scene i. l. 287, the petasus is attributed to Sosia, because he is

supposed to be coming from a journey; and to Mercury, both because it was commonly attributed to him, and because on this occasion he was personating Sosia.

The Romans were less addicted to the use of the petasus than the Greeks: they often wore it when they were from home; but that they did not consider it at all necessary to wear hats in the open air is manifest from the remark of Suetonius about the Emperor Augustus, that he could not even bear the winter’s sun, and hence “domi quoque non nisi petatasus sub divo spatiabatur.” (_August._ 82.) Caligula permitted the senators to wear them at the theatres as a protection from the sun (Dio. Cass. lix. 7. p. 909, ed. Reimari). What was meant by wearing hats “according to the Thessalian fashion” is by no means clear. Perhaps the Thessalians may have worn hats resembling those of their neighbors, the Macedonians, and of the shape of these we may form some conception from the coins of the Macedonian kings. One of these coins from the collection in the British Museum is copied in Plate IX. Fig. 15. It is a coin of the reign of Alexander I. and exhibits a Macedonian warrior standing by the side of his horse, holding two spears in his left hand, and wearing a hat with a broad brim turned upwards. This Macedonian petasus is called the _Causia_ (καυσία)[633], and was adopted by the Romans[634], and more especially by the Emperor Caracalla, who, as Herodian states, aimed to imitate Alexander the Great in his costume. It appears probable, nevertheless, that the turning up of the brim was not peculiar to the Macedonians, and it may have depended altogether on accident or fancy; for we find instances of it on painted fictile vases, where there is no reason to suppose that any reference was intended either to Macedonia or Thessaly. Fig. 16. Plate IX. for example, is taken from the head of Bellerophon, on one of Sir William Hamilton’s vases[635]; and the left-hand figure from a fictile vase at Vienna, engraved by Ginzrot[636]. This hat is remarkable for the boss at the top, which we observe also on the Ætolian coins, and in various other examples.

[633] Val. Max. v. 1. _Extem._ 4. Pausan., _ap. Eustath. in Il._ ii. 121. It is to be observed, that the _causia_ and _petasus_ are opposed to one another by a writer in Athenæus (L. xii. 537, e), as if the _causia_ was not a petasus!

[634] Plautus, _Mil._ iv. 4. 42. _Pers._ i. 3. 75. Antip. Thess. in _Brunck Anal._ ii. 111.

[635] Vol. i. pl. 1.

[636] _Uber die Wägen und Fuhrwerke der Alten_, vol. i. p. 342.

In connection with the above quoted expression of Dio Cassius it may be observed further, that besides the _causia_ two varieties of the petasus seem to be alluded to by several ancient authors, viz. the Thessalian, and the Arcadian or Laconian. How they were distinguished, cannot be ascertained, but the passages which mention them will now be produced, that the reader may judge for himself. The Thessalian variety is mentioned by Dio Cassius, by Theophrastus, as above quoted (p. 427), and by Callimachus in the following fragment, which is preserved in the Scholia on Sophocles, _Œd. Col._ 316.

And about his head lay a felt, newly come from Thessaly, as a protection from wet.--_Frag._ 124. _ed._ Ernesti.

The frenzied Cynic philosopher Menedemus, among other peculiarities, wore an Arcadian hat, HAVING THE TWELVE SIGNS OF THE ZODIAC WOVEN INTO IT[637]! Ammianus (Brunck, _Anal._ ii. 384.) represents an orator dedicating “an Arcadian hat” to Mercury, who was the patron of his art, and also a native of Arcadia.

[637] Diog. Laërt. vi. 102. See Gilroy’s Treatise on the _Art of Weaving_, American edition, p. 446.

Herodes Atticus wore “the Arcadian hat” at Athens, as a protection from the sun; and the language of Philostratus, in recording the fact, shows that the Athenians of his time commonly wore it, more especially in travelling[638]. Arrian, who wrote about the middle of the second century, says, that “Laconian or Arcadian hats,” were worn in the army by the peltastæ instead of helmets[639]. This circumstance shows a remarkable change of customs; for in the early Greek history we find the Persian soldiers held up as the objects of ridicule and contempt, because they wore hats and trowsers[640]. On the whole, it is very evident that “the Arcadian or Laconian hat” was one and the same variety, and that this variety of head-dress was simply the petasus, or hat with a brim, so called to distinguish it from the proper πῖλος, which was the skull-cap, or hat without a brim.

This supposition suits the representations of the only imaginary beings who are exhibited in works of ancient art wearing the petasus, viz. the Dioscuri and Mercury.

[638] _Vit. Sophist._ ii. 5. 3.

