[721] The influence of fish, wherever important, in commerce is noteworthy. They furnished, as we have seen, designs for a mint or _cognomina_ for Roman Nobles. An interesting and probably very ancient instance occurs in the oath taken this very year (1920) by the Stipendiary Magistrate of Douglas, Isle of Man: “I swear to do justice between party and party, as indifferently as the herring’s backbone doth lie in the midst of the fish.” [722] τῶν πάντων ἰήματ’ ἒχει φύσις οὐδέ τι νούσων ῥιγεδανῶν ἀλέγουσι βροτοὶ χραισμήι’ ἒχοντες ἐξ ἁλός, ἐκ γαίης τε καὶ ἠέρος εὐρυπόροιο. [723] _N. H._, XXX. 49. Cf. Ælian, _op. cit. passim_, for aphrodisiacs. [724] Fragment, _Varro Sexagesis_, _ap._ Man. Marc., p. 319. 15 ff., Lindsay. [725] _Cas._, II. 8, 57; cf. also _Aul._, at the wedding of Euclid’s daughter. [726] See _ibid._, _Rudens_, II. 1, 9. [727] _N. H._, XXXII. 50. CHAPTER XX DIOCLETIAN’S EDICT, 301 A.D.—PRICES OF FISH AND OTHER ARTICLES THEN AND NOW Struck with Adam’s words with regard to the Edict of Diocletian, 301 A.D.—“if we could fix the value of the denarius at this epoch, the prices of fish then would prove an interesting subject for comparison with those now (1883) current at Billingsgate”—I set to work to ascertain how great had been the depreciation of and what was the exact value of the denarius at the opening of the fourth century. Much labour would have been saved, had I earlier come across Abbott’s _The Common People of Ancient Rome_, but I found some compensation in the solution of my sum coinciding approximately with his estimate of the denarius = ·4352 cent.[728] The Edict of Diocletian[729] contains, as Mr. Abbott (to whose book I am indebted for very much that follows) indicates, many points of great economic interest to us at the present time. _First_—sentences of the Introduction (probably from intrinsic evidence written by the Emperor himself) might well pass for a diatribe in to-day’s paper against a Beef or other Trust. Fortunate it is for these that the newspaper man possesses not the power of life and death wielded by Diocletian. The Emperor, having decided that the prices promulgated shall be observed in “all our domain,” goes on, “it is our pleasure that if any shall have boldly come into conflict with this formal statute, he shall put his life in peril. In the same peril also shall he be placed, who, drawn by avarice in his desire to buy, shall have conspired against these statutes. Nor shall he be esteemed innocent of the same crime who, having articles necessary for daily life and use, shall have decided that they can be held back, since the punishment ought to be even heavier for him who causes need, than for him who violates laws.” _Second_—the prices are _maximum_ prices, not for commodities only, but also for wages.