AND AMERICAN RURAL SPORTS. 
269 
cooks. The peacock was a constant dish at all the great 
entertainments. It was the truffled turkey of those days. 
Hirtius Pansa, who had the ill luck to give a feast where 
this indispensable article did not appear, was reckoned a 
niggard, a man without taste, and was ever after scorned by 
delicate feeders. In those aviaries thrushes and pigeons 
were bred. It seems, too, there were then the same fan- 
cies as there are at present. Certain varieties were much 
sought after. Yarro relates that a couple of pigeons brought 
2000 sesterces, about 19/. of our money. Sempronius 
Lucius first had served on his table young storks. Geese 
were crammed in the same manner as now to enlarge their 
livers; but it was a dish too easily obtained, and sopn those 
who wished to distinguish themselves invented new sorts 
of meat. They dressed , the brains of ostriches, and the 
tongues of flamingos. Wild geese were sent for from Phry- 
gia; cranes from Melos; and pheasants from Colchis. 
Fishes. — As to fish, luxury went even farther than in 
birds and quadrupeds. At one period , of the republic, a 
man eating a fish would have been thought shamefully dain- 
ty. But the severity of manners disappeared on the intro- 
duction of riches; and Cato complains, that in his time, a 
fish sold as dear as an ox. Yet, even then, Gallonius was 
publicly accused in the senate, and was nearly deprived of 
his rank, on account of the luxury of his table, having had 
sturgeons on it. The inventor of fish-ponds was Lucinius 
Muraena, and thence came the surname which was after- 
wards borne by this family. 
Hortensius followed his example, and even went beyond 
it. Very soon, it was not enough to have fresh-water fish, 
for salt-water ponds were formed, in which were bred sea- 
trouts, soles, John Dories, and shell-fish of different kinds. 
Lucullus, in order to let in sea-water to one of his preserves, 
had a mountain cut through, and from this extravagance was 
deservedly called Xerxes Togatus. At his death there 
were so many fish in his ponds, that Cato of Utica, who 
was trustee on the succession, having ordered them to be 
sold, received for them the sum of 32,000/. sterling. The 
sale of the fish-ponds of Irrius yielded the same price. 
Caesar wishing, on a particular occasion, to give a feast to the 
Roman people, applied to this Irrius for some lampreys. 
Irrius refused to sell any, but, according to Pliny, agreed to 
lend him six 'thousand. Yarro says only two thousand. 
The object then was, who could be most absurd about lam- 
preys. Hortensius had some of which he was more careful 
than of his slaves, and not for the purpose of eating them. 
Those served on his table were bought in the market. He 
is said to have wept on the death of one of these fish. Cras- 
sus, the orator, in a like case, went farther, — he put on 
mourning. His colleague Domitius chid him for it in the 
senate; but all this was nothing compared to the deeds of 
Claudius Pollio. He more than once threw in living men 
to be devoured by his lampreys. 
Other fish were equally the object of prodigality of which 
we can hardly form a conception. The accipenser was 
generally sold for more than a thousand drachmae. It was 
never set on the table without a flourish of trumpets. The 
accipenser was not, as it would seem, the ordinary sturgeon, 
but the sterlet, a small species with a pointed snout, caught 
in the rivers that fall into the Black Sea. The mullet, or 
roach of Provence, called in Paris the sun-mullet, was also 
sold excessively dear. A mullet weighing four lbs. fetched 
.£37; another £62. Three together, in the reign of Tibe- 
rius, were sold so high as £250. These fish used even to 
be brought alive to the dining-room, by canals filled with 
salt-water which passed under the table. The fact is un- 
doubted, and is attested by the invectives of Seneca. 
Snails and Oysters. — Singular attention was likewise 
paid to snails. The same Fulvius Plirpinus, who had 
thought of parks for quadrupeds, contrived parks for them 
too. As snails could not be retained by inclosures, the 
places in which they were kept were surrounded with water. 
Jars of earthen-ware were set for them to retire into, and 
they were fattened with mulled wine and flour. Pliny says 
there were some of the weight of 25 lbs. Those that grew 
to this size were certainly not Italian snails. But we know 
that snails were likewise brought from foreign countries, as 
Africa and Illyria. 
The man who first showed the way of making oyster-beds 
was Sergius Aurata. He, like Lucinius, derived his sur- 
name from a fish, the John Dory. The preserver of the 
Lucrine Lake had for a long time the character of produ- 
cing the best oysters. Next to them were those of Brun- 
dusium. At last refinement was carried farther; and the 
oysters of Brundusium were taken to be parked in the Lu- 
crine Lake. 
Fruits. — It appears that fruits were less sought after then 
than they ha ve been since. The only new fruit introduced 
at this time was the cherry, which Lucullus brought from 
Cerasus, a town in Asia Minor, sixty-nine years before 
Christ. 
Perfumes and Dress.— The luxury in perfumes was be- 
yond measure, and drew to Rome the most costly aromatics 
of the East. The luxury of dress was equally great, and 
made known purple, pearls, and precious stones. At one 
time there was quite a rage for opals; and one individual, 
rather let himself be prosecuted, than give up to Sylla a 
very fine one the dictator desired to have. 
Furniture. — The dominion of fashion extended equally 
to furniture, and raised the Value of certain kinds of wood 
to an enormous amount. For a while the citrus was pre- 
ferred. The tree thus named was not the citrus of Theo- 
