But the cestres are called by some writers plotes, as Polemo says, in his treatise on the Rivers in Sicily. And Epicharmus, in his Muses, gives them this name—
Aeolians, and plotes, and cynoglossi.And Aristotle, in his treatise on the Dispositions and Way of Living of Animals, says that “the cestres live even if they are deprived of their tails. But the cestreus is eaten by the pike, and the conger is eaten by the turbot.” And there is an often-quoted proverb, “The cestreus is fasting,” which is applied to men who live with strict regard to justice, because the cestreus is never carnivorous. Anaxilas, in his Morose Man, attacking Maton the Sophist for his gluttony, says—
There also were sciathides.
Maton seized hold of a large cestreus' head,And that beautiful writer, Archestratus, says—
And ate it all. But I am quite undone.
Buy if you can a cestreus which has comeDiocles, in his Sea, says—
From the sea-girt Aegina; then you shall
For well-bred men be fitting company.
The cestreus leaps for joy.