Translated by H.Rackham (1952), with some minor alterations. Click on the L symbols to go to the Latin text of each chapter.
← Book 8
{1.} L [1] We have indicated the nature of the species that we have designated land animals, as living in some kind of association with men. Of the remaining kinds it is agreed that birds are the smallest. We will therefore first speak of the creatures of the seas, rivers and ponds.
[2] There are however a considerable number of these that are larger even than land animals. The obvious cause of this is the lavish nature of liquid. Birds, which live hovering in the air, are in a different condition. But in the sea, lying so widely outspread and so yielding and productive of nutriment, because the element receives generative causes from above and is always producing offspring, a great many actual monstrosities are found, the seeds and first principles intertwining and interfolding with each other now in one way and now in another, now by the action of the wind and now by that of the waves, so confirming the common opinion that everything born in any department of nature exists also in the sea, as well as a number of things never found elsewhere. [3] Indeed we may realise that it contains likenesses of things and not of animals only, when we examine the sea-grape, the sword-fish, the saw-fish, and the cucumber-fish, the last resembling a real cucumber both in colour and scent ; which makes it less surprising that in cockle-shells that are so tiny there are horses' heads projecting.
{2.} L [4] But the largest number ot animals and those of the largest size are in the Indian sea, among them whales covering four iugera each, and sharks 200 cubits long { 90 metres } : in fact in those regions lobsters grow to 4 cubits long { 180 cm }, and also eels in the river Ganges to 300 feet. [5] The monsters in the sea are mostly to be seen about the solstices. At those periods in that part of the world there are rushing whirlwinds and rain-storms and tempests hurtling down from the mountain ridges that upturn the seas from their bottom, and roll with their waves monsters forced up from the depths in such a multitude, like the shoals of tunnies in other places, that the fleet of Alexander the Great deployed its column in line of battle to encounter them, in the same way as if an enemy force were meeting it : it was not possible to escape them in any other manner. They are not scared by shouts or noises or uproar, but only by impact, and they are only routed by a violent collision. [6] There is an enormous peninsula in the Red Sea called Cadara, the projection of which forms a vast bay which took King Ptolemy twelve days and nights of rowing to cross, as it does not admit a breath of wind from any quarter. In this tranquil retreat particularly the creatures grow to a huge motionless bulk. [7] The admirals of the fleets of Alexander the Great have stated that the Gedrosi who live by the river Arabis make the doorways in their houses out of the monsters' jaws and use their bones for roof-beams, many of them having been found that were 40 cubits long { 18 metres }. Also great creatures resembling sheep come out on to the land in that country and after grazing on the roots of bushes return ; and there are some with the heads of horses, asses and bulls that eat up the crops.
{3.} L [8] The largest animals in the Indian Ocean are the shark and the whale ; the largest in the sea off Gaul is the sperm-whale, which rears up like a vast pillar higher than a ship's rigging and belches out a sort of deluge ; the largest in the sea off Gades is the tree-polypus, which spreads out such vast branches that it is believed never to have entered the Straits because of this. The creatures called Wheels from their resemblance to a wheel also put in an appearance, these radiating in four spokes, with their hub terminating in two eyes, one on each side.
{4.} L [9] An embassy from Olispo sent for the purpose reported to the Emperor Tiberius that a Triton had been seen and heard playing on a shell in a certain cave, and that he had the well-known shape. The description of the Nereids also is not incorrect, except that their body is bristling with hair even in the parts where they have human shape ; for a Nereid has been seen on the same coast, whose mournful song moreover when dying has been heard a long way off by the coast-dwellers ; also the governor of Gaul wrote to the deified Augustus that a large number of dead Nereids were to be seen on the shore. [10] I have distinguished members of the equestrian order as authorities for the statement that a man of the sea has been seen by them in the sea off Gades, with complete resemblance to a human being in every part of his body, and that he climbs on board ships during the hours of the night and the side of the vessel that he sits on is at once weighed down, and if he stays there longer actually goes below the water. During the rule of Tiberius, in an island off the coast of the province of Lugdunensis the receding ocean tide left more than 300 monsters at the same time, of marvellous variety and size, and an equal number on the coast of the Santoni, and among the rest elephants, and rams with only a white streak to resemble horns, and also many Nereids. [11] Turranius has stated that a monster was cast ashore on the coast at Gades that had 16 cubits { 7.2 metres } of tail-end between its two fins, and also 120 teeth, the biggest ¾ foot and the smallest ½ foot long. The skeleton of the monster to which Andromeda in the story was exposed was brought by Marcus Scaurus from the town of Joppa in Judaea and shown at Rome among the rest of the marvels during his aedileship ; it was 40 feet long, the height of the ribs exceeding the elephants of India, and the spine being one and a half feet thick.
