Whatever the Elops, Varro and Epicharmus testify to its extortionate price, while Pliny lets us know that by many of the cognoscenti its flavour was deemed to be the very best of all.
The capture of this rare and elusive fish—its usual habitat was off Pamphylia—became the occasion of great rejoicing; the crew of the successful boat were crowned with wreaths, and welcomed by the music of the flute-players.[639] It is noteworthy that the Acipenser does not occur in the pages either of Varro or of Columella, while the Elops does.
4. The Rhombus, whether it were R. maximus, the “Turbot,” or R. lævis, the “Brill,” has been long in dispute.
Juvenal describes his celebrated Rhombus with “erectas in terga sudes” (IV. 128); “erectas” may be conceded to the licence of a poet as regards the back fin of a Turbot, but not of a Brill, which is yielding and rather wavy. Then, again, Diphilus declares that its flesh is soft, Xenocrates that it is firm, and improves with keeping. Now the flesh of the Brill is soft: that of the Turbot much firmer. Rhombus (unmentioned by Aristotle) probably stood for both Turbot and Brill, as well as for the ψῆττα, “which is called by the Romans the Rhombus.”[640]
The fish, which derives its name from its supposed likeness to the geometrical figure, was in poetry but not in popularity[641] more celebrated than that other famous flat fish, the Sole. As a dainty the Sturgeon was in vogue long before the Rhombus, perhaps because, as Horace (Sat., II. 2. 49) suggests, it was introduced by a man of fashion:
“ ... Quid? tunc rhombos minus æquora alebant? Tutus erat rhombus, tutoque ciconia nido, Donec vos auctor docuit prætorius.”
It ran often to immense size. Martial’s fish (XIII. 81), although “latior patella,” can hold no candle to the one presented to Domitian.[642]
That Emperor, though deeming himself and insisting on his subjects acclaiming him, of godlike attributes, was not equal to solving the knotty question of how to cook and to serve his fish whole, “Derat pisci patinæ mensura”—if its proportions were in the same street with a Rhombus vouched for by Rondolet, viz. three metres long, two broad, and one thick, the fact excites no wonder—so he straightway summoned a special meeting of the Senate.[643]
Discover, Montanus advises, a new Prometheus capable of modelling the amplest trencher instantly, but, since to a god like Domitian (he flatteringly adds), offerings of huge fish will frequently be made—
“But, Cæsar, thus forewarned make no campaign, Unless some potters follow in your train.”