Translated by H.Rackham (1952), with some minor alterations. Click on the L symbols to go to the Latin text of each chapter.
{50.} L [95] In the bloodless class, the lobster is protected by a fragile rind. Lobsters stay in retirement for five months in each year ; and likewise crabs, which go into hiding at the same season ; and both species discard their old age at the beginning of spring in the same way as snakes do, by renewing their skins. All other aquatic species swim, but lobsters float about in the manner of reptiles ; if no danger threatens they go forward in a straight course with their horns, which are buttoned by their own rounded ends, stretched out at their sides, but at a moment of alarm they advance slanting sideways with their horns held erect. They use their horns in fighting one another. The lobster is the only animal whose flesh is of a yielding texture with no hardness, unless it is boiled alive in hot water. [96] Lobsters live in rocky places, whereas crabs live on soft mud. In winter they haunt sunny shores, but in summer they retire into the dim depths of the sea. All creatures of this class suffer in winter, but get fat in autumn and spring, and more so at full moon, because the moon mellows them with its warm glow by night.
{51.} L [97] The kinds of crab are the carabus, the crayfish, the spider-crab, the hermit-crab, the Heraclean crab, the lion-crab and other inferior species. The carabus differs from the other crabs by its tail ; in Phoenicia it is called the horse-crab, being so swift that it is impossible to overtake it. Crabs are long-lived. They have eight feet, all curved crooked; the front foot is double in the female and single in the male. They also have two claws with denticulated nippers ; the upper half of the forepart of these moves and the lower half is fixed. The right claw is the larger in every specimen. Sometimes crabs all collect together in a flock. [98] They cannot make the mouth of the Black Sea against the current, and consequently when they are going out of it they travel round in a circle and appear to be following a beaten track. The one called the pea-crab is the smallest of the whole tribe, and consequently very liable to injury. It has the cunning to stow itself in empty bivalve shells and to shift into roomier ones as it grows bigger. [99] When alarmed crabs can retreat backwards with equal speed. They fight duels with one another like rams, charging with horns opposed. They afford a remedy against snake-bite. It is related that when the sun is passing through the sign of Cancer the bodies of crabs also when they expire are transformed into scorpions during the drought.
[100] The sea-urchin, which has spines instead of feet, belongs to the same genus. These creatures can only go forward by rolling over and over, and consequently they are often found with their prickles worn off. Those of them with the longest spines are called cidaris, and the smallest are called cups. They have not all the same transparent colour : in the district of Torone some are born white, with a small spine. The eggs of all have a bitter taste ; they are laid in clutches of five. Their mouths are in the middle of their body, on the under side. It is said that they can forecast a rough sea and that they take the precaution of clutching stones and steadying their mobility by the weight : they do not want to wear away their spines by rolling about. When sailors see them doing this they at once secure their vessels with more anchors.
[101] In the same family are water and land snails, that protrude out of their abode and shoot out and draw in two horns as it were. They have no eyes, and consequently explore the way in front of them with their little horns.
Sea-scallops are held to belong to the same class, which also retire into hiding at seasons of extreme cold and extreme heat ; and piddocks, which shine as if with fire in dark places, even in the mouth of persons eating them.
{52.} L [102] We now come to the purples and the varieties of shell-fish, which have a stronger shell. The latter display in great variety nature's love of sport : they show so many differences of colour, and also of shape - being flat, hollow, long, crescent-shaped, circular, semi-circular, humped, smooth, wrinkled, serrated, furrowed; with the crest bent into the shape of a purple, the edge projecting into a sharp point, or spread outwards, or folded inwards ; [103] and again picked out with stripes or with flowing locks or with curls, or parted in little channels or like the teeth of a comb, or corrugated like tiles, or reticulated into lattice-work, or spread out slantwise or straight, close-packed, diffused, curled; tied up in a short knot, or linked up all down the side, or opened so as to shut with a snap, or curved so as to make a trumpet. Of this species the Venus-shell sails like a ship, and projecting its hollow portion and setting it to catch the wind goes voyaging over the surface of the water. The scallop gives a leap and soars out of the water, and it also uses its own shell as a boat.
{53.} L [104] But why do I mention these trifles when moral corruption and luxury spring from no other source in greater abundance than from the genus shell-fish ? It is true that of the whole of nature the sea is most detrimental to the stomach in a multitude of ways, with its multitude of dishes and of appetising kinds of fish to which the profits made by those who catch them spell danger. [105] But what proportion do these form when we consider purple and scarlet robes and pearls ! It had been insufficient, forsooth, for the seas to be stowed into our gullets, were they not carried on the hands and in the ears and on the head and all over the body of women and men alike. What connexion is there between the sea and our clothing, between the waves and waters and woollen fabric ? We only enter that element in a proper manner when we are naked ! Granted that there is so close an alliance between it and our stomach, but what has it to do with our backs ? Are we not content to feed on dangers without also being clothed with them ? Is it that the rule that we get most satisfaction from luxuries costing a human life to procure holds good for the whole of our anatomy ?
{54.} L [106] The first place therefore and the topmost rank among all things of price is held by pearls. These are sent chiefly by the Indian Ocean, among the huge and curious animals that we have described as coming across all those seas over that wide expanse of lands from those burning heats of the sun. And to procure them for the Indians as well, men go to the islands - and those quite few in number : the most productive is Taprobane, and also Stoidis, as we said in our circuit of the world, and also the Indian promontory of Perimula ; but those round Arabia on the Persian Persian Gulf of the Red Sea are specially praised.
