mustard more than they did ; we use lemon juice, which they 

 rejected ; we still use the Roman pot herbs, but we content our- 

 selves with two or three in a sauce, instead of ten or a dozen. 

 Our palate, chaster than that of jaded and luxurious Rome, has 

 rejected the more complicated stews and ragouts of ancient Rome, 

 the patina, the minutal, the salacacabia ; but we have invented 

 nothing new. The cold waters of our Northern seas give finer 

 fish than the Romans ever knew ; we have drawn the turtle from 

 the West Indies, and mulligatawney and curry from the East, but 

 we have invented no new conceptions since the rissoles of Helio- 

 gabalus. The Roman cook, who knew his Apicius, would be 

 capable of cooking for a city company of the present day, or of 

 fulfilling an engagement as chef to the Reform club. In cookery 

 alone, of all tnings human, human nature seems to rest and be 

 thankful. 



Before leaving this branch of my subject, I will try to give you 

 some idea of a Roman dinner, by setting before you a menu* for 

 sixteen persons, of a dinner given about the middle of the period 

 of the Republic, and therefore before luxury had attained the 

 height it reached in the times of the Empire. 



For a preliminary whet or ante ccenam, there were all sorts of 

 shell fish, such as sea urchins, raw oysters unlimited, fieldfares, 

 and asparagus (echinos, ostreas crudas, quantum vdlent, pdoridas, 

 sphondilos, turduvi^ asparagos). Shell fish were considered a great 

 luxury by the Romans, and the Mediterranean furnishes a large 

 variety. The grape-fed fieldfare was also a great luxury, and a 

 corona of roast fieldfares was placed round another dish, in this 

 case probably round the asparagus, as a garnish. 



Next comes the first course proper : gallinam altilem, patinatn 

 ostreorum, peforidvm, balanos nigros, bnJanos a^bos : that is — fat 

 fowls, stewed oysters, stewed muscles, and balani, both black and 

 white. Balani may be acorns, chesnuts, or dates, or sea-fish — 

 I don't know which. 



For the second course: sphondihs, gh/comaridas, urticas, 

 fideculas, lumbos caprugineos, aprugnos, altilia ex farina involuta, 

 * The Cana Mddli, Macrobius, ii. 9. 