[639] _Tactica_, p. 12. ed. Blancardi.

[640] _Herod._ v. 49.

It has been already observed that the Dioscuri are commonly represented with the skull-cap, because they were worshipped, as the reader will have perceived, as the guardians of the mariner[641]; but on ancient vases we find them sometimes painted with the petasus; and if this was the same with the πῖλος Λακωνικὸς, it would coincide with their origin as natives of Sparta. In Plate IX. Fig. 16, an example is shown, on one of Sir William Hamilton’s vases, in which their attire resembles that of the Athenian ephebi. They wear boots and a tunic, over which one of them also wears the scarf or chlamys. They are conducted by the goddess Night.

[641] See p. 419.

In like manner Mercury, as a native of Arcadia, might be expected to wear “the Arcadian hat.” In the representations of this deity on works of ancient art, the hat, which is often decorated with wings to indicate his office of messenger, as his talaria also did[642], has a great variety of forms, and sometimes the brim is so narrow, that it does not differ from the cap of the artificer already described, or the πῖλος in its ordinary form. These hats, with a brim of but small dimensions, agree most exactly in appearance with the cheapest hats of undyed felt, now made in the United States and Great Britain[643]. On the heads of the rustics and artificers in our streets and lanes we often see forms the exact counterpart of those which we most admire in the works of ancient art. The petasus is also still commonly worn by agricultural laborers in Greece and Asia Minor.

[642] Servius (on _Virg. Æn._ viii. 138) says, that Mercury was supposed to have wings on his petasus and on his feet, in order to denote the swiftness of speech, he being the god of eloquence.

[643] These hats are sold in the shops for sixpence, ninepence, or a shilling each.

A bas-relief in the Vatican collection[644], represents the birth of Hercules, and contains two figures of Mercury. In one he carries the infant Hercules, in the other the caduceus. In both he wears a large scarf, and a skull-cap, like that of Dædalus[645], without a brim. This example therefore proves that, although the petasus, as distinguished from the pileus, was certainly the appropriate attribute of Mercury[646], yet the artists of antiquity sometimes took the liberty of placing on his head the skull-cap instead of the hat, just as we have seen that they sometimes made the reverse substitution in the case of the Dioscuri.

[644] _Museo Pio-Clementino_, tom. iv. tav. 37.

[645] See Plate VIII. Fig. 8.

[646] See Brunck, _Anal._ ii. 41, and Arnobius, _Adv. Gentes_, lib. vi. See also Ephippus, _ap. Athen._ xii. 53. p. 537 F. Casaub.

It is remarkable that the person who acted the part of a Silenus in the Dionysiac procession instituted by Ptolemy Philadelphus at Alexandria, wore a hat and a golden caduceus (_Athen._ v. 27. p. 198 A.). In this case the imagination appears to have been indulged in decorating a mere festive character with the peculiar attributes of Mercury. It is added, that various kinds of chariots were driven by “boys wearing the tunics of charioteers and petasi” (_Athen._ v. p. 200 F.). This would be in character, being agreeable to the custom of the Grecian youth.

The following is from a sepulchral urn found near Padua (_Gruter._ _p._ 297):

Abite hinc, pessimi fures, * * * vestro cum Mercurio petasato caduceatoque.

Another bas-relief in the Vatican[647], represents the story of the birth of Bacchus _from Jupiter’s thigh_. Thus the subject of it is very similar to that, which relates to the birth of Hercules, the infant being in each instance consigned to the care of Mercury. But the covering of Mercury’s head in these two cases is remarkably different, though from no other reason than the fancy of the artist. In the bas-relief now under consideration, Mercury holds the skin of a lynx or panther to receive the child. He wears the scarf or chlamys and cothumi. This was a very favorite subject with the ancients. It occurs on a superb marble vase with the inscription ΣΑΛΠΙΩΝ ΕΠΟΙΗΣΕ[648], and on one of Sir W. Hamilton’s fictile vases[649].

[647] _Museo Pio-Clementino_, tom. iv. tav. 19.

[648] Spon., _Misc. Erud. Ant._ § xi. art. 1.

[649] Vol. i. No. 8.

Figure 4. in Plate X. is from Hope’s _Costume of the Ancients_, vol. ii. pl. 175. The money-bag is in Mercury’s right hand.

In a painting found at Pompeii[650], Mercury is represented with wings (_pinnulæ_) on his petasus, though not very ancient, is also recognized in the Amphitryo of Plautus.

[650] Gell’s _Pompeiana_, London 1819, pl. 76.

Figure 5. in Plate X. is from the Marquis of Lansdowne’s marble bust, published by the Dilettanti Society[651]. In this beautiful bust the brim of the hat is unfortunately damaged.

