Martial 　 English, Roman　《person》

　 Matial (Martialis) was a Roman poet born in Spain.　William Radcliffe in his book "Fishing from the Earliest Times" (1921) mentioned that he found a description of fly fishing in a poetry composed by Martial:

　

Namque quis nescit　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　

Avidum vorata decipi scarum musca?　

　　

Who has not seen the scarus rise, 　

Decoyed and killed by fraudulent flies?

　

　 The top verse is in original Latin, the following is the English translation in the Radcliffe's book.　It appears that he had considerable problems in the process of　English translation, and Radcliffe attempted an explanation using 7 pages in his book.

　 The author consulted with Emeritus Prof. Shigenori Fujimoto (ancient-language specialist) in regards to the poet.　Fujimoto was surprised because the Latin and English translation differed considerably.　He offered the following translations: Who does not know “scaros" swallowed the fly, deceived and has been caught.　The author was told by Prof. Fujimoto that he could not understand what kind of fish the scaros was.　But, it seems true that an artificial fly was used to catch the fish.

　 This is a description from around 50 A.D and is said to be one of the oldest records of fly fishing remaining at present.　It was a description 1400 years before the appearance of Juliana Berners’ book.

【Reference】Fishing from the earliest times, 1921.　Trout (Schwiebert), 1978.　The fly, 2001.

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