[527] B. V. Head, _Historia Mumorum_, Oxford, 1911, p. 67: “These little coins formed the staple of the common currency in the Tarentine fish-markets, as well as in the rural districts subject to Tarentum, and even beyond its territories—in Apulia and Samnium for instance.”
[528] Some authorities (Preller, _Griech. Myth._, I. 191) believe the head to be that of Artemis, not only the protectress of Arethusa, but also the goddess of rivers and springs, and of the fish therein—one of her emblems was a fish. Some coins show her or Arethusa’s head with seaweed plaited in the hair, or the hair plaited in a sort of fish-net surrounded by little fish. The whole island of Ortygia was absolutely dedicated to Artemis—no plough could cut a furrow, no net ensnare a fish, without instantly encountering a sea of troubles. See Keller, _op. cit._, p. 343. The sacred fish were seen by Diodorus (V. 3) as late as Octavian’s reign.
[529] For an admirable account of Syracusan coin-types during the ‘fine’ period (413-346 B.C.), see G. F. Hill, _Coins of Ancient Sicily_ (London, 1903), p. 97 ff., with frontispiece and pls. 6-7. On the widespread representation of the Tunny on vases and coins—Carthaginian, Pontic, etc.—see Rhode, _op. cit._, pp. 73-77.
[530] See G. F. Hill, _op. cit._, Pl. 7, 13.
[531] L. Siret, _Questions de chronologie et ethnographie ibériques_ (Paris, 1913), Index, _s.v._ ‘Poulpe.’
[533] _De Re Rustica_, VIII. 16, “Our ancestors shut up salt-water fishes also in fresh waters. For that ancient rustic progeny of Romulus and Numa valued themselves mightily upon this and thought it a great matter, that, if a rural life were compared with a city life, it did not come short in any part of riches whatsoever.”
[534] “Orata,” according to Festus, p. 196, 26 ff. Lindsay, “genus piscis appellatur a colore auri, quod rustici _orum_ dicebant.”
[535] See _ante_, p. 146. If he praise our oysters, he straightly condemns the pearls from them, as being “small and discoloured;” wherefore (IX. 57) Julius Cæsar, when he presented a _thorax_ to Venus Genetrix, had it made of British “pearls,” a very poor requital to a goddess, who, if Suetonius is to be trusted, had so often stood him in good stead, both as a distant ancestress, and in other connections! Some really fine pearls have been found in Scotland and Wales: the best known of these, got at Conway in the eighteenth century, was presented to Catherine of Braganza, and is still preserved in the Crown jewels. Wright, _op. cit._, p. 220.