“Come Destrier, che dalle reggie stalle, Ove al uso dell’ arme si riserba, Fugge, e libero alfin, per largo calle Va tra gli armenti, o al fiume usato, o all’ erba; Scherzan sul collo i crini, e sulle spalle: Si scuote la cervice alta e superba: Suonano i pie nel corso, e par ch’avvampi, Di sonori nitriti empiendo i campi(206).” To these parallel passages may be added a very similar, though perhaps not a borrowed description, from the earliest production of the most original of all poets, in which the horse of Adonis breaks loose during the dalliance of Venus with his master:— “The strong-necked steed, being tied unto a tree, Breaketh his rein, and to her straight goes he. Imperiously he leaps, he neighs, he bounds, And now his woven girts he breaks asunder, The bearing earth with his hard hoof he wounds, Whose hollow womb resounds like heaven’s thunder. His ears up-prick’d, his braided hanging mane, Upon his compass’d crest, now stands an end; His nostrils drink the air, and forth again, As from a furnace, vapours doth he send. His eye which glisters scornfully, like fire, Shows his hot courage and his high desire(207).” The poem of Ennius, entitled _Phagetica_, is curious,—as one would hardly suppose, that in this early age, luxury had made such progress, that the culinary art should have been systematically or poetically treated. All that we know, however, of the manner in which it was prepared or served up, is from the _Apologia_ of Apuleius. It was, which its name imports, a didactic poem on eatables, particularly fish, as Apuleius testifies.—“Q. Ennii _edes_ phagetica, quæ versibus scripsit, innumerabilia piscium genera enumerat, quæ scilicet curiose cognorat.” It is well known, that previous to the time of Ennius, this subject had been discussed both in prose and verse by various Greek authors(208), and was particularly detailed in the poem of Archestratus the Epicurean— “—— The bard Who sang of poultry, venison, and lard, Poet and cook ——” It appears from the following passage of Apuleius, that the work of Ennius was a digest of all the previous books on this