228 THE NATURAL HISTORY OF 



Juvenal and Pliny is a very striking evidence of the luxury 

 and extravagance of the affe. 



" Mullum sex millibus amit 

 Mquantum sane paribus sestertia libra."* 



" The lavish slave 

 Six thousand pieces for a mullet gave, 

 A sesterce for each pound." 



Dry den. 



But Asinius Celer, a man of consular dignity, gave a 

 still more unconscionable sum; for he did not scruple in 

 bestowing eight thousand pieces, a sum equal to sixty-four 

 pounds eleven shillings and eight pence of our money, for 

 so small a fish as the mullet ; for, according to Horace, a 

 Mullus trilibris, or one of three pounds, was a great rarity, 

 so that Juvenal's spark must have obtained a great bargain 

 in comparison of what Celer had. 



But Seneca informs us that it was not worth the amount of 

 a farthing, except it had died in the very hand of the guest; 

 and such was the luxury of the age that there were even 

 stew -holes in the dining-rooms, so that the fish could at once 

 bt brought from under the table and placed upon it. The 

 Romans first brought the mullets in transparent glass vases 

 to the table, in order that they might enjoy the felicity of 

 contemplating the beautiful changes of its evanescent colours 

 during the time of its gradual expiration, after which it was 

 prepared for their repast. + 



Apicius, a wonderful genius for luxurious inventions, first 

 hit upon the method of suffocating them in the exquisite 

 Carthaginian pickle, and afterwards procured a rich sauce 

 from their livers. 



The lips of the mullet are membraneous, and the lower 

 one carinates inwards. They have no teeth in the jaws, J but 



* Plin. lib. ix. c. 17. 



t Seneca Nat. QuaH. Lib. iii. c. 17. 



X Bingley's Animal Biography, vol. 3. p. 292. 



