[321] See Hall, _op. cit._ p. 22 (1914), and _ibid._, p. 35 (1912). Lucian, although a Syrian (to which nation fish was from the earliest times a forbidden food), frequently shows himself very conversant with fishes and avails himself of their characteristics: _e.g._ Menelaus, after witnessing some of the “turns” of that celebrated “lightning-change artist,” Proteus, exclaims frankly, “there must be some fraud!” The artist pooh-poohs him and bids him consider the everyday miracle of invisibility wrought by the Polypus, who having “selected his rock and having attached himself by means of his suckers, assimilates himself to it, changing his colour to match that of the rock. Thus there is no contrast of colour to betray his presence: he looks just like a stone” (_Dialogues of the Sea Gods_, iv. 1-3, Fowler’s _Translation_). [322] Such in Fowler’s Translation, V. 48, is the rendering of κύων, which is quite wrong for two reasons. _First_, κύων is almost certainly our dog-fish or its cousin. Cf. Aristotle, _N. H._, VI. 118. _Second_, the salmon is not found in Greek waters, and so could not be fished for from the Acropolis. Cf. _infra_, Chapter XIII. [323] Heliod., _Æthiop._, 5, 18. Cf. Hall, _op. cit._, 1914. [324] _Anth. Pal._, IX. 442. Trs. from the _Greek Anthology as selected for Westminster, Eton, etc._ [325] Athen., VII., 48. CHAPTER VIII THE TWO PLINYS—MARTIAL—WAS THE ROD JOINTED? After Theocritus we reach the period which chronologically might perhaps be termed that of the Roman writers, although our two greatest authorities on Fish Lure and Lore wrote in Greek, some three to four centuries after Plautus (_c._ 254-184 B.C.) had produced his _Rudens_. This, the first Latin play, I believe, introducing fishermen on the stage, re-echoes the Greek note of poverty and misery. In Act II., Sc. 2, Trachalio asks, “Shellfish-gatherers, and hook-fishers, hungry race of men, how fare ye?” and receives the answer, “Just as befits fishermen; with hunger, thirst, and expectation.” The wretchedness of their calling is made further manifest in Act II., Sc. 1. Descriptions of fishermen are found in Latin adaptations of Greek plays. The Latin mimes, as did the Greek, often display fishermen as characters. The Latin references to actual fishing not only far outnumber the Greek, but also, unlike the Greek, which are almost solely concerned with sea fishing, frequently treat of river and lake fishing. Plautus, Cicero, Horace, Ovid,[326] Juvenal, Tibullus, Pliny the Elder and the Younger, Martial, and Ausonius, by no means conclude the list of our Roman authors. It may be fairly asked, why I omit any special notice of so valuable and voluminous work as the _Natural History_ of Pliny the Elder.