[651] _Specimens of Ancient Sculpture_, London 1809, pl. 51.

Figures 6 and 7, Plate X., are from coins engraved in Carelli’s _Nummi Veteris Italiæ_ (plates 58 and 65). Figure 7 is a coin of Suessa in Campania.

To these illustrations might have been added others from ancient gems, good examples of which may be found in the second volume of Mariette’s _Traité des Pierres Gravées_, folio, Paris, 1750.

Besides the application of felt as a covering of the head for the male sex in the manner now explained, it was also used as _a lining for helmets_. When in the description of the helmet worn by Ulysses we read

Μέσσῃ δ’ ἐνὶ πῖλος ἀρήρει[652],

we may suppose πῖλος to be used in its most ordinary sense, consequently that the interior of the helmet was a common skull-cap.

[652] Homer, _Il._ x. 265. Eustathius, in his commentary on this passage, says, that the most ancient Greeks always wore felt in their helmets, but that those of more recent times, regarding this use of felt as peculiar to Ulysses, persuaded the painters to exhibit him in a skull-cap, and that this was _first_ done, according to the tradition, by the painter _Apollidorus_. The account of Pliny, who, together with Servius (_in Æn._ ii. 44), represents Nicomachus, and not Apollidorus, as having first adopted this idea.

Being generally thicker than common cloth, felt presented a more effectual obstacle to missile weapons. Hence, when the soldiers under Julius Cæsar were much annoyed by Pompey’s archers, they made shirts or other coverings of felt, and put them on for their defence[653]. Thucydides refers to the use of similar means to protect the body from arrows[654]; and even in besieging and defending cities felt was used, together with hides and sackcloth, to cover the wooden towers and military engines[655].

[653] Jul. Cæsar, _Bell. Civ._ iii. 44.

[654] Thucyd. iv. 34. Schol. _ad loc._

[655] Æneas Tacticus, 33.

Felt was also sometimes used to cover the bodies of quadrupeds. According to Aristotle[656], the Greeks clothed their _molles oves_ either with skins or with pieces of felt; and the wool became gray in consequence. The Persians used the same material for the trappings of their horses (Plutarch, _Artax._ II. p. 1858. ed. Stephani).

[656] _De Gen. Animalium_, v. 5. p. 157. ed. Bekker.

The loose rude coverings for the feet called _Udones_ were sometimes made of felt, being worn within the shoes or brogues of the rustic laborers[657].

[657] Hesiod, _Op. ed Dies_, 542; Grævius, _ad loc._; Cratini, _Fragmenta_, p. 29. ed. Runkel.

In concluding this investigation it may be proper to observe, that, although πῖλος originally meant _felt_, and more especially a skull-cap made of that manufacture, it was sometimes used, at least by the later Greek authors, by an extension of its meaning, to denote a cap of any other material. Thus Athenæus (lib. vi. p. 274. Casaub.) speaking of the Romans, says, that they wore about their heads πίλους προβατείων δερμάτων δασεῖς, _i. e._ “thick caps made of sheep skins.”

APPENDIX D.

ON NETTING.

MANUFACTURE AND USE OF NETS BY THE ANCIENTS--ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE SCRIPTURES, ETC.

Nets were made of Flax, Hemp, and Broom--General terms for nets--Nets used for catching birds--Mode of snaring--Hunting-nets--Method of hunting--Hunting-nets supported by forked stakes--Manner of fixing them--Purse-net or tunnel-net--Homer’s testimony--Nets used by the Persians in lion-hunting--Hunting with nets practised by the ancient Egyptians--Method of hunting--Depth of nets for this purpose--Description of the purse-net--Road-net--Hallier--Dyed feathers used to scare the prey--Casting-net--Manner of throwing by the Arabs--Cyrus king of Persia--His fable of the piper and the fishes--Fishing-nets--Casting-net used by the Apostles--Landing-net (Scap-net)--The Sean--Its length and depth--Modern use of the Sean--Method of fishing with the Sean practised by the Arabians and ancient Egyptians--Corks and leads--Figurative application of the Sean--Curious method of capturing an enemy practised by the Persians--Nets used in India to catch tortoises--Bag-nets and small purse-nets--Novel scent-bag of Verres the Sicilian prætor.

The raw materials, of which the ancients made nets, were flax, hemp[658], and broom[659]. Flax was most commonly used; so that Jerome, when he is prescribing employment for monks, says, “Texantur et _lina_ capiendis piscibus[660].” The operation of netting, as well as that of platting, was expressed by the verb πλέκειν[661]. The meshes were called in Latin _maculæ_[662], in Greek βρόχοι, _dim._ βροχίδες[663].

