46 OYSTERS, AND ALL ABOUT THEM. 



" Dromeas the parasite," says Athenreus, " when some 

 one asked him whether the banquets in the city or at 

 Chalcis were the best, said that the prelude (prooimion) 

 to the banquets at Chalcis was superior to the whole 

 entertainment at the city calling the multitude of oysters 

 served up the prelude to the banquet." (0) 



When L. Cornelius Lentulus (circ. B.C. 50) was 

 installed as Flamen of Mars by L. J. Caesar the augur, he 

 gave a most sumptuous repast to a number of guests in his 

 house, which had been gorgeously decorated for the occa- 

 sion. Macrobius, the grammarian, has given us the " bill 

 of fare," which, so far as we are able to translate the 

 passage, was as follows : " Before dinner: sea urchins, raw 

 oysters ad libitum, pelorides, spondyli, the fish turdus, 

 asparagus. Next course : fat fowls, oyster patties, pelorides, 

 black and white balani. Next course : spondyli, glycy- 

 merides, sea anemones, beccaficos, &c., &c." (/>) 



Oysters were no doubt in ancient times, as now, often 

 eaten at supper. Juvenal speaks of the "Venus Ebria" 

 supping on large oysters and strong Falernian wine ; 



"Who at deep midnight on fat oysters sups 

 And froths with unguents her Falernian cups." 



(Sat. 6, 300.) 



Of all ancient devourers of oysters, Vitellius "the 

 beastly Vitellius," as Gibbon calls him appears to have 

 been the greatest. That Emperor is said to have eaten 

 oysters nearly all day long, and to have swallowed as many 

 as a thousand at a sitting ; and though there must be some 

 exaggeration here, yet when we remember the disgusting 

 habit practised by the Romans, and notably by Vitellius, 

 of whose gormandising powers Suetonius writes, "Facile 



(0) Deipnosoph, 4, 8. 

 (p) " Edinburgh Review," 1868. 



