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LIBER IX · CAPUT 53

THE LONGEST LIVES KNOWN AMONGST FISHES

THE LONGEST LIVES KNOWN AMONGST FISHES. Complete modern editorial illustration created specifically for this chapter.
THE LONGEST LIVES KNOWN AMONGST FISHES · EDITORIAL PLATE IX.53 · modern editorial plate
THE LONGEST LIVES KNOWN AMONGST FISHES. Complete modern editorial illustration created specifically for this chapter.

Latine · Mayhoff 1906

Aevi piscium memorandum nuper exemplum accepimus. Pausilypum villa est Campaniae haut procul Neapoli; in ea in Caesaris piscinis a Pollione Vedio coniectum piscem sexagensimum post annum expirasse scribit Annaeus Seneca, duobus aliis aequalibus eius ex eodem genere etiam tune viventibus. quae mentio piscinarum admonet, ut paulo plura dicamus hac de re prius quam digrediamur ab aquatilibus.

English · Bostock & Riley 1855–57

We have lately heard of a remarkable instance of length of life in fish. Pausilypum is the name of a villa in Campania, not far from Neapolis; here, as we learn from the works of M. Annæus Seneca, a fish is known to have died sixty years after it had been placed in the preserves of Cæsar by Vedius Pollio; while others of the same kind, and its equals in age, were living at the time that he wrote. This mention of fish-preserves reminds me that I ought to mention a few more particulars connected with this subject, before we leave the aquatic animals.