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The Lucrine Lake at Juvenal 4.141

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

K. M. Coleman
K. M. Coleman
Affiliation:
Trinity College, Dublin
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Extract

The solution to the problem posed by the presentation of the giant turbot to Domitian is put forward by Montanus, a gourmet well qualified to adjudicate in such matters: one bite was sufficient for him to distinguish between oysters from Circeii, the Lucrine, or Richborough (Juv. 4.140–2). The text reads

Type
Shorter Notes
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 44 , Issue 2 , December 1994 , pp. 554 - 557
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1994

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References

1 D'Arcy Thompson, judging Richborough ‘an unlikely spot for oysters’, suggested that Juvenal is deploying the mannerism whereby, because Rutupiae was the chief port for traffic from the continent, it was cited pars pro toto for Britain in general (A Glossary of Greek Fishes [London, 1947], p. 192)Google Scholar; but for evidence of oyster-shells found there in large numbers see Cunliffe, B. W., Fifth Report on Excavations at Richborough = Reports of the Society of Antiquaries 23 (1968), pp. 24 and 33.Google Scholar

2 On oyster-culture in the Lucrine see D'Arms, J. H., Romans on the Bay of Naples (Cambridge, MA, 1970), pp. 136–7.Google Scholar

3 Ferguson, J., Juvenal, The Satires. Edited with Introduction and Commentary (London, 1979), ad loc.Google Scholar

4 On line 141 the scholia to Juvenal record ‘locus brittiorum (Bruttiorum Pithoeus)’, followed by ‘locus in Britannia siue ciuitas’ (on Rutupino). It does not seem possible that the Bruttii who inhabited what is now Calabria can be meant (RE iii. 907–11 s.v. Bruttii [Hülsen]). Professor R. G. M. Nisbet has suggested to me an excellent solution: that brittiorum is a corruption of Britannorum, and that both comments by the scholiast gloss Rutupino…fundo. (By the seventeenth century Pithoeus' ‘correction’ had given rise to the assertion that Lucrinum…saxum alludes to ‘Bruttiorum saxum, scopulum in lacu Lucrino’: see e.g. D. Junii Juvenalis & Auli Persii Flacci Saturae cum veteris scholiastae & variorum commentariis editio nova [Amsterdam, 1684]Google Scholar; this reference, and considerable help besides, I owe to the kindness of Professor M. F. Smith.)

5 Strabo 5.4.6, Beloch, K.-J., Campanien2 (Breslau, 1890), p. 172Google Scholar, RE xiii. 2. 1695–6 s.v. Lucrinus lacus (Phillip). For a description of the topography see Paget, R. F., ‘The ancient ports of Cumae’, JRS 58 (1968), 152–69Google Scholar (at pp. 163–4). The eruption of Monte Nuovo on 30 September 1538 considerably reduced the size of the lake, and as a result of bradyseism (‘the rhythmic rise and fall of the land, with respect to the sea’: Paget, p. 154), sections of the via Herculanea have sunk more than six metres below the surface of the Mediterranean: for an aerial photograph of the area, with a sketch superimposed showing the conjectural extent of the lake and position of the coastline in Antiquity, see Frederiksen, M. (Purcell, N., ed.), Campania (Rome, 1984), pl. XIV.Google Scholar

6 I owe these suggestions to Dr S. J. Heyworth.

7 Cf. Tac. Agr. 12.6 (the harvesting of pearls in the Red Sea) ‘nam in rubro mari [margarita] uiua ac spirantia saxis auelli’.

8 R. P. H. Green adopts the reading pilis on the assumption that the line is a reminiscence of the simile at Virg. Aen. 9.710–11 describing the construction of a breakwater out to sea: ‘talis in Euboico Baiarum litore quondam / saxea pila cadit’. But the only similarity is the topographical reference to Baiae, and Ausonius is not referring to a breakwater.

9 Corning Museum of Glass, no. 62.1.31 (the ‘Populonia Bottle’: see Harden, D. B., Glass of the Caesars [Milan, 1987], pp. 208–9)Google Scholar; the National Museum, Warsaw, no. 14247 MN (a flask from the catacombs at Rome); a flask in the possession of Doña Catalina Albert at La Escala, near Ampurias in Spain (the ‘Ampurias Flask’). A related group of vessels depicts civic buildings and a mole, which are identified by an inscription as Puteoli. The most comprehensive discussion is by Painter, K. S., ‘Roman flasks with scenes of Baiae and Puteoli’, Journal of Glass Studies 17 (1975), 54–67Google Scholar. See also Kisa, A., Das Glas im Altertume (Leipzig, 1908)Google Scholar, Ch. Picard, , ‘Pouzzoles et le paysage portuaire’, Latomus 18 (1959), 23–51Google Scholar. The inscription on the Populonia Bottle is recorded at CIL xi.6710.18.

10 The word PILAE, inscribed vertically on the other side of the flask between illustrations of two columns, apparently refers to a colonnade and has nothing to do with the oyster-beds; it therefore cannot be adduced in support of the reading pilis in the passage of Ausonius quoted above (see n. 8).

11 ‘Oyster-beds’: cf. Plin. N.H. 9.160 ‘nuper compertum in ostreariis umorem iis [ostreis] fetificum…effluere’, Macr. Sat. 3.15.3 ‘Sergius Orata, qui…primus ostrearia in Baiano locauit’, TLL ix.2.1160.70 (Bader).

12 BAIAE: Ampurias flask (written continuously); Rome flask (written as two syllables on planes at right angles to one another).

13 Suet. Nero 31.3: ‘praeterea incohabat piscinam a Miseno ad Auernum lacum contectam porticibusque conclusam, quo quidquid totis Bais calidarum aquarum esset conuerteretur’.

14 See Griffin, M. T., Nero. The End of a Dynasty (London, 1984), p. 127.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

15 Keller, O., Die antike Tierwelt ii (Leipzig, 1913), p. 568Google Scholar (describing the Populonia Bottle): ‘…ist anzunehmen, daβ stagnum im technischen Sinn als Teich fϋr Fische oder Austern…zu interpretieren ist’.

16 Columella concludes 8.16 with the programmatic statement ‘sed iam de situ piscinarum dicendum est’; the first sentence of 8.17 begins ‘stagnum censemus eximie optimum, quod sic positum est, ut…’.

17 Colum. 8.17.1 (bis), 3, 5 (bis), 6, 8, 10.

18 If ‘Lucrinum ad stagnum’ is the correct reading, this is an instance where ad is used loosely instead of in with the ablative, as is occasionally attested with the names of cities, countries, and islands: see L-H-S ii. 219.

19 I have been unable to trace any attempts to emend this passage, other than Courtney's suggestion that…forent aut…Rutupinone would group Circeii and the Lucrine together, rather than taking the Lucrine with Richborough as is required by the paradosis. If I have been anticipated in suggesting stagnum for saxum, I hope this note will at least succeed in reviving a plausible conjecture.

20 Mythological contexts particularly lend themselves to this treatment: e.g. the golden fleece is designated by a diminutive form of pellis, ‘hide’ (1.10–11 ‘furtiuae…aurum / pelliculae’); Daedalus, the great inventor, is a ‘craftsman’ (1.54 ‘fabrum…uolantem’); Pegasus is Medusa's ‘nag’ (3.118 ‘Gorgonei delapsa est pinna caballi’); Jason himself is a trader (6.154 ‘mercator Iason’).