210 FISH MANIA— VITELLIUS—APICIUS— COOKS 



that but barely ;^8o,ooo remained, and despairing of being 

 able to satisfy the cravings of his hunger from such a miserable 

 pittance he poisoned himself. He is possibly the author of a 

 Treatise (in ten books !) of recipes for new dishes and new 

 sauces for fish ; for one of the latter more than twenty-five 

 ingredients were necessary.^ 



The importance attached to cooks and cooking finds a 

 cloud of witnesses in Greek and Roman writers. Athenaeus 

 in especial recites their triumphs and their bombastic boasts. 

 So high was the chef's position and so excellent was the cuisine 

 in Greece that we iind the Roman ambassadors, who in the 

 sixth century B.C. were sent to investigate the working of 

 Solon's Laws, bringing home a special report on Cooking ! 



To these Attic cordons bleus in succeeding generations not 

 only Italy but Persia were glad to send pupils, and pay 

 exorbitant fees for tuition. The Attic cook gave himself the 

 same airs of superiority over his Roman brother, as the French 

 chef over the Anglican — him " of a hundred sects but only 

 one sauce." Careme, the chef of Talleyrand (the author of 

 this mot), never abated his claim that to the success of the 

 Congress of Vienna he contributed no less than his master. - 

 His salary, however, does not begin to compare with that of 

 Antony's cook, ;^30oo a year and " perquisites " galore. 



^ " The Treatise we now possess is a sort of Cook-Confectioners' Manual, 

 containing a multitude of recipes for preparing and cooking all kinds of 

 flesh, fish, and fowl. From the solecisms of style it is probable that it was 

 compiled at a late period by one who prefixed the name of Apicius in order to 

 attract attention and insure the circulation of his book." — Smith's Diet. 

 Gk. Rom. Biog. and Myth. 



Teuffel and Schwabe, History of Roman Literature (trans. G. C. W. Warr, 

 London, 1892), II. 28 f., point out that Coelius Apicius, the traditional author 

 of the work de re coquinaria, should rather be Coelii Apicius, i.e. " the Apicius 

 of Coelius," Apicius being the title and Coelius the writer. The book was 

 founded on Greek originals. 



In Seneca (ad. Helv., 10), "sestertium miUes in culinam consumpsit." See 

 Martial, III. 22, who flays Apicius with biting scorn in his — 



Dedcras, Apici, bis trecenties ventri, 

 Sed adhuc supererat centiens tibi laxum. 

 Hoc tu gravatus ut famem et sitim ferre 

 Summa venenum potione perduxti. 

 Nil est, Apici, tibi gulosius factum." 



For C. Matius the earliest (in the time of Augustus) and for other Latin writers 

 on Cookery, see Columella, XXI. 4 and 44. 

 ^ Sec A. Hayward, Art of Dining. 



