CHAP. 39. (23.)—THE MURÆNA.
The muræna brings forth every month, while all the other fishes spawn only at stated periods: the eggs of this fish increase with the greatest rapidity.2472 It is a vulgar2473 belief that the muræna comes on shore, and is there impregnated by intercourse with serpents. Aristotle2474 calls the male, which impregnates the female, by the name of “zmyrus;” and says that there is a difference between them, the muræna being spotted2475 and weakly, while the zmyrus is all of one colour and hardy, and has teeth which project beyond the mouth. In northern Gaul all the murænæ have on the right jaw seven spots,2476 which bear a resemblance to the constellation of the Septentriones,2477 and are of a gold colour, shining as long as the animal is alive, but disappearing as soon as it is dead. Vedius Pollio,2478 a Roman of equestrian rank, and one of the friends of the late Emperor Augustus, found a method of exercising his cruelty by means of this animal, for he caused such slaves as had been condemned by him, to be thrown into preserves filled with murænæ; not that the land animals would not have fully sufficed for this purpose, but because he could not see a man so aptly torn to pieces all at once by any other kind of animal. It is said that these fish are driven to madness by the taste of vinegar. Their skin is exceedingly thin; while that of the eel, on the other hand, is much thicker. Verrius informs us that formerly the children of the Roman citizens, while wearing the prætexta,2479 were flogged with eel-skins, and that, for this reason, no pecuniary penalty2480 could by law be inflicted upon them.