{5.} L [12] Whales even penetrate into our seas. It is said that they are not seen in the sea off Gades before midwinter, but during the summer periods hide in a certain calm and spacious inlet, and take marvellous delight in breeding there : and that this is known to the killer whale, a creature that is the enemy of the other species and the appearance of which can be represented by no other description except that of an enormous mass of flesh with savage teeth. [13] The killer whales therefore burst into their retreats and bite and mangle their calves or the females that have calved or are still in calf, and charge and pierce them like warships ramming. The whales being sluggish in bending and slow in retaliating, and burdened by their weight, and at this season also heavy with young or weakened by travail in giving birth, know only one refuge, to retreat to the deep sea and defend their safety by means of the ocean. Against this the killer whales use every effort to confront them and get in their way, and to slaughter them when cooped up in narrow straits or drive them into shallows and make them dash themselves upon rocks. To spectators these battles look as if the sea were raging against itself, as no winds are blowing in the gulf, but there are waves caused by the whales blowing and thrashing that are larger than those aroused by any whirlwinds. [14] A killer whale was actually seen in the harbour of Ostia, in battle with the Emperor Claudius ; it had come at the time when he was engaged in completing the structure of the harbour, being tempted by the wreck of a cargo of hides imported from Gaul, and in glutting itself for a number of days had furrowed a hollow in the shallow bottom and had been banked up with sand by the waves so high that it was quite unable to turn round, and while it was pursuing its food which was driven forward to the shore by the waves its back projected far above the water like a capsized boat. [15] Caesar gave orders for a barrier of nets to be stretched between the mouths of the harbour and setting out in person with the praetorian cohorts afforded a show to the Roman public, the soldiery hurling lances from the vessels against the creatures when they leapt up alongside, and we saw one of the boats sunk from being filled with water owing to a beast's snorting.
{6.} L [16] Whales have their mouths in their foreheads, and consequently when swimming on the surface of the water they blow clouds of spray into the air. It is universally admitted that a very few other creatures in the sea also breathe, those whose internal organs include a lung, since it is thought that no animal is able to breathe without one. Those who hold this opinion believe that the fishes possessing gills do not alternately exhale and inhale air, and that many other classes even lacking gills do not - an opinion which I notice that Aristotle held and supported by many learned researches. [17] Nor do I pretend that I do not myself immediately accept this view of theirs, since it is possible that animals may also possess other respiratory organs in place of lungs, if nature so wills, just as also many possess another fluid instead of blood. At all events who can be surprised that this life-giving breath penetrates into water if he observes that it is also given back again from the water, and that it also penetrates into the earth, that much denser element, as is proved by animals that live always in underground burrows, like moles ? [18] Undoubtedly to my mind there are additional facts that make me believe that in fact all creatures in the water breathe, owing to the condition of their own nature - in the first place a sort of panting that has often been noticed in fishes during the summer heat, and another form of gasping, so to speak, in calm weather, and also the admission in regard to fishes sleeping made even by those persons who are of the opposite opinion - for how can sleep occur without breathing ? - and moreover the bubbles caused on the surface of the water by air rising from below, and the effect of the moon in causing the bodies even of shellfish to increase in size. Above all there is the fact that it will not be doubted that fish have the sense of hearing and smell, both of which are derived from the substance of air : scent indeed could not possibly be interpreted as anything else than an infection of the air. Consequently it is open to every person to form whatever opinion about these matters he pleases. [19] Whales do not possess gills, nor do dolphins. These two genera breathe with a tube that passes to the lung, in the case of whales from the forehead and in the case of dolphins from the back. Also sea-calves, called seals, breathe and sleep on land, as also do tortoises, about whom more shortly.
{7.} L [20] The swiftest of all animals, not only those of the sea, is the dolphin ; it is swifter than a bird and darts faster than a javelin, and were not its mouth much below its snout, almost in the middle of its belly, not a single fish would escape its speed. But nature's foresight contributes delay, because they cannot seize their prey except by turning over on their backs. This fact especially shows their speed ; for when spurred by hunger they have chased a fleeing fish into the lowest depths and have held their breath too long, they shoot up like arrows from a bow in order to breathe again, and leap out of the water with such force that they often fly over a ship's sails. [21] They usually roam about in couples, husband and wife ; they bear cubs after nine months, in the summer season, occasionally even twins. They suckle their young, as do whales, and even carry them about while weak from infancy ; indeed they accompany them for a long time even when grown up, so great is their affection for their offspring. [22] They grow up quickly, and are believed to reach their full size in 10 years. They live as much as 30 years, as has been ascertained by amputating the tail of a specimen for an experiment. They are in retirement for 30 days about the rising of the dog-star and hide themselves in an unknown manner, which is the more surprising in view of the fact that they cannot breathe under water. They have a habit of sallying out on to the land for an unknown reason, and they do not die at once after touching earth - in fact they die much more quickly if the gullet is closed up. [23] The dolphin's tongue, unlike the usual structure of aquatic animals, is mobile, and is short and broad, not unlike a pigs tongue. For a voice they have a moan like that of a human being; their back is arched, and their snout turned up, owing to which all of them in a surprising manner answer to the name of 'Snubnose' and like it better than any other.