[658] Rete cannabina. Varro, _De Re Rust._ iii. 5. p. 216, ed. Bipont.

[659] Pliny, H. N. xix. 1. s. 2; xxiv. 9. s. 40.

[660] Hieron. _Epist._ l. ii. p. 173, ed. Par. 1613, 12mo. Hunting-nets are called “lina nodosa” by Ovid, _Met._ iii. 153, and vii. 807. Compare Virg. _Georg_, i. 142; Homer, _Il._ v. 487; Brunck, _Anal._ ii. 94, 494, 495; Artimedorus, ii. 14. See also Pliny, H. N. xix. 1. s. 2.

[661] Πλεξάμενος ἄρκυς, Aristoph. _Lysist._ 790. Τῶν πεπλεγμένων δίκτυων, Bokkeri _Anecdota_, vol. i. p. 354.

[662] Varro, _De Re Rust._ iii. 11; Ovid, _Epist._ v. 19; Nemesiani Cyneg. 302.

[663] Heliodor. l. v. p. 231, ed. Commelini.

The use of all the Latin and Greek terms for nets will now be explained, and in connection with this explanation of terms, will be produced all the facts which can be ascertained upon the subject.

I.

RETIS and RETE; _dim._ RETICULUM.

ΔΙΚΤΥΟΝ[664].

[664] From δικεῖν, _to throw_. See Eurip. _Bacc._ 600, and the Lexicons of Schneider and Passow.

_Retis_ or _Rete_ in Latin, and δίκτυον in Greek, were used to denote nets in general. Thus in an epigram of Leonidas Tarentinus[665], three brothers, one of whom was a hunter, another a fowler, and the third a fisherman, dedicate their nets to Pan. Several imitations of this epigram remain by Alexander Ætolus[666], Antipater Sidonius[667], Archias[668], and others[669]. In one of these epigrams (Ἰουλιάνου Αἰγυπτίου) we find λίνα adopted as a general term for nets instead of δίκτυα, no doubt for the reason above stated. In another epigram[670] a hare is said to have been caught in a net (δίκτυον). Aristophanes mentions nets by the same denomination among the contrivances employed by the fowler[671]. Fishing-nets are called δίκτυα in the following passages of the New Testament: Matt. iv. 20, 21; Mark i. 18, 19; Luke v. 2, 4-6; John xxi. 6, 8, 11: also by Theocritus, _ap. Athen._ vii. 20. p. 284, Cas.; and by Plato, _Sophista_, 220, _b._ p. 134, ed. Bekker.

[665] Brunck, _Anal._ i. 225.

[666] Brunck, _Anal._ i. 418. Alexandri Ætoli _Fragmenta_, a Capelmann, p. 50.

[667] _Ibid._ ii. 9, Nos. 15, 16.

[668] _Ibid._ ii. 94, No. 9.

[669] _Ibid._ ii. 494, 495. Jacobs, _Anthol._ vol. i. p. 188, 189.

[670] Brunck, _Anal._ iii. 239, No 417.

[671] _Aves_, 526-528.

Netting was applied in various ways in the construction of _hen-coops_ and aviaries; and such net-work is called _rete_[672]. It was used to make pens for sheep by night. At the amphitheatres it was sometimes placed over the podium. At a gladiatorial show given by Nero, the net, thus used as a fence against the wild beasts, was knotted _with amber_[673]. The way in which the net was used by the _Retiarii_ is well known. The head-dress called κεκρύφαλος, was a small net of fine flax, silk, or gold thread, and was also called _reticulum_[674]. But by far the most important application of net-work was to the kindred arts of hunting and fishing: and besides the general terms used alike in reference to both these employments, there are special terms to be explained under each head.

[672] Varro, _De Re Rust._ iii. 5.

[673] Plin. H. N. xxxvii. 3. s. 11.

[674] Nonius Marcellus, p. 542, ed. Merceri. See also the article CALANTICA, in Smith’s _Dict. of Greek and Roman Antiquities_.

The use of nets for catching birds was very limited, on which account we find no appropriate name for fowlers’ nets[675]. Nevertheless thrushes were caught in them[676], and doves or pigeons, with their limbs tied up, or fastened to the ground, or with their eyes covered or put out, were confined in a net in order that their cries might allure others into the snare[677]. An account of the nets used by the Egyptians to catch birds is given by Sir Gardner Wilkinson[678], being derived from the paintings found in the catacombs. The net commonly employed for the purpose was the clap-net. Bird-traps were also made by stretching a net over two semicircular frames, which, being joined and laid open, approached to the form of a circle. The trap was baited, and when a bird flew to it and seized the bait, it was instantly caught by the sudden rising of the two sides or flaps.

