Were fishes really a big deal in Roman culture?

Latin Learning Latin
1

I ask this because of the following sentence I came across (unless I’m translating it wrong):

Etiam erat magna piscina plena piscium; nam Romani pisces diligenter colebant.

My translation:

There was also a large fish pond full of fishes; for the Romans diligently honored fishes.

These are the main words that colo translates to:

I till, cultivate the land (literal)
I inhabit
I protect, nurture
(figuratively) I worship, honor

Unless colebant here means protected? Or were fishes really honored by the Romans to the point of worship? Because it’s not something I’ve heard about Roman culture.

2

Colo has a fairly wide range of meaning and with agriculture and food production tends to mean things like “cultivate, grow, breed.”

3

Fish was of course an important item in the Roman diet. You will perhaps also have heard of garum, a fermented fish sauce, which seems to feature in almost all recipes in Apicius. It was big business in the ancient world. They were obsessed with it and perhaps figuratively “worshiped” it. :smiley:

4

It still doesn’t make sense to say that the Romans “diligently” bred fishes, nor that they worshipped them. Unless I’m missing some aspect of Roman culture. Though I think that this may be the correct way of translating it:

For the Romans diligently took care of fishes.

For I’m just realizing that the word diligenter in the original is evidence as to what colebant is suppose to mean here since colo can mean many things as you pointed out, Barry.

5

Here’s an article on fish and fishing in the ancient world:

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11457-018-9195-1

Here are the relevant entries in the OLD:

3 To till, cultivate, farm (land).
:play_button: quo modo fundus cultus siet CATO Agr. 2.1; 61.1; agros optime cultos SCIP. MIN. orat. 12; in praediis ~endis operae plurimum ‥ consumere CIC. S. Rosc. 43; arare atque agros ~ere Ver. 3.43; LUCR. 5.1441; sine timore ullo rura ~entes HIRT. Gal. 8.3.1; SAL. Cat. 4.1; HOR. Carm. 3.5.24; LIV. 5.4.5; COL. 1.9.5; (poet., of Jupiter) ille ~it terras, illi mea carmina curae VERG. Ecl. 3.61; (cf. sense 6) tellure, quae parens appellatur ~ique dicitur PLIN. Nat. 18.21; —(in fig. phrases) interea pax arua ~at TIB. 1.10.45; inter ‥ Helicona ~entes (i.e. poets) uberius nulli prouenit ista seges OV. Pont. 4.2.11.
b to grow, cultivate (fruit, crops, etc.).
:play_button: fructusque feros mollite ~endo VERG. G. 2.36; harum quas ~is arborum HOR. Carm. 2.14.22; nulla qua ‥ solet ‥ arbor ‥ ferro ~i SEN. Thy. 653; ipsa (castanea) se ~it PLIN. Nat. 17.150; ~i utique non uult (lupinum) 18.134; sic ulmus uitisque, duplex iactura ~enti ‥ cadunt STAT. Theb. 8.544; (of an ox) quas ~uit fruges OV. Met. 15.134.
c to keep, breed (animals, etc.).
:play_button: Philiscum ‥ in desertis apes ~entem PLIN. Nat. 11.19; graculos ‥ ob id ~unt 11.106.
4 To look after, keep going, tend (things).
:play_button: culina, dicta ab eo quod ibi ~ebant VAR. in NON. p.55M; urbem Troianam ‥ dulcisque meorum reliquias ~erem VERG. A. 4.343; ut illam (sc. domum) non magis officiis quam probitate ~as OV. Pont. 3.1.76; puppis ‥ ~endae dura ministeria MAN. 4.569; Libra ~it clunes 4.707; magna ‥ res tuas mercede ~ui SEN. Dial. 9.11.3; focus ‥ uicini strue cultus iliceti MART. 12.18.20; et nunc limite me (sc. a stream) ~is beato nec sordere sinis STAT. Silv. 4.3.85; ~ATVRQ ID AEDIFICIVM ET EA POMARIA ET LACVS CIL 13.5708.1.10.

Glare, P. G. W. (Ed.). (2012). Oxford Latin Dictionary (Second Edition, Vol. I & II). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Now really, what do you think makes the best sense?

6

I stand corrected. Though I always thought that the fishes the Romans kept in their fishponds were pets. Doesn’t breeding make it sound as if they’re raising them to eat them? And I’m aware fish was a part of the Roman diet, but just not the fishes they kept in the fishponds in their homes. I was also skeptical that colo meant I breed because that translation isn’t given in the word list in the back of D’Ooge’s book nor could I find it in L&S. But it makes sense now. Thanks, Barry.

7

When we were staying at a very fancy hotel in China concluding the adoption of our older daughter, I had her outside by the fountains (she was fascinated by them), which were in large goldfish ponds, and goldfish get really big if they have room to grow. I saw worker come out, reach in, and pull out one of the huge goldfish and take it into the kitchen… :slight_smile:

However, maybe just “keep,” which in English is sometimes used in that sense, “they keep cattle.” They “kept” fish – maybe not in the technical sense of “breeding” as much as just having them available. Nice decoration and occasional food source!

They also had dormouse pots:

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/dormouse-jars-glirarium-rome

8

Googling the terms “fish farming” and aquaculture turned up some historical information on growing fish through the ages, including in ancient China and ancient Rome.

9

And searching the lovely Latinate pisciculture turns up even more, such as:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2352485517301135