Reference to aid from any book or person is usually set forth in my pages; but here and at once I acknowledge with glad gratitude the debt I owe for counsel and help to certain of my friends, whose names I yet hesitate to state, “pour ne point leur donner une part de responsabilité dans les fautes que je suis seul coupable d’avoir laissé subsister.” They are: Mr. A. B. Cook, Reader in Classical Archæology at Cambridge; Dr. Bernard Grenfell, Professor of Papyrology at Oxford; Dr. A. R. S. Kennedy, Professor of Hebrew and Semitic Languages at Edinburgh; the late, alas! Dr. Leonard W. King, of the Assyrian Department of the British Museum; Dr. S. Langdon, Professor of Assyriology at Oxford; Dr. J. W. Mackail; Dr. A. Shewan; and last, but very far from least, Mr. H. T. Sheringham. CONTENTS PAGE PREFACE vii INTRODUCTION 3 GREEK AND ROMAN FISHING CHAPTER I. HOMER. POSITION OF FISHERMEN 63 II. HOMER. METHODS OF FISHING 74 III. CONTEST BETWEEN HOMER AND HESIOD. HOMER’S DEATH 86 IV. THE DOLPHIN. HERODOTUS. THE ICHTHYOPHAGI. THE TUNNY 90 V. PLATO. ARISTOTLE THE FIRST SCALE READER. SENSES OF FISH 106 VI. CHARACTERISTICS OF FISHERMEN IN GREECE AND ROME. DEITIES OF FISHING 116 VII. THEOCRITUS. THE GREEK EPIGRAMMATISTS 133 VIII. THE TWO PLINYS. MARTIAL. WAS THE ROD JOINTED? 141 IX. THE FIRST MENTION OF A FLY 152 X. THE SCARUS. THE FIRST NOTICE, “FISHING PROHIBITED” 159 XI. PLUTARCH: CHARGE AGAINST HIM OF CONTEMNING FISHING FALSE. CLEOPATRA’S FISHING. OPPIAN. THE TORPEDO FOR GOUT. ATHENÆUS 169 XII. ÆLIAN. THE MACEDONIAN INVENTION, OR THE FIRST MENTION OF AN ARTIFICIAL FLY 185 XIII. AUSONIUS. SALMO. SALAR AND FARIO. FIRST MENTION OF THE PIKE IN CLASSICAL LITERATURE 194 XIV. INFATUATION FOR FISH. EXTRAVAGANT PRICES. COSTLY ENTERTAINMENTS. VITELLIUS. CLEOPATRA. APICIUS. COOKS. SAUCES 201