=87. Fish in Great Demand.=--Rome, however, somewhat resembles Athens in one particular; the butcher shops are less important than the fish dealers’ stalls.[47] Poor people eat salt fish or pickled fish, from little sardines to slices of the big _cybium_, as forming frequently the only break in an otherwise vegetarian diet. They also make up salt fish with various vegetables and cheese into a kind of fishballs. A man of income, however, is unhappy without his fresh fish daily. This creates a serious and expensive problem for Rome. There are a few eels and pike of good flavor caught right in the Tiber between the bridges, but the great fish supply must be brought from a distance--often in warm weather without aid of refrigerating plants. Frequently along the road from Ostia, and very often down the Via Appia clear from Puteoli can be seen large wagons tearing in hot haste. They bring not government dispatches but fresh fish that will frequently command absurd prices in the city. Often all kinds of sea-food are transported still alive in small tanks; and sometimes the distance whence they can be imported is astonishing. The best turbots (large flat fish) come from Ravenna on the Adriatic. Eels can be brought in good flavor from Sicily and even from Spain. Gourmands go into ecstasies over oysters from Circeii or Baiæ, but of late people wishing to astonish their fashionable friends have actually claimed to import such shellfish from Britain. The real fish for the epicure, notwithstanding, is by common confession the noble mullet. The flavor of the best specimens is ravishing, and, for a truly large and perfect mullet, the prices paid are astonishing. It is a common story that a certain Crispinus, a satellite of Domitian’s, once gave 6000 sesterces ($240) for a single six-pound mullet; “More than the cost of the slave-fisherman!” indignantly exclaimed the outraged Juvenal. Many great nobles, however, disdain having to depend on the public markets. At their seaside villas they have huge salt-water tanks and artificial fishponds; therein mullet, turbot, carp, and eels can be bred, fattened, and brought to perfection, and on the day of a feast a slave will hurry them up to Rome still gasping. =88. Olive Oil and Wine: Their Universal Use.=--Supplementing the salt fish and bread, the poor of the capital, like all genuine Mediterranean folk, seldom fail to get their oil and wine. Olives are gladly eaten green, ripened, or preserved in great quantities with salt or pickle, but their greatest value comes from their oil. To Rome as to Athens olive oil is not merely food; it largely takes the place of toilet soap, and it supplies also the most common illuminant (see “A Day in Old Athens,” p. 177). It is a complete substitute for butter in the average dietary, often making dry or moldy bread palatable, and as earlier stated (p. 98), it is the basis for most of the ointments and perfumery wherein the average citizen delights.