Sergius Orata

[1] Orata wanted to take advantage of the wealthy Romans' liking for shellfish as food, so he developed many new techniques for breeding oysters.

This included the practice of surrounding mature oysters with twigs, to which their young (known as "spats") could affix themselves and thus be easily transplanted wherever desired.

[2] This allowed for the creation of artificial oyster beds, which he surrounded with channels and dams in order to protect them from the sea tides.

This brought him into conflict with the local Roman tax farmer Considius, in a dispute over his use of the public resource of the lakefront for his business.

Orata was also a significant developer and builder of luxury villas in the area, Crassus made a joke based on the common use of terra cotta tiles both as surfaces for artificial oyster beds and also in the roofs of structures, saying that "even if Orata were deprived of the waters of the lake, he would still find oysters on his roof-tiles".