the fiſh were increaſed in fine, and were ſalted in great abundance. Heraclea, Tium, and Amaſtris, all of which lie to the weſt of Sinope, enjoyed the advantages of the fiſhery in ſtill greater perfection, and were deeply engaged in it, as appears from Ælian[1]. In ſhort, the advantages of the fiſhery to thoſe who inhabited the coails were ſuch, that they abandoned all other means of getting a livelihood, and applied themſelves entirely to fiihing, though the ground in the neighbourhood was fertile, and the adjacent mountains rich in minerals.
As the fiſh proceeded further weſtward, they appear to have been more valued. A poetical glutton, of the name of Archiſtratus, cited by Athenæus, extols- as a delicacy that part of the fiſh, which lies next the tail, pickled and broiled, as we do a red herring; and adds, that Byzantium is the metropolis[2] of this article of luxury; in which ſentirnent another proficient in luxurious eating concurs. The Pontic[3] ſalted meats (ταριχεία Ποντικὰ) were highly eſteemed in Greece, as early as the time of Herodotus, Plato, Ariſtophanes, and Polybius[4], and probably long before. Even Herod is cited, as ſpeaking of the Boſporus as a market for theſe kinds of ſalted delicacies. They went under different names, but were moſtly made of the tunny-fiſh, and were denominated, either from the ſize of the animal, the parts of it uſed, or the ſhape of the pieces into which it was cut. Thus the parts of the large
- ↑ Ælian. de Animal. lib. xv. c. 5.
- ↑ Athen. lib. vii. p. 303. Tunnies are ſtill caught in vaſt quantities at Conſtantinople. See Petrus Gyllius, and Tournefort's Travels. A medal of Plotina, ſtruck at Byzantium, has on its reverſe a dolphin between two tunnies, and two on a medal of Sabina. Vaillant. Patin. p. 188.
- ↑ Athen. lib. iii. p. 118, 110.
- ↑ Polyb. lib. iv. c. 5.
appulere, eaſque præteriere ad Byzantium et ad cornu ejus oonvertuntur, ibi ſit tertia piſcatio. Vaillant. Numm. Ær. p. 84. part. 2.