[107] The source and breeding-ground of pearls are shells not much differing from oyster-shells. These, we are told, when stimulated by the generative season of the year gape open as it were and are filled with dewy pregnancy, and subsequently when heavy are delivered, and the offspring of the shells are pearls that correspond to the quality of the dew received : if it was a pure inflow, their brilliance is conspicuous but if it was turbid, the product also becomes dirty in colour. Also if the sky is lowering (they say) the pearl is pale in colour : for it is certain that it was conceived from the sky, and that pearls have more connexion with the sky than with the sea, and derive from it a cloudy hue, or a clear one corresponding with a brilliant morning. [108] If they are well fed in due season, the offspring also grows in size. If there is lightning, the shells shut up, and diminish in size in proportion to their abstinence from food ; but if it also thunders they are frightened and shut up suddenly, producing what are called 'wind-pearls,' which are only inflated with an empty, unsubstantial show : these are the pearls' miscarriages. Indeed a healthy offspring is formed with a skin of many thicknesses, so that it may not improperly be considered as a hardening of the body ; and consequently experts subject them to a cleansing process. [109] I am surprised that though pearls rejoice so much in the actual sky, they redden and lose their whiteness in the sun, like the human body ; consequently sea-pearls preserve a special brilliance, being too deeply immersed for the rays to penetrate ; nevertheless even they get yellow from age and doze off with wrinkles, and the vigour that is sought after is only found in youth. Also in old age they get thick and stick to the shells, and cannot be torn out of these except by using a file. Pearls with only one surface, and round on that side but flat at the back, are consequently termed tambourine pearls ; we have seen them clustering together in shells that owing to this enrichment were used for carrying round perfumes. For the rest, a large pearl is soft when in the water but gets hard as soon as it is taken out.
{55.} L [110] When a shell sees a hand it shuts itself up and conceals its treasures, as it knows that it is sought for on their account; and if the hand is inserted first it cuts it off with its sharp edge, the most just penalty possible - for it is armed with other penalties also, as for the most part it is found among rocks, while even in deep water it has sea-dogs in attendance - yet nevertheless these do not protect it against women's ears ! [111] Some accounts say that clusters of shells like bees have one of their number, a specially large and old shell, as their leader, one marvellously skilful in taking precautions ; and that these leader-shells are diligently sought for by pearl-divers, as when they are caught all the rest stray about and easily get shut up in the nets, subsequently a quantity of salt being poured over them in earthenware jars; this eats away all the flesh, and a sort of kernels in their bodies, which are pearls, fall to the bottom.
{56.} L [112] There is no doubt that pearls are worn away by use, and that lack of care makes them change their colour. Their whole value lies in their brilliance, size, roundness, smoothness and weight, qualities of such rarity that no two pearls are found that are exactly alike : this is doubtless the reason why Roman luxury has given them the name of 'unique gems,' the word unio not existing in Greece, and indeed among foreign races, who discovered this fact, the only name for them is margarita. [113] There is also a great variety in their actual brilliance ; it is brighter with those found in the Red Sea, whereas those found in the Indian Ocean resemble flakes of mica, though they excel others in size. The highest praise given to their colour is for them to be called alum-coloured. The longer ones also have a charm of their own. Those that end in a wider circle, tapering lengthwise in the shape of perfume-caskets, are termed 'probes.' [114] Women glory in hanging these on their fingers and using two or three for a single earring, and foreign names for this luxury occur, names invented by abandoned extravagance, inasmuch as when they have done this they call them 'castanets,' as if they enjoyed even the sound and the mere rattling together of the pearls ; and nowadays even poor people covet them - it is a common saying that a pearl is as good as a lackey for a lady when she walks abroad ! And they even use them on their feet, and fix them not only to the laces of their sandals but all over their slippers. In fact, by this time they are not content with wearing pearls unless they tread on them, and actually walk on these unique gems !
[115] There used to be commonly found in our own sea, and more frequently on the coasts of the Thracian Bosphorus, small red gems contained in the shells called mussels. But in Acarnania there grows what is termed the sea-pen ; which shows that pearls are not born in only one kind of shell, for Juba also records that the Arabs have a shell resembling a toothed comb, that bristles like a hedgehog, and has an actual pearl, resembling a hailstone, in the fleshy part; this kind of shell is not imported to Rome. And there are not found in Acarnania the formerly celebrated pearls of an exceptional size and almost a marble colour. Better ones are found round Actium, but these too are small, and in sea-board Mauretania. Alexander Polyhistor and Sudines think that they grow old and let their colour evaporate.
{57.} L [116] It is clear that they are of a firm substance, because no fall can break them. Also they are not always found in the middle of the flesh, but in a variety of places, and before now we have seen them even at the extreme edges, as though in the act of passing out of the shell ; and in some cases we have seen four or five pearls in one shell. In weight few specimens have hitherto exceeded half an ounce by more than one scruple { ~ 15 grams }. It is established that small pearls of poor colour grow in Britain, since the deified Julius desired it to be known that the breastplate which he dedicated to Venus Genetrix in her temple was made of British pearls.
