[483] Thomson’s translation. The mania for expensive bowls obtained in either nation: the philosopher Aristotle owned 70, while Æsop, the tragic actor, paid £8000 for a single ewer. The histrionic, as Æsop and Roscius show, was a most lucrative profession. Cf. Pliny, XXXV. 46. [484] According to Dion., 65. 4, and Tacitus, _Hist._, II. 95. [485] Tac., _loc. cit._, “noviens milies sestertium paucissimis mensibus intervertisse creditur sagina.” [486] Herodot., VII. 118-120, Athen., IV. 27. [487] See Athenæus (V. 46), who is so struck that he quotes the passage twice! The culinary accommodations must have been “prodeegeous!” At the birthday feast of a mere Persian grandee, an ox and an ass, and other animals that were his, even a horse and a camel, were roasted _whole in stoves_ (or ovens). Herodot., I. 133. [488] V. 25-35. [489] “The Treatise we now possess is a sort of Cook-Confectioners’ Manual, containing a multitude of recipes for preparing and cooking all kinds of flesh, fish, and fowl. From the solecisms of style it is probable that it was compiled at a late period by one who prefixed the name of Apicius in order to attract attention and insure the circulation of his book.”—Smith’s _Dict. Gk. Rom. Biog. and Myth._ Teuffel and Schwabe, _History of Roman Literature_ (trans. G. C. W. Warr, London, 1892), II. 28 f., point out that _Cœlius_ Apicius, the traditional author of the work _de re coquinaria_, should rather be _Cœlii_ Apicius, _i.e._ “the Apicius of Cœlius,” _Apicius_ being the title and Cœlius the writer. The book was founded on Greek originals. In Seneca (_ad. Helv._, 10), “sestertium milies in culinam consumpsit.” See Martial, III. 22, who flays Apicius with biting scorn in his— “Dederas, Apici, bis trecenties ventri, Sed adhuc supererat centiens tibi laxum. Hoc tu gravatus ut famem et sitim ferre Summa venenum potione perduxti. Nil est, Apici, tibi gulosius factum.” For C. Matius the earliest (in the time of Augustus) and for other Latin writers on Cookery, see Columella, XXI. 4 and 44. [490] See A. Hayward, _Art of Dining_. [491] Anaxandrides, _Odysseus_, _frag._ 1. _ap._ Athen., VI. 11. See also Athen., VI. 4-12; VII. 35-41; Livy, XXXIX. 6: “Tum coquus, vilissimum antiquis mancipium et æstimatione et usu, in pretio esse, et quod ministerium fuerat, ars haberi coepta”; and Martial, XIV. 220. [492] _Porphyra_, _frag._ 1. _ap._ Athen., VI. 6. [493] βίων πρᾶσις s. 26. The opening (s. 1) of the auction is not unlike a modern one: “For Sale! a varied assortment of Live Creeds, Tenets of every description. Cash on delivery, or credit on suitable security!” While lot (in s. 26)—The Peripatetic—fetches £80 0_s._ 0_d._, the great Diogenes (in s. 11) is knocked down for threepence! Fowler’s Trs. [494] Ausonius, _Epist._, 5 and 15. But, after all, our own Keats, addressing his favourite Moon, did not hesitate to write: “thou art a relief To the poor patient oyster!”