!"

And when Polyidas was giving himself airs, because his pupil Philotas had beaten Timotheus, he said, "That he wondered at his being so ignorant as not to know that he makes decrees, and Timotheus laws." And he said to Areus the harp-player, who was annoying him, "Play to the crows."[17] And once he was at Sicyon, when a leather-dresser was abusing him, and he said to the leather-dresser (νακοδέψης), "O you κακόδαιμον νακόδαιμον." And Stratonicus himself, beholding the Rhodians dissolved in luxury, and drinking only warm drinks, said, "that there were white Cyrenæans." And he called Rhodes itself the City of the Suitors,[18] thinking that they were in no respect different from the Cyrenæans in debauchery, but only in complexion; and also because of the devotion to pleasure of the inhabitants, he compared Rhodes itself to the city of the Suitors.

ARISTOTLE.

46. And Stratonicus was, in all these elaborate witticisms, an imitator of Simonides the poet, as Ephorus tells us in the second book of his treatise on Inventions; who says that Philoxenus of Cythera was also a great studier of the same pursuit. And Phænias the Peripatetic, in the second book of his treatise on Poets, says—"Stratonicus the Athenian appears to have been the first person who introduced the system of playing chords into the simple harp-playing; and he was the first man who ever took pupils in music, and who ever composed tables of music. And he was also a man of no small brilliancy as a wit." He says also that he was eventually put to death by Nicocles, the King of the Cyprians, on account of the freedom of his witticisms, being compelled to drink poison, because he had turned the sons of the king into ridicule.

47. But I marvel at Aristotle, whom these wise men, my excellent Democritus, are so incessantly speaking of and praising, (and whose writings you also esteem highly, as you do those of the other philosophers and orators,) on account of his great accuracy: and I should like to know when he learnt, or from what Proteus or Nereus who came up from the depths he found out, what fish do, or how they go to sleep, or how they live: for all these things he has told us in his writings, so as to be, in the words of the comic poets, "a wonder to fools;" for he says that the ceryx, and indeed that the whole race of shell-fish, are propagated without copulation; and that the purple-fish and the ceryx are longlived. For how could he know that the purple-fish lives six years? and how could he know that the viper takes a long time to propagate his species? or that of all its tribe the longest at that work is the pigeon, the next the œnas, and the quickest is the turtle-dove? And whence did he learn that the horse lives five-and-thirty years, but the mare more than forty? saying, too, that some have lived even seventy-five years. And he also states that from the copulation of lice there are born nits; and that from a worm, after its change, there is produced a caterpillar, from which comes the humble-bee, and from that the larva of the silk-worm. And he also says that bees live to six years of age, and that some live even seven years; and he says that neither bee nor wasp have ever been seen in the act of copulation, on which account no one can ever tell whether they are male or female. And from what did he learn that men are inferior to bees? for these latter always preserve an equal condition of life, being subject to no changes, but employing themselves without ceasing in the collection of honey, and doing that without having been taught by any one to do so: but men are inferior to bees, and as full of fancy as bees are of honey: how, then, has Aristotle observed all these things? And in his treatise on Long Life, he says that a fly has been seen which had lived six or seven years. But what proof is there of this?

48. And where did he ever see ivy growing out of a stag's head? And again, owls and night-jars, he says, cannot see by day; on which account they hunt for their food by night, and they do this not during the whole night, but at the beginning of evening. And he says, too, that there are several different kinds of eyes, for some are blue, and some are black, and some are hazel. He says, too, that the eyes of men are of different characters, and that the differences of disposition may be judged of from the eyes; for that those men who have goats' eyes, are exceedingly sharp-sighted, and have the best dispositions. And of others, he says that some men have projecting eyes, and some have eyes deeply set, and some keep a mean between the two: and those whose eyes are deeply set, he says, have the sharpest sight, and those whose eyes project, must have the worst dispositions; and those who are moderate in these respects, are people, says he, of moderate dispositions. There are also some people whose eyes are always winking, and some who never wink at all, and some who do so in a moderate degree: and those who are always winking are shameless[19] people, and those who never wink at all are unstable and fickle, and those who wink in a moderate degree have the best disposition.

