2564 This is, no doubt, the cray-fish, the same animal that has been called the “locusta” in the preceding Chapter. Aristotle states, B. iv. c. 8, that the carabus has the thorax rough and spiny. It is most probable, that it is from this name that our word “crab” is derived.
2565 Cuvier says, that the astacus, which is very accurately described by Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. iv. c. 8, is indisputably the homard of the French (the common lobster of the English); the Cancer gammarius of Linnæus. Pliny, in another place, B. xxx. c. ii., describes it himself under the name of elephantus.
2566 Cuvier remarks, that according to Aristotle, B. iv. c. 2, the maiæ are in the number of the καρκίνοι, or crabs that have a short tail concealed beneath the body, being those of the largest kind. The same philosopher, De Part. Anim. B. iv. c. 8, adds, that these have also short feet and a hard shell. Cuvier says, that many writers have applied this name to the crabs at the present day belonging to the genus inachus, and more especially the Cancer maia of Linnæus. He is more inclined, however, to think that the maia was the common French crab, known as poupart or tourtue, the Cancer pagurus of Linnæus.
2567 Hardouin says, that these are the same that the Venetians were in the habit of calling “cancro poro,” the last word being a corruption, as he thinks, of pagurus. Aristotle says, loc. cit., that they were crabs of middling size.
2568 Or Heracleotic crabs. Aristotle says, De Partib. Anim. B. iv. c. 8, that these crabs had shorter feet and thinner than those of the maiæ. Cuvier suggests, that these may be the commonest kind of crab, the Cancer mænas of Linnæus, or a species very similar.
2569 “Leones.” This name is not found in Aristotle’s account, but it is found in Athenæus, B. iii. c. 106; and in Ælian, Hist. Anim. B. xiv. c. 9. According to Diphilus, as quoted by Athenæus, it was of larger size than the astacus. Ælian describes it as more slender in shape than the cray-fish, and partly of a bluish colour, and with very large forcipes, in which it resembles, Cuvier says, the homard of the French. It is possible, however, he adds, that it may have been only a second name given to the astacus already mentioned; as both Pliny and Ælian, who were not critical observers, are very liable to make errors in names.
2570 Aristotle, Cuvier observes, states the carcini, or crabs, have no tail, the fact being that the tail is extremely small, and is concealed, as it were, in a furrow in the under part of the body. The cray-fish, on the other hand, has a large and broad tail.
2571 Ἱπποὶ. The more common reading is ἱππεῖς, “horsemen.” Cuvier thinks, that in all probability, these are a kind of crab with very long legs, vulgarly known as the sea-spider; the Macropodia and the Leptopodia of Linnæus.
2572 Hardouin remarks, that Aristotle says this only of the carabi, or cray-fish, and not of the crabs in general; and that, on the contrary, in B. v. c. 7, he says, that in the crab the male does not differ in conformation from the female, except in the opercule. There seems, in reality, to be no foundation for the statement here made by Pliny.
2573 Both in the crab and the cray-fish, Aristotle says.
2574 Ælian, Hist. Anim. B. vii. c. 24, calls this kind of crab δρομίας, the “runner,” from the great distance it is known to travel. He says, that they meet together, coming in one by one, at a certain bay in the Thracian Bosporus, where those who have arrived wait for the others; and that on finding that the waves of the Euxine are sufficiently violent to sweep them away, they unite in a dense body, and then waiting till the waters have retired, make a passage across the straits.
2575 Cuvier remarks, that Hardouin is correct in considering this the same as the crab known in France as Bernard the Hermit (our hermit-crab), the Cancer Bernardus of Linnæus, a species of the genus now known as the Pagur. This animal hides its tail and lower extremities in the empty shells of whelks, or other univalves. Cuvier suggests that our author committed a slip of the pen, in using the word oyster here for shell-fish. This is the καρκίνιον, probably, of Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. v. c. 15, and De Part. Anim. B. iv. c. 8; and it is most probable that, as Cuvier states, the real πιννοτήρης of Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. iv. c. 4, and B. v. c. 14, was another of the crustacea, of which Pliny speaks under the same name in c. 66. This last is a small crab, that lives in the shells of bivalves, such as mussels, &c., but not when empty. See the Notes to c. 66.
2576 This circumstance is more fully treated of in B. xxxii. c. 19.
2577 Our author speaks rather more guardedly here than usual; and Hardouin seems almost inclined to believe the story. Ovid also alludes to this story in the Met. B. xv. l. 370, et seq. “If you take off the bending claws from the crab of the sea-shore, and bury the rest in the earth, a scorpion will come forth from the part so buried, and will threaten with its crooked tail.”
2578 Of animals covered with a thin crust.
2579 The sea-urchin, the herisson de mer of the French, and the Echinus of Linnæus.
2580 Cuvier remarks, that it does not use the spines or prickles for this purpose, but that it moves by means of tentacules, which it projects from between its prickles.
2581 The Echinus cidaris of Linnæus; with a small body, and very long spines. The name, according to Hardouin, is from the Greek, meaning the “mother of the echini.”
2582 See B. iv. c. 17.
2583 The same, Cuvier says, with the Echinus spatagus of Linnæus.
2584 Not “ova,” Cuvier says, but “ovaria” rather. Each urchin has five “ovaria,” arranged in the form of stars. They are supposed to be hermaphroditical, but there is considerable doubt on the subject.
2585 The mouth of the sea-urchin, armed with five teeth, is generally turned to the ground, Cuvier says.
2586 Plutarch, in his Book “on the Instincts of Animals,” Oppian, Halieut. B. ii. l. 225, and Ælian, Hist. Anim. B. vii. c. 44, all mention this.
2587 This idea probably arose from the fact of their being sometimes found with stones sticking between their spines or prickles.
2588 The thin-crusted animals.
2589 Known to us as periwinkles.
2590 It is now known, thanks to the research of Swammerdam, that the black points at the extremity of the great horns of the land snail, or Helix terrestris, and at the base of them in the water snail, are eyes.
2591 “Pectines in mari;” literally, “sea-combs.” The French still call them by a similar name, “peignes.” They are known also in France as “coquilles de St. Jaques,” or St. James’s shells; probably, because worn by pilgrims who had visited the shrine of St. Jago, at Compostella. Indeed, the scallop shell was a favourite emblem with the palmers and pilgrims of the middle ages, who were in the habit of wearing it on their return in the hat.
2592 He Latinizes the Greek name, calling it “unguis”—“a nail;” and, according to Varro, they were so called from their resemblance to the human nail. Pliny mentions them again in c. 87 of this Book, and in B. xxxii. c. 53, where he states that they are also called “dactyli,” or “fingers.” Cuvier says, that under this name are meant the pholades, a bivalve shell-fish, which give forth a very brilliant light.
2593 Univalves, with a thick spinous shell.
2594 The flat shell-fish, for instance, according to Cuvier, of the genus patella, or lepas.
2595 Other fish of the genus patella, only more concave; the haliotes, for instance.
2596 Forming a prolonged cone, Cuvier says, like the cerites.
2597 The mouth of which is shaped like a crescent; such as the helices, Cuvier says.
2598 The nerites, Cuvier says, which are cut into two hemispheres.
2599 Such as many of the whelks, Cuvier says.
2600 The whelks that have the edge turned inwards, so that one lip appears to fold under the other.
2601 As no two naturalists might probably agree as to the exact meaning of the terms here employed, it has been thought advisable to give the passage as it appears in the original: “Jam distinctione virgulata, crinita, crispa, cuniculatim, pectinatim divisa, imbricatim undata, cancellatim reticulata, in obliquum, in rectum expansa, densata, porrecta, sinuata, brevi nodo legatis, toto latere connexis, ad plausum apertis, ad buccinum recurvis.”
2602 In allusion, probably, to the streaks or lines drawn upon the exterior of the shell.
2603 With the mouth wide open, like that of a person in the act of applauding.
2604 By “ad buccinum recurvis,” he probably alludes to a whelk, or fish with a turbinated shell, resembling the larger conch or trumpet shell, which Triton is sometimes described as blowing.