{58.} L [117] I have seen Lollia Paulina, who became the consort of Gaius, not at some considerable or solemn ceremonial celebration but actually at an ordinary betrothal banquet, covered with emeralds and pearls interlaced alternately and shining all over her head, hair, ears, neck and fingers, the sum total amounting to the value of 40,000,000 sesterces, she herself being ready at a moment's notice to give documentary proof of her title to them ; nor had they been presents from an extravagant emperor, but ancestral possessions, acquired in fact with the spoil of the provinces. [118] This is the final outcome of plunder, it was for this that Marcus Lollius disgraced himself by taking gifts from kings in the whole of the East, and was cut out of his list of friends by Gaius Caesar son of Augustus and drank poison - that his granddaughter should be on show in the lamplight covered with 40,000,000 sestertii ! Now let some one reckon up on one side of the account how much Curius or Fabricius carried in their triumphs, and picture to himself the spoils they displayed, and on the other side Lollia, a single little lady reclining at the Emperor's side - and would he not think it better that they should have been dragged from their chariots than have won their victories with this result ? [119] Nor are these the topmost instances of luxury. There have been two pearls that were the largest in the whole of history ; both were owned by Cleopatra, the last of the Queens of Egypt - they had come down to her through the hands of the Kings of the East. When Antony was gorging daily at recherché banquets, she with a pride at once lofty and insolent, queenly wanton as she was, poured contempt on all his pomp and splendour, and when he asked what additional magnificence could be contrived, replied that she would spend 10,000,000 sestertii on a single banquet. [120] Antony was eager to learn how it could be done, although he thought it was impossible. Consequently bets were made, and on the next day, when the matter was to be decided, she set before Antony a banquet that was indeed splendid, so that the day might not be wasted, but of the kind served every day - Antony laughing and expostulating at its niggardliness. But she vowed it was a mere additional douceur, and that the banquet would round off the account and her own dinner alone would cost 10,000,000 sestertii, and she ordered the second course to be served. In accordance with previous instructions the servants placed in front of her only a single vessel containing vinegar, the strong rough quality of which can melt pearls. [121] She was at the moment wearing in her ears that remarkable and truly unique work of nature. Antony was full of curiosity to see what in the world she was going to do. She took one earring off and dropped the pearl in the vinegar, and when it was melted swallowed it. Lucius Plancus, who was umpiring the wager, placed his hand on the other pearl when she was preparing to destroy it also in a similar way, and declared that Antony had lost the battle - an ominous remark that came true. With this goes the story that, when that queen who had won on this important issue was captured, the second of this pair of pearls was cut in two pieces, so that half a helping of the jewel might be in each of the ears of Venus in the Pantheon at Rome. {59.} L [122] They will not carry off this trophy, and will be robbed even of the record for luxury ! A predecessor had done this at Rome in the case of pearls of great value, Clodius, the son of the tragic actor Aesopus, who had left him his heir in a vast estate ; so that Antony cannot take too much pride in his triumvirate when compared with one who was virtually an actor, and who had indeed been led on to this display not by any wager - which would make it more royal - but to discover by experiment, for the honour of his palate, what is the exact flavour of pearls ; and when they proved marvellously acceptable, in order not to keep the knowledge to himself he gave his guests also a choice pearl apiece to swallow.
[123] Fenestella records that they came into common use at Rome after the reduction of Alexandria under our sway, but that small and cheap pearls first came in about the period of Sulla - which is clearly a mistake, as Aelius Stilo states that the distinctive name was given to large pearls just at the time of the wars of Jugurtha { 112-106 B.C. }.
{60.} L [124] And nevertheless this article is an almost everlasting piece of property- it passes to its owner's heir, it is offered for public sale like some landed estate ; whereas every hour of use wears away robes of scarlet and purple, which the same mother, luxury, has made almost as costly as pearls.
[125] Purples live seven years at most. They stay in hiding like the murex for 30 days at the time of the rising of the dog-star. They collect into shoals in spring-time, and their rubbing together causes them to discharge a sort of waxy viscous slime. The murex also does this in a similar manner, but it has the famous flower of purple, sought after for dyeing robes, in the middle of its throat : [126] here there is a white vein of very scanty fluid from which that precious dye, suffused with a dark rose colour, is drained, but the rest of the body produces nothing. People strive to catch this fish alive, because it discharges this juice with its life ; and from the larger purples they get the juice by stripping off the shell, but they crush the smaller ones alive with the shell, as that is the only way to make them disgorge the juice. [127] The best Asiatic purple is at Tyre, the best African is at Meninx and on the Gaetulian coast of the Ocean, the best European in the district of Sparta. The official rods and axes of Rome clear it a path, and it also marks the honourable estate of boyhood ; it distinguishes the senate from the knighthood, it is called in to secure the favour of the gods ; and it adds radiance to every garment, while in a triumphal robe it is blended with gold. Consequently even the mad lust for the purple may be excused ; but what is the cause of the prices paid for purple shells, which have an unhealthy odour when used for dye and a gloomy tinge in their radiance resembling an angry sea ?
[128] The purple's tongue is an inch long ; when feeding it uses it for piercing a hole in the other kinds of shell-fish, so hard is its point. These fish die in fresh water and wherever a river discharges into the sea, but otherwise when caught they live as much as seven weeks on their own slime. All shellfish grow with extreme rapidity, especially the purple-fish ; they reach their full size in a year.