ARISTOTLE'S NATURAL HISTORY.

He says also that man is the only animal which has its heart on the left side; and that all other animals have it in the middle of the body. And he says that males have more teeth than females; and he affirms that this has been noticed in the case of the sheep, and of the pig, and of the goat. And he says also that there is no fish which has testicles, and there is no fish which has a breast, and no bird either; but that the only fish which has no gall is the dolphin. There are, however, some, says he, which have no gall in their liver, but they have it near their bowels; as the sturgeon, the synagris, the lamprey, the sword-fish, and the sea-swallow. But the amia has its gall spread over the whole of its entrails: and the hawk and the kite have theirs spread both over their liver and their entrails; but the ægocephalus has his gall both in his liver and in his stomach: and the pigeon, and the quail, and the swallow have theirs, some in their entrails, and some in their stomach.

49. Moreover, he says that all the molluscous fish, and the shell-fish, and the cartilaginous fish, and all insects, spend a long time in copulation; but that the dolphin and some other fish copulate lying alongside the female. And he says that the dolphins are very slow, but fish in general very quick. Again he says that the lion has very solid bones, and that if they are struck, fire comes from them as from flint stones. And that the dolphin has bones, but no spine; but that cartilaginous fish have both gristle and spine. And of animals he says that some are terrestrial and some aquatic; and that some even live in the fire; and that there are some, which he calls ephemera, which live only one day: and that there are some which are amphibious, such as the river-horse, and the crocodile, and the otter. And that all animals in general have two forefeet, but that the crab has four; and that all the animals which have blood are either without feet at all, or are bipeds, or quadrupeds; and that all the animals which have more than four feet are destitute of blood: on which account every animal which moves, moves by what he calls four tokens,—man by two hands and two feet, a bird by two feet and two wings, an eel and a conger by two fins and two joints. Moreover, some animals have hands, as a man has, and some appear to have hands, as a monkey does; for there is no brute beast which can really give and take, and it is for those things that hands are given to men as instruments. Again, some animals have limbs, as a man, an ox, an ass; and some have no limbs, as a serpent, an oyster, the pulmo marinus. There are also many animals which are not always visible, such as those which hide in holes; and those which do not hide in holes are still not always visible, as swallows and cranes.

50. And though I could repeat to you now a great deal of nonsense which the medicine-seller talked, I forbear to do so, although I know that Epicurus, that most truthful of men, said of him in his letter about Institutions, that he devoted himself to a military life after having squandered his patrimony in gluttony; and that, turning out an indifferent soldier, he then took to selling medicines. Then, when the school of Plato was opened, he says, he changed again, and applied himself to philosophical discussions, and as he was not a man destitute of ability, by little and little he became a speculative philosopher. I know, too, that Epicurus is the only person who ever said this of him; for neither did Eubulides nor Cephisodorus venture to say anything of the kind against the Stagirite, and that, too, though they did write books against him. But in that same letter Epicurus says, that Protagoras also, who became a philosopher from having been a porter and a wood-carrier, was first promoted to be an amanuensis of Democritus; who, wondering at the admirable way in which he used to put the wood together, took him under his eye in consequence of this beginning; and then he began to teach the rudiments of learning in some village, and after that he proceeded on to the study of philosophy. And I now, O fellow feasters, after all this conversation, feel a great desire for something to eat. And when some one said that the cooks were already preparing something, and taking care that the dishes should not be served up cold, on account of the excessive length to which the "feast of words" had been carried, for that no one could eat cold dishes, Cynulcus said,—But I, like the Milcon of Alexis, the comic poet, can eat them even if they are not served up warm—

For Plato teaches us that what is good, Is everywhere on all occasions good; Can you deny this? and that what is sweet Is always sweet, here, there, and ev'rywhere.