{8.} L [24] The dolphin is an animal that is not only friendly to mankind but is also a lover of music, and it can be charmed by singing in harmony, but particularly by the sound of the water-organ. It is not afraid of a human being as something strange to it, but comes to meet vessels at sea and sports and gambols round them, actually trying to race them and passing them even when under full sail. [25] In the reign of the deified Augustus a dolphin that had been brought into the Lucrine Lake fell marvellously in love with a certain boy, a poor man's son, who used to go from the Baiae district to school at Puteoli, because fairly often the lad when loitering about the place at noon called him to him by the name of 'Snubnose' and coaxed him with bits of the bread he had with him for the journey, - I should be ashamed to tell the story were it not that it has been written about by Maecenas and Fabianus and Flavius Alfius and many others, - and when the boy called to it at whatever time of day, although it was concealed in hiding it used to fly to him out of the depth, eat out of his hand, and let him mount on its back, sheathing as it were the prickles of its fin, and used to carry him when mounted right across the bay to Puteoli to school, bringing him back in similar manner, for several years, until the boy died of disease, and then it used to keep coming sorrowfully and like a mourner to the customary place, and itself also expired, quite undoubtedly from longing. [26] Another dolphin in recent years at Hippo Diarrhytus on the coast of Africa similarly used to feed out of people's hands and allow itself to be stroked, and play with swimmers and carry them on its back. The governor of Africa, Flavianus, smeared it all over with perfume, and the novelty of the scent apparently put it to sleep : it floated lifelessly about, holding aloof from human intercourse for some months as if it had been driven away by the insult ; but afterwards it returned and was an object of wonder as before. The expense caused to their hosts by persons of official position who came to see it forced the people of Hippo to destroy it. [27] Before these occurrences a similar story is told about a boy in the city of Iasus, with whom a dolphin was observed for a long time to be in love, and while eagerly following him to the shore when he was going away it grounded on the sand and expired ; Alexander the Great made the boy head of the priesthood of Poseidon at Babylon, interpreting the dolphin's affection as a sign of the deity's favour. Hegesidemus writes that in the same city of Iasus another boy also, named Hermias, while riding across the sea in the same manner lost his life in the waves of a sudden storm, but was brought back to the shore, and the dolphin confessing itself the cause of his death did not return out to sea and expired on dry land. Theophrastus records that exactly the same thing occurred at Naupactus too. [28] Indeed there are unlimited instances : the people of Amphilochia and Tarentum tell the same stories about boys and dolphins ; and these make it credible that also the skilled harper Arion, when at sea the sailors were getting ready to kill him with the intention of stealing the money he had made, succeeded in coaxing them to let him first play a tune on his harp, and the music attracted a school of dolphins, whereupon he dived into the sea and was taken up by one of them and carried ashore at Taenarum.
{9.} L [29] In the region of Nemausus in the Province of Narbonensis there is a marsh named Latera where dolphins catch fish in partnership with a human fisherman. At a regular season a countless shoal of mullet rushes out of the narrow mouth of the marsh into the sea, after watching for the turn of the tide, which makes it impossible for nets to be spread across the channel - indeed the nets would be equally incapable of standing the mass of the weight even if the crafty fish did not watch for the opportunity. For a similar reason they make straight out into the deep water produced by the neighbouring eddies, and hasten to escape from the only place suitable for setting nets. [30] When this is observed by the fishermen - and a crowd collects at the place, as they know the time, and even more because of their keenness for this sport - and when the entire population from the shore shouts as loud as it can, calling for 'Snubnose' for the denouement of the show, the dolphins quickly hear their wishes if a northerly breeze carries the shout out to sea, though if the wind is in the south, against the sound, it carries it more slowly; but then too they suddenly hasten to the spot, in order to give their aid. [31] Their line of battle comes into view, and at once deploys in the place where they are to join battle ; they bar the passage on the side of the sea and drive the scared mullet into the shallows. Then the fishermen put their nets round them and lift them out of the water with forks. None the less the pace of some mullets leaps over the obstacles ; but these are caught by the dolphins, which are satisfied for the time being with merely having killed them, postponing a meal till victory is won. [32] The action is hotly contested, and the dolphins pressing on with the greatest bravery are delighted to be caught in the nets, and for fear that this itself may hasten the enemy's flight, they glide out between the boats and the nets or the swimming fishermen so gradually as not to open ways of escape ; none of them try to get away by leaping out of the water, which otherwise they are very fond of doing, unless the nets are put below them. One that gets out thereupon carries on the battle in front of the rampart. When in this way the catch has been completed they tear in pieces the fish that they have killed. But as they are aware that they have had too strenuous a task for only a single day's pay they wait there till the following day, and are given a feed of bread mash dipped in wine, in addition to the fish.
{10.} L [33] Mucianus's account of the same kind of fishing in the Iasian Gulf differs in this - the dolphins stand by of their own accord and without being summoned by a shout, and receive their share from the fishermen's hands, and each boat has one of the dolphins as its ally although it is in the night and by torchlight. The dolphins also have a form of public alliance of their own : when one was caught by the King of Caria and kept tied up in the harbour a great multitude of the remainder assembled, suing for compassion with an unmistakable display of grief, until the king ordered it to be released. Moreover small dolphins are always accompanied by a larger one as escort ; and before now dolphins have been seen carrying a dead comrade, to prevent its body being torn in pieces by sea-monsters.
{11.} L [34] The creatures called porpoises have a resemblance to dolphins (at the same time they are distinguished from them by a certain gloomy air, as they lack the sportive nature of the dolphin), but in their snouts they have a close resemblance to the maleficence of dog-fish.
{12.} L [35] The Indian Ocean produces turtles of such size that the natives roof dwelling-houses with the expanse of a single shell, and use them as boats in sailing, especially among the islands of the Red Sea. They are caught in a number of ways, but chiefly as they rise to the surface of the sea when the weather in the morning attracts them, and float across the calm waters with the whole of their backs projecting, and this pleasure of breathing freely cheats them into self-forgetfulness so much that their hide gets dried up by the heat and they are unable to dive, and go on floating against their will, an opportune prey for their hunters. [36] They also say that turtles come ashore at night to graze and after gorging greedily grow languid and when they have gone back in the morning doze off to sleep on the surface of the water ; that this is disclosed by the noise of their snoring; and that then the natives swim quietly up to them, three men to one turtle, and two turn it over on its back while the third throws a noose over it as it lies, and so it is dragged ashore by more men hauling from the beach. Turtles are caught without any difficulty in the Phoenician Sea ; and at a regular period of the year they come of their own accord into the river Eleutherus in a straggling multitude.
