Sidetracked by a Footnote Mention of Trout

I’ve been sidetracked, this morning, by footnote #117 in Chapter XIII (285-313 A.D.) The Reign of Diocletian and his Three Associates. Part IV, of Edward Gibbon’s work The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, which reads as follows.

Adam’s Antiquities of Diocletian’s Palace at Spalatro, p. 6. We may add a circumstance or two from the Abate Fortis: the little stream of the Hyader, mentioned by Lucan, produces most exquisite trout, which a sagacious writer, perhaps a monk, supposes to have been one of the principal reasons that determined Diocletian in the choice of his retirement. Fortis, p. 45. The same author (p. 38) observes, that a taste for agriculture is reviving at Spalatro; and that an experimental farm has lately been established near the city, by a society of gentlemen.

As a rather avid fly fisher, I was intrigued by this little footnote’s mention of trout, wondering if, in fact, Diocletian actually fly fished for trout, being as the history of flyfishing does go back to Roman times.  Unfortunately, I was unable to determine if Diocletian actually was a fly fisher, and I was also unable to locate the stream mentioned, the Hyader, though I did check various old maps.

My guess is that the “most exquisite trout” mentioned in that footnote would be a brown trout, though I consider the brook trout as the more exquisite of the two.

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