FISH.

And it was not without some cleverness that Sphærus, who was a fellow-pupil with Chrysippus in the school of Cleanthes, when he had been sent for to Alexandria by king Ptolemy; when on one occasion birds made of wax were served up at a banquet, and he was putting out his hand to take some, but was stopped by the king, who told him that he was assenting to a sham; very appropriately answered,—"That he did not agree that they were birds at all, but only that it was probable that they might be birds; and that an opinion which could be confirmed by the perception, is superior to that which is merely probable; for that the one cannot be incorrect, but that what is probable may turn out contrary to what was expected." And so it could not be a bad thing if some waxen dishes were brought round to us too, according to our perceptive opinions, so that we might be beguiled at least by the sight of them, and so escape talking on for ever.

51. And when they were now on the point of sitting down to eat again, Daphnus bade them stop, quoting this iambic out of the Mammacythus or Auri of Metagenes—

As when we're feasting anywhere, Then we all talk and argue faster.

And indeed, said he, I say that the discussion about fish is still defective in some points, since the sons of Æsculapius (such as Philotimus I mean, in his essay on Food, and Mnesitheus the Athenian, and Diphilus the Siphnian) have said a good deal about fishes, of which we have as yet taken no notice. For Diphilus, in his work entitled A Treatise on Food fit for People in Health and Invalids, says,—"Of sea-fish, those which keep to the rocks are easily digested, and juicy, and purgative, and light, but not very nutritious; but those which keep in the deep water are much less digestible, very nutritious, but apt to disagree with one. Now, of the fish which keep to the rocks, the phycen and the phycis are very tender little fish, and very digestible; but the perch, which is like them, varies a little as to the places in which it is found. And the tench resembles the perch; but the smaller tench and the white ones are tender, juicy, and digestible; but the green ones (and they are also called caulinæ) are dry, and devoid of juice. The channæ also have tender meat, but still they are harder than the perch. Then there is the scarus, which has tender flesh, not very firm, sweet, light, digestible, not apt to disagree with one, and good for the stomach. But the fresh ones are less popular than the others, because they hunt the sea-hares and feed on them, owing to which their entrails are apt to produce cholera morbus. And the fish which is called ceris is tender, good for the bowels, and good for the stomach; but its juice has fattening and purgative qualities. The orphus, which some write ὀρφὸς, and some ὀρφὼς, is very full of a pleasant juice, glutinous, indigestible, very nutritious, diuretic. But the parts near his head are glutinous and digestible; but the more fleshy parts are indigestible and heavy, and the part towards the tail is the tenderest part; and he is a fish apt to generate phlegm, and indigestible. The sphyrænæ are more nutritious than the congers; and the eel caught in lakes is not so nice as the sea-eel, but it is more nutritious. The chrysophrys is very like the melanurus; and the sea-scorpions, which are found in the deep sea, and are of a tawny colour, are more nutritious than those which are found in marshes, or than the large ones which are taken on the shores.