[37] The turtle has no teeth, but the edges of the beak are sharp on the upper side, and the mouth closing the lower jaw like a box is so hard that they can crush stones. They live on shell-fish in the sea and on plants when they come ashore. They bear eggs like birds' eggs numbering up to 100 at a time ; these they bury in the ground somewhere ashore, cover them with earth rammed down and levelled with their chests, and sleep on them at night. They hatch the young in the space of a year. Some people think that they cherish their eggs by gazing at them with their eyes ; and that the females refuse to couple till the male places a wisp of straw on one as she turns away from him. [38] The Troglodytes have horned turtles with broad horns twisted inward like those of a lyre but movable, which they use as oars to aid themselves in swimming ; the name for this horn is chelium ; it is of tortoise shell of exceptional quality, but it is seldom seen, as the very sharp rocks frighten the Turtle-eater tribe, while the Troglodytes, on whose coasts the turtles swim, worship them as sacred. There are also turtles living on land, and consequently called in works on the subject the Terrestrial species ; these are found in the deserts of Africa in the region of the driest and most arid sands, and it is believed that they live on the moisture of dew. No other animal occurs there. {13.} L [39] The practice of cutting tortoiseshell into plates and using it to decorate bedsteads and cabinets was introduced by Carvilius Pollio, a man of lavish talent and skill in producing the utensils of luxury.
{14.} L [40] The aquatic animals have a variety of coverings. Some are covered with hide and hair, for instance seals and hippopotamuses ; others with hide only, as dolphins, or with shell, as turtles, or a hard flinty exterior, as oysters and mussels, with rind, as lobsters, with rind and spines, as sea-urchins, with scales, as fishes, with rough skin which can be used for polishing wood and ivory, as skates, with soft skin, as lampreys ; others with no skin at all, as polypi.
{15.} L [41] The aquatic animals clad with hair are viviparous - for instance the saw-fish, the whale and the seal. The last bears its young on land ; it produces after-birth like cattle ; in coupling it clings together as dogs do ; it sometimes gives birth to more than two in a litter ; it rears its young at the breast ; it does not lead them down into the sea before the twelfth day, thereafter continually accustoming them to it. Seals are with difficulty killed unless the head is shattered. Of themselves they make a noise like lowing, whence their name 'sea-calves' ; yet they are capable of training, and can be taught to salute the public with their voice and at the same time with bowing, and when called by name to reply with a harsh roar. [42] No animal sleeps more heavily. The fins that they use in the sea also serve them on land as feet to crawl with. Their hides even when flayed from the body are said to retain a sense of the tides, and always to bristle when the tide is going out ; and it is also said that the right fin possesses a soporific influence, and when placed under the head attracts sleep.
[43] Two only of the hairless animals are viviparous, the dolphin and the viper.
{16.} L There are 74 species of fishes, not including those that have a hard covering, of which there are thirty. We will speak of them severally in another place, for now we are dealing with the natures of specially remarkable species.
{17.} L [44] The tunny is of exceptional size ; we are told of a specimen weighing 15 talents { 480 kg } and having a tail 2 cubits and 1 palm { 1 metre } broad. Fish of no less size also occur in certain rivers, the catfish in the Nile, the pike in the Rhine, the sturgeon in the Po, a fish that grows so fat from sloth that it sometimes reaches a thousand pounds ; it is caught with a hook on a chain and only drawn out of the water by teams of oxen. And this monster is killed by the bite of a very small fish called the anchovy which goes for a particular vein in its throat with remarkable voracity. [45] The catfish ranges about and goes for every living creature wherever it is, often dragging down horses when swimming. A fish very like a sea-pig is drawn out with teams of oxen, especially in the river Moenus in Germany, and in the Danube with weeding-hooks ; an exceptionally large species with no internal framework of bones or vertebrae and very sweet flesh is recorded in the Borysthenes. [46] In the Ganges in India there is a fish called the platanista with a dolphin's beak and tail, but 16 cubits long { 7.2 metres }. Statius Sebosus gives an extremely marvellous account of worms in the same river that have a pair of gills measuring 6 cubits { 2.7 metres } ; they are deep blue in colour, and named from their appearance ; he says that they are so strong that they carry off elephants coming to drink by gripping the trunk in their teeth.
{18.} L [47] Male tunnies have no fin under the belly. In spring time they enter the Black Sea from the Mediterranean in shoals, and they do not spawn anywhere else. The name of cordyla is given to the fry, which accompany the fish when they return to the sea in autumn after spawning ; in the spring they begin to be called mudfish or pelamydes (from the Greek for 'mud '), and when they have exceeded the period of one year they are called tunny. [48] These fish are cut up into parts, and the neck and belly are counted a delicacy, and also the throat provided it is fresh, and even then it causes severe flatulence; all the rest of the tunny, with the flesh entire, is preserved in salt : these pieces are called melandrya, as resembling splinters of oak-wood. The cheapest of them are the parts next the tail, because they lack fat, and the parts most favoured are those next the throat ; whereas in other fish the parts round the tail are most in use. At the pelamys stage they are divided into choice slices and cut up small into a sort of little cube.
