Hunting and Fishing

Paintings and sculptures from the time of ancient Rome's fishermen still exist today. Additionally, fishing and eating fish appear frequently in the works of the ancient writers. A lot of the tombs and murals include fishing scenes. Without it, it would be quite difficult for us to imagine what life was like for fishermen three thousand years ago.

The baskets and fishing equipment were constructed from willow branches. Additionally, they were caught with harpoons, hooks, and lines, as well as fishing nets for smaller fish. The hooks range in length from eight microns to eighteen centimeters. Copper was the material used for their fish hooks, although bronze grew more popular over time. There are numerous images of fishing in Old Kingdom tombs. They used pork, bread, or tiny pieces of dates as bait. Artificial bait was never utilized by the Romans as fishing bait.

When a fish was caught, it was killed with a club before being collected in baskets. They ate a variety of fish, including catfish, eels, elephant fish, etc. While fishing is more of a pastime today, it was a significant occupation during the Roman era. Their primary source of nourishment was fish. Animal hunting in the wild was an exciting sport, too. Rome was home to wolves, bears, wild boars, deer, and goats. They all used Pugio, the Roman dagger, to hunt their prey.