Fish culture never became a serious occupation among the Romans. It was a pastime, one of the many directions which their senseless luxury took rather than a carefully directed effort to stock ponds and rear fish for food, or as a means of nature study. The immense ponds were stocked with rare fish in, preference to useful varieties. Next to the rare species those that could be tamed were in favor. A qualification of the above statements should be made probably, in favor of the Romans who lived during the early Republican period, of whom Columella, a Roman writer, has the following to say in his book entitled De Re Rustica: "The descendants of Romulus, although they were country folk, took great pains in having upon their farms a sort of abundance of everything which the inhabitants of the city are wont to enjoy. To this end they did not rest contented with stocking with fish the ponds that had been made for this purpose, but in their foresight went to the extent of supplying the ponds formed by nature with the spawn of fish. By this means the lakes Velinus and Sabitinus, and likewise Vulsmensis and Ciminus have furnished in great abundance not only catfish and goldfish, but also all the other varieties of fish which flourish in fresh water." Such were the practices of the Roman country folk in early times, but, strange as it may seem in view of the extravagance of which the fish pond became the object in later times, no measures were taken to secure the reproduction and free development of staple food fishes.

It is well known that the ancients had a remarkable predilection for fish as a food. The principal luxury of the Roman banquets consisted of fish, and the poets speak of sumptuous tables spread with them exclusively. In, the period between the taking of Carthage and the reign of Vespasian, this taste became a perfect passion, and for its gratification the senators and patricians, enriched by the spoils of Asia and Africa, incurred the most foolish expense. Thus Licinius Murena, Quintus Hortensius and Lucius Philippus, spent millions on their fish ponds and in stocking them with rare species.

Lucullus was by far the most extravagant of these fish fanciers. A fish pond was to him very much what the yacht is to the modern millionaire. It is his name that we find so, frequently in Cicero's letters, when he and his set come in for several cleverly-framed rebukes. "No matter," says Cicero, "about the state, if only their fish-ponds! escape harm." It was Lucullus who had a channel cut through a mountain at an immense outlay of money, in order to let salt water into his fish-ponds. We are told by Varro that one Hirrius had an income of nearly $700,000 from his Roman real estate, and spent the whole amount on his fish-ponds. Some of these fish-ponds were very elaborate. They were constructed with many compartments, in which they kept the different varieties. The care of these ponds, and the feeding of the animals, required a large force of trained men and assistants who, we can infer, learned a great deal about the habits of fishes, their favorite food, and how to propagate them, but their information was never reduced to anything like a science.

That foolish extravagance of the Roman nobles produced but two results, the less of which was the impoverishment of some of Rome's wealthiest families; the other and more unfortunate result was the destruction of the fishes along the Mediterranean Sea.

Probably the sole contribution to fish culture resulting from all this extravagance, was the introduction of goldfish into an artificial habitat and providing them shellfish for nourishment.

In conclusion, I will note some of the forms that were most popular among the Romans, either for table use or for the aquarium. For these we are indebted to a mosaic discovered in Pompeii. They are formed as they were seen by the artist in an aquarium, but in the mosaic they are supposed to be seen as if in the sea. The varieties found are: They grey mullet, electric ray, gilt-head, muraena, scorpion fish, crawfish, devil-fish, dog-fish, red-mullet, bass, spinola, red gumara, nautis, prawn., and from another mosaic may be added the soft prawn, squid and some other species whose English names I do not know.

T. Louis Comparette.