But by broad squills he must have meant what we call astaci, a kind of crab which Philyllius mentions in his Cities.

[[174]]And Archestratus, in that famous poem of his where he never once mentions the crab by the name of κάραβος, does speak of the ἄστακος. As he does also in the following passage—

But passing over trifles, buy an astacus,
Which has long hands and heavy too, but feet
Of delicate smallness, and which slowly walks
Over the earth's face. A goodly troop there are
Of such, and those of finest flavour, where
The isles of Lipara do gem the ocean:
And many lie in the broad Hellespont.

And Epicharmus, in his Hebe's Marriage, shows plainly that the ἄστακος spoken of by Archestratus is the same as the κάραβος, speaking as follows—

There are astaci and colybdænæ, both equipp'd
With little feet and long hands, both coming under
The name of κάραβος.

65. But the carabi, and astaci, and also carides or squills, are each a distinct genus. But the Athenians spell the name ἄστακος with an ο, ὄστακος, just as they also write ὀσταφίδας. But Epicharmus in his Earth and Sea says—

κᾀστακοὶ γαμψώνυχοι.

And Speusippus, in the second book of his Similarities, says that of soft-shelled animals the following are nearly like one another. The coracus, the astacus, the nymphe, the arctus, the carcinus, and the pagurus. And Diocles the Carystian says, "Carides, carcini, carabi, and astaci, are pleasant to the taste and diuretic." And Epicharmus has also mentioned the colybdæna in the lines I have quoted above; which Nicander calls the beauty of the sea; but Heraclides in his Cookery Book gives that name to the caris. But Aristotle, in the fifth book of his Parts of Animals, says, "Of soft-shelled animals the carabi, the astaci, the carides, and others of the same sort, are propagated like quadrupeds; and they breed at the beginning of spring; as indeed is no secret to anybody; but at times they breed when the fig begins to ripen.

Now carabi are found in rough and rocky places; but astaci in smooth ground; neither kind in muddy places: on which account there are astaci produced in the Hellespont and about Thasos; and carabi off Cape Sigeum and Mount Athos. But the whole race of crabs is long-lived. But Theophrastus, in his book on Animals who dive in Holes,

[[175]]says that the astaci and carabi and carides all cast off their old age.