{19.} L [49] Fishes of all kinds grow up exceptionally fast, especially in the Black Sea ; this is due to the fresh water carried into it by a large number of rivers. The name of scomber is given to a fish whose growth in size can be noticed daily. This fish and the pelamys in company with the tunny enter the Black Sea in shoals in search of less brackish feeding-grounds, each kind with its own leaders, and first of all the mackerel, which when in the water is sulphur-coloured, though out of water it is the same colour as the other kinds. These fill the fish-ponds of Spain, the tunny not going with them.
{20.} L [50] But no creature harmful to fish enters the Black Sea besides seals and small dolphins. The tunny enter it by the right bank and go out of it by the left ; this is believed to occur because they can see better with the right eye, being by nature dim of sight in both eyes. In the channel of the Thracian Bosphorus joining the Propontis with the Black Sea, in the actual narrows of the channel separating Europe and Asia, there is a rock of marvellous whiteness that shines through the water from the bottom to the surface, near Chalcedon on the Asiatic side. [51] The sudden sight of this always frightens them, and they make for the opposite promontory of Byzantium in a headlong shoal ; this is the reason why that promontory has the name of the Golden Horn. Consequently all the catch is at Byzantium, and there is a great shortage at Chalcedon, owing to the mile-wide channel flowing in between. But they wait for a north wind to blow so as to go out of the Black Sea with the current, and are only taken when entering the harbour of Byzantium. In winter they do not wander ; wherever winter catches them, there they hibernate till the equinox. They are also frequently seen from the stern of vessels proceeding under sail, accompanying them in a remarkably charming manner for periods of several hours and for a distance of some miles, not being scared even by having a harpoon repeatedly thrown at them. Some people give the name of pilot-fish to the tunny that do this. [52] Many pass the summer in the Propontis without entering the Black Sea; the same is the case with the sole, though the turbot does enter it. Nor does the sepia occur there, though the cuttle-fish is found. Of rockfish the sea-bream and whiting are lacking, as are some shell-fish, though oysters are plentiful ; but they all winter in the Aegean. Of those entering the Black Sea the only kind that never returns is the trichia or sardine - it will be convenient to use the Greek names in most cases, as different districts have called the same species by a great variety of names -, [53] but these alone enter the Danube and float down from it by its underground channels into the Adriatic, and consequently there also they are regularly seen going down stream and never coming up from the sea. The season for catching tunny is from the rise of the Pleiades to the setting of Arcturus ; during the rest of the winter time they lurk at the bottom of the water unless tempted out by a mild spell or at full moon. They get fat even to the point of bursting. The tunny's longest life is two years.
{21.} L [54] There is a small animal shaped like scorpion, of the size of a spider. This attaches itself with a spike under the fin of both the tunny and the fish called sword-fish, which often exceeds the size of a dolphin, and torments them so painfully that they frequently jump out of the water into ships. This is also done on other occasions from fear of the violence of other fish, especially by mullet, which are so exceptionally swift that they sometimes leap right over ships that lie across their path.
{22.} L [55] In this department of nature also there are cases of augury ; even fish have fore-knowledge of events. During the Sicilian War when Augustus was walking on the shore a fish leapt out of the sea at his feet, a sign which the priests interpreted as meaning that although Sextus Pompeius was then adopting Neptune as his father - so glorious were his naval exploits, - yet those who at that time held the seas would later be beneath the feet of Caesar.
{23.} L [56] Female fish are larger than the males. In one kind there are no males at all, as is the case with red mullet and sea-perch, for all those caught are heavy with eggs. Almost every kind with scales is gregarious. Fish are caught before sunrise ; at that hour their sight is most fallible. In the night they repose, but on bright nights they can see as well as by day. People also say that scraping the bottom helps the catch, and that consequently more are caught at the second haul than at the first. Fish are fondest of the taste of oil, but next to that they enjoy and derive nourishment from moderate falls of rain : in fact even reeds although growing in a marsh nevertheless do not grow up without rain ; and besides, fishes everywhere die when kept continually in the same water, if there is no inflow.
{24.} L [57] All fish feel a very cold winter, but most of all those that are believed to have a stone in their head, for instance the bass, the chromis, the ombre and the braize. When the winter has been severe a great many are caught blind. Consequently in the winter months they he hidden in caves ( like cases that we have recorded in the class of land-animals { 8.126 } ), particularly the gilthead and blackfish, which are not caught in winter except on a few regular days that are always the same, and also the lamprey and the orphus, the conger and perch and all rockfish. It is indeed reported that the electric ray, the plaice and the sole hide through the winters in the ground, that is, in a hole scraped out at the bottom of the sea.
{25.} L [58] Some fish again being unable to endure heat hide for 8 or 9 weeks during the heats of midsummer, for instance the grayling, the haddock and the gilt bream. Of river fish the catfish has a stroke at the rise of the dog-star, and at other times is always made drowsy by lightning. This is thought to happen to the carp even in the sea. And beside this the whole sea is conscious of the rise of that star, as is most clearly seen in the Bosporus, for sea-weed and fishes float on the surface, and everything is turned up from the bottom.
{26.} L [59] It is an amusing trait in the mullet that when frightened it hides its head and thinks it is entirely concealed. The same fish is so incautious in its wantonness that in Phoenicia and in Narbonensis at the breeding season a male mullet from the fish-ponds is sent out into the sea with a long line tied to its gills through its mouth and when it is drawn back by the same line the females follow it to the shore, and again the males follow a female at the laying season.
{27.} L [60] In old days the sturgeon was held to be the noblest of the fishes, being the only one with its scales turned towards the mouth, in the opposite direction to the one in which it swims ; but now it is held in no esteem, which for my part I think surprising, as it is a fish seldom to be found. One name for it is the elops.
