| Pliny the Elder, Natural History (English) (XML Header) [genre: prose] [word count] [lemma count] [Plin. Nat.]. | ||
| <<Plin. Nat. 32.53 | Plin. Nat. 32.54 (Latin) | >>Plin. Nat. 33.1 |
To the above enumeration we will add some names given in the poem of Ovid, [Note] which are not to be found in any other writer: species, however, which are probably peculiar to the Euxine, on the shores [Note] of which he commenced that work towards the close of his life. The fishes thus mentioned by him are the sea-ox, the cercyrus, that dwells among the rocks, the orphus, [Note] the red erythinus, [Note] the iulus, [Note] the tinted mormyr, the chrysophrys [Note] a fish of a golden colour, the parus, [Note] the tragus, [Note] the melanurus [Note] remarkable for the beauty of its tail, and the epodes, [Note] a flat fish.
In addition to these remarkable kinds of fishes, the same poet tells us that the channes [Note] conceives of itself, that the
glaucus [Note] never makes its appearance in summer, that the pompilus [Note] always accompanies vessels in their course, and that the chromis [Note] makes its nest in the water. The helops, he says, is unknown to our waters; from which it would appear that those are in error who look upon it as identical with our acipenser. [Note] Many persons have given the preference to the helops before all other fish, in point of flavour.
There are several fishes also, which have been mentioned by no author; such, for instance, as the one called "sudis" by the Latins, and "sphyrene" by the Greeks, names which indicate the peculiar form of its muzzle. [Note] It is one of the very largest kinds, but rarely found, and by no means of inferior flavour. "Perna," too, is the name given to a kind of shellfish, found in vast numbers in the vicinity of the islands of the Euxine. These fish are found firmly planted in the sand, resembling in appearance the long shank [Note] of a hog. Opening wide their shells, where there is sufficient space, they lie in wait for their prey; this opening being not less than a foot in breadth, and the edges of it garnished around with teeth closely set, much resembling the teeth of a comb in form. Within the shell, the meat consists of a vast lump of flesh. I once saw, too, a fish called the "hyæna," [Note] which had been caught off the island of Ænaria. [Note]
In addition to these animals, there are certain excretions thrown up by the sea, which do not merit any further notice, and indeed ought to be reckoned among the sea-weeds, rather than looked upon as animated beings.
SUMMARY.—Remedies, narratives, and observations, nine hundred and ninety.
ROMAN AUTHORS QUOTED.—Licinius Macer, [Note] Trebius Niger, [Note]
Sextius Niger [Note] who wrote in Greek, the Poet Ovid, [Note] Cassius Hemina, [Note] Mæcenas, [Note] Iacchus, [Note] Sornatius. [Note]
FOREIGN AUTHORS QUOTED.—Juba, [Note] Andreas, [Note] Salpe, [Note] Apion, [Note] Pelops, [Note] Apelles, [Note] Thrasyllus, [Note] Nicander. [Note]
| Pliny the Elder, Natural History (English) (XML Header) [genre: prose] [word count] [lemma count] [Plin. Nat.]. | ||
| <<Plin. Nat. 32.53 | Plin. Nat. 32.54 (Latin) | >>Plin. Nat. 33.1 |
