The trigla, or mullus, as Nonnius, Harduin, Schneider, and Coray state, was the surmullet, or mullus barbatus L. It is mentioned as a rare delicacy of great price by Horace (Sat. ii, 2); Juvenal (Sat. iv, 15); Martial (Xenia, 74); and Macrobius (Saturnal. iii, 16.) Athenæus says of it, “Diocles writes that the flesh of the mullus is hard.” (vii, 21.) Its liver prepared with oil and wine is said by Galen to have been esteemed as a peculiar delicacy.
We need not say how much the murene was sought after by all the lovers of good eating in ancient Rome. Pliny, Martial, and Macrobius inform us that those from Sicily were in most esteem; and Brydone takes notice of the peculiar excellence of the Sicilian murenes at the time when he performed his tour through that island. According to Icesius, it is as nutritious as the eel. (Athen. vii.) He mentions that the murene was called “the Helen of suppers;” and hence, no doubt, Linnæus has named the fish muræna Helena. It was held in much esteem, he says, before spawning. (Ibid.) Apicius gives various receipts for the dressing of it. Pepper, wine, vinegar, and oil are ingredients in almost every one of them. The murene which was served up at the supper of Nasidienus had a sauce or soup formed of such things. (Horace, Sat. ii, 8.) It is related of Vedius Pollio, that he fed his murenes with the bodies of condemned slaves. (Plin. Hist. Nat. ix, 23, and Tertullian, De Pallio.) L. Crassus, the orator, put on mourning clothes for the death of a murene. (Macrobius, Sat. iii, 15.) The muræna ophis is mentioned by Galen as having the same character as its congener.
The ancients were acquainted with several species of mackerel (scomber scomber), which Xenocrates represents as nutritious, but unpalatable and flatulent.
The anguilla, or common eel, and the congrus, or conger-eel, were despised by the Roman gourmands, but were greatly esteemed by the Greeks. Icesius says that eels are the best of fishes. See Athen. (l. c.)
It is supposed, by most of the classical commentators, that the accipenser was the sturgeon, but this is not quite agreed.—See this point fully discussed by Rondelet, Gesner, and Willoughby. The celebrated Artedi, and the writer of the article on Ichthyology in the ‘Encycl. Method.’ are quite decided in the affirmative. We need have little difficulty, then, in determining it to be the accipenser sturio. To our minds there can be no doubt but that it is the fish described by Constantine Porphyrogenita, under the name of βερζήτικον. (De Admin. Imp. 42.) Both in the days of the Romans, and under the Greek empire, the sturgeon was commonly procured from the Pontus or Black Sea. Its popularity appears to have been great in the days of Horace, but it had fallen into disrepute in the time of Pliny. It seems, however, to have retrieved its character afterwards; for one of the authorities quoted by Athenæus says that it was presented at the Roman banquets, crowned with garlands, and accompanied with the playing of pipes. See also Macrobius (Sat. iii, 16.) Martial speaks of it as a much-esteemed delicacy at the imperial table. The elops and the galeus rhodius were fishes nearly allied to the sturgeon. See Pliny and Athenæus.
The isinglass fish (accipenser huso), although described by Herodotus (Hist. iv, 53), Strabo (Geogr.), and Ælian (xiv, 23), is not noticed by the dietetical writers, unless we suppose it the fish alluded to by Athenæus (vii, 21), where see the notes of Coray and Schweighäuser.
Martial mentions the gobius, or gudgeon, as being the first of the viands presented at the banquets of the Venetians. (Xenia, Ep. 83.) Juvenal speaks of it as being a fish of little value, or, at least, low priced. (Sat. xi, 37.) It is, in fact, as Galen states, a very small fish; but he represents it as being delicious, digestible, and wholesome, especially when caught on a stony or rocky shore. Seth gives the same account of it. Diphilus, as quoted by Athenæus, says, that when its flesh is white the gudgeon is tender, wholesome, and digestible.
The perch, according to the same authority, bears a close resemblance to the gudgeon. Ausonius calls it the deliciæ mensarum. Galen calls it a delicious fish, which is not only of easy digestion but most wholesome. He adds that it, and other fishes of the same description, form blood of a middling consistence, that is to say, neither very watery nor too thick. Both the perca fluviatilis and the P. marina are described by Aristotle, Galen, Athenæus, and the other writers on dietetics.
The umber (sciæna umbra), a fish resembling the perch, but of great size, was in much esteem as a pickle, which was called saperda, and brought from Pontus. See Athen. (iii, 31), and Persius (Sat.)