{61.} L [129] But if having come to this point our exposition were to pass over elsewhere, luxury would undoubtedly believe itself defrauded and would find us guilty of remissness. For this reason we will pursue the subject of manufactures as well, so that just as the principle of foodstuffs is learnt in food, so everybody who takes pleasure in the class of things in question may be well-informed on the subject of that which is the prize of their mode of life. [130] Shellfish supplying purple dyes and scarlets - the material of these is the same but it is differently blended - are of two kinds : the whelk is a smaller shell resembling the one that gives out the sound of a trumpet, whence the reason of its name, by means of the round mouth incised in its edge ; the other is called the purple, with a channelled beak jutting out and the side of the channel tube-shaped inwards, through which the tongue can shoot out; moreover it is prickly all round, with about seven spikes forming a ring, which are not found in the whelk, though both shells have as many rings as they are years old. The trumpet-shell clings only to rocks and can be gathered round crags.
[131] Another name used for the purple is 'pelagia.' There are several kinds, distinguished by their food and the ground they live on. The mud-purple feeds on rotting slime and the seaweed-purple on seaweed, both being of a very common quality. A better kind is the reef-purple, collected on the reefs of the sea, though this also is lighter and softer as well. The pebble-purple is named after a pebble in the sea, and is remarkably suitable for purple dyes ; and far the best for these is the melting-purple, that is, one fed on a varying kind of mud. [132] Purples are taken in a sort of little lobster-pot of fine ply thrown into deep water. These contain bait, cockles that close with a snap, as we observe that mussels do. These when half-killed but put back into the sea gape greedily as they revive and attract the purples, which go for them with outstretched tongues. But the cockles when pricked by their spike shut up and nip the creatures nibbling them. So the purples hang suspended because of their greed and are lifted out of the water.
{62.} L [133] It is most profitable for them to be taken after the rising of the dog-star or before spring-time, since when they have waxed themselves over with slime, they have their juices fluid. But this fact is not known to the dyers' factories, although it is of primary importance. Subsequently the vein of which we spoke is removed, and to this salt has to be added, about a pint for every hundred pounds ; three days is the proper time for it to be steeped (as the fresher the salt the stronger it is), and it should be heated in a leaden pot, and with 50 pounds of dye to every amphora { 34 litres } of water kept at a uniform and moderate temperature by a pipe brought from a furnace some way off. This will cause it gradually to deposit the portions of flesh which are bound to have adhered to the veins, and after about nine days the cauldron is strained and a fleece that has been washed clean is dipped for a trial, and the liquid is heated up until fair confidence is achieved. A ruddy colour is inferior to a blackish one. [134] The fleece is allowed to soak for five hours and after it has been carded is dipped again, until it soaks up all the juice. The whelk by itself is not approved of, as it does not make a fast dye ; it is blended in a moderate degree with sea-purple and it gives to its excessively dark hue that hard and brilliant scarlet which is in demand ; when their forces are thus mingled, the one is enlivened, or deadened as the case may be, by the other. [135] The total amount of dye-stuffs required for 1,000 pounds of fleece is 200 pounds of whelk and 111 pounds of sea-purple ; so is produced that remarkable amethyst colour. For Tyrian purple the wool is first soaked with sea-purple for a preliminary pale dressing, and then completely transformed with whelk dye. Its highest glory consists in the colour of congealed blood, blackish at first glance but gleaming when held up to the light ; this is the origin of Homer's phrase, 'blood of purple hue.'
{63.} L [136] I notice that the use of purple at Rome dates from the earliest times, but that Romulus used it only for a cloak ; as it is fairly certain that the first of the kings to use the bordered robe and broader purple stripe was Tullus Hostilius, after the conquest of the Etruscans. [137] Cornelius Nepos, who died in the principate of the deified Augustus, says : 'In my young days the violet purple dye was the vogue, a pound of which sold at 100 denarii ; and not much later the red purple of Tarentum. This was followed by the double-dyed Tyrian purple, which it was impossible to buy for 1000 denarii per pound. This was first used in a bordered robe by Publius Lentulus Spinther, curule aedile, but met with disapproval, though who does not use this purple for covering dining-couches nowadays ? Spinther was aedile in the consulship of Cicero, A.U.C. 691 { 63 B.C. }. Stuff dipped twice over used at that time to be termed 'double-dyed,' and was regarded as a lavish extravagance, but now almost all the more agreeable purple stuffs are dyed in this way.
{64.} L In a purple-dyed dress the rest of the process is the same except that trumpet-shell dye is not used, and in addition the juice is diluted with water and with human urine in equal quantities; and only half the amount of dye is used. This produces that much admired paleness, avoiding deep colouration, and the more diluted the more the fleeces are stinted.
The prices for dyestuff vary in cheapness with the productivity of the coasts, but those who buy them at an enormous price should know that deep-sea purple nowhere exceeds 50 sestertii and trumpet-shell 100 sestertii per 100 pounds. {65.} L [139] But every end leads to fresh starts, and men make a sport of spending, and like doubling their sports by combining them and re-adulterating nature's adulterations, for instance staining tortoiseshells, alloying gold with silver to produce amber-metal ware, and adding copper to these to make Corinthian ware. It is not enough to have stolen for a dye the name of a gem, 'sober-stone,' but when finished it is made drunk again with Tyrian dye, so as to produce from the combination an outlandish name and a twofold luxury at one time ; and when they have made shell-dye, they think it an improvement for it to pass into Tyrian. [140] Repentance must have discovered this first, the artificer altering a product that he disapproved of ; but reason sprang up next, and a defect was turned into a success by marvellous inventions, and a double path pointed out for luxury, so that one colour might be concealed by another, being pronounced to be made sweeter and softer by this process ; and also a method to blend minerals, and dye with Tyrian a fabric already dyed with scarlet, to produce hysgine colour. [141] The kermes, a red kernel of Galatia, as we shall say when dealing with the products of the earth, or else in the neighbourhood of Emerita in Lusitania, is most approved. But, to finish off these famous dyes at once, the kernel when a year old has a viscous juice, and also after it is four years old the juice tends to disappear, so that it lacks strength both when fresh and when getting old.
