228 RED SURMULLEYT. . Cima. 
But Afnius Celer*, a man of confular dignity, 
gave a {till more unconfcionable fum, for he did not 
{cruple beftowing eight thoufand nummi, or fixty- 
four pounds eleven fhillings and eight-pence, for a 
fith of fo fmall a fize as the mullet; for according 
to Horace, a Mullus trilibris, or one of three pounds, 
was a oreatrarity; fo that Fuvenal’s {park muft have 
had a great bargain in comparifon of what Ce/er had. 
But Sezeca fays that it was not worth a farthing, 
except it died in the very hand of your gueft : that 
fuch was the luxury of the times, that there wer 
ftews even in the eating rooms, fo that the fifh could 
at once be brought from under the table, and placed 
onit: that they put the mullets in tranfparent vafes, 
that they might be entertained with the various 
changes of its rich color while it lay expiring **. 
Apicius+, a wonderful genius for luxurious inven- 
tions, firft hit upon the method of fuffocating them 
in the exquifite Carthaginian pickle, and afterwards 
procured a rich fauce from their livers. This is the 
fame gentleman whom Ply, in another place, ho- 
-nors with the title of Nepotum omuniuut altiffimus 
gurges§, an expreffion too forcible to be rendered 
in our language ~ 
© Plin. lib. 1X5 €. TFs 
** In cubili natant pifces: et Jub ipfa menfa capitur, qui fatim 
transferitur in menfam : parum videtur vecens mu)lus nift qui in con= 
vive manu moritur. Vitreis ollis inclufi offeruntur, et obfervatur 
aworieatium color, quem in multas mutationes ludtante /piritu vertit. 
Seneca. Nat. Queit. lib. ili. c. 16. 
+ Ad omne luxus ingenium mirus. 
*- Garum Sociorum, vide ps 222s 
§ Lib. x. c. 48. 
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