Fermented Fish Products: Ancient and Modern

CHAPTER TWO

FERMENTED FISH PRODUCTS: ANCIENT AND MODERN

Ancient Processed Fish: The Literary Evidence for Production The principal commodity produced at Roman salting installations was salted fish, called salsamentum (Greek tdQtxoi;, or sometimes ttµaxoi;). 1 This was a general term, derived from the Latin sal (salt) and used to des• ignate any meat, but particularly fish, preserved by various methods of salting. The details of these processes are not easily learned from literary sources. We must lament the loss of many works, such as those of Mnesi• theus of Athens and Diodes of Carystus, both of the 4th cent. B.c., Diphi• lus of Siphnos (fl. early 3rd cent. B.c.), Euthydemus of Athens (fl. ca. 2nd cent. B.c.), Hicesius of Smyrna (fl. ca. 100 B.c.), and Dorion (fl. 1st. cent. A.D.), extant only in excerpts from the works of later writers, for example the Deipnosophistae of Athenaeus (fl. 2nd cent. A.o.). Since the focus of these authors, physicians and writers on hygiene, food, and fish, was pri• marily on fish as food, we cannot be sure that they described the produc• tion process at all. Nevertheless, from fragments of their writings and those of others which record the diverse forms in which salted fish prod• ucts were manufactured, we can gather some idea of these products and the various techniques of production. The end products received specific names dependent upon the shape or form in which they were processed, saltiness, type of fish, and so forth. TQ(ywvov, tEtQdywvov (Pl. la), and xu~tov designated salted fish of a par• ticular shape; axQ6:rtaotoi; (lightly salted), ~µttdQtxoi; (half-salted), tEA.ELOi; (fully salted), tdQtxoi; tLA.t6v (salted with scales), and tdQtxoi; A.Embwt6v (salted without scales) imply particular methods of production used; {mo• ydotQLU (stomach portion) and µEA.dvbQua (dorsal slice) denote the partic• ular part of the fish used. The term WQa[ov may signify a young tunny or a

1 Salsamentum can, in general, refer to any salted food, but salted fish seems to have been the commodity produced in greatest quantity, and so the one most frequently referred to in the sources. Ttµaxoc; denoted specifically a slice of salted fish, whereas 'tOQIXO<; could refer to whole fish as well. The sources rarely distinguish between salted, dried, smoked, or pickled fish. All are subsumed under the terms salsamentum or 'tOQIXO<;. For this reason, I shall also use these terms unless a distinction is clear or a comment is necessary. In general, one can assume that salted, dried, or smoked fish is meant if the container in which the product is held is a basket; and pickled or salted, if the vessel is an amphora or similar container. For 'tOQl• xoc; see Demetrius J. Georgacas, Ichthyological Terms for the Sturgeon and Etymology of the Inter• national Terms Botargo, Caviar and Congeners (Athens 1978), pp. 154-61; and Kohler, TdQLXO<;, esp. pp. 26-37. Besnier ("Salsamentum," Dar.-Sag., pp. 1022-23), Eberl (Fischlronseroen, pp. 11- 30), and Corcoran ("Roman Fishing Industry," passim) draw heavily upon the discussion of Kohler. FERMENTED FISH PRODUCTS 7 fish prepared during a certain season. 2 Some salted fish products received specific names derived from the type of fish used: for example, j3wQ(bLa, from the j3WQE'U~; xoQax(bw, from the XOQax[vo~; and 'tUALv(bLa from the 't'IJAri. Tunny cut into quarters were called 0uvvELa or 0uvv(bE~. 3 Latin did not distinguish the various kinds of salted fish to the same extent. Except for the occasional use of Latinized Greek terms, such as cybium, melan• dryum, trigonum, and horaeum, all salted fish were included under the word salsamenta.4 Manufacturers did not waste any part of the fish, but used everything, such as the tail, stomach, neck or.head.5 The innards, gills, and any other parts normally considered refuse also had a use; these were made into fish sauce. 6 The Romans produced four different sauces: garum, liquamen, al• lec, and muria. Garum was the primary product, while allec (Pl. lb), the sediment created in making garum, was of secondary importance. 7 The Ro• man penchant for using the terms liquamen and muria imprecisely renders allusive a firm understanding of these products. The former term, which probably originally designated a sauce distinct from garum, acquired be• fore the fifth century A.D. almost generic value for any fish sauce, while the latter was a word sometimes used to mean garum and at other times to signify the liquid used in making garum or in packing salted fish products in vessels for transport. 8 Greek expressions for fish sauce were not so var-