We have amply dealt with the method whereby the beauty of men and women alike believes that it is rendered most abundant.
{66.} L [142] The genus shell-fish also includes the fan mussel. It occurs in marshy places, always in an upright position, and never without a companion which is called the pea-crab, or by others the seapen-protector : this is a small shrimp, elsewhere called a crab, its attendant at the feast. The sea-pen opens, presenting the dark inside of its body to the tiny fishes ; these at once dart forward, and when their courage has grown by license, they fill up the sea-pen. Her marker having watched for this moment gives her a signal with a gentle nip. She by shutting up kills whatever she has enclosed and bestows a share on her partner.
{67.} L [143]This makes me all the more surprised that some people have held the view that aquatic animals possess no senses. The torpedo knows her power, and does not herself possess the torpor she inflicts ; she hides by plunging into the mud, and snaps up any fish that have received a shock while swimming carelessly above her. No tender morsel is preferred to the liver of this fish. The sea-frog called the angler-fish is equally cunning : it stirs up the mud and puts out the little horns that project under its eyes, drawing them back when little fishes frisk towards them till they come near enough for it to spring upon them. [144] In a similar manner the skate and the turbot while in hiding put out their fins and wave them about to look like worms, and so also do the fish called rays. For the sting-ray acts as a freebooter, from its hiding place transfixing fish passing by with its sting, which is its weapon ; there are proofs of this cunning, because these fish, though the slowest there are, are found with mullet, the swiftest of all fish, in their belly.
[145] The scolopendra, which resembles the land animal called the centipede, when it has swallowed a hook vomits up the whole of its inwards until it succeeds in disgorging it, and then sucks them back again. Sea-foxes on the other hand in a similar emergency gulp down more of the line till they reach its weak part where they may easily gnaw it off. The fish called the catfish more cautiously nibbles at hooks from behind and strips them of the bait without swallowing them.
The sea-ram goes around like a brigand, and now hides in the shadow of the larger vessels riding at anchor and waits in case somebody may be tempted by the pleasure of a swim, now raises its head out of the water and watches for fishermen's boats, and secretly swimming up to them sinks them.
{68.} L [146] For my own part I hold the view that even those creatures which have not got the nature of either animals or plants, but some third nature derived from both, possess sense-perception - I mean jelly-fish and sponges.
Jelly-fish roam about and change their place by night. These have the nature of a fleshy leaf, and they feed on flesh. The itch they cause has a biting power, just like that of the land nettle. Consequently this creature draws itself in as stiffly as possible and when a little fish swims in front of it spreads out its leaf and enfolding it devours it. [147] In other cases it looks as if it were withering up, and allows itself to be tossed about by the waves like seaweed, and attacks any fish that touch it as they try to scrape away the itch by rubbing against a rock. The same creature by night hunts for scallops and sea-urchins. When it feels a hand approach it, it changes colour and draws itself together. When touched it sends out a burning sting, and if there is a moment's interval hides. It is reported to have mouths in its root and to evacuate its excretions by a narrow tube through its topmost parts.
{69.} L [148] We are informed that there are three kinds of sponge : a thick and very hard and rough one is called goat-thorn sponge, a less thick and softer one loose-sponge, and a thin one of close texture, used for making paint-brushes, Achilles sponge. They all grow on rocks, and feed on shells, fish and mud. These creatures manifestly possess intelligence, because when they are aware of a sponge-gatherer they contract and make it much more difficult to detach them. They do the same when much beaten by the waves. [149] The tiny shells found inside them clearly show that they live by eating food. It is said that in the neighbourhood of Torone they can be fed on these shell-fish even after they have been pulled off the rocks, and that fresh sponges grow again on the rocks from the roots left there ; also the colour of blood remains on them, especially on the African ones that grow in the Syrtes. Very large but very soft thin sponges grow round Lycia, though those in deep and calm water are softer; the rough kind grows in the Hellespont, and the close-textured round Cape Malea. Sponges decay in sunny places, and consequently the best are found in deep pools. Live sponges have the same blackish colour as sponges in use have when wet. [150] They do not cling to the rock with a particular part nor with their entire surface, for they have certain empty tubes, about four or five in number, running through them, through which it is believed that they take their food. They also have other tubes, but these are closed at the upper end ; and it is understood that there is a sort of thin skin on the under side of their roots. It is established that they live a long time. The worst of all the species of sponge is one called in Greek the dirty sponge, because it cannot be cleaned ; it contains large tubes, and the rest of it is of a very close texture.