2605 Probably some of the Cypræa; which have been already alluded to in Note 6 to c. 41 of the present Book. Cuvier remarks, that there are many of the univalve shell-fish that float on the surface of the water, but none, with the exception of the argonauta or nautilus, are known to employ a membranous sail.
2606 Cuvier says, that he has been informed that the scallop, by suddenly bringing together the valves of its shell, is able to make a bound, and leap above the surface of the water.
2607 Ajasson says, that the words “purpuras, conchylia,” here signify not the fish themselves, but the various tints produced by them; the purpura and the conchylium being, in fact, exactly the same fish, though, as will be explained in c. 60 of the present Book, by various modes of treatment, various colours were extracted from them. See also B. xxi. c. 22.
2608 Dalechamps notices here an ancient proverb, which says, “Qui nare vult, se exuit.” “He who wishes to swim, takes off his clothes.”
2609 In c. 2 of the present Book.
2610 In B. vi. cc. 24 and 28.
2611 See B. vi. c. 23. Ælian, Hist. Anim. B. xv. c. 8, says to the same effect, but calls it “Perimuda, a city of India.”
2612 Ælian, Hist. Anim. B. x. c. 13. It has been already remarked, in the sixth Book, that the ancients looked upon the Persian Gulf as forming part of the Erythræan or Red Sea.
2613 The pearl itself, Cuvier says, is nothing else but an extravasation, so to say, of the juices, whose duty it is to line the interior of the shell, to thicken and so amplify it; and consequently, it is produced by a malady. It is possible, he says, for them to be found in all shell-fish; but they have no beauty in them, unless the interior of the shell, the nacre, or, as we call it, the mother of pearl, is lustrous and beautiful itself. Hence it is, that the finest of them come from the east, and are furnished by the kind of bivalve, called by Linnæus, “Mytilus margaritiferus,” which has the most beautiful mother of pearl in the interior that is known. The parts of the Indian sea which are mentioned by Pliny, are those in which the pearl oyster is still found in the greatest abundance.
2614 All this theory, as Cuvier says, is totally imaginary.
2615 Isidorus of Charax, in his description of Parthia, commended by Athenæus, B. iii., says, on the other hand, that the fish are aided in bringing forth, by rain and thunder.
2616 From the Greek φυσήμα, “air-bubble.”
2617 It sometimes happens, Cuvier says, that the secretion which forms the mother-of-pearl makes tubercles in the interior of the shell, which are the pearls adhering to the shell here spoken of.
2618 Persius alludes to this in Sat. ii. l. 66. “Hæc baccam conchæ rasisse;” “to file the pearl away from its shell.”
2619 From this passage we learn that the “tympana,” or hand-drums of the ancients, were often of a semiglobular shape, like the kettle-drums of the present day.
2620 Cuvier remarks that this is not the fact: the concretions are perfectly hard before the animal leaves the water.
2621 Isidorus of Charax, as quoted by Athenæus, B. iii.; and Ælian, Hist. Anim. B. x. c. 20, make similar statements. Rondelet, in his treatise on Testaceous Fishes, B. i., complains of Pliny using the word “videt,” “sees,” in the present passage; but, as Hardouin says, he only uses it in a free sense, meaning, “is aware of the approach of,” or “has a perception of.”
2622 Isidorus of Charax, in Athenæus, B. iii., tells a similar story; but modifies it by saying that the fish sometimes cuts off the fingers of the divers, and not the hands.
2623 “Canes marini.” He calls by this name the same animal that a little further on he describes by the name of “canicula,” “dog-fish;” alluding, probably, under that name to various species of the shark. Procopius, in his book, De Bell. Pers. B. i. c. 4, has a wonderful story in relation to this subject. He says, that the sea-dogs are wonderful admirers of the pearl-fish, and follow them out to sea; that when the sea-dogs are pressed by hunger, they go in quest of prey, and then return to the shell-fish and gaze upon it. A certain fisherman, having watched for the moment when the shell-fish was deprived of the protection of its attendant sea-dog, which was seeking its prey, seized the shell-fish, and made for the shore. The sea-dog, however, was soon aware of the theft, and making straight for the fisherman, seized him. Finding himself thus caught, he made a last effort, and threw the pearl-fish on shore, immediately on which he was torn to pieces by its protector.
2624 Such, for instance, as Megasthenes, quoted by Arrian in his Indica, and Ælian, Hist. Anim. B. xv. c. 8.
2625 Hardouin suggests that a preferable reading to “vetuslate,” would be “venustate,” by its beauty; and indeed, Ælian, in the corresponding passage, Hist. Anim. B. xv. c. 8, says, that the chief is remarkable “for its size, and the extreme beauty of its colours.”
2626 “Nucleos.” The Greek authors occasionally call them “stones” and “bones.” Tertullian calls them “maladies of shell-fish and warts”—“concharum vitia et verrucas.”
2627 Cuvier says, that the most efficient mode of extracting all the concretions that may happen to be concealed in the body of the animal, is to leave the flesh to dissolve in water, upon which the concretions naturally fall to the bottom.
2628 Isidorus and Solinus, however, say that the pearl is so called, because two are never found together. The derivation given by Pliny is, however, the more probable one. From the Latin “unio,” comes our word “onion;” which, like the pearl, consists of numerous coats, one laid upon the other.
2629 Hence we must conclude that the word “margarita” is not of Greek, but Eastern origin.
2630 Ælian, Hist. Anim. B. xv. c. 8, says, that the Indian pearls, and those which come from the Red Sea, are the best.
2631 The laminæ of the lapis specularis, described by Pliny, B. xxxvi. c. 45.
2632 “Exaluminatos.” It is clear from this passage that Pliny was acquainted with our alum, as he here clearly implies that the alum known to him was of a white colour. Beckmann, however, in his History of Inventions, asserts that our alum was certainly not known to the Greeks and Romans, and that their “alumen” was nothing else but vitriol, the green sulphate of iron, and that not in its pure state, but such as forms in mines. Pereira, however, in his Materia Medica, says, that there can be little doubt that Pliny was acquainted with our alum, but did not distinguish it from sulphate of iron, as he informs us that one kind of alum was white, and was used for dyeing wool of various colours. It is mentioned more fully in B. xxxv. c. 52, where he speaks of its use in dyeing.
2633 These alabaster boxes for unguents are mentioned by Pliny in B. xxxvi. c. 12. They were usually pear-shaped; and as they were held with difficulty in the hand, on account of their extreme smoothness, they were called ἀλάβαστρα, from ἀ, “not,” and λαβέσθαι “to be held.” The reader will recollect the offer made to our Saviour, of the “alabaster box of ointment of spikenard, very precious.” Matt. xxvi. 7. Mark xiv. 3.
2634 Seneca, Benef. B. vii. c. 9, speaks of them as hanging in tiers from the ears of the Roman matrons, two and two; and he says that they are not satisfied unless they have two or three patrimonies suspended from each ear.
2635 From their resemblance to “crotala,” used by dancers, and similar to our castanets.
2636 That the pearls as fully bespeak the importance of the wearer, as the lictor does of the magistrate whom he is preceding. The honour of being escorted by one or two lictors, was usually granted to the wives and other members of the imperial family.
2637 Even on the “socculus,” or “soccus,” a shoe or slipper which did not require any “obstragulum,” or tie. We find from Seneca, De Ben. B. ii. c. 12, and Pliny, B. xxxvii. c. 6, that Caligula wore gold and pearls upon his socculi.
2638 Ælian, Hist. Anim. B. xv. c. 8, states to this effect from Juba.
2639 They are found also, Ajasson says, at the present day, in some of the coldest rivers and torrents of Auvergne.
2640 Or “pinna,” the Greek name of this kind of pearl oyster.
2641 Cuvier remarks, that he is here probably speaking of some spiny bivalve, perhaps the Spondylus of Linnæus.
2642 “Grandini.” But Hardouin thinks, and probably correctly, that the meaning here of the word is the “measles of swine;” for Androsthenes, in Athenæus, B. iii., has a similar passage, in which he says: “The stone (i. e. pearl) grows in the flesh of the shell-fish, just as the measles grow in the flesh of swine.”