[675] See Aristophanes, _l. c._

[676] Hor. _Epod._ ii. 33, 34.

[677] Aristoph. _Aves_, 1083.

[678] _Man. and Customs_, vol. iii. p. 35-38, 45.

II.

CASSIS; PLAGA.

ΕΝΟΔΙΟΝ, ΑΡΚΥΣ.

In hunting it was usual to extend nets in a curved line of considerable length[679], so as in part to surround a space, into which the beasts of chase, such as the boar, the wild goat, the deer, the hare, the lion, and the bear might be driven through the opening left on one side. Tibullus (iv. 3. 12) speaks of inclosing woody hills for this purpose:--

... densos indagine colles Claudentem.

[679] Τὰ δίκτυα περιβάλλουσι. Ælian, H. A. xii. 46. Uno portante multitudinem, qua saltus cingerentur. Plin. H. N. xix. l. s. 2. Oppian (_Cyneg._ iv. 120-123) says, that in an Asiatic lion-hunt the nets (ἄρκυες) were placed in the form of the new moon.

The following lines of Virgil show, that the animals were driven into the toils from a distance by the barking of dogs and the shouts of men:

Thy hound the wild-ass in the sylvan chase, Or hare, or hart, with faithful speed will trace; Assail the muddy cave with eager cries, Where the rough boar in secret ambush lies; Press the tall stag with clamors echoing shrill To secret toils, along the aërial hill. Georg. iii. 411-413.--_Warton’s Translation._

In another splendid passage the boar is described as coming into the midst of the nets after he has been driven to them from a mountain or a marsh at a great distance:

And as a savage boar on mountains bred, With forest mast and fattening marshes fed; When once he sees himself in toils inclosed, By huntsmen and their eager hounds opposed; He whets his tusks, and turns and dares the war: The invaders dart their javelins from afar: All keep aloof and safely shout around, But none presumes to give a nearer wound. He frets and froths, erects his bristled hide, And shakes a grove of lances from his side. _Æn._ x. 707-715.--_Dryden’s Translation._

Even in a case where the same poet introduces an equivalent expression to that of Tibullus, already quoted, viz. “saltus indagine cingunt” (_Æn._ iv. 121), he represents the hunting-party as going over a large extent of country to collect the animals out of it:

Postquam altos ventum in montes atque invia lustra, Ecce feræ saxi dejectæ vertice capræ Decurrere jugis; alia de parte patentes Transmittunt cursu campos, atque agmina cervi Pulverulenta fuga glomerant, montesque relinquunt. At puer Ascanius mediis in vallibus acri Gaudet equo, jamque hos cursu, jam præterit illos, Spumantemque dari pecora inter inertia votis Optat aprum, aut fulvum descendere monte leonem. _Æn._ iv. 151-159.

So Ovid (_Epist._ iv. 41, 42):

In nemus ire libet, pressisque in retia cervis, Hortari celeres per juga summa canes; and (_Epist._ v. 19, 20):

Retia sæpe comes maculis distincta tetendi, Sæpe citos egi per juga longa canes.

The _younger_ Pliny describes himself on one occasion sitting beside the nets, while the hunters were pursuing the boars and driving them into the snare (_Epist._ i. 6). In Euripides (_Bacc._ 821-832) we find the following beautiful description of a fawn, which has been driven into the space inclosed by the nets, but has leaped over them and escaped:--

ὡς νεβρὸς χλοεραῖς ἐμπαίζουσα λείμακος ἡ- δοναῖς, ἡνίκ’ ἂν φοβερὸν φύγῃ θήραμ’ ἔξω φυλακᾶς εὐπλέκτων ὑπὲρ ἀρκύων, &c.

Here a Bacchanal, tossing her head into the air with gambols and dancing, is said to be “like a fawn sporting in the green delights of a meadow, when she has escaped the fearful chase by leaping over the well-platted nets so as to be out of the inclosure, whilst the shouting hunter has been urging his dogs to run still more swiftly: by great efforts and with the rapidity of the winds she bounds over a plain beside a river, pleased with solitudes remote from man, and hides herself in the thickets of an umbrageous forest.”

If hollows or valleys were inclosed[680], the nets were no doubt extended only in those openings, through which it was possible for the animals to escape. Also a river was of itself a sufficient boundary:

Inclusum flumine cervum.--Virg. _Æn._ xii. 749.

[680] Nec, velit insidiis altassi claudere valles, Dum placeas, humeri retia ferre negent.--Tibullus, i. 4. 49, 50.