{70.} L [151] The number of dog-fish specially swarming round sponges beset the men that dive for them with grave danger. These persons also report that a sort of 'cloud' thickens above their heads - this a live creature resembling flat-fish - pressing them down and preventing them from getting back, and that because of this they have very sharp spikes attached to cords, because the 'clouds' will not withdraw unless stabbed through in this way - this story being the result, as I believe, of darkness and fear; for nobody has ever heard of any such creature in the list of animals as the 'cloud' or 'fog,' which is the name the divers give to this plague. [152] Divers have fierce fights with the dog-fish ; these attack their loins and heels and all the white parts of the body. The one safety lies in going for them and frightening them by taking the offensive ; for a dog-fish is as much afraid of a man as a man is of it, and so they are on equal terms in deep water. When they come to the surface, then the man is in critical danger, as the policy of taking the offensive is not available while he is trying to get out of the water, and his only safety is in his comrades. These haul on the rope tied to his shoulders ; this, as he carries on the duel, he shakes with his left hand to give a signal of danger, while his right hand grasps his dagger and is occupied in fighting. [153] Most of the time they haul gently, but when he gets near the boat, unless with a quick heave they suddenly snatch him out of the water, they have to look on while he is made away with. And often when divers have already begun to be hauled up they are snatched out of their comrades' hands, unless they have themselves supplemented the aid of those hauling by curling up into a ball. Others of the crew of course thrust out harpoons, but the vast beast is crafty enough to go under the vessel and so carry on the battle in safety. Consequently divers devote their whole attention to keeping a watch against this disaster ; the most reliable token of safety is to have seen some flat-fish, which are never found where these noxious creatures are - on account of which divers call them the holy fish.
{71.} L [154] It must be agreed that creatures enclosed in a flinty shell, such as oysters, have no senses. Many have the same nature as a bush, for instance the sea-cucumber, the sea-lung, the starfish. And to such an extent is it the case that everything grows in the sea, that even the creatures found in inns in summer-time, - those that plague us with a quick jump or those that hide chiefly in the hair, - occur there, and are often drawn out of the water clustering round the bait ; and their irritation is thought to disturb the sleep of fish in the sea at night. Indeed on some kinds of fish these vermin actually breed as parasites ; the herring is believed to be one of these.
{72.} L [155] Nor are there wanting dire poisons, as in the sea-hare which in the Indian Ocean infects by its touch, immediately causing vomiting and laxity of the stomach, and in our own seas the shapeless lump resembling a hare in colour only, whereas the Indian variety is also like a hare in size and in fur, only its fur is harder ; and there it is never taken alive. An equally pestiferous creature is the weaver, which wounds with the sharp point of its dorsal fin. But there is nothing in the world more execrable than the sting projecting above the tail of the sting-ray which our people call the parsnip-fish { pastinaca } ; it is five inches long, and kills trees when driven into the root, and penetrates armour like a missile, with the force of steel and with deadly poison.
{73.} L [156] We are not told that the various kinds of fish suffer from endemic diseases, as do all other wild animals ; but that individuals among them are liable to illness is proved by the emaciated condition of some fish contrasted with the extreme fatness of others of the same kind when caught.
{74.} L [157] The curiosity and wonder of mankind does not allow us to postpone the consideration of these animals' method of reproduction. Fish couple by rubbing their bellies together so quickly as to escape the sight ; dolphins and the rest of the large marine species couple in a similar manner, but with rather longer contact. At the coupling season the female fish pursues the male, nudging his belly with her nose, but directly after the eggs are born the males similarly pursue the females and eat their eggs. Copulation is not enough in itself to cause the birth of offspring, unless when the eggs are laid the males swim to and fro sprinkling them with life-giving milt. This is not achieved with all the eggs in so great a multitude - otherwise the seas and marshes would be completely filled, since the uterus of a single fish holds a countless number of eggs.
[158] Fishes' eggs in the sea grow in size, some with extreme rapidity, for instance those of the murena, some a little more slowly. Flat fish not possessing a tail, and sting-ray and tortoises, cover the female in mating, polypi couple by attaching a single feeler to the female's nostrils, the two varieties of cuttle-fish with their tongues, linking their arms together and swimming in opposite directions ; they also spawn through the mouth. But polypi couple with their head turned towards the ground, all the other soft fishes with their backs - for instance sea-dogs, and also lobsters and prawns ; crabs with their mouth. [159] Frogs cover the female, the male grasping her shoulder-blades with his fore-feet and her buttocks with his hind feet. They spawn very small lumps of dark flesh that are called tadpoles, possessing only eyes and a tail ; but soon feet are formed by the tail dividing into two hind legs. And strange to say, after six months of life they melt invisibly back into mud, and again in the waters of springtime are reborn what they were before, equally owing to some hidden principle of nature, as it occurs every year. [160] Also mussels and scallops are produced by spontaneous generation in sandy waters ; fish with harder shells, like the two varieties of purple-fish, are generated by a sticky juice like saliva, as gnats are by moisture turning sour ; the anchovy by sea-foam growing warm when rain gets into it ; but fish protected by a flinty covering, like oysters, are generated by rotting mud, or by the foam round ships that stay moored for some time, and especially round stakes fixed in the ground, and timber. It has recently been discovered in oyster-beds that a fertilising moisture flows out of these fish like milk. Eels rub against rocks and the scrapings come to life ; this is their only way of breeding. Different kinds of fish do not mate together, except the skate and the ray, the cross between which is like a ray in front, and bears in Greece a name derived from the names of both parents.