{28.} L [61] Cornelius Nepos and the mime-writer Laberius have recorded that at a later period the chief rank belonged to the bass and the haddock. The kind of bass most praised is the one called the woolly bass, from the whiteness and softness of its flesh. There are two kinds of haddock - the collyms, which is the smaller and the bacchus, which is only caught in deep water, and consequently is preferred to the former. But among bass those caught in a river are preferred.
{29.} L [62] Nowadays the first place is given to the wrasse, which is the only fish that is said to chew the cud and to feed on grasses and not on other fish. It is especially common in the Carpathian Sea ; it never of its own accord passes Cape Lectum in the Troad. Some wrasse were imported from there in the principate of Tiberius Claudius by one of his freedmen, Optatus, praefect of the Fleet, and were distributed and scattered about between the mouth of the Tiber and the coast of Campania, [63] care being taken for about five years that when caught they should be put back into the sea. Subsequently they have been frequently found on the coast of Italy, though not caught there before ; and thus greed has provided itself with additional dainties by cultivating fish, and has bestowed on the sea a new denizen - so that nobody must be surprised that foreign birds breed at Rome. The next place belongs at all events to the liver of the lamprey that strange to say the Brigantine Lake in Raetia in the Central Alps also produces to rival the marine variety.
{30.} L [64] Of other fish of a good class the red mullet stands first in popularity and also in plentifulness, though its size is moderate and it but rarely exceeds 2 pounds in weight, nor does it grow larger when kept in preserves and fishponds. This size is only produced by the northern ocean and in its westernmost part. For the rest, there are several kinds of mullet. For it feeds on seaweed, bivalves, mud and the flesh of other fish ; and it is distinguished by a double beard on the lower lip. [65] The mullet of cheapest kind is called the mud-mullet. This variety is always accompanied by another fish named sea-bream, and it swallows down as fodder mire stirred up by the sea-bream digging. The coast mullet also is not in favour. The most approved kind have the flavour of an oyster. This variety has the name of shoe-mullet, which Fenestella thinks was given it from its colour. It spawns three times a year - at all events that is the number of times that its fry is seen. [66] The leaders in gastronomy say that a dying mullet shows a large variety of changing colours, turning pale with a complicated modification of blushing scales, at all events if it is looked at when contained in a glass bowl. Marcus Apicius, who had a natural gift for every ingenuity of luxury, thought it specially desirable for mullets to be killed in a sauce made of their companions, garum - for this thing also has procured a designation - and for fish-paste to be devised out of their liver. {31.} L [67] With a fish of this kind one of the proconsular body, Asinius Celer, in the principate of Gaius, issued a challenge - it is not so easy to say who won the match - to all the spendthrifts by giving 8000 sesterces for a mullet. The thought of this side-tracks the mind to the consideration of the people who in their complaints about luxury used to protest that cooks were being bought at a higher price per man than a horse ; but now the price of three horses is given for a cook, and the price of three cooks for a fish, and almost no human being has come to be more valued than one that is most skilful in making his master bankrupt. [68] Licinius Mucianus has recorded the capture in the Red Sea of a mullet weighing 80 pounds ; what price would our epicures have paid for it if it had been found on the coasts near the city ?
{32.} L It is also a fact of nature that different varieties of fishes hold the first rank in different places - the blackfish in Egypt, the John Dory (also called the carpenter-fish) at Gades, the stockfish in the neighbourhood of Ebusus, though elsewhere it is a disgusting fish, and everywhere it is unable to be cooked thoroughly unless it has been beaten with a rod ; in Aquitania the river salmon is preferred to all sea-fish.
{33.} L [69] Some fish have numerous gills, others single ones, others double. With the gills they discharge the water taken in by the mouth. Hardening of the scales, which are not alike in all fishes, is a sign of age. There are two lakes in Italy at the foot of the Alps, named Larius and Verbannus, in which every year at the rising of the Pleiades fish are found that are remarkable for close-set and very sharp scales, shaped like shoe-nails, but they are not commonly seen for a longer period than about a month from then.
{34.} L [70] Arcadia also has a marvel in its climbing perch, so called because it climbs out on to the land to sleep. In the district of Clitorium this fish is said to have a voice and no gills ; the same variety is by some people called the Adonis fish.
{35.} L [71] The fish called the sea-mouse also comes out on to the land, as do the polypus and the lamprey ; so also does a certain kind of fish in the rivers of India, and then jumps back again - for in most cases there is an obvious purpose in getting across into marshes and lakes so as to produce their offspring safe, as in those waters there are no creatures to devour their young and the waves are less fierce. Their understanding these reasons and their observing the changes of the seasons would seem more surprising to anybody who considers what fraction of mankind is aware that the biggest catch is made when the sun is passing through the sign of the Fishes.
{36.} L [72] Some sea-fish are flat, for instance the turbot, the sole and the flounder, which differs from the turbot only in the posture of its body- the turbot lies with the right side uppermost and the flounder with the left ; while other sea-fish are long, as the lamprey and the conger. {37.} L [73] Consequently differences also occur in the fins, which are bestowed on fish instead of feet ; none have more than four, some have three, some two, certain kinds none. In the Fucine Lake, but nowhere else, there is a fish that has eight fins to swim with. Long slippery fish like eels and congers generally have two fins, others have none, for instance, the lamprey which also has no gills. All this class use the sea as snakes do the land, propelling themselves by twisting their bodies, and they also crawl on dry land ; consequently this class are also longer-lived. Some of the flat-fish too have not got fins, for example, the sting-ray - for these swim merely by means of their breadth - and the kinds called soft fish, such as polypi, since their feet serve them instead of fins.