2643 He is also mentioned in B. xxxvi. c. 12, and B. xxxvii. cc. 9, 11, 23, 35, and 50, as a writer on gems; but nothing else seems to be known of him.
2644 Cuvier observes, that most of the rivers and lakes of the north of Europe possess the mya margarifera: the pearls of which, though much inferior to those of the East, are sufficiently esteemed to be made an article of commerce. Bad pearls, of a dead marble colour, are also very frequently found in the mussels taken off our coasts. Pearls have in modern times declined very considerably in value; those of about the size of a large pea can be purchased, of very fine quality, for about a guinea each, while those of the size of a pepper-corn sell at about eighteen-pence. Seed pearls, of the size of small shot, are of very little value. Tavernier speaks of a remarkable pearl, that was found at Catifa, in Arabia, the fishery probably alluded to by Pliny, in C. 54, and which he bought for the sum of £110,000, some accounts say £10,000, of our money. It is pear-shaped, the elenchus of the ancients, regular, and without blemish. The diameter is .63 of an inch, at the largest part, and the length from two to three inches. It is said to be in the possession of the Shah of Persia.
2645 Tacitus, in his Agricola, says that pearls of a tawny and livid colour are thrown up on the shores of Britain, and there collected. Suetonius absolutely says, c. 4, that Julius Cæsar invaded Britain in the hope of obtaining pearls, in the weight and size of which he took considerable interest.
2646 By the inscription placed beneath the thorax, or breast-plate.
2647 The grand-daughter of M. Lollius, and heiress to his immense wealth. She was first married to C. Memmius Regulus; but was divorced from him, and married to the Emperor Caligula, who, however, soon divorced her. At the instigation of Agrippina, Claudius first banished her, and then caused her to be murdered. A sepulchre to her honour was erected in the reign of the Emperor Nero.
2648 Caligula.
2649 Or rather “betrothal entertainment,” “sponsalium cœna.” The “sponsalia” were not an unusual preliminary of marriage, but were not absolutely necessary.
2650 7,600,000 francs, Hardouin says; which would make £304,000 of our money.
2651 “Ipsa confestim parata mancupationem tabulis probare.”
2652 He was proprætor of the province of Galatia, Consul B.C. 21, and B.C. 16 legatus in Gaul; where he suffered a defeat from certain of the German tribes. He was afterwards appointed by Augustus tutor to his grandson, C. Cæsar, whom he accompanied to the East in B.C. 2. He was a personal enemy of Tiberius, which may in some measure account for the bad character given him by Velleius Paterculus, who describes him as more eager to make money than to act honourably, and as guilty of every kind of vice. Horace, on the other hand, in the ode addressed to him, Carm. iv. 9, expressly praises him for his freedom from all avarice. His son, M. Lollius, was the father of Lollia Paulina.
2653 This does not appear to be asserted by any other author; but Velleius Paterculus almost suggests as much, B.ii., “Cujus mors intra paucos dies fortuita an voluntaria fuerit ignoro.” It was said that he was in the habit of selling the good graces of Caius Cæsar to the Eastern sovereigns for sums of money.
2654 “Fercula.” See vol. i. p. 400, Note 3447.
2655 “Unam imperii mulierculam accubantem.”
2657 “Corollarium.”
2658 “Et consumpturam eam cœnam taxationem confirmans.”
2659 “It was because pearls are calcareous, that Cleopatra was able to dissolve hers in vinegar, and by these means to gain a bet from her lover, as we are told by Pliny, B. ix. c. 58, and Macrobius, Sat. B. ii. c. 13. She must, however, have employed stronger vinegar than that which we use for our tables; as pearls, on account of their hardness and their natural enamel, cannot be easily dissolved by a weak acid. Nature has secured the teeth of animals against the effect of acids, by an enamel covering, which answers the same purpose; but if this enamel happens to be injured only in one small place, the teeth soon spoil and rot. Cleopatra, perhaps, broke and pounded the pearls pearl; and it is probable that she afterwards diluted the vinegar with water, that she might be able to drink it; though dissolved calcareous matter neutralizes acids, and renders them imperceptible to the tongue. That pearls are not peculiar to one kind of shell-fish, as many believe, was known to Pliny.” Beckmann’s History of Inventions, vol. i. p. 258, note 1, Bohn’s Ed. We may remark, however that as the story is told by Pliny, there is no appearance that Cleopatra pounded the pearl. It is more likely that she threw it into the vinegar, and immediately swallowed it, taking it for granted that it had melted.
2660 Macrobius, Saturn. B. iii. says, “Monatius” Plancus. His name was in reality Lucius Munatius Plancus. He afterwards deserted Antony, and took the side of Octavianus; and it was on his proposal that Octavianus received the title of Augustus in B.C. 27. He built the temple of Saturn, in order to secure the emperor’s favour. It is not known in what year he died.
2661 “Omine rato.” He means, that in the result, it was only too true that Antony was “victus,” conquered, and that by his enemy Octavianus.
2662 Claudius, or Clodius Æsopus, was the most celebrated tragic actor at Rome in the time of Cicero, and was probably a freedman of the Clodian family. Horace and other authors put him on a level with Roscius. From Cicero we learn that his acting was characterized chiefly by strong emphasis and vehemence. Cicero characterizes him as a “summus artifex,” a “consummate artist.” He was a firm friend of Cicero, whose cause he advocated indirectly more than once during his banishment from Rome. It appears from Pliny, B. x. c. 72, that he was far from frugal, though he left a large fortune to his spendthrift son, Clodius Æsopus. This man, among his other feats, dissolved in vinegar (or at least attempted to do so), a pearl worth about £8000, which he took from the ear-ring of Cæcilia Metella. It is alluded to by Horace, B. ii. Sat. iii. l. 239.
2663 Or “conchylium.” We find that Pliny generally makes a difference between the colours of the “murex,” or “conchylium,” and those of the “purpura,” or “purple.” Cuvier says, that they were the names of different shell-fish which the ancients employed for dyeing in purple of various shades. It is not known exactly, at the present day, what species they employed; but it is a fact well ascertained, that the greater part of the univalve shell-fish, more especially the Buccini and Murices of Linnæus, distil a kind of red liquid. The dearness of it arose, Cuvier thinks, from the remarkably small quantity that each animal afforded. Since the coccus, or kermes, he says, came to be well known, and more especially since the New World has supplied us with cochineal, we are no longer necessitated to have recourse to the juices of the murex.
2664 Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. v. c. 14, says, “about six.” The murex of Pliny is the κήρυξ of Aristotle.
2665 Aristotle says, that the purple consists of three parts, the upper being the τράχηλος, or neck; the middle the μήκων, or poppy; and the lower the πυθμήν, or trunk; and that the juice lies between the first and second of these parts, or the throat. This juice, which Pliny calls “flos,” “flower,” “ros,” “dew,” and “succus,” “juice,” is distilled, Cuvier says, not from the fauces of the animal, but from the mantle or membranous tissue which lines the shell.
2667 Which preceded the Roman consuls, who were clothed with the toga prætexta, the colour of which was Syrian purple.
2668 Hardouin seems to think that “majestate pueritiæ” means “children of high birth;” but it was the fact that all children of free birth wore the prætexta, edged with purple, till they attained puberty. It is much more probable that by these words Pliny means the “majesty of youth,” in its simplicity and guileless nature, that commands our veneration and respect.
2669 He means that the purple laticlave or broad hem of the senator’s toga distinguished him from the eques, who wore a toga with an angusticlave, or narrow hem.
2670 From Cicero, Epist. Ad. Attic. B. ii. Ep. 9, we learn that purple was worn by the priests when performing sacrifice. Ajasson, however, agrees with Dalechamps in thinking that this passage bears reference to the consuls, who wore purple when sacrificing to the gods.
