Summary and Keywords
Oppian: author of a five-book Greek didactic poem on fish and fishing at sea, composed around 177–180 ce and addressed to the emperor Marcus Aurelius and his son Commodus. The first two books of the poem deal with the habits and habitats of marine species; the last three deal with methods for their capture. The poem, which contains a wealth of material on fish and fishing, is notable for its extended epic similes and representation of the affinities between human and non-human animals.
Keywords: Oppian, Halieutica, fish, fishing, zoology, didactic poetry, epic, Marcus Aurelius, Commodus, Cilicia
Access to the complete content on Oxford Classical Dictionary requires a subscription or purchase. Public users are able to search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter without a subscription. If you are a student or academic complete our librarian recommendation form to recommend the Oxford Research Encyclopedias to your librarians for an institutional free trial.
Please subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you have purchased a print title that contains an access token, please see the token for information about how to register your code.
For questions on access or troubleshooting, please check our FAQs, and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us.