{38.} L [74] Eels live eight years. They can even last five or six days at a time out of water if a north wind is blowing, but not so long with a south wind, But the same fish cannot endure winter in shallow nor in rough water ; consequently they are chiefly caught at the rising of the Pleiades, as the rivers are then specially rough. They feed at night. They are the only fish that do not float on the surface when dead. [75] There is a lake called Benacus in the territory of Verona through which flows the river Mincius, at the outflow of which on a yearly occasion, about the month of October, when the lake is made rough evidently by the autumn star, they are massed together by the waves and rolled in such a marvellous shoal that masses of fish, a thousand in each, are found in the receptacles constructed in the river for the purpose.
{39.} L [76] The lamprey spawns in any month, although all other fish have fixed breeding seasons. Its eggs grow very quickly. Lampreys are commonly believed to crawl out on to dry land and to be impregnated by copulating with snakes. Aristotle gives the name of zmyrus to the male fish which generates, and says that the difference is that the lamprey is spotted and feeble whereas the zmyrus is self-coloured and hardy, and has teeth projecting outside the mouth. In Northern Gaul all lampreys have seven spots on the right jaw arranged like the constellation of the Great Bear, which are of a bright golden colour as long as the fish are alive, and are extinguished when they are deprived of life. [77] Vedius Pollio, a Roman knight who was one of the 'friends' of the deified Augustus, found in this animal a means of displaying his cruelty when he threw slaves sentenced to death into ponds of lampreys - not that the wild animals on land were not sufficient for this purpose, but because with any other kind of creature he was not able to have the spectacle of a man being torn entirely to pieces at one moment. It is stated that tasting vinegar particularly drives them mad. Their skin is very thin, whereas that of eels is rather thick, and Verrius records that it used to be used for flogging boys who were sons of citizens, and that consequently it was not the practice for them to be punished with a fine.
{40.} L [78] There is a second class of flatfish that has gristle instead of a backbone, for instance rays, sting-rays, skates, the electric ray, and those the Greek names for which mean 'ox,' 'sorceress,' 'eagle ' and 'frog.' This group includes the squalus also, although that is not a flatfish. These Aristotle designated in Greek by the common name of selachians, giving them that name for the first time ; but we cannot distinguish them as a class unless we like to call them the cartilaginea. But all such fish are carnivorous, and they feed lying on their backs, as we said in the case of dolphins ; and whereas all other fish are oviparous, this kind alone with the exception of the species called the sea-frog is viviparous, like thc creatures termed cetaceans.
{41.} L [79] There is a quite small fish that frequents rocks, called the sucking-fish. This is believed to make ships go more slowly by sticking to their hulls, from which it has received its name ; and for this reason it also has an evil reputation for supplying a love-charm and for acting as a spell to hinder litigation in the courts, which accusations it counterbalances only by its laudable property of stopping fluxes of the womb in pregnant women and holding back the offspring till the time of birth. It is not included however among articles of diet. [80] It is thought by some to have feet, but Aristotle denies this, adding that its limbs resemble wings.
Mucianus states that the murex is broader than the purple, and has a mouth that is not rough nor round and a beak that does not stick out into corners but shuts together on either side like a bivalve shell ; and that owing to murexes clinging to the sides a ship was brought to a standstill when in full sail before the wind, carrying despatches from Periander ordering some noble youths to be castrated, and that the shell-fish that rendered this service are worshipped in the shrine of Venus at Cnidus. Trebius Niger says that it is a foot long and five fingers { 9 cm} wide, and hinders ships, and moreover that when preserved in salt it has the power of drawing out gold that has fallen into the deepest wells when it is brought near them.
{42.} L [81] The maena changes its white colour and becomes blacker in summer. The lamprey also changes colour, being white all the rest of the time but variegated in spring. Also it is the only fish that lays its eggs in a nest, which it builds of seaweed.
{43.} L [82] The swallow-fish flies just exactly like a bird, and so does the kite-fish. The fish on this account called the lamp-fish rises to the surface of the sea, and on calm nights gives a light with its fiery tongue which it puts out from its mouth. The fish that has got its name from its horns raises these up about a foot and a half out of the sea. The sea-snake, again, when caught and placed on the sand, with marvellous rapidity digs itself a hole with its beak.
{44.} L [83] We will now speak of the bloodless fishes. Of these there are three kinds : first those which are called soft fish, then those covered with thin rinds, and lastly those enclosed in hard shells. The soft are the cuttle-fish, the sepia, the polypus and the others of that kind. They have the head between the feet and the belly, and all of them have eight little feet. In the sepia and cuttle-fish two of these feet are extremely long and rough, and by means of these they carry food to their mouths, and steady themselves as with anchors in a rough sea ; but all the rest are feelers which they use for catching their prey.
{45.} L [84] The cuttle-fish even flies, raising itself out of the water, as also do the small scallops, like an arrow. The males of the genus sepia are variegated and darker in colour, and they are more resolute : when a female is struck with a trident they come to her assistance, whereas a female flees when a male is struck. But both sexes on perceiving they are being caught hold of pour out a dark fluid which these animals have instead of blood, so darkening the water and concealing themselves.
