BOOK X. Lxxi. 140-Lxxn. 142 



way round so as to evade them was discovered, that 

 of feeding- male chickens also with foodstufFs soaked 

 in milk, a method that makes them esteemed as 

 much more acceptable. As for hens, they are not 

 all chosen for fattening, and not unless they have 

 fat skin on the neck. Subsequently came elaborate 

 methods of dressing fowls, so as to display the 

 haunches, so as to spHt them along the back, so as 

 to make them fiU the dishes by spreading them out 

 from one foot. Even the Parthians bestowed their 

 fashions on our cooks. And neverthcless with all 

 this showing off, no entire dish finds favour, only the 

 haunch or in other cases the breast being esteemed. 



LXXII. Aviaries with cages containing all kinds Cage-bmh 

 of birds were first set up by Marcus Laenius Strabo ariariV*. 

 of the Order of Kniglithood at Brindisi. From him 

 began our practice of imprisoning within bars hving 

 creatures to which Nature had assigned the open sky. 

 Nevertheless the most remarkable instance in this 

 record is the dish belonging to the tragic actor 

 Clodius Aesop, rated at the value of 100,000 sesterces, 

 in which he served birds that sang some particular 

 song or talked with human speech, which he acquired 

 at the price of 6000 sesterces apiece, led by no 

 other attraction except the desire to indulge in a 

 sort of cannibaHsm in eating these birds, and not even 

 showing any respect for that lavish fortune of his, 

 even though won by his voice — in fact a worthy father 

 of a son whom we have spoken of " as swallowing 

 pearls, though not so much so as to make me wish to 

 give a true decision in the competition in baseness 

 between the two, unless in so far as it is a smaller 

 thing to have dined on the most bounteous resources 

 of Nature than on the tongues of men. 



383 



