Fishing: How the Sea Fed Civilization by Brian Fagan

Author:Brian Fagan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, World, Civilization
ISBN: 9780300215342
Google: gaAzDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: 2017-09-26T11:05:03.074497+00:00

14

Scaly Flocks

The pervasive inequality of Roman society expressed itself forcibly in, of all places, their fish pools. Marcus Terentius Varro (116–27 BC) was a Roman scholar and prolific writer. A genuinely learned man as well as a successful farmer, he set down his considerable wisdom on estate management in Rerum Rusticarum Libri Tres (Three Books on Agriculture), his only extant complete work. Varro owned two fishponds, and he took some space in the third book of the Rusticarum to explain the clear distinction between the saltwater pools of the wealthy and the freshwater ponds of ordinary citizens: “Those of the one kind, in which water is supplied to our home-fed fishes by the river Nymphs, are kept by men of the people, and are profitable enough; while the other sea-water ponds, which belong to the nobles, and get both water and fishes from Neptune, appeal more to the eye than to the pocket, and empty rather than fill the owner’s purse. For they cost a great deal to build, a great deal to stock, and a great deal to feed.”1 The judicious and sober Varro was a prosperous farmer and rancher, but he proudly sided with the have-nots when it came to fish. He watched the frenzied competition over fishponds among wealthy coastal villa owners in the Bay of Naples and was glad not to be part of it.

Many preindustrial states depended on the labor of the many for the benefit of the few, the many being paid standardized rations, of which fish, caught on an enormous scale, were one. Any rationing authority must always have plenty of food on hand and deliver it on time. This meant that the supply had to be reliable and constant, but in the case of fish, catches fluctuated sharply from year to year. So, being pragmatic farmers, the Egyptians turned to aqua-culture—fish farming. The Sumerians of Mesopotamia, the Chinese, and the Greeks and Romans did the same.

Fish farming was all about obtaining greater yields than those provided by wild fisheries. It undoubtedly began with minimal human intervention, for instance, in the Nile Delta and elsewhere upstream where marshes teemed with shallow-water fish, especially during the floods. Enormous stretches of the ancient Mediterranean coast consisted of saltwater lagoons and wetlands where fishermen could create barriers—generally made from reeds, wicker, and wooden poles—to pen fish into a specific area. Fish farmers might also dig additional channels to improve water circulation and to minimize the effects of silting. Fish might be controlled, but unless one fed them, the yields were small, although better and less risky than sea fishing.

No one knows when aquaculture began along the Nile, but it probably long predates the first evidence that has come down to us. A relief in the tomb of Aktihep, an official of the Middle Kingdom about 2500 BC, shows men removing tilapia from a pond. The early fish farmers raised immature fish and shellfish in carefully prepared pools, then brought them to maturity in artificial environments to ensure a steady supply for the court and the nobility.

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