[162] Some creatures are born at a fixed season of the year, water species as well as those on land : scallops and slugs and leeches in the spring ; these also pass away at a fixed season. Among fish the wolf-fish and the sardine breed twice a year, and so do all the rock-fish; some breed three times, for instance the herring ; carp six times ; sea-scorpions and sargi twice, in spring and autumn : of the flat fish only the skate twice, in the autumn and at the setting of the Pleiades ; most fish in the three months of April, May and June ; the stockfish in the autumn, the sargus, the torpedo and the squalus at the season of the equinox ; soft fish in the spring ; the cuttlefish in all the months - its eggs stick together with an inky gum like a bunch of grapes, and the male directs his breath upon them, otherwise they are barren. [163] Polypi mate in winter and lay eggs in spring that cluster in a twisting coil ; and they are so prolific that when they are killed the cavity of their head will not hold the multitude of eggs that they carried in it when pregnant. They lay them after seven weeks, many of them perishing because of their number. [164] Lobsters and the rest of the species with rather thin shells deposit their eggs underneath them and so hatch them ; the female polypus now sits on the eggs and now forms a closed cavern with her tentacles intertwined in a lattice. The sepia lays on land among reeds or wherever there is seaweed growing, and hatches after a fortnight. The cuttle-fish produces its eggs in deep water clustered together like those of the sepia. The purple-fish, the murex and their kind spawn in spring. Sea-urchins have eggs at the full moons in winter, and snails are born in the winter time.
{75.} L [165] The electric ray is found having broods numbering eighty ; also it produces exceedingly small eggs inside it, shifting them to another part of the womb and emitting them there ; and similarly all the species that we have designated cartilaginous : thus it comes about that these are the only fish kinds that are both viviparous and oviparous. With the catfish alone of all species the male guards the eggs, often for as long as 50 days at a time, to prevent their being eaten by other fish. The females of all the other species spawn in three days if a male has touched them.
{76.} L [166] The pipefish or garfish is the only fish so prolific that its matrix is ruptured when it spawns ; after spawning the wound grows together, which is said to happen in the case of blindworms also. The sea-mouse digs a trench in the ground to lay its eggs in and covers it again with earth, and a month later digs the earth up again and opens the trench and leads its brood into the water.
{77.} L The red mullet and the sea-perch are said to have wombs. The species called by the Greeks hoop-fish is said to practise self-impregnation. The offspring of all aquatic animals are blind at birth.
{78.} L [167] There has recently been sent to us a remarkable case of longevity in fishes. In Campania not far from Naples, there is a country house named Pausilypum ; Annaeus Seneca writes that in Caesar's fishponds on this property a fish thrown in by Pollio Vedius had died after reaching the age of 60, while two others of the same breed that were of the same age were even then living. The mention of fishponds reminds me to say a little more on this topic before leaving the subject of aquatic animals.
{79.} L [168] Oyster ponds were first invented by Sergius Orata on the Gulf of Baiae, in the time of the orator Lucius Crassus, before the Marsic war ; his motive was not greed but avarice, and he made a great profit out of his practical ingenuity, as he was the first inventor of shower-baths - he used to fit out country houses in this way and then sell them. He was the first to adjudge the best flavour to Lucrine oysters - because the same kinds of fish are of better quality in different places, [169] for example wolf-fish in the Tiber between the two bridges , turbot at Ravenna, lamprey in Sicily, sturgeon at Rhodes, and other kinds likewise - not to carry out this census of the larder to its conclusion. The coasts of Britain were not yet in service when Orata used to advertise the fame of the products of the Lucrine Lake ; but subsequently it was deemed worth while to send to the end of Italy, to Brundisium, for oysters, and to prevent a quarrel between the two delicacies the plan has lately been devised of feeding away in the Lucrine Lake the hunger caused by the long porterage from Brundisium.
{80.} L [170] In the same period the elder Licinius Murena invented fishponds for all the other sorts of fish, and his example was subsequently followed by the celebrated achievements of Philippus and Hortensius. Lucullus had built a channel that cost more than a country house, by actually cutting through a mountain near Naples and letting in the sea ; this was why Pompey the Great used to call him 'Xerxes in Roman dress.' After his decease the fish from this pond sold for 4,000,000 sestertii.
{81.} L [171] The first person to devise a separate pond for lampreys was Gaius Hirrius, who added to the triumphal banquets of Caesar lampreys to the number of 6000 - as a loan, because he would not exchange them for money or for any other commodity. His less than moderate country estate was sold by its fishponds for 4,000,000 sestertii. [172] Subsequently affection for individual fishes came into fashion. At Bauli in the Baiae district the orator Hortensius had a fishpond containing a lamprey which he fell so deeply in love with that he is believed to have wept when it expired. At the same country house Drusus's wife Antonia adorned her favourite lamprey with earrings, and its reputation made some people extremely eager to visit Bauli.
{82.} L [173] Ponds for keeping snails were first made by Fulvius Lippinus in the Tarquinii district a little before the civil war fought with Pompey the Great ; indeed he kept the different kinds of snails separate, with different compartments for the white snails that grow in the Reate territory and for the Illyrian variety distinguished for size, the African for fecundity and the Solitane for breed. [174] Moreover he devised a method of fattening them with new wine boiled down and spelt and other kinds of fodder, so that gastronomy was enriched even by fattened oysters ; and according to Marcus Varro this ostentatious science was carried to such lengths that a single snail-shell was large enough to hold 80 quarters { 11 litres }.