It was the duty of the attendants (J. Pollux, v. 4. 27-31) in most cases to carry the nets on their shoulders, agreeably to the representation in the Plate X. Pliny, _l. c._

Cassibus impositos venor.--Propert. iv. 2. 32.

... alius raras Cervice gravi portare plagas.--Sen. _Hippol._ i. l. 44.

The proper Latin term for the hunting-net, but more especially for the purse-net, which will be hereafter described, was CASSIS. “Cassis, genus venatorii retis.” Isidori Hispalensis _Orig._ xix. 5. “Arctos rodere casses” is applied by Persius (v. 170) to a quadruped with incisor teeth caught in such a net and striving to escape. See also Propertius as just quoted, and the _Agamemnon_ of Seneca and Virgil’s _Georgics_ as quoted below. _Cassis_ seems to be derived from the root of _capere_ and _catch_. But PLAGA was also applied to hunting-nets, so that Horace describes the hunting of the boar in the following terms:

Aut trudit acres hinc et hinc multa cane Apros in obstantes plagas.--_Epod._ ii. 31, 32.

Lucretius (lib. v. 1251, 1252) aptly compares the setting up of the _plagæ_ to the planting of a hedge around the forest:

Nam fovea atque igni prius est venarier ortum, Quam sæpire plagis saltum, canibusque ciere.

In the same manner _plagæ_ is used in the _Hippolytus_ of Seneca, as above quoted, and in Pliny[681].

[681] H. N. xix. 1. s. 2.

To dispose the nets in the manner which has been described, was called “retia ponere” (Virg. _Georg._ i. 307) or “retia tendere” (Ovid, _Art. Amat._ i. 45).

In Homer a hunting-net is called λίνον πάναγρον, literally, “the flax that catches everything[682].” But the proper Greek term for the hunting-net, corresponding to the Latin _cassis_, was ἄρκυς, which is accordingly employed in the passages of Oppian and Euripides cited above. Also the epigram of Antipater Sidonius, to which a reference has already been made, specifies the hunting-net by the same appellation:

Δᾶμις μὲν θηρῶν ἄρκυν ὀρειονόμων.

The word is used in the same sense by Cratinus[683]; also by Arrian, where he remarks that the Celts dispensed with the use of nets in hunting, because they trusted to the swiftness of their greyhounds[684]. In Euripides[685] it is used metaphorically: the children cry out, when their mother is pursuing them,

Ὡς ἐγγὺς ἤδη γ’ ἐσμέν ἀρκύων ζίφους,

_i. e._ “Now how near we are being caught with the sword.”

[682] _Il._ v. 487.

[683] Cratini _Fragmenta_, a Runkel, p. 28.

[684] Καί εἰσὶν αἱ κύνες αὗται, ὅ τι περ αἱ ἄρκυς Ξενοφῶντι ἐκείνῳ, _i. e._ “And here greyhounds answered the same purpose as Xenophon’s hunting-nets.” _De Venat._ ii. 21. See Dansey’s translation, pp. 72, 121.

[685] _Medea_, 1268.

Also in the _Agamemnon_ of Æschylus (l. 1085):

Ἡ δίκτυον τί γ’ Αἴδου; ἀλλ’ ἄρκυς ἡ ζύνευνος, ἡ ζυναιτία φόνου.

In this passage reference is made to the large shawl in which Clytemnestra wrapt the body of Agamemnon, as in a net, in order to destroy him. On account of the use made of it, the same fatal garment is afterwards (l. 1353) compared to a casting-net, which in its form bore a considerable resemblance to the _cassis_. In l. 1346, ἀρκύστατα[686] denotes this net as set up for hunting. The same form occurs again in the _Eumenides_ (l. 112); and in the _Persæ_ (102-104) escape from danger is in nearly the same terms expressed by the notion of overleaping the net. In Euripides[687] this contrivance is called ἀρκύστατος μηχανὴ; and in the _Agamemnon_ of Seneca[688] the same allusion is introduced:

At ille, ut altis hispidus silvis aper; Cum, casse vinctus, tentat egressus tamen, Arctatque motu vincla, et incassum furit, Cupit, fluentes undique et cæcos sinus Disjicere, et hostem quærit implicitus suum.

[686] Or, ἀρκύστατον, ed. Schütz. l. 1376.

[687] _Orestes_, 1405, s. 1421.

[688] L. 886-890.

Part of the apparatus of a huntsman consisted in the stakes which he drove into the ground to support his nets, and which Antipater Sidonius thus describes:

Καὶ πυρὶ θηγαλέους ὀξυπαγεῖς στάλικας; _i. e._ “The sharp stakes hardened in the fire[689].”

