366 RED SURMULLET. Class IV. 



were more delicious, but that they were more 

 difficult to be got. The price that was given 

 for one in the time of Juvenal, and Pliny, is 

 a striking evidence of the luxury and extrava- 

 gance of the age : 



Mullum sex millibus emit 

 JEquantem sane paribus sestertia libris.* 



The lavish slave 

 Six thousand pieces for a Mullet gave, 

 A sesterce for each pound. Dryden. 



But Asinius Celer,"\ a man of consular dig- 

 nity, gave a still more unconscionable sum, for 

 he did not scruple bestowing eight thousand 

 nummi, or sixty-four pounds eleven shillings 

 • and eight-pence, for a fish of so small a size as 

 the mullet ; for according to Horace, a Mullus 

 trilibris, or one of three pounds, was a great 

 rarity ; so that Juvenal's spark must have had 

 a great bargain in comparison of what Celer 

 had. 



But Seneca says that it was not worth a 

 farthing, except it died in the very hand of 

 your guest ; that such was the luxury of the 

 times, that there were stews even in the eating 

 rooms, so that the fish could at once be brought 

 from under the table, and placed on it; that 



* Juvenal Sat. iv. 48/. 8s. Qd. + Plin. Lib. ix. c. 17- 



