d. {M.} Quintus Marius Optatus heu iuvenis tumulo qualis iacet a[bditus isto,] qui pisces iaculo capiebat missile dextra, aucupium calamo præter studiosus agebat ...
Cf. Carm. Lat. Epig., no. 412.
[348] Ep., V. 18, 7 f.
[349] See infra, p. 155, note 6.
[350] See infra, p. 155, note 5.
[351] Schneidewin, Ed. I., 1842, and Ed. II., 1852, reads musca, as does Lindsay, 1903. Paley and Stone (1888) musco; W. Gilbert (Leipzig, 1886 and 1896) reads musca, and in his apparatus criticus remarks “vorata d. sc. musca cum libris Scrin. Schn. Glb.—vorato d. sc. musco Brodæus Schn.”
[352] VII. 113. χαίρει δὲ (sc. ὁ σκάρος) τῇ τῶν φυκίων τροφῇ διὸ καὶ τούτοις θηρεύεται, κ.τ.λ. Athenæus mentions Aristotle as his source.
The references by ichthyologists to the bait used for catching the Scarus seem infrequent: I at least have only come across the following. “The fishing requires some experience: fishermen allege that there is necessary un individu vivant pour amorcer les autres, yet here we call to mind what Ælian and Oppian say as to the great number of fish attracted by following a female attached to the line.” See Cuvier and Valenciennes, H. N. des Poissons, vol. XIV., p. 150, Paris, 1839.
[353] IX. 29. Scarus solus piscium dicitur ruminare herbisque vesci, non aliis piscibus. See also Oppian, II. 645-650.
[354] The Oxford Dict. gives, “Alga, a seaweed: in plural, one of the great divisions of the Cryptogamic plants including seaweeds, and kindred fresh-water plants, and a few ærial species,” and “Moss, any of the small herbaceous Cryptogamous plants constituting the class Musci, some of which form the characteristic vegetation of bogs, while others grow in crowded masses covering the surface of the ground, stones, trees, etc.” As “applied to seaweed rare”, I might venture to add either poetical, as in Tennyson’s Mermaid, “in hueless moss under the sea,” or loose and unscientific.