272 RED SURMULLET. Class IV. 



The lavifh flave 

 Six thoufand pieces for a Mullet gave, 

 A feiterce for each pound. Dryden, 



But Afinius Celer *, a man of confular dignity, 

 / gave a (till more nnconfcionable fum, for he did 

 not fcruple bellowing eight thoufand nummi, or 

 lixty-four pounds eleven millings and eight-pence, 

 for a fifti of fo fmall a fize as the mullet-, for ao, 

 cording to Horace^ a Mullus trilibris^ or one of three 

 pounds, was a great rarity -, fo that Juvenal's fpark 

 muft have had a great bargain in comparifon of 

 what Celer had. 



But Seneca fays that it was not worth a farthing, 

 except it died in the very hand of your gueft : 

 that fuch was the luxury of the times, that there 

 were (lews even in the eating rooms, fo that the 

 fifh could at once be brought from under the table, 

 and placed on it: that they put the mullets in 

 tranfparent vafes, that they might be entertained 

 with the various changes of its rich color while 

 it lay expiring f. Apicius^ a wonderful genius 



* Plin. Lib. IX. c. 17. 



f In cubili natant pifces ; ei fub ipfa ?nenfa capitur, qui 



Jlatim transferitur in me?ifam : parum <videtur recens mullus 



niji qui in con<vi ! v<£ manu moritur. Vitreis ollis incluji ojferuntur, 



et obfer<vatur morienttum color, quern in mult as mutationes lu&ante 



fpiritu vertit. Seneca Nat. Quaeft. Lib* III. c. 16, 



X Ad omne luxus ingenium mirus. 



for 