2 TQCywvov (Athen. 3.116c); 'tE'tQ(iywvov (ibid. 3.116b); xvfiLov (ibid. 3.116e, 118a-b); lxxQ6:rcaoi:oi; (Xenocrates ap. Orib. 2.58.150; for :rcaoi:oi; see esp. Georgacas, lchthyological Terms, pp. 161-63); T)µmiQLXoi; or T)µCVT]QOV (Athen. 3.117a; 118f; cf. Xenocrates ap. Orib. 2.58.151); 'tdQLXoi; 'tfAELoi; (Athen. 3.120d); 'tdQLXoi; 'tLA't6v and 'tdQLXoi; >..mLll001:6v (Pollux Onom. 6.49; Hesychius s.v. 'tLA't6v); u:rcoydoi:QLOV (Athen. 3.116b; 7.302d; 9.399c); µuavl>Qua (ibid. 3.121b; 7.315e); ci>QaCov (ibid. 3.116a,e; 120e-f; Pollux Onom. 6.48; cf. Pliny HN 11.36). 'Cµo"tdQLxoi; is a term which may refer either to a lightly salted fish (Eberl, Fischkonserven, p. 20) or to the shoul• der portion of a tunny (Kohler, TdQLXoi;, p. 30). See Nicostratus fr. 1 Edmonds, Alexis fr. 15 Edmonds, and Xenocrates ap. Orib. 2.58.144. Other terms for salted fish products will be met as the discussion progresses. Xenocrates' work is preserved in Book II of Oribasius' Medical Collections ( = Oribasii Collectionum Medicarum Reliquiae. Johann Reader, ed. 4 vols. CMG VI,1,1 [Leipzig 1928-33], pp. 47-57). 3 Athen. 3.118d (0uvvCl>Ei;), 116e (0vvvELa), and Hesychius s.v. 0uvv(l>Ei;: 01Jvvwv 'tEµQX'J, and s.v. 0uvvdl>Ei;· TEµdX'J "taQCXOU. Cf. below, p. 133, and note 107. 4 Melandryum: Martial 3.77.7; Varro Ling. 5.77; and below note 16; cybium: Pliny HN 9.48, 32.151; Martial 5.78.5; Varro Ling. 5.77; horaeum: Plaut. Captivi 851; Varro Ling. 5.77; trigonum: Plaut. Captivi 851. 5 Tail: Persius Sat. 5.183 (cauda thynm); Pliny HN 9.48; Martial 11.31.14. Stomach, neck and head: Pliny HN 9.48. See also Manilius Astron. 5.656-81 (Appendix 1-3). 6 Pliny HN 31.93. For Roman fish sauces see Zahn, "Garum," RE, cols. 841-49; Thomas Corcoran, "Roman Fish Sauces," CJ 58 (1963): 204-10; Pierre Grima! and Thomas Monod, "Sur la veritable nature du 'Garum'," REA 54 (1952): 27-38; Jardin, "Garum," pp. 70-%; and Robert I. Curtis, "In Defense of Garum," CJ 78 (1983): 232-40. 7 Pliny HN 31.95. The dregs (faex) of garum was variously spelled allec (Hor. Sat. 2.8.9), hallec (Plaut. Aul. fr. 5), allex (Pliny HN 31. 95), and hallex (Plaut. Poen. 1310; Cato Agr. 58). The latter form is found most often in painted inscriptions on commercial amphorae. 8 Llquamen: Caelius Aurelianus On Chronic Diseases (Tardarum passionum) 2.1.40: garum, quod appellamus liquamen; idem. 2.3.70: ex garo . .. quod vulgo liquamen appellant. For Caelius Aureli-