350
NOTES AND QUERIES. m B. in. MAY e, 1911.
FISHING IN FRESH WATER IN
CLASSICAL TIMES.
(11 S. iii. 249.)
THE locus classicus in Latin literature for fishing in a river with rod and line is the passage (245 sqq.) in Ausonius's tenth Idyll,
- Mosella,' written about 370 A.D. There
is an English prose version of these lines by Sir Richard Jebb in Jebb, Jackson, and Currey's ' Translations.' The younger Pliny in describing (' Epistles,' Bk. IX. vii. 4) a villa of his that stood on the shore of the Lake of Como tells a friend that it is possible to throw a line from one of the rooms, and almost from the sofa. ^Elian (3rd cent. A.D.) in Bk. XV. chap. i. of his Ilepi oxoi/ 1810x17x05 gives a curious account of fishing with an arti- ficial fly on a river in Macedonia, a practice evidently looked on as something strange. He explains how the flies are made. The rod used, according to ^Elian, was 6 feet, and the line of the same length. Sidonius (5th cent. A.D.), writing from his wife's estate at Aydat, Puys de Dome (Epist. II. ii. 12), mentions the setting of night-lines in a lake. His twenty-first poem, * De Piscibus nocte captis,' was written to accompany a present of fish caught in this way.
Greek philosophers have said some hard things about " the contemplative man's recreation." Plato, close to the end of the seventh book of his ' De Legibus,' puts in the mouth of the Athenian stranger a prayer that young men may not take to any form of fishing or fowling. The passage of Plutarch ('Moralia,' 965, E 966s) where Plato's view is cited and reinforced is referred to by Burton :
44 Plutarch in his book ' Ds solert. animal.' speaks against all fishing, as a filthy, base, illiberal employ- ment, having neither wit nor perspicacity in it, nor worth the labour." ' Anat. of Melancholy,' II. ii. 4.
EDWARD BENSLY.
That the Anglo-Romans, fished in th e Thames with either a simple line or a rod and line is certain, if we may judge by the bronze fishing-hooks found in the black mud of the " Roman level " on the banks of the Thames. Several examples of these hooks are in the City Museum, and I myself possessed two which I saw dug up during excavations. An illustration of a double bronze fish- hook with barbs, and having a strand of thin twisted wire still attached to the loop, will be found in the admirable catalogue
of the antiquities preserved in the collection
at the Guildhall (plate xxviii. 16).
In classical Roman times the lamprey (murcena) and the char (scarus) were laid on the table to the sound of the flute. As to the former see Hor., ' Satires,' II. 8, 42,
Effertur squillas inter mursena natantes," referred to by Prof. Fuss in his ' Roman Antiquities,' 1840 (trans.).
The Romans were accustomed to annex fish-ponds to their villas. Pollux, as quoted by Fosbroke in his * Ency. Antiq.,' gives a list of the instruments and customs as to fresh-water fishing as well as sea-fishing.
J. HOLDEN MACMlCHAEL.
I fully expected to find an exhaustive article on the subject in Smith's ' Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities,' but was disappointed. In Calepini, ' Dictionarium Decem Linguarum,' however, I found the following references :
" Miles erat gladio, piscator arundine sumpta."- Ovidius, 14 ' Metamorphos.' "Piscatoria linea." Plin., Lib. 24, cap. 9.
So we have allusions here to the rod and to the line. L. L. K.
In Walton's ' Complete Angler ' reference is made to an amusing story, told by Plutarch, of a trick played by Cleopatra on Antony while fishing. Evidently angling in fresh water without much success, Antony secretly commanded his servants to attach fish to his hook in order that he might shine in the eyes of his mistress. Becoming aware of the trick, "Cleopatra, on a subsequent day, bribed the servants to affix to Antony's hook a salt water fish, thereby covering him with ridicule. The incident is related in Plutarch's ' Life of Antony.' S. S. W.
ABNOLFINI FAMILY (11 S. iii. 147, 217).
Thanks to the kindness of Signer Alfredo
Caselli, I am now in a position to supply MB.
BBOCKWELL with the concluding lines of
the inscription commemorating the Arnolfini
who lived and died in the palazzo of his
family situated in the Via del Duomo at
Lucca :
Qui visse
Gio. Attilio Arnolfini
uomo di vasta mente e di larghi concetti
versatissimo nella scienza delle acque
contenne il Serchio con salde scogliere
dal devastare le adiacenti campagne
altre grandi opere diviso' intorno al fiume
a regolare gli scoli della pianura
a bonificare le terre della marina
le difficolta dei tempi impedirono i disegni
del patrizio sapiente
MDCCXXXIII MDCCLXXXXI.
