The Oyster Culture of the Ancient Romans

Abstract

While engaged in the examination of some vase pictures which have been stated to represent certain parts of the shores of the Bay of Pozzuoli as it existed in Roman times, I was struck by two drawings of Roman Oyster culture grounds, or ostrearia, which seem to me to be of considerable interest, not only as affording us direct information concerning the method of oyster culture employed by the Romans in the neighbourhood of Baiæ, but also because they show clearly that that method was the same as the one which still survives and is still carried on, in common with so many other Roman customs in the same locality, exactly as it was nearly two thousand years ago.