The term which Xenophon uses of the stakes is, according to some manuscripts of his work, σχαλίδες. He says, they should be fixed so as to lean backwards, and thus more effectually to resist the impulse of the animals rushing against them[690]. The Latin term answering to στάλικες was VARI. We find it thus used by Lucan:

Aut, cum dispositis adtollat retia varis Venator, tenet ora levis clamosa Molossi. _Pharsalia_, iv. 439, 440.

_i. e._ “The hunter holds the noisy mouth of the light Molossian dog, when he lifts up the nets to the stakes arranged in order.”

[689] Brunck, _Anal._ ii. 10. We find στάλικες in Oppian, _Cyneg._ iv. 67, 71, 121, 380; Pollux, _Onom._ v. 31.

[690] _De Venat._ vi. 7.

Gratius Faliscus, adopting a Greek term, calls them _ancones_, on account of the “elbow” or fork at the top:

Hic magis in cervos valuit metus: ast ubi lentæ Interdum Libyco fucantur sandyce pinnæ, Lineaque extructis lucent anconibus arma, Rarum, si qua metus eludat bellua falsos.--_Cyneg._ 85-88.

It was the business of one of the attendants to watch the nets:

Ego retia servo.--Virg. _Buc._ iii. 75.

Sometimes there was a watchman at each extremity and one in the middle, as in the Persian lion-hunt[691]. The prevalence of this method of hunting in Persia might be inferred from the circumstance, that one of the chief employments of the inhabitants consisted in making these nets (ἄρκυς, Strabo, xv. 3. § 18). To watch the nets was called ἀρκυωρεῖν (Ælian, H. A. i. 2), and the man who discharged this office ἀρκυωρὸς (Xen., _De Ven._ ii. 3; vi. 1.).

[691] Oppian, Cyneg. iv. 124, &c.

The paintings discovered in the catacombs of Egypt show, that the ancient inhabitants of that country used nets for hunting in the same manner which has now been shown to have been the practice of the Persians, Greeks and Romans[692].

[692] Wilkinson’s _Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians_, vol. iii. p. 3-5.

Hunting-nets had much larger meshes than fishing or fowlers’-nets, because in general a fish or a fowl could escape through a much smaller opening than a quadruped. In hunting, the important circumstance was to make the nets so strong that the beasts could not break through them. The large size of the meshes is denoted by the phrases “retia rara[693]” and “raras plagas[694];” and it is exhibited in a bas-relief in the collection of ancient marbles at Ince-Blundell in Lancashire. See Plate X. fig. 1. This sculpture presents the following circumstances, which are worthy of notice as illustrative of the passages above collected from ancient authors. Three servants with staves carry a large net on their shoulders. The foremost of them holds by a leash a dog, which is eager to engage in the chase[695]. Then follows another scene in the hunt. A net with very large meshes and five feet high is set up, being supported by three stakes. Two boars and two deer are caught. A watchman, holding a staff, stands at each end of the net. Fig. 2, Plate X. is taken from a bas-relief in the same collection, representing a party returning from the chase, with the quadrupeds which they have caught. Two men carry the net, holding in their hands the stakes with forks at the top. These bas-reliefs have been taken from sarcophagi erected in commemoration of hunters, and they are engraved in the _Ancient statues, &c. at Ince-Blundell_, vol. ii. pl. 89 and 126. An excellent representation of these forked staves is given in a sepulchral bas-relief in Bartoli, _Admiranda_, tab. 70, which Mr. Dansey has copied at p. 307 of his translation of Arrian _on Coursing_, and which represents a party of hunters returning from the chase. Another example of the _varus_, or forked staff, is seen in a sepulchral stone lately found at York (England), and engraved in Mr. Wellbeloved’s _Eburacum_, pl. 14. fig. 2. The man, who holds the varus in his right hand, and who appears to be a huntsman and a native of the north of England, though partly clothed after the Roman fashion, wears an inner and outer tunic, and over them a fringed sagum. In the _Sepolcri de’ Nasoni_, published by Bartoli, there is a representation of a lion-hunt, and of another in which deer are caught by means of nets set up so as to inclose a large space. In Montfaucon’s _Supplement_, tome iii., is an engraving from a bas-relief, in which a net is represented: but none of these are so instructive as the two bas-reliefs at Ince-Blundell.

[693] Virg. _Æn._ iv. 131; Hor. _Epod._ ii. 33.

[694] Seneca, _Hippol._ l. c.

[695] See Lucan, as quoted in the last page.

Gratius Faliscus recommends that a net should be forty paces long, and full ten knots high:

Et bis vicenos spatium prætendere passus Rete velim, plenisque decem consurgere nodis.--_Cyneg._ 31, 32.

