What fish Columella meant by Aurata is not settled: it is certainly not the “gold-fish,” as some translate, for they are not sea-fish. Facciolati, after saying that the name came from the fish having golden eyebrows, goes on that “some folk deny that he can be identified with the ‘gilthead’ or ‘dory.’” Perhaps the fish is one of the Sparidæ group, which pass at certain seasons of the year from the Mediterranean into salt-water fish marshes, as observed by Aristotle, and confirmed by M. Duhamel. Or can it be the smelt?
Faber, pp. 37, 38, “of fresh-water fishes, twenty-one species, among them the fresh-water Perch, are also common to the sea: amongst the sea fishes, the flounder frequents brackish water, and sometimes enters the rivers: others only occasionally frequent the lagoons and brackish waters, among them the Gilthead,” a statement incidentally confirmed by Martial (Ep. XIII. 90) in his helluous pronunciamento, that practically the only really good Aurata was that whose haunt was the Lucrine lake, and whose whole world was its oyster! of which fish Martial (XIII. 90) seems only appreciative,
“ ... cui solus erit concha Lucrina cibus.”
[558] Faber, op. cit., 86. Cf. Revue Contemporaine, June 30 and July 15, 1854, where the fisheries at Comacchio are described at length.
[559] Trans., by Diaper and Jones (London, 1722—see supra, p. 177), which I usually employ. Cf. III. 84: μυρία δ’ αἰόλα τοῖα δολορραφέων λίνα κόλπων. Fishing nets from Pompeii, even now almost entire, are to be found in Italian Museums. The best times for hauling up the nets were (according to Arist., N. H., VIII. 19) “just about sunrise and sunset. Fishermen speak of these as ‘nick-of-time’ (ὡραῖοι) hauls. The fact is that at these times fishes are particularly weak-sighted” (D’Arcy Thompson, Trs.). Pliny, IX. 23, practically copies Aristotle.
[560] Alciphr., Epist., 1. 17.
[561] A terra-cotta relief of the type known as “Median,” c. 460 b.c., in Brit. Mus. Cat. of Terra-cottas, No. B. 372, Pl. 20, shows a fisherman holding two fishes, or a fish and a purse, and as if in the act of pulling in a net. This a very early exemplar of Greek Netting.
[562] Cf. the rod of Heracles on a black-figured vase published by C. Lenormant and J. de Witte, Élite des Monuments Céramographiques, Vol. III., Plate 14. The Rod is 8 cm. and the Line is 6 cm.
[563] Od., 12, 251. Cf. the same phrase in Od., 10, 293, for Circe’s magic wand.
[564] Plutarch, de Sol., 24, commends those of a stallion as longest and strongest, of a gelding next, and of a mare least, because of the weakness of the hairs due to her urination.