52. "But the sparus is harsh-tasted, tender, with no unpleasant smell, good for the stomach, diuretic, and not indigestible; but when he is fried he is indigestible. The mullet is good for the stomach, very astringent, of very firm flesh, not very digestible, apt to bind the bowels, especially when it is broiled; but when it is fried in a frying-pan, then it is heavy and indigestible; and, as a general rule, the whole tribe of mullets has the property of causing secretions of blood. The synodon and the charax are of the same kind, but the charax is the better of the two. The phagrus is found both in the river and in the sea; but that which is found in the sea is the best. The capriscus is called also the mussel; but it has a strong smell, and very hard meat, and it is more indigestible than the citharus; but its skin is very pleasant to the taste. The needle-fish, or belone, and it is also called the ablennes, is indigestible and moist, but good for the bowels. The thrissa, and those of the same kind, such as the chalcis and the eretimis, are very digestible. The cestreus is found in the sea, and in rivers, and in lakes. And this fish, says he, is also called the oxyrhynchus; but the one which is taken in the Nile is called the coracinus. And the black kind is smaller than the white, and when boiled it is not so good as when it is roasted; for when roasted it is good for the stomach and good for the bowels. The salpe is hard-fleshed, and unpleasant to the taste, but the best are those which are caught at Alexandria, and those which are taken in the autumn. For it is white, full of moisture, and free from any unpleasant smell. The gryllus is like the eel in appearance, but it is not nice to the taste. The sea-hawk is harder than the sea-cuckoo, but in other respects they are much alike. The uranoscopus, and also the fish called agnus, which is also called the callionymus, are heavy fish. The boax, when boiled, is very digestible, giving out a very wholesome juice, and is good for the stomach; and that which is broiled on the coals is sweeter and more tender. The bacchus is full of abundant and agreeable and wholesome juice, and is very nutritious. The sea-goat is not very agreeable as to its juice, not very digestible, and has a disagreeable smell. The sea-sparrow and the buglossus are both nutritious and palatable, and the turbot is like them. The sea-grayling, the cephalus, the cestreus, the myxinus, and the colon are all much alike as to their eatable properties; but the cestreus is inferior to the cephalus, the myxinus is worse, and the colon is the least good of all.

FISH.

53. "The thynnis and the thynnus are both heavy and nutritious; but the fish which is called the Acarnanian is sweet, very exciting, very nutritious, and easily secreted. The anchovy is heavy and indigestible, and the white kind is called the cobitis; and the hepsetus, a little fish, is of the same genus.

"Of cartilaginous fish, the sea-cow is fleshy, but the shark is superior to that,—that kind, I mean, which is called the asterias. But the alopecias, or sea-fox, is in taste very like the land animal, from which circumstance, indeed, it has its name. The ray is a very delicate fish to the taste; but the stellated ray is tenderer still, and full of excellent juice; but the smooth ray is less wholesome for the stomach, and has an unpleasant smell. But the torpedo, which is hard of digestion, is in the parts below the head very tender, and good for the stomach, and, moreover, very digestible, but its other parts are not so; and the small ones are the best, especially when they are plain boiled. The rhinè, which is one of the cartilaginous class, is very digestible and light; but those of the largest size are the most nutritious; and, as a general rule, all the cartilaginous fish are apt to create flatulence, and are fleshy, and difficult of digestion, and if they are eaten in any quantity, they are bad for the eyes. The cuttle-fish, when boiled, is tender, palatable, and digestible, and also good for the stomach; but the juice which comes from it has the property of making the blood thin, and is apt to cause secretions by hæmorrhoids. The squid is more digestible, and is nutritious, especially the small-sized one; but when boiled they are harder, and not palatable. The polypus promotes amativeness, but it is hard and indigestible; and those of the largest size are the most nutritious, and when they are much boiled, they have a tendency to fill the stomach with liquid, and they bind the bowels. And Alexis, in his Pamphila, points out the useful properties of the polypus, speaking as follows,—

But if you are in love, O Cteson, What is more useful than these fish I bring? Ceryces, cockles, (onions too, are here,) The mighty polypus, and good-sized turbot.

"The pelamys also is very nutritious and heavy, it is also diuretic, and very indigestible; but when cured like the callubium, it is quite as good for the stomach, and it has a tendency to make the blood thin; and the large kind is called the synodontis. The sea-swallow, or chelidonias, is also something like the pelamys, but harder; and the chelidon is like the polypus, and emits juice which purifies the complexion, and stirs up the blood. The orcynus is a fish who delights in the mud; and the larger kind is like the chelidonias in hardness, but the lower part of its abdomen and its collar-bone are palatable and tender; but those which are called costæ, when cured and salted, are a middling fish. The xanthias has rather a strong smell, and is tenderer than the orcynus." These are the statements of Diphilus.