The necessity of making the nets so high that the animals could not leap over them, is alluded to in the expression Ὕψος κρεῖσσον ἐκπηδήματος, _i. e._ “a height too great for the animals _to leap out_[696].”

[696] Æschyli _Agamemnon_, 1347.

Xenophon, in his treatise _on Hunting_, gives various directions respecting the making and setting of nets; and Schneider has added to that treatise a dissertation concerning the ἄρκυς. It is evident that this kind of net was made with a bag (κεκρύφαλος, vi. 7), being the same which is now called the _purse-net_, or the _tunnel-net_, and that the aim of the hunter was to drive the animal into the bag; that the watchman (ἀρκυωρὸς) waited to see it caught there; that branches of trees were placed in the bag to keep it expanded, to render it invisible, and thus to decoy quadrupeds into it; that a rope ran round the mouth of the bag (περίδρομος, vi. 9), and was drawn tight by the impulse of the animal rushing in so as to prevent its escape[697]. To this rope was attached another, called ἐπίδρομος, which was used as follows. In fig. 1. of Plate X. we observe, that the upper border of the net consists of a very strong rope. Xenophon calls this σαρδὼν (vi. 9). In the purse-net it was furnished with rings. The ἀρκυωρὸς, or watchman, lay in ambush, holding one end of the ἐπίδρομος, which ran through the rings, and was fastened at the other end to the περίδρομος, so that by pulling it he drew the mouth of the bag still more firm and close. He then went to the bag and despatched the quadruped which it inclosed, or carried it off alive, informing his companions of the capture by _shouting_[698].

[697] This effect of the περίδρομος is well expressed by Seneca, “Arctatque motu vincla:” also the circumstance of the branches used to distend the bag and to make it invisible; “Fluentes undique et cæcos sinus.”

Homer (_Il._ v. 487) seems to allude to the same contrivance, and to apply the term ἀχῖδες to the rope which encircled the entrance of the bag, with the others attached to it.

We find in Brunck’s _Analecta_ (ii. 10. No. xx.) the phrase ἀγκύλα δίκτυα applied to hunting-nets. It was probably meant to designate the ἄρκυς, which might be called ἀγκύλα, _i. e._ angular, because they were made like bags ending in a point. The term νεφέλη, which occurs in Aristophanes (_Aves_, 195), and denoted some contrivance for catching birds, is said by the Scholiast on the passage to have meant a kind of hunting-net. But this explanation is evidently good for nothing.

[698] Oppian, _Cyneg._ iv. 409. Pliny mentions these _epidromi_, or _running ropes_: H. N. xix. 1. s. 2.

In this treatise Xenophon distinguishes the nets used in hunting by three different appellations; ἄρκυς, ἐνόδιον, and δίκτυον. Oppian also distinguishes the δίκτυον used in hunting from the ἄρκυς[699]. The ἄρκυς or _cassis_, _i. e._ “the purse- or tunnel-net,” was by much the most complicated in its formation. The ἐνόδιον, or “road-net,” was comparatively small: it was placed across any road, or path, to prevent the animals from pursuing that path: it must have been used to stop the narrow openings between bushes. The δίκτυον was a large net, simply intended to inclose the ground: it therefore resembled in some measure the sean used in fishing. The term, thus specially applied, may be translated _a hay_, or _a hallier_[700]. These three kinds of nets appear to be mentioned together by Nemesianus under the names of _retia_ (i. e. δίκτυα), _casses_ (i. e. ἄρκυς), and _plagæ_ (i. e. ἐνόδια.):

Necnon et casses idem venatibus aptos, Atque plagas, longoque meantia retia tractu Addiscunt raris semper contexere nodis, Et servare modum maculis, linoque tenaci.

_Cyneg._ 299-302.

[699] _Ibid._ iv. 381.

[700] See Arrian _on Coursing: the Cynegeticus of the younger_ Xenophon, _translated from the Greek_, &c. &c. _by a graduate of Medicine_ (William C. Dansey, M. B.). London, 1831, pp. 68, 188.

Xenophon, in his treatise on Hunting, further informs us, that the cord used for making the ἄρκυς, or purse-net, consisted of three strands, and that three lines twisted together commonly made a strand (ii. 4); but that, when the net was intended to catch the wild boar, nine lines went to a strand instead of three (x. 2).

It remains to be noticed, that, when the long range of nets, set up in the manner which has been now represented, was designed to catch the stag (_cervus_), it was flanked by cords, to which, as well as to the nets themselves, feathers _dyed scarlet_, and of other bright colors intermixed with their native white, and sometimes probably birds’ wings, were tied so as to flare and flutter in the wind[701]. This appendage to the nets was called the _metus_ or _formido_ (Virg. _Æn._