At many of the country-seats belonging to the Emperor the fish eat51 from the hand: but the stories of this nature, told with such admiration by the ancients, bear reference to lakes formed by Nature, and not to fish-preserves; that at Elorus, a fortified place in Sicily, for instance, not far from Syracuse. In the fountain, too, of Jupiter, at Labranda,52 there are eels which eat from the hand, and wear ear-rings,53 it is said. The same, too, at Chios, near the Old Men’s Temple54 there; and at the Fountain of Chabura in Mesopotamia, already mentioned.55