Latin Texts & Translations

Another liquid, too, of a very exquisite nature, is that known as "garuim:" ^[Note] it is prepared from the intestines of fish and various parts which would otherwise be thrown away, macerated in salt; so that it is, in fact, the result of their putrefaction. Garum was formerly prepared from a fish, called "garos" ^[Note] by the Greeks; who assert, also, that a fumigation made with its head has the effect of bringing away the afterbirth.

(8.) At the present day, however, the most esteemed kind

of garum is that prepared from the scomber, ^[Note] in the fisheries of Carthago Spartaria: ^[Note] it is known as "garumn of ^[Note] the allies," and for a couple of congii we have to pay but little less than one thousand sesterces. Indeed, there is no liquid hardly, with the exception of the unguents, that has sold at higher prices of late; so much so, that the nations which produce it have become quite ennobled thereby. There are fisheries, too, of the scomber on the coasts of Mauretania and at Carteia in Bætica, near the Straits ^[Note] which lie at the entrance to the Ocean; this being the only use that is made of the fish. For the production of garum, Clazomenæ is also famed, Pompeii, too, and Leptis; while for their muria, Antipolis, ^[Note] Thurii, and of late, Dalmatia, ^[Note] enjoy a high reputation.