Pliny the Elder, The Natural History, BOOK XXXI. REMEDIES DERIVED FROM THE AQUATIC PRODUCTION, CHAP. 43.

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CHAP. 43.—GARUM: FIFTEEN REMEDIES.

Another liquid, too, of a very exquisite nature, is that known as "garuim:"¹ it is prepared from the intestines of fish and various parts which would otherwise be thrown away, macerated in salt; so that it is, in fact, the result of their putrefaction. Garum was formerly prepared from a fish, called "garos"² by the Greeks; who assert, also, that a fumigation made with its head has the effect of bringing away the afterbirth.

(8.) At the present day, however, the most esteemed kind of garum is that prepared from the scomber,³ in the fisheries of Carthago Spartaria:⁴ it is known as "garumn of⁵ the allies," and for a couple of congii we have to pay but little less than one thousand sesterces. Indeed, there is no liquid hardly, with the exception of the unguents, that has sold at higher prices of late; so much so, that the nations which produce it have become quite ennobled thereby. There are fisheries, too, of the scomber on the coasts of Mauretania and at Carteia in Bætica, near the Straits⁶ which lie at the entrance to the Ocean; this being the only use that is made of the fish. For the production of garum, Clazomenæ is also famed, Pompeii, too, and Leptis; while for their muria, Antipolis,⁷ Thurii, and of late, Dalmatia,⁸ enjoy a high reputation.

1 It was, probably, of an intermediate nature, between caviar and anchovy sauce.

2 See B. xxxii. c. 53. It does not appear to have been identified.

3 As to the identity of the Scomnber, see B. ix. c. 19.

4 See B. xix. c. 7.

5 "Garum sociorum."

6 The present Straits of Gibraltar.

7 In Gallia Narbonensis.

8 Sillig reads "Delmatia" here.

The Natural History. Pliny the Elder. John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S. H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A. London. Taylor and Francis, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street. 1855.

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Pliny the Elder, The Natural History
John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S., H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A., Ed.

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CHAP. 43.—GARUM: FIFTEEN REMEDIES.

Pliny the Elder, The Natural History John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S., H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A., Ed.

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CHAP. 43.—GARUM: FIFTEEN REMEDIES.

Pliny the Elder, The Natural History
John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S., H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A., Ed.