36 OYSTERS, AND ALL ABOUT THEM. 



Lucrinus ; fresher than those of the British coasts ; sweeter 

 than those of Medulae (the district in the vicinity of 

 Bordeaux, now called Medoc) ; more tasty than those of 

 Ephesus ; more plump than those of Lucus ; less slimy 

 than those of Coryphas (a town of Mysia, opposite 

 Lesbos) ; more delicate than those of Istria, and whiter 

 than those of Circeii (a town of Latium). But, on the 

 question of the best kinds, Pliny does not agree with 

 Mucianus, though so high an authority for the latter 

 appears to have been a sort of Frank Buckland in his day, 

 as an authority on oysters. 



" Notwithstanding this opinion," he says, " it is quite 

 certain that no oysters can compare with those of Circeii 

 in point of sweetness and delicacy of flavour." 



The Romans, it is clear, paid considerable attention 

 to the cultivation of oysters, and consumed vast quantities 

 of them ; and although there was some difference of 

 opinion as to their wholesomeness as food, on the whole 

 Roman taste was decidedly in their favour. Horace, 

 Martial, and Juvenal, Cicero and Seneca, Pliny, Aetius, 

 and the old Greek doctor, Oribasius, whom Julian the 

 Apostate delighted to honour, and other men of taste 

 amongst the ancients, have enlarged upon the various 

 qualities of the oyster ; and was it not to Sergius Grata 

 that we owe our present oyster-beds ; for he it was who 

 introduced layers or stews for oysters at Baiae, the Brighton 

 of ancient Rome, as we have them at present. 



The author of that highly instructive and amusing 



* ' J <J 



brochure, " Silver-shell, or the Adventures of an Oyster," 

 in alluding to the above, thus describes the birthplace of 

 European oyster culture : 



''Naples owes its fame, and probably its existence, to 

 the superlative loveliness of its situation." 