{46.} L [85] There are many sorts of polypus. The land kinds are larger than the marine. They use all their arms as feet and hands, but employ the tail, which is forked and pointed, in sexual intercourse. The polypi have a tube in their back through which they pass the sea-water, and they shift this now to the right side and now to the left. They swim with their head on one side, this while they are alive being hard as though blown out. Otherwise they remain adhering with a kind of suction, by means of a sort of suckers spread over their arms : throwing themselves backward they hold on so that they cannot be torn away. They do not cling to the bottom of the sea, and have less holding-power when full-grown. They alone of the soft creatures go out of the water on to dry land, provided it has a rough surface : they hate smooth surfaces. [86] They feed on the flesh of shellfish, the shells of which they break by enfolding them with their tentacles ; and consequently their lair can be detected by the shells lying in front of it. And though the polypus is in other respects deemed a stupid animal, inasmuch as it swims towards a man's hand, it has a certain kind of sense in its domestic economy : it collects everything into its home, and then after it has eaten the flesh puts out the refuse and catches the little fishes that swim up to it. [87] It changes its colour to match its environment, and particularly when it is frightened. The notion that it gnaws its own arms is a mistake, for this is done to it by the congers ; but the belief that its tails grow again, as is the case with the gecko and the lizard, is correct.
{47.} L [88] But among outstanding marvels is the the creature called the nautilus, and by others the pilot fish. Lying on its back it comes to the surface of the sea, gradually raising itself up in such a way that by sending out all the water through a tube it so to speak unloads itself of bilge and sails easily. Afterwards it twists back its two foremost arms and spreads out between them a marvellously thin membrane, and with this serving as a sail in the breeze while it uses its other arms underneath it as oars, it steers itself with its tail between them as a rudder. So it proceeds across the deep mimicking the likeness of a fast cutter, if any alarm interrupts its voyage submerging itself by sucking in water.
{48.} L [89] One variety of the polypus kind is the stink-polyp, named from the disagreeable smell of its head, which causes it to be the special prey of the lamprey.
polypi go into hiding for periods of two months. They do not live more than two years ; but they always die of consumption, the females more quickly and usually as a result of bearing offspring.
[90] We must also not pass over the facts as to the polypus ascertained when Lucius Lucullus was governor of Baetica, and published by one of his staff, Trebius Niger ; he says that they are extremely greedy for shell-fish, and that these close their shells at a touch and cut off the polypus's tentacles, so retaliating by obtaining food from their would-be robber. Shell-fish do not possess sight or any other sense except consciousness of food and danger. Consequently the polypi lie in wait for the shell-fish to open, and placing a stone between the shells, not on the fish's body so that it may not be ejected by its throbbing, thus go to work at their ease, and drag out the flesh, while the shell-fish try to shut up, but in vain, as they are wedged open : so clever are even the most stupid of animals. [91] Moreover Niger asserts that no animal is more savage in causing the death of a man in the water ; for it struggles with him by coiling round him and swallows him with its sucker-cups and drags him asunder by its multiple suction, when it attacks men that have been shipwrecked or are diving. But should it be turned over, its strength gets feebler ; for when polypi are lying on their backs they stretch themselves out. The rest of the facts reported by the same authority may possibly be thought to approximate to the miraculous. [92] In the fishponds at Carteia a polypus was in the habit of getting into their uncovered tanks from the open sea and there foraging for salted fish - even the smell of which attracts all sea creatures in a surprising way, owing to which even fish-traps are smeared with them - and so it brought on itself the wrath of the keepers, which owing to the persistence of the theft was beyond all bounds. Fences were erected in its way, but it used to scale these by making use of a tree, and it was only possible to catch it by means of the keen scent of hounds. These surrounded it when it was going back at night, and aroused the guards, who were astounded by its strangeness : in the first place its size was unheard of and so was its colour as well, and it was smeared with brine and had a terrible smell ; who would have expected to find a polypus there, or who would recognise it in such circumstances ? They felt they were pitted against something uncanny, for by its awful breath it also tormented the dogs, which it now scourged with the ends of its tentacles and now struck with its longer arms, which it used as clubs ; and with difficulty they succeeded in despatching it with a number of three-pronged harpoons. [93] They showed its head to Lucullus - it was as big as a cask and held 15 amphorae { 500 litres }, - and (to use the words of Trebius himself) ' its beards which one could hardly clasp round with both one's arms, knotted like clubs, 30 feet long, with suckers or cups like basins holding ½ amphora { 17 litres }, and teeth corresponding to its size.' Its remains, kept as a curiosity, were found to weigh 700 pounds. Trebius also states that cuttle-fish of both species of the same size have been driven ashore on that coast. In our own seas one kind is taken that measures 5 cubits { 2¼ metres } in length and the other kind 2 cubits { 90 cm }. These fish also do not live more than two years.
{49.} L [94] Mucianus has stated that he has also seen in the Propontis another creature resembling a ship under sail : it is a shell with a keel like a boat, and a curved stern and beaked bow. In this (he says) the nauplius, a creature like the cuttle-fish, secretes itself, merely by way of sharing the game. The manner in which this takes place is two-fold : in calm weather the carrier shell strikes the water by dipping its flappers like oars, but if the breezes invite, the same flappers are stretched out to serve as a rudder and the curves of the shells are spread to the breeze. The former creature delights (he continues) to carry and the latter to steer, and this pleasure penetrates two senseless things at once - unless perhaps human calamity forms part of the motive, for it is an established fact that this is a disastrous omen for mariners.
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