The hours for the fish market in Athens must have been a time of very great interest, not only to the Athenian householder but to the foreigner sojourning within the city. To preserve order and also to give all customers an equal chance to procure the rare specimens offered for sale, several stringent laws were enacted to govern the market. Among other regulations was one requiring the opening of the market to be announced by the ringing of a bell. Apparently there was no fixed moment of time when this bell should be rung, but the time varied little from day to day. If we can believe our ancient authorities, the ringing of the bell was the occasion for a rush, pellmell, to the market, each seeking to obtain the first choice. Strabo tells us an interesting story anent this custom. On one occasion a musician was performing before a number of invited guests, and when, in the midst of a composition, the bell rang, in a moment the guests were up and away to the market, all except one man, who was deaf. When the lyrist had finished he was very careful to thank his lone auditor for his courtesy in remaining to hear him through, instead of running away when the bell rang, as the rest did. “Oh, has the bell rung?” asked the deaf man. And when informed that it had, he, too, hastened to the market. The Greek interest in fishes seems never to have gone beyond their utility as an article of food. The building of aquaria and fish-ponds never came to be the sport of the Greeks, although they became extravagant luxuries among the Romans. Likewise fishing never became the sport of a Greek gentleman, unless, perchance, at a rather late period. Plato excludes fishing from the sports of a free-born gentleman. The only sport he would have him engage in was the chase, which, athletic games aside, was about the only outdoor sport a Greek gentleman seems to have indulged in. For instance, there is no mention in Greek literature of horseback riding as a pastime, yet horsemanship was an accomplishment in which every Greek gentleman received special training. Likewise, though fishing was not a recognized sport, yet the science of angling was well understood among them by the third century B. C., and probably much earlier. This we learn from a beautiful poem by the Alexandrian poet Theocritus, entitled “The Fishermen.” I will quote a portion of the poem translated into prose, partly because it gives us a picture of some ancient professional fishermen in the camp, partly because it mentions all the ancient instruments of the business.