2671 The prætexta, for instance, the laticlave, the chlamys, the paludamentum, and the trabea.
2672 On the occasion of a triumph, the victor was arrayed in a “toga picta,” an embroidered garment, which, from the present passage, would appear to have been of purple and gold. Pliny tells us, B. xxxiii. c. 19, that Tarquinius, on his triumph over the Sabines, wore a robe of cloth of gold.
2673 Aristotle says the same, Hist. Anim. B. v. c. 14, and De Partib. Anim. B. ii. c. 17. Cuvier says, that the buccinus and murex have a long neck, in which there is a tongue armed with little teeth, but very sharp, by means of which the animal is enabled to pierce other shell-fish.
2674 “Conchylia;” other fish of the same kind apparently; as Pliny uses the word “conchylium” synonymously with “murex.”
2675 “Præmia vitæ suæ.”
2676 Cuvier says that the buccini, properly so called, have at the bottom of the orifice of the shell an incision, which is the characteristic of the genus. Our whelks are the best known specimen of the buccinum that we have. They received their name, he says, from the buccinum, or buccina, the conch-shell, (with which Triton is commonly painted), and that in its turn was so called from its resemblance to a buccina, trumpet or herdsman’s horn.
2677 It is not the tongue, Cuvier says, that occupies this passage, but a prolongation of the skin or coat that envelopes the animal, and its office is to conduct to the branchiæ the water necessary for the purposes of respiration.
2678 This description, Cuvier says, is applicable to the Murex brandaris, the Murex tribulus of Linnæus, and other species that denote their growth by the increase of the spirals furnished with spines.
2679 Or “deep sea” purples. Dalechamps remarks, that Pliny here unwittingly gives to the purples in general, a name which only belonged to one species; there being some that only frequent the shore, and are not found out at sea.
2680 “Lutensis.”
2681 “Algensis.”
2682 “Tæniensis.”
2683 “Calculensis.”
2684 From the Greek διαλυτὸς, “free,” or “roving;” in consequence of its peculiar mode of life.
2686 “Quum cerificavere.” Cuvier remarks that Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. v. c. 14, says, that these shell-fish make “waxen combs,” meaning thereby collections of cells, similar to those formed by the bee; and it is to this notion that Pliny refers in the use of the word “cerificavere.” It is the fact, Cuvier says, that the univalve sea shell-fish, and more particularly the buccini and the murices, envelope their eggs with glutinous vesicles of varied forms, according to the respective species; which, when massed together, may be not inappropriately termed “combs.”
2687 In c. 60. As Cuvier remarks, with considerable justice, this description by Pliny of the process of dyeing in purple, is very difficult to explain, seeing that the art is now entirely lost. Reaumur, he says, made some attempts at dyeing with a small buccinum found off the French coasts, the Buccinum lapillus of Linnæus; but without any result.
2688 About twenty ounces.
2689 Because iron or brazen vessels might impart a tinge to the colour. The same would probably be the case if the word “plumbo” were to be considered as signifying “lead.” As, however, Pliny uses this word in the signification of “tin,” it is most probable that that is his meaning. Littré, however, translates the word “plombe,” “lead.”
2690 Hardouin says, that the weight of the contents of the amphora would be about eighty pounds: it would therefore take eight thousand pounds of material to make five hundred pounds of dye. The passage, however, which runs as follows, “Fervere in plumbo, singulasque amphoras centenas ad quingentenas medicaminis libras æquari,” may be rendered, “It is then set to boil in vessels of tin, and every hundred amphoræ of water ought to be proportioned to five hundred pounds of the material;” indeed, this is probably the correct translation, though Littré, who is generally very exact, adopts that given in the text.
2691 “Alligatur:” which word may also mean, that mixed with the buccinum, it will hold fast, and not speedily fade or wash out.
2692 So called from the gem of that name; see B. xxxvii. c. 40.
2693 Aἵματι πορφυρέῳ. Il. Ρ. l. 360, for instance.
2694 The “trabea” was similar in cut to the toga, but was ornamented with purple horizontal stripes. Servius mentions three kinds of trabea; one wholly of purple, which was sacred to the gods, another of purple and white, and another of purple and saffron, which belonged to the augurs. The purple and white trabea was the royal robe, worn by the early kings, and the introduction of which was assigned to Romulus. The trabea was worn by the consuls in public solemnities, such as opening the temple of Janus. The equites also wore it on particular occasions; and it is sometimes spoken of as the badge of the equestrian order.
2695 The latus clavus, or laticlave, was originally worn on the tunic, and was a distinctive badge of the senatorian order. It consisted of a single broad band of purple colour, extending perpendicularly from the neck down the centre of the tunic. The right of wearing the laticlave was given to children of the equestrian order, at least, as we learn from Ovid, in the reign of Augustus.
2696 Hardouin says, that in his time there were still to be seen the remains of the ancient dyeing houses at Tarentum, the modern Otranto, and that vast heaps of the shells of the murex had been discovered there.
2697 Cloths doubly dyed, or twice dipped: from the Greek δὶς, twice, and βάπτω, to dip.
2698 “Triclinaria.” This word probably signified not only the hangings of the table couches, but the coverings, and the coverlets which were spread over the guests while at the meal.
2699 “Pro indiviso.”
2700 “Dimidia et medicamina adduntur.” This, no doubt, is the sense of the passage, as it is evident that only a thinner dye was required for tint, though at first sight it would appear as though one-half more were required for the same quantity of wool. The quantity therefore would be 155½ pounds of dye to fifty pounds of wool.
2701 “Tantoque dilutior, quanto magis vellera esuriunt.” This seems to be the meaning of the passage: some commentators would read “dilucidior” for “dilutior,” and it would appear to be preferable.
2702 There can be little doubt that Salmasius is right in his conjecture that the reading here should be “quingentos,” “five hundred,” instead of “quinquagenos,” “fifty:” as it is evident from what Pliny has said in previous Chapters, that the juices of the pelagia were considerably more valuable than those of the buccinum.
2703 He states this by way of warning to those who are in the habit of paying enormous prices for dyes, such as one hundred denarii for a pound, as mentioned in the last Chapter.
2704 This is mentioned more fully in B. xvi. c. 84.
2705 See B. xxxiii. c. 23. Electrum was an artificial metal, resembling amber in colour, and consisting of gold alloyed with one-fifth part of silver.
2706 See B. xxxiv. c. 3. It was a mixture of gold, silver, and copper.
2707 Described at the end of c. 62.
2708 “Nomen improbum.”
2709 From the Greek ὕσγινος, after the herb hysge, which was used in dyeing. Judging from the present passage, it would almost appear to have been the colour now known as puce. See B. xxi. c. 36 and c. 97; and B. xxxv. c. 26.
2710 See B. xvi. c. 8, and B. xxiv. c. 4.
2711 See B. iv. c. 35.
2712 This is in reality the Coccus ilicis of Linnæus, a small insect of the genus Coccus, the female of which, when impregnated, fastens itself to a tree from which they derive nourishment, and assumes the appearance of a small grain: on which account they were long taken for the seeds of the tree, and were hence called grains of kermes. They are used as a red and scarlet dye, but are very inferior to cochineal, which has almost entirely superseded the use of the kermes. The colour is of a deep red, and will stand better than that of cochineal, and is less liable to stain.
2713 Or pina. The Pinna marina, Cuvier says, is a large bivalve shell-fish, which is remarkable for its fine silky hair, by means of which it fastens itself to the bottom of the sea.
2714 The poet Oppian, Halieut. B. ii. l. 186, relates the same story about the pinna and its protector; which is also mentioned by Cicero, Plutarch, and Aristotle.
2715 We have already had an account of one pinnotheres, in c. 51. Some of the editions, however, make a difference in the spelling of the name, and call the animal mentioned in the 51st Chapter, “pinnotheres,” and the one here spoken of, the “pinnoteres,” the “guardian of the pinna;” from the Greek verb τηρέω, “to keep,” or “guard.” “Pinnophylax” has the same meaning.
