282 OYSTERS, AND ALL ABOUT THEM.. 



dish. Again, as to their medicinal properties, there was 

 much difference of opinion. Mnesitheus, in his treatise 

 on comestibles, says oysters, cockles, and mussels, and 

 similar things, are not very digestible, because of a sort of 

 saline moisture, which has a peculiar effect on the bowels. 

 Roasted oysters, he says, if cleverly done, are very free 

 from any sort of inconvenience, for all the evil properties 

 are destroyed by the fire. That some Romans had a deli- 

 cate perception of different qualities in oysters is as pro- 

 bable as the fact is now certain as to many among our- 

 selves ; and hence it is not a mere satire of Montanus : 



" He, whether Circe's rock his oysters bore, 



Or Lucrine Lake, or distant Richborouglr s shore, 

 Knew at first taste." 



The description will, doubtless, apply to many a 

 Roman banquet : Around stood silver dishes containing 

 asparagus, lactuca, radishes, and other productions of the 

 garden, in addition to lacerta, flavoured both with mint 

 and rue, and with Byzantine mziria, and dressed snails and 

 oysters, while fresh ones in abundance were handed round. 

 The company expressed their admiration of their host's 

 fanciful invention, and then proceeded to help themselves 

 to what each, according to his taste, considered the best 

 incentive of an appetite. At the same time slaves carried 

 round in golden goblets the mulsum, composed of Hymet- 

 tian honey and Falernian wines, (b) This description is 

 strictly correct, as the Romans ate oysters not only raw, 

 but cooked in various ways. 



Macrobius clearly distinguishes between two kinds of 

 oysters which were handed to the guests, and of which 

 they partook or not, at their pleasure. One he points out 



(b) Becker's " Gallus." 



