A flock of a hundred was fold at a much dearer rate, for 3227. 185. 44. of our mbM. Aufidius Lurco; according to Varro, used to make every year of his peacocks 4841. 75. 6d. ney. 21. Unde datum fentis Lupus hic Tiberinus, an afte Captus hiet? pontesne inter jactatus, an amnis Oftia fub Tufci? laudas infane trilibrem Mullum; in fingula quem minuas pulmenta neceffe eft *. Of carps and mullets why prefer the great, VERY inferior to the original; and principally fo, because that pleasant stroke is omitted, of the cater's knowing in what part of the river the Lupus • Ver. 31. was taken, + Ver. 21. ↑ Pliny, in his Natural History, b. ix. c. 34. mentions an extraordinary circumftance that gave value to their”fish. Tot pifcium faporibus, quibus pretia capientium periculo fant. The fish were esteemed, and supposed to have a higher flavour, in proportion to the dangers that had been undergone in the catching them. We are not yet arrived to the height to which Roman luxury was carried, however we may flatter ourselves on our improvements in eating. and and whether or no-betwixt the two bridges, which was deemed an effential circumstance. The reader will be well entertained on this fubject, if he will look into the seventeenth chapter of the third book of Macrobius, particularly into a curious speech of C. Titius there recited. But Horace feems to have had in his eye a paffage of Lucilius, quoted by Macrobius: Sed & Lucilius acer & violentus poeta, oftendit fcire se hunc pifcem egregii faporis, qui inter duos pontes captus effet. Lucilii verfus hi funt; Fingere præterea afferri quod quifque volebat; WITH respect to the mullus (which is supposed to be what the French and we call furmoullet) Juvenal + fpeaks of one bought • Cujus verba ideo póno, quia non folum de lupo inter duos pontes capto erunt testimonio, fed etiam mores, quibus plerique tunc vivebant, facile publicabunt. Defcribens enim homines prodigos in forum ad judicandum ebrios commeantes: quæque foleant inter fe fermocinari, fic ait; "Ludunt aleâ, &c." p. 335. Parifiis, 1585, ↑ Arbuthnot of Ancient Coins, p. 130. The expences of -Vitellius's table for one year amounted to 7,265,625 pounds bought for 481. 8s. gd. According to Macrobius, there was paid for another 561. 10s. 1d. For a third, according to Pliny, 641. 115. 8d. Our age is as yet unacquainted with the niceness of the an cients in weighing their fishes at table, and beholding them expire. The death of a mullus, with the variety and change of colours in it's laft moments, was reckoned one of the moft entertaining spectacles in the world, by the men of taste at Rome. 21. Presentes Auftri, coquite horum obsonia pounds fterling. In Macrobius, lib. ii. c. 9. is a bill of fare, and an account of the company who fupped with Lentulus, when he was made prieft of Mars: And in See tonius, (Life of Vitellius, cap. 13.) is the defcription of ■ coftly fupper which his brother gave him, in which there were two thousand of the choiceft birds; one difh, for its amplitude and capacity, was called Minerva's bucklery which confifted chiefly of the livers of Scari, the brains of pheasants and peacocks, the tongues of phenicopteræ, and lampreys bellies, brought from the moft diftant coafts in Triremes. Claudius Efopus, the tragedian, had one dishthat coft him 600 feftertia, (4,8431. 10s.) in which, to enhance the price of it, he had put finging-birds. VESTRIS, the modern Bathyllus, is not yet rich enough to give such a dish to his admirers. I know not what Æfopus's falary was for acting; Rofcius had thirty-two pounds five fhillings a day. ⚫er. 41. Oh t Oh! blaft it fouth winds! till a ftench exhale, A VERY filthy and offenfive image, for the happy and decent word coquite; it must be owned our author, as well as Swift, was but too fond of such disgustful images. 22. Tutus erat Rhombus, tutoque Ciconia nido, The Robin-red-breaft till of late had reft, To one that was, or would have been, a peer +. He has happily substituted for the ftork two forts of birds that among us are held as it were facred. Afellus Sempronius Rufus was the perfon § who first taught the Romans to eat ftorks, for which he was faid to have loft the prætorship. On which fubject the following verfes were written, and have been preferved by the old commentator Porphyrio. Ver. 27. + Ver. 37. + Ver. 49. See the Horace of Badius Afcenfius, printed at Paris in folio, 1519, f. 213. VOL. II. X Cico Ciconiarum Rufus ifte Conditor, 23. Porrectum magno magnum fpectare catino Oldfield, with more than Harpy throat endu'd, He has happily introduced this large unwieldy instance of gluttony, fupposed to be peculiar to the Weft Indies. But Athenaus ‡ speaks of a cook that could dress a whole hog with various puddings in his belly. I unfortunately know not with what wine it was bafted. The flow movement of the lines in the original, loaded with fpondees, aptly represent the weight and vastness of the dish. Gula is used perfonally alfo by Juvenal, as it is Sat. xiv. v. 10. • Ver. 40. + Ver. 25. ↑ An author that deferves to be more read and regarded, as abounding with entertaining anecdotes, and various accounts of the manners and ways of living of the ancients, and in quotations of elegant fragments of writers now loft. The fame may be faid of Stobæus, a work full of curious extracts upon important and pleafing fubjects. 24. Si |