2716 Cuvier says, that in the shell of the pinna, as, in fact, of all the bivalves, there are often found little crabs, which are, as it were, imprisoned there; and that it is this fact that has given rise to the story of the treaty of amity between these two animals, which appears in various authors, and is related in various forms, which only agree in being devoid of truth. Cuvier says that a careful distinction must be made between the pinnotheres of this Chapter, the one of which Aristotle makes mention, and that which is mentioned by Pliny in c. 51, the hermit-crab of the moderns. There can, however, be but little doubt that they are different accounts of the same animal.
2717 The whole, nearly, of this Chapter is taken from Aristotle, B. v. c. 16.
2718 Plutarch speaks of this fish, in his “Treatise on the Instincts of Animals;” also Oppian, Halieut. B. ii. l. 62. The Raia torpedo of Linnæus, Cuvier says, has on each side of the body a galvanic organ, which produces an electric shock, similar to that communicated by the use of the Leyden vial. By this means it baffles its enemies, and drives them away; or else, having stupefied them, devours them at its leisure.
2719 Cuvier confirms this statement. The liver of the torpedo, he says, is very delicate eating, as, indeed, is that part in most of the ray genus.
2720 Oppian, Halieut. B. ii. l. 86; Ælian, Hist. Anim. B. ix. c. 24; and Cicero, De Nat. Deor. make mention of this.
2721 The Lophius piscatorius of Linnæus, the baudroie of the French. This is a fish, Cuvier says, with a large wide mouth, and having upon the top of the head moveable filaments, surmounted by a sort of membranous lashes. It seems that it is the fact that it buries itself in the sand, and then employs the artifice here mentioned by Pliny, for the purpose of attracting the fish that serve as its food.
2722 Or turbot. This fish, the Pleuronectes maximus of Linnæus, and the Squalus squatina of Linnæus, presents no sufficiently distinct filaments at the extremity of the fins to justify what Pliny says. But the word “rhombus,” Cuvier says, which ordinarily means the common turbot, here means the psetta of the Greeks, the Pleuronectes rhombus of Linnæus, which has the anterior radii of the dorsal fin separated, and forming small filaments. For an account of the psetta, see c. 24, p. 396.
2723 The sting-ray, the Raia pastinaca of Linnæus. This fish, Cuvier says, has upon the tail a pointed spine, compressed and notched like a saw, which forms a most dangerous weapon. It is again mentioned in c. 72 of the present Book, under its Greek name of “trigon.”
2724 Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. ii. c. 17, and B. ix. c. 51; Oppian, Halieut. B. ii. l. 424; and Ælian, Hist. Anim. B. vii. c. 35, make a similar statement as to the scolopendra.
2725 The animal, Cuvier says, which is here mentioned as the scolopendra, is in reality of the class of worms that have red blood, or annelides, such, for instance, as the Nereides of larger size. These having on the sides tentacles, which bear a strong resemblance to feet, and sharp jaws, might, he says, be very easily taken for scolopendræ. They have also a fleshy trunk, often very voluminous, and so flexible that it can be extended or withdrawn, according to the necessities of the animal. It is this trunk, Cuvier thinks, that gave occasion to the story that it could disgorge its entrails, and then swallow them again.
2726 This fish, Cuvier says, was doubtless a species of squalus; which have the power, in consequence of the sharpness of their saw-like teeth, of cutting a line with the greatest ease. It is mentioned by Aristotle, B. ix. c. 52; Ælian, Var. Hist. B. i. c. 43; and Oppian, Halieut. B. iii. l. 144.
2727 The fish that has been previously mentioned in c. 17 of this Book, under the name of silurus.
2729 The zoöphytes, or the zoödendra.
2730 The wandering urticæ, or sea-nettles, are the Medusæ of Linnæus, the stationary nettle is the Actinia of the same naturalist.
2731 “Carnosæ frondis his natura.”
2732 Many species of the medusæ, Cuvier says, and other animals of the same class, the physalus more especially, cause an itching sensation in the skin when they are touched. This is noticed also by Ælian, Hist. Anim. B. vii. c. 35; and by Diphilus of Siphnos, in Athenæus, B. iii.
2733 This is true, Cuvier says, and more especially with reference to the actiniæ. They have the mouth provided with numerous fleshy tentacles, by means of which they can seize very small animals which come within their reach, which they instantly swallow.
2734 Cuvier says, that this is the case more especially with the medusæ and the physali.
2735 “Ora ei in radice.” Aristotle, however, says, Hist. Anim. B. iv. c. 5, and B. viii. c. 3, that the sea-nettle has the mouth situate ἐν μέσῳ, “in the middle of the body.” Hardouin attempts to explain the passage on the ground that Pliny has made a mistake, in an endeavour to suit his similitude of a tree to the language of Aristotle. Cuvier says, that there exists one genus or species of the medusæ, which appears to feed itself by the aid of an apparatus of branches, and is divided into such a multitude of filaments, almost innumerable, that it bears a strong resemblance to the roots of a tree or vegetable. It is this kind, he says, that he has called by the name of “Rhizostomos.”
2736 Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 3, says the same; though, on the other hand, in the Fourth Book, he says that the animal has no excrements, although it has a mouth, and feeds.
2737 Cuvier remarks, that there are a great many more than three kinds of sponges, but that Pliny here is only enumerating those which were employed for domestic use.
2738 In the singular, “tragus,” from the Greek τραγὸς, a goat, on account of their strong smell, which they contract from the mud and slime in which they are found.
2739 Probably from the Greek μάνος, “rare,” “in small quantities;” in allusion to the comparative rarity of this kind of sponge.
2740 A term merely used, as Cælius Rhodiginus says, to denote the strength of its texture.
2741 Cuvier says, that though sometimes shells and small animals are found lodged in the sponge, they do not afford it any nourishment. Having no mouth, it can only live and increase by the inhalation of substances dissolved in the water of the sea.
2742 “Sensere.” Cuvier says, that many observers have stated that this is the only sign of animal life that the sponge affords; but that Grant assures us that it does not even afford that. The fact is, however, that “the sponge itself is a cellular, fibrous tissue, produced by small animals, almost imperceptible, called polypi, and living in the sea. This tissue is said to be covered in its native state with a sort of semifluid thin coat of animal jelly, susceptible of a slight contraction or trembling on being touched; which, in fact, is the only symptom of vitality displayed by the sponge. After death, this gelatinous substance disappears, and leaves only the skeleton or sponge, formed by the combination of a multitude of small capillary tubes, capable of receiving water in the interior, and of becoming thereby distended. Though different in their nature, sponges are analogous in their formation to coral. On being examined with a power of about 500 linear, the fleshy matter of the living sponge is to be distinctly observed, having in its interior gemmæ, which are considered to be the young. These are occasionally given off from the mass of living matter. The greater portion of the mass of sponge consists of small cylindrical threads or fibres, varying in size. The spiculæ are not found within these, but in the large and flattened fibres, and varying in number from one to three or more, imbedded in their substance.” From Brande’s Dictionary.
2743 See B. iv. c. 17.
2744 This, to the end of the Chapter, is almost verbatim from Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. iv. c. 17.
2745 See B. iv. cc. 8, 10.
2746 Ἀπλυσίαι, from ἀ, “not,” and πλύνω, “to wash.” These aplysiæ or halcyones, Cuvier says, are a kind of sponge, of too thick and compact a nature to admit of their being washed. It is arbitrarily, he says, that Linnæus has applied this name to a species of the molluscæ, which is, in reality, the sea-hare of the ancients.
2747 It is pretty clear that under the name of “canicula,” “dog-fish,” or “canis marinus,” “sea-dog,” Pliny includes the whole genus of sharks.
2748 Rondelet and Dalechamps absolutely interpret this passage as though it were the dog-fish and flat-fish over whose eyes this cloud comes, and the latter proceeds to describe it as a malady which hinders the fish from taking its own part in the combat. Hardouin, however, detects this absurdity, and justly reprehends it; though it must be confessed that there is some obscurity in the passage, arising from the way in which it is worded.
2749 Cuvier thinks it not improbable that it may have been some of the large rays that were seen by the divers, and more especially, the largest of them all, the Cephalopterus.
2750 “Stilos.”
