Caius Sergius Orata

Caius Sergius Orata was a Roman merchant and hydraulic engineer renowned as a successful businessman and the creative inventor. Taking advantage of the Romans’ liking for selfish in culinary arts, he developed a very lucrative business in farming of fish and oyster. In order to maximize productivity he even developed many new techniques for breeding oysters.

One of his inventions was the creation of artificial oyster beds in the manner that the mature oysters were surrounded by the twigs, to which their young (known as “spats”) could affix themselves and therefore be easily transplanted wherever desired. Using his hydraulic knowledge, he built a complex cultivation system including channels and locks to control the sea tides. Orata was also credited with the invention of a concept of under floor heating or hypocaust. He applied it to keep his tanks of livestock warn and healthy, but eventually it found broader application – for heating public baths and private villas.

He was also known as a renowned builder of expensive villas in the area. Since terra cotta tiles were commonly used in the roof structure and as surface for artificial oyster beds, Crassus gave a witty observation saying that “even if Orata was deprived of the waters of the lake, he would still find oysters on his roof-tiles".

Thanks to his inventions, Sergius Orata became a wealthy man. Some said that he was named after the fish orate so called for its golden color and Sergius allegedly wore two big rings of gold, but the others assert that it is due to the commercialization of these fish.