SEA-EEL.
The sumptuous abode of L. Crassus echoes with his sighs and groans. His children and slaves respect his profound sorrow, and leave him with intelligent affection to solitude—that friend of great grief; so grateful to the afflicted soul, because tears can flow unwitnessed. Alas! the favourite sea-eel of Crassus is dead, and it is uncertain whether Crassus can survive it!
This sensitive Roman caused this beloved fish to be buried with great magnificence: he raised a monument to its memory, and never ceased to mourn for it.[XXI_58]
This man, who displayed so little tenderness towards his servants, had an extraordinary weakness concerning his fine sea-eels. He passed his life beside the superb fish-pond, where he lovingly fattened them from his own hand. Ornamented with necklaces of the finest pearls, and earrings of precious stones,[XXI_59] all, at a signal, swam towards him; several fearlessly took the food he offered them; and some, as familiar as their absent and regretted companion, allowed their master to caress them without seeking to bite or avoid him.[XXI_60]
This singular passion, which at the present day we can hardly believe, in spite of the respectable authority of the most serious writers, was very common at Rome, amongst those who were rich enough to rear such fish. C. Hirtius was the first to construct fish ponds on the sea shore, to which many visitors were attracted by their magnificence.[XXI_61] The family of Licinius took their surname of Muræna from these fish, in order thus to perpetuate the most silly affection, and the remembrance of their insanity.[XXI_62]
Sea-eels necessarily pleased men cloyed with pleasures, and who substituted a kind of cold and cruel curiosity for the terrible emotions which beings peculiarly organized hope to find in evil-doing: gladiators murdering each other; lions or tigers lacerating the bestiarii; all these agonies of the amphitheatre had long since lost the attraction of novelty. It was a much more exciting spectacle to witness a swarm of sea-eels tearing to pieces an awkward or rebellious slave; besides, it greatly improved the fish. The atrocious Vedius Pollio, who understood these matters, never failed to have sea-eels served him after their odious repast, that he might have the pleasure of eating some part of the body of his victim.[XXI_63]
Thank Heaven! however, some amateurs of this dreaded fish were not so barbarous; they fattened them very well without having recourse to such criminal food. Veal was cut into thin slices, and steeped in the blood of the animal for ten days, after which the fish greedily regaled themselves with it.[XXI_64]
It was, doubtless, in this manner that the skilful speculator, Hirtius,—the same already mentioned—nourished his sea-eels, which produced him an immense revenue. His fish ponds contained so great a number that he was able to offer six thousand to Julius Cæsar on the occasion of the public feast that general gave the day of his triumphal return from the conquest of Gaul.[XXI_65]
The greater part of the Roman emperors were exceedingly fond of sea-eels. The greedy Vitellius, growing tired of this dish, would at last only eat the soft roes: and numerous vessels ploughed the seas in order to obtain them for him.[XXI_66] This exquisite rarity again appeared too common to the maniac child, who dismayed and astonished Rome for the space of three years. Heliogabalus brought the soft roe of the sea eel into disrepute by ordering that the peasants of the Mediterranean should be gorged with it.[XXI_67] This folly amused him, and only cost several millions. That was a trifle when compared with the blood which almost always flowed to satisfy his whims.
The Greeks and Latins thought much of sea-eels caught in the straits of Sicily.[XXI_68] They were sometimes served surrounded with crawfish;[XXI_69] but more frequently they were dressed with a seasoning much in fashion, composed of pepper, alisander, savory, saffron, onion, and stoned Damascus plums. These various substances were mixed together, and to them were added wine, sweet sun-made wine, old wine reduced by boiling, garum, vinegar, and oil.[XXI_70]
At Rome the fish market was abundantly supplied with sea-eels from the Tiber. Connoisseurs thought nothing of them;[XXI_71] they were sold at a low price, and their disgrace became complete directly they appeared on plebeian tables.
The Egyptians venerated this fish, and always esteemed it sacred.[XXI_72] Among the Sybarites, just appreciators of its culinary qualities, the fishers and sellers of sea-eels were exempt from all taxes.[XXI_73] They often procured some of such enormous size, that we should be tempted to accuse the old chroniclers of exaggeration, if we were not aware that this animal attains considerable dimensions. In the year 1786 a sea-eel was taken in the Elbe, weighing sixty pounds. This extraordinary fish measured seven feet two inches in length, and twenty-five inches in the girth.[XXI_74]