2751 Cælius Rhodigonus, B. xxv. c. 16, states that the divers for sponges were in the habit of pouring forth oil at the bottom of the sea, for the purpose of increasing the light there; and Pliny states the same in B. ii. c. 106.
2752 Cuvier says, that the name of “sacred fish” has been given to several fish of very different character; such as the anthias, or aulopias of Aristotle, B. ix. c. 37, the pompilus and the dolphin (Athenæus, B. vii.), because it was thought that their presence was a guarantee against the vicinity of dangerous fish. The authors, however, that were consulted by Pliny, seem to have given this name to the flat-fish, the Pleuronectes of Linnæus; and in fact, unprovided as they are with any means of defence, their presence is not unlikely to prove, in a very great degree, the absence of the voracious class of fishes.
2753 It is singular that Pliny, after his numerous stories as to the sensitiveness of numerous bivalves, should make this statement in reference to the oyster; for, on the contrary, as Cuvier says, the oyster, in common with the other bivalves, is extremely sensitive to the touch.
2754 Cuvier says, that the different zoöphytes, the sea-star, at least, are far from having the life of vegetables only; for that they are real animals, which have the sense of touch, a voluntary power of motion more or less complete, and seize and devour their prey. It is not, however, very well known, he says, what was the “holothurium” of the ancients. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. i. c. 1, ranks it, as well as the oyster, among the animals which, without being attached to any object, have not the faculty of moving; and in his work, De Part. Anim. B. iv. c. 5, he adds, that the holothurium and the pulmo only differ from the sponge in being detached. Cuvier is of opinion, however, that they both belong to the halcyones, the round kinds of which easily detach themselves from the places upon which they have grown.
2755 Pulmo, “the sea-lungs.”
2756 Or, as we call it, the star-fish.
2757 “Adeoque nihil non gignitur in mari.”
2758 “Cauponarum.” “Caupona” had two significations; that of an inn where travellers obtained food and lodging, and that of a shop where wine and ready-dressed meat were sold. A lower kind of inn was the popina, which was principally frequented by the slaves and lower classes, and was mostly used as a brothel as well.
2759 He alludes to various kinds of sea-animals, called sea-lice and sea-fleas. Cuvier says, that there are some crustacea which have been called sea-fleas and sea-lice, some of which kinds are parasites, and are attached to various fishes and cetacea. Thus, he says, a pycnogonum is commonly named “pediculus balænæ,” or the “whale-louse;” one of the calygæ is called the “fish-flea,” another the “mackerel-flea.” The name of sea-flea, he observes, has been given more especially to a very diminutive kind of shrimp, in consequence of its power of leaping from place to place.
2760 Aristotle says, that the chalcis is greatly tormented by sea-fleas, which attach themselves to its gills. Cuvier remarks, that a great number of fish are subject to have the gills attacked by parasitical animals of the genus Lernæa or that of the monoculi of Linnæus, which have been divided into many classes since. They have nothing in common, he says, with the land-flea, except the name and the property of living at the expense of other animals.
2761 The ancients, Cuvier says, speak of their chalcis as being of a similar nature to the thryssa and the sardine (Athenæus, B. vii.), gregarious fishes, which live both in the sea and in fresh water, and the flesh of which was salted. Hence he concludes that it was the same as the Clupea ficta of Lacepède, the “finte” of the French, and the agone of Lombardy, which unites all these characteristics, and is sometimes called the “sardine” of the Lago di Garda.
2762 It is mentioned again in B. xxiii. c. 3. Cuvier says, that the sea-hare of the ancients is the mollusc to which Linnæus has injudiciously given the name of aplysia, which Pliny gives to certain of the sponge genus, and to which nomenclature of Linnæus the modern naturalists have assented. (See N. 2746, p. 456.) Its tentacles and its muzzle, he says, resemble the muzzle and ears of the hare, closely enough to have caused this appellation. As its smell is disagreeable, and its figure repulsive, a multitude of marvellous, and indeed fatal qualities, he says, have been ascribed to this animal, which fishermen still speak of, but which, nevertheless, are not confirmed by actual experience. The only true fact that can be alleged against it is, that it secretes from an organ, situate in its body, a kind of acrid liquid. As to the Indian sea-hare, the body of which was covered with hair, Cuvier professes himself quite at a loss to know what it might be; but he thinks that this name must have been given to some tetrodon, which may have received the name from the cleft in the jaw and the skin, bristling with fine and minute spines. The sailors, he says, attribute to the tetrodon certain venomous properties.
2763 Cuvier says, that there is reason to believe that this is the same as the vive of the French (probably our weever), the Trachinus draco of Linnæus. This creature, with the spiny projections of its first dorsal fin, is able to inflict wounds that are extremely difficult to cure; not because they are venomous in any degree, but because the extremities being very minute, sharp, and pointed, penetrate deep into the flesh. See c. 43 of this Book.
2764 Or sting-ray, mentioned in c. 40 and c. 67 of this Book; so called from the Greek τρυγὼν. Cuvier says, that this sting, or spine, is sharp, like a saw; and that when it has penetrated the flesh, it cannot be got out without enlarging the wound. This it is, and not its fancied poisonous qualities, that renders its wound so dangerous; and as for its action upon trees and iron, they are entirely fabulous.
2765 Νοσήματα λοιμώδη, as Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 25, calls them.
2766 Cuvier says, that there are some maladies by which individuals are attacked; but that it is not uncommonly the case that certain species are attacked universally, as it were, by a sort of epidemic. There was an instance of this, he says, in the lake of the valley of Montmorency, where numbers of the fish were suddenly to be seen floating dead on the surface, the skin of which was covered with red spots, while at the same time their flesh had become disagreeable to the taste, and unwholesome.
2767 Cuvier says, that this is not the case in general; but that some, more especially those which are viviparous, actually do couple; while, on the other hand, in most, the male does nothing else but besprinkle with the milt the eggs which the female has deposited, as is stated by Pliny a little further on.
2768 These belong to the cetacea; which, as Cuvier says, are now universally placed among the mammifera, and not among the fishes. They couple, he says, in the same manner as quadrupeds do in general.
2769 As Aristotle says, “from those that are left the fishes are produced.”
2770 Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. vi. c. 12.
2771 It has been calculated, Cuvier says, that a female cod, or sturgeon, produces in a year more than one hundred thousand eggs.
2772 Cuvier says, that the eggs of the common fishes, of toads, frogs, &c., have no shells, but only a membranous tunic; and when they have been once fecundated, they imbibe the surrounding moisture, and increase till they produce the animal.
2773 It is probable, Cuvier thinks, that this passage relates more especially to the ray genus, but that there is no very positive knowledge as to the mode in which they do couple. It is probable, he suggests, that they may do it in the manner above mentioned, by the attrition of the belly. As to the turtle genus, he says, it is certain that the male mounts the back of the female; and in some species the sternum of the male is concave, the better to adapt itself to the convex callipash of the female.
2774 More properly, the physeter, passage, or orifice.
2775 Cuvier remarks, that this account of the coupling of the cephalopodes is taken from Aristotle. He says, that he is not aware whether modern observation has confirmed these statements, and almost doubts whether, considering the organization of these animals, it is not almost more probable that they do not couple at all, and that the male, as in the case of most other fishes, only fecundates the eggs after they have been deposited by the female.
2776 Cuvier says, that whatever may be the sense in which the word “mollia” is here taken, the assertion is not correct. The gasteropod molluscs, he says, whether hermaphroditical, or whether of separate sexes, couple side to side. The acephalous molluscs do not couple at all, and each individual fecundates its own eggs. The crustacea couple by attrition of the belly.
2777 “Tadpoles.” There is both truth and falsehood, Cuvier says, in the statements here made relative to the tadpole. Frogs, he says, produce eggs, from which the tadpole developes itself, with a tail like that of a fish. The feet, however, are not produced by any bifurcation of the tail, but shoot out at the base of the tail, and in the same proportion that they grow, the tail decreases, till at last it entirely disappears.
2778 Frogs, Cuvier says, conceal themselves in mud and slime during the winter, but, of course, are not changed into it.
2779 “Quæ fuere.” Just in the same state, he probably means to say, in which they were when they were melted into slime, and not as they were when in the tadpole state.
