thus we are in darkness as to the Lydian and Greek art of 

 Cookerjr, except so far as we learn it from Apicius, a book which I 

 shall presently say a good deal about. But that among the Greeks 

 the Art was highly thought of, we know from a quotation from a 

 play of Euphron, preserved in Athenseus— 



OvSiv 6 jxa.ye.ipo'i rod Troir)TOv Sia(f>€pei, 

 O vovs yap ta-TLv e/coTe/soj tovtwv t«vvw. 



The Romans at first were far from holding cooks in such honour: 

 a military and an agricultural people, their original cookery was a 

 very simple affair ; it was very vegetarian. Pliny describes an old 

 fashioned Roman dinner zs~LactuccB singuh^, cochlem terncB, ova 

 bma, altca cum mulso et nive, olivce Bistica;, cucurbitcB, bulbi, alia 

 milk non minus lauta. This peculiarity of being very vegetarian 

 adheres to this day to the cookery of all the Latin races, and is 

 (says Mr. Coote) in itself an evidence of much refinement. 



The great national dish of the primitive Roman was/w/r.- it 

 was a sort of gruel, pap, or pottage made of alica (wheat grits) or 

 of simila (semolina), flavoured with herbs, or brains. Sometimes it 

 was merely milk and biscuit boiled together : a similar dish was 

 ptisana, made from barley grits, and was a barley water flavoured 

 with herbs, vinegar, oil, and wine. The Roman had also a great 

 weakness for sausages and smoked meats [Lucanica, botelli, farci- 

 mina\ Upon this simple style of cooking, the Greek art was 

 engrafted, and the rich, invigorating Asiatic-Greek sauces warmed 

 up the simple Roman fare into life and energy. 



We learn the date of this change from Livy, lib. xxxix c. 6. 

 Writing of the effects of the victories in the year 189 B.C. of Cnceus 

 Manlius Vulso in Asia, he says : LuxuricB mim peregrine origo ab 

 exercitu Asiatico inveda in urbem est. After enumerating several 

 instances, he says, "^/afe quoque ipsoe et cura et sumptu majore 

 appararicoeptcz: turn coquus, vitissimum antiquis mancipium, et asti- 

 matione et usu, m pretio esse; et, quod ministerium fuerat, ars haberi 

 coeptaP Lucullus, also, after his victories over Mithridates and 

 Tigranes, did a great deal to introduce sumptuous living into Rome. 

 He had amassed vast treasures in Asia, and was thus able to gratify 