{83.} L [175] Moreover some wonderful kinds of fish are reported by Theophrastus. He says that (1) where the rivers debouch around the water-meadows of Babylon a certain fish stays in caverns that contain springs and goes out from them to feed, walking with its fins by means of a repeated movement of the tail, and guards against being caught by taking refuge in its caves and remaining in them facing towards the opening, and that these fishes' heads resemble a sea-frog's and the rest of its parts a goby's, though the gills are the same as in other fish. [176] (2) In the neighbourhood of Heraclea and Cromna and in many parts of the Black Sea there is one kind that frequents the water at the edge of rivers and makes itself caverns in the ground and lives in these, and also in the shore of tidal rivers when left dry by the tide ; and consequently they are only dug up when the movement of their bodies shows that they are alive. [177] (3) In the same neighbourhood of Heraclea at the outflow of the river Lycus fishes are born from eggs left in the mud that seek their fodder by flapping with their little gills, and this makes them not need moisture, which is the reason why eels also live comparatively long when taken out of the water, while eggs mature in a dry place, for instance tortoise's eggs. (4) In the same region of the Black Sea the fish most frequently caught in the ice is the goby, which is only made to reveal the movement of life by the heat of the saucepan. [178] These accounts indeed, however marvellous, do nevertheless embody a certain principle. The same authority reports that in Paphlagonia earth-fish extremely acceptable for food are dug out of deep trenches in places where there is no overflow from streams ; and after himself expressing surprise at their being propagated without coupling, he gives the view that at all events they have a supply of moisture in them similar to that in wells - but as if fish were found in any wells ! Whatever the fact is as to this, it certainly makes the life of moles, an underground animal, less remarkable, unless perhaps these fishes also possess the nature of earth-worms.
{84.} L [179] But credibility is given to all these statements by the flooding of the Nile, with a marvel that surpasses them all : this is that, when the river withdraws its covering, water-mice are found with the work of generative water and earth uncompleted - they are already alive in a part of their body, but the most recently formed part of their structure is still of earth.
{85.} L [180] Nor is it proper to omit the stories about the anthias fish that I notice to have won general acceptance. We have mentioned the Chelidonian Islands, situated off a promontory of Mt. Taurus in the rocky sea of Asia ; this fish is frequent there, and is quickly caught, in one variety. A fisherman sails out a certain distance in a small boat, wearing clothes that match the boat in colour, and at the same time for several days running, and throws out bait ; but if any alteration whatever be made, the prey suspects a trick and avoids the thing that has frightened it. When this has been done a number of times, at last one anthias is tempted by familiarity to try to get the bait. [181] This one is marked down with careful attention as a foundation for hope and as a decoy for a catch ; and it is not difficult to mark it, as for several days only this one ventures to come close. At last it finds others as well, and gradually enlarging its company finally brings shoals too big to count, as by this time all the oldest fish have got used to recognising the fisherman and snatching the bait out of his hand. Then he throws a hook fixed in the bait a little beyond his fingers, and catches or rather rushes them one by one, snatching them with a short jerk away from the shadow of the boat so that the others may not notice it, while another man in the boat receives the catch in some rags so that no flapping or noise may drive away the others. [182] It pays to know the decoy fish for this purpose, so that he may not be caught, as thenceforward the shoal will swim away. There is a story that a disaffected partner in a fishery lay in wait for the leader fish, which was very well known, and caught it, with malicious intent ; Mucianus adds that it was recognised in the market by the partner who was being victimised, and that proceedings for damage were instituted and a verdict given for the prosecution with damages as assessed. Moreover it is said that when these fishes see one of their number hooked they cut the line with the saw-like prickles that they have on their back, while the one held by the line draws it taut so as to enable it to be severed. With the sargus kind however the captive itself rubs the line against the rocks.
{86.} L [183] Besides these cases I observe that authors renowned for their wisdom express surprise at there being a star in the sea : that is the shape of the fish, which has rather little flesh inside it but a rather hard rind outside. They say that this fish contains such fiery heat that it scorches all the things it touches in the sea, and digests all food immediately. I cannot readily say by what experiments this has been ascertained, and I should consider a fact that there is daily opportunity of experiencing to be much more worth recording.
{87.} L [184] The class shellfish includes the piddock, named finger-mussel from its resemblance to a human finger-nail. It is the nature of these fish to shine in darkness with a bright light when other light is removed, and in proportion to their amount of moisture to glitter both in the mouth of persons masticating them and in their hands, and even on the floor and on their clothes when drops fall from them, making it clear beyond all doubt that their juice possesses a property that we should marvel at even in a solid object.
{88.} L [185] There are also remarkable facts as to their quarrels and their friendship. Violent animosity rages between the mullet and the wolf-fish, gnaw each other's tails. The lobster is so terrified of the polypus that it dies if it merely sees one near to it, and so does the conger if it sees a lobster ; while on the other hand congers tear a polypus to pieces. Nigidius states that the wolf-fish gnaws at the tail of the mullet, although they are friendly together in certain months, but that all the mullets with their tails amputated in this way continue to live. [186] But on the other hand instances of friendship, in addition to the creatures whose alliance we have mentioned, are the whale and the sea-mouse : because the whale's eyes are over-burdened with the excessively heavy weight of its brows the sea-mouse swims in front of it and points out the shallows dangerous to its bulky size, so acting as a substitute for eyes.
There will follow an account of the natures of birds.
Book 10 →
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