2780 All that is asserted here, Cuvier says, about the spontaneous operations of nature is totally false. Everything connected with the eggs and the generation of the mussel, the murex, and the scallop is now clearly ascertained.
2781 “Acescente humore.” Hardouin has suggested that the proper reading may be “arescente humore”—“from moisture dried up;” for, he remarks, Aristotle, in his Hist. Anim. B. v. c. 18, states, that the “empides,” gnats formed from the ascarides in the slime of wells, are more frequently produced in the autumn season.
2782 The apuæ, or aphyæ, Cuvier says, are nothing else but the fry of fish of a large kind.
2783 Cuvier says, that some of the shell-fish deposit their eggs upon stakes and piles, which are driven down into the water among sea-weed, and the bottoms of old ships: but that many of them perish from the solutions formed by those bodies in a state of rottenness, or, at all events, are not produced from their decomposition.
2784 “Ostreariis.” This was unknown to Aristotle, who, in his work De Gener. Anim. B. iii. c. 11, expressly denies that the oyster secretes any generative or fecundating liquid.
2785 Cuvier says, that at the time of the oyster spawning, its body appears swollen in some parts with a milky fluid, which is not improbably the fecundating fluid. During this season the oyster is generally looked upon as unfit for food; among us, from the beginning of May to the end of July.
2786 This, Cuvier remarks, is a mere vague hypothesis, as to the reproduction of the eel, without the slightest foundation. Pliny borrows it from Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. vi. c. 9.
2787 The squatina and the ray do not interbreed, Cuvier observes, any more than other fish; and the Squatina raia, or rhinobatis, (which was said to be their joint production), is a particular species, more flat in form than the squalus, and longer than the ray.
2788 Ῥινόβατος, “the squatinoraia.”
2792 This name, Cuvier says, appears so rarely in the ancient writers, that it is difficult to ascertain its exact signification. The moderns, he says, have pretty generally agreed to give it to the carp, but without any good and sufficient foundation. It was a lake or river fish, which, as Aristotle says, Hist. Anim. B. vi. c. 14, deposited its eggs five or six times in the year, and which had a palate so fleshy, that it might almost be mistaken for a tongue, B. iv. c. 8, characteristics that appear well suited to the carp. But then, on the other hand, Oppian mentions it, Halieut. B. i., as a shore fish, implying apparently that it belonged to the sea; and Pliny himself, in c. 25 of the present Book, does the same, by his words, “hoc et in mari accidere cyprino.” The words “in mari,” however, he has added, of his own accord, to the account which he has derived from Aristotle.
2793 The fish called the sea-scorpion. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. v. c. 11.
2794 “Sola autumno, occasu Vergiliarum.” It seems questionable whether the reading should not be “solea:” “the sole in autumn, at the setting of the Vergiliæ.”
2795 The Pleiades.
2797 Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. v. c. 11.
2798 “Prosequitur afflatu.” Aristotle says that it pours over them its ink or atramentum, καταφυσᾷ τὸν θόλον.
2799 Philostratus, Hist. B. v. c. 17, says that so full is it of eggs, that after it is dead they will more than fill a vessel far larger than the cavities of its head.
2800 Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. v. c. 14.
2801 Our periwinkles.
2802 All the chondropterygian fishes, Cuvier says, have, in addition to their ovaries, real oviducts, which the ordinary fishes have not; the lower part of which, being detached, acts as the uterus, into which the eggs descend when they have gained their proper size: and it is here that the young ones burst forth from the egg, when the parent animal is viviparous.
2803 Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. vi. c. 13, says the same of the glanis, or silurus.
2804 The Syngnathus acus of Linnæus. This fish, Cuvier says, and in general all of the same genus, has a channel situate under the tail, which is opened by two moveable valves. In this they deposit their eggs at the moment of excluding them. After this, the valves open, to give a passage to the eggs, or the young enclosed in them. This circumstance, he says, gave rise to the notion mentioned in the text.
2805 Mentioned in c. 35 of the present Book. Cuvier says that the sea tortoises, or turtles, to which no doubt this animal belonged, do deposit their eggs much in the way here mentioned.
2806 Both these fishes have been mentioned in c. 23 of the present Book.
2807 Pliny means to say, Cuvier says, that all these fish are to be looked upon as females: and, in fact, he says, Cavolini discovered eggs and a milt in every one that he examined; so that they appear to have all the appliances of self-fecundation.
2808 Or wheel-fish: from the Greek τροχὸς, “a wheel.” It is not clearly known what animal he alludes to under this name. Snails, Cuvier says, are hermaphrodites, and so is the helix, but still they require sexual connection for the purposes of reproduction. The greater part of the marine uni-valves, on the other hand, are of separate sexes; but the organ of the male being proportionally of great length, and coiled in part beneath its mantle, this fact may very possibly have given rise to the notion here mentioned by our author, that the animal impregnates itself.
2809 This can only be understood, Cuvier says, as applying to those animals the young of which are still enveloped in the membranes of the egg; for in general, the young of fish, from the moment of their birth, have eyes of great beauty, and are remarkable for the quickness of their sight.
2810 From the Greek παυσίλυπον, “grief-assuaging.” This was the name of a splendid villa belonging to Vedius Pollio, and which he bequeathed to Augustus. It was famous for its fish preserves; and it was here probably that Pollio kept his murenæ, previously mentioned by Pliny as being fed on human flesh. The vicinity is still called Monte Posilipo.
2811 “Cæsaris piscinis.” This may either mean, preserves which had their name from Cæsar, or preserves which afterwards belonged to Cæsar. The work of Seneca, in which this circumstance was mentioned, is no longer in existence.
2812 He was a contemporary of L. Crassus, and was distinguished for his great wealth, and his love of luxury and refinement, but possessed an unblemished character. His surname, Orata or Aurata, was given to him, it is said, because he was remarkably fond of gold-fish—auratæ pisces—though, according to other authorities, it was because he was in the habit of wearing two very large gold rings.
2813 “Pensiles balineas.” This expression has been differently rendered by various commentators, but it is now generally supposed to refer to the manner in which the flooring of the bathing rooms was suspended over the hollow cells of the hypocaust or heating furnace. This is called by Vitruvius, “Suspensura caldariorum.”
2814 “Ita mangonicatas villas subinde vendendo.”—By the use of the word “ita,” Pliny may possibly mean that he was in the habit of filling up the villas with the “balineæ pensiles,” which he had invented. “Mangonizo” was to set off or trim up a thing, that it might sell again all the better.
2815 Varro speaks of those of Tarentum, as being the best. The Greeks preferred the oysters of Abydos; the Romans, under the empire, those of Britain.
2816 It does not appear to be known what two bridges are here alluded to; the Sublician, or wooden bridge, was probably one of them, and, perhaps, the Palatine bridge was the other. The former was built by Ancus Martius.
2817 For some further account of the British oyster, see B. xxxii. c. 21.
2818 See B. xxxii. c. 21.
2819 He was the first of this family, a branch of the Licinian gens, who bore the surname of Murena, from his love for that fish, it was said. He, like his father P. Licinius, attained the rank of prætor, and was a contemporary of the orator, L. Crassus.
2820 “Euripum.”
2821 “Xerxen togatum,” or “the Roman Xerxes,” in allusion to Xerxes cutting a canal through the Isthmus, which connected the Peninsula of Mount Athos with Chalcidice. See B. iv. c. 17, and the Note, vol. i. p. 300.
2822 Probably the same person as the C. Hirrius Posthumius, who is mentioned as a voluptuary by Cicero, De Fin. B. ii. c. 22, § 70. Varro speaks of him, as expending the rent of his houses, amounting to twelve millions of sesterces, in bait for his murenæ.
2823 This is, probably, the meaning of “quadragies” here, though it has been translated 400,000.
2824 See B. iii. c. 9.
2825 Porphyry, Tzetzes, and Macrobius relate the same story.
2826 See B. vii. c. 18, and B. xxxv. c. 36. Her grandson, Caligula, is supposed to have hastened her death.
2827 Hirpinius is the more common reading. He is mentioned in B. viii. c. 78. If the reading “Lupinus” is adopted, nothing seems to be known of this epicurean trifler.
