80. Chap. 80.-Who Was The First Inventor Of Preserves For Other Fish.

CHAP. 80.—WHO WAS THE FIRST INVENTOR OF PRESERVES FOR OTHER FISH.

In the same age, also, Licinius Murena[1] was the first to form preserves for other fish; and his example was soon followed by the noble families of the Philippi and the Hortensii. Lucullus had a mountain pierced near Naples, at a greater outlay even, than that which had been expended on his villa; and here he formed a channel,[2] and admitted the sea to his preserves; it was for this reason that Pompeius Magnus gave him the name of " Xerxes in a toga." [3] After his death, the fish in his preserves was sold for the sum of four million sesterces.

1. He was the first of this family, a branch of the Licinian gens, who bore the surname of Murena, from his love for that fish, it was said. He, like his father P. Licinius, attained the rank of prætor, and was a contemporary of the orator, L. Crassus.

2. "Euripum."

3. "Xerxen togatum," or "the Roman Xerxes," in allusion to Xerxes cutting a canal through the Isthmus, which connected the Peninsula of Mount Athos with Chalcidice. See B. iv. c. 17, and the Note, vol. i. p. 300.