2828 Our periwinkles.
2829 See B. iii. c. 17.
2830 Off the coast of Africa, see B. v. c. 1. These periwinkles, or sea-snails, are again mentioned in B. xxx. c. 15.
2831 “Sapa.” Must, or new wine, boiled down to one half, according to Pliny; and one third, according to Varro.
2832 The “quadrans” contained three cyathi, and was the fourth part of a sextarius, which consisted of about a pint and a-half; in which case the contents of one of their shells would be no less than fifteen quarts!! A statement to which no credit can be attached, unless, indeed, the sea-snail was something quite different to our periwinkle.
2833 Cuvier remarks, that nothing is known of the fish of the Euphrates here mentioned by Pliny from Theophrastus; as, indeed, all particulars relative to the fresh-water fish of foreign countries are the portion of Ichthyology with which we are the least acquainted. Judging, however, from what is stated as to their habits and appearance, they may he various species of the genus Gobius of Linnæus, and more especially the one called periophthalmus by Bloch. These species are in the habit of crawling along the grass on the banks of rivers.
2834 Generally considered the same as our gudgeon. It is called “cobio” (from the Greek κωβιὸς), by Pliny, in B. xxxii. c. 53. It was a worthless fish, “Vilis piscis,” as Juvenal says.
2835 What Heraclea, if that is the correct reading, is meant here, it is impossible to say. Cromna is mentioned in B. vi. c. 2.
2836 Cuvier thinks, that Pliny here alludes to a species of loche, the Cobitis fossilis of Linnæus, which keeps itself concealed in the mud, and can survive a long time in it, after the water above it is absorbed. Hence it is often found alive in the mud of drained marshes, or in the dried-up beds of rivers.
2837 Cuvier remarks, that many fish, the orifice of the gills of which, like those of the eel, is small, or which have in the interior of those parts organs proper for the preservation there of water, are able, like the eel, to live for some time on dry land; such, for instance, as the periophthalmi previously mentioned, the chironectes, the ophicephali, the anabas, and others; but it is difficult to say, he observes, of what species were those of the Lycus, which are here mentioned.
2839 It is most probable that Sillig is right in his supposition, that “quam” should be read “æquam;” otherwise it does not appear that any sense can be made of the passage. Schneider, in his commentaries upon Theophrastus, Sillig says, quite despaired of either amending or explaining this passage; which, however, with Sillig’s emendation is very easily to be understood.
2840 In accordance with the opinion of Vossius and Sillig, we read here “in illis,” instead of the common, and most probably incorrect, reading, “in nullis.”
2841 Pomponius Mela, B. i. c. 9., and Ovid, Met. B. i. l. 422, et seq., tell the same story, which, however, has no truth in it whatever.
2842 B. v. c. 35.
2843 Oppian, Halieut. B. iii. c. 305, et seq., tells a similar story as to the mode of taking the anthias, with some slight variation, however.
2844 “Damni formulam editam.”
2845 Cuvier says, that the star-fish, the Asterias of Linnæus, is covered with a callous shell without, and has within only the viscera and the ovaria, apparently without any muscles. Aristotle reckons it among the fishes which he calls ὀστρακοδέρματα, or hard-shelled fish; while, on the other hand, Ælian, Hist. Anim. B. xi. c. 22, reckons it among the μαλακόστρακα, or soft-shelled fish.
2846 Cuvier says, that Pliny has good reason to say that he does not know upon what authority this power has been attributed to the star-fish; as it is altogether fabulous.
2847 “Or finger.” The same fish that have been mentioned as “ungues,” or “onyches,” in c. 51 of the present Book. They are a multivalve shell-fish, Cuvier says, which live in hardened mud or the interior of rocks, into which they burrow cavities, from which they cannot retreat; and they can only be taken by breaking the stone. They have a flavour like pepper, and give out a phosphorescent light. See the end of c. 51.
2848 Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. ix. c. 3. Ælian, Hist. Anim. B. v. c. 48.
2849 Aristotle says, that the tail of the conger is bitten by the murena, but not that of the murena by the conger. Hardouin suggests that Pliny may have learned this fact from the works of Nigidius Figulus.
2850 Cuvier remarks, that in another passage, B. xi. c. 62, Pliny states that the “musculus qui balænam antecedit” has no teeth, but only bristles in its mouth. Now, in B. xxxii. c. 53, he speaks of the musculus as among the largest of animals; from which Cuvier concludes it to have been a species of whale, probably the “rorqual” of the Mediterranean. In confirmation of this, he thinks that the word “antecedit,” in B. xi. c. 62. has not the meaning of “goes before,” but “exceeds in size;” though here it is spoken of as leading the whale; and Oppian, Ælian, Plutarch, Claudian, speak of the conductor of the whale as a little fish. He is of opinion, in fine, that either Pliny or some of the authors from which he has borrowed, have made a mistake in the name, and probably given that of “musculus,” which was really a large fish, to a small one, which was commonly supposed to attend on the movements of the whale.
2851 It is evident from this passage, that Pliny is speaking of a little fish here, and not one to which he would assign such bulk as is ascribed to the musculus in B. xxxii. c. 53.
2852 See end of B. iii.
2854 Caius Cilnius Mecænas, or rather Mæcenas, a descendant of the kings of Etruria, and of equestrian rank. He was the favourite minister of Augustus, and the friend and patron of Horace, Virgil, and most of the more deserving among the learned of his day. He is supposed to have written two tragedies, the Prometheus and Octavia; an epic poem, and a work on Natural History, to which Pliny frequently alludes, and which seems to have related, principally, to fishes and gems. He is also thought to have written some memoirs of the life of Augustus.
2855 A rhetorician, who flourished in the reigns of Augustus and Tiberius. His school was attended by the elder Seneca, who had then recently removed to Rome from Corduba. He was regarded at Rome as a prodigy of learning, and gave lectures before he had assumed the toga virilis. He is supposed to have written poetry, and a history of the Carthaginian wars.
2856 See end of B. ii.
2857 Or “writer of Mimes.” Laberius Decimus was of equestrian rank, born about B.C. 107, and died B.C. 43. Half compelled, and half induced by the offer of a reward by Cæsar, he appeared on the stage, in his old age, as an actor of mimes. A few verses, and a prologue still in existence, are attributed to him.
2858 Fabianus Papirius. See end of B. ii.
2860 See end of B. ii.
2861 L. Ælius Præconinus Stilo, a Roman of equestrian rank, one of the earliest grammarians, and also one of the most celebrated. He instructed Varro, and was one of Cæsar’s instructors in rhetoric. He received the name of Præconinus, from the circumstance of his father having been a “præco,” and that of Stilo, on account of his writings. He wrote commentaries on the songs of the Salii, and on the Twelve Tables, a work De Proloquiis, &c.
2862 See end of B. ii.
2864 L. Annæus Seneca. See end of B. vi.
2866 A poet of Verona, who died B.C. 16, He wrote a poem upon birds, snakes, and medicinal plants, in imitation, probably, of the Theriaca of Nicander. There is a work, still extant, under his name, “On the Virtues of Herbs;” which, no doubt, belongs to the middle ages. He also wrote sixteen or more Books of Annals.
2867 M. Valerius Messala Corvinus. He was born at Rome, B.C. 59. He joined the party of Cassius against Antony and Augustus, which last he defeated at the battle of Philippi. He afterwards served under Antony, and then Augustus; the centre of whose fleet he commanded at Actium. About two years before his death, which happened in the middle of the reign of Augustus, his memory failed him, and he was often unable to recollect his own name. He wrote a history, or rather, commentaries on the Civil wars after the death of Cæsar, and towards the close of his life composed a genealogical work “On the Families of Rome.” He also wrote poems of a satirical, and sometimes licentious character; and works on grammar, the titles of only two of which have come down to us. He was especially famous for his eloquence.
2870 See end of B. ii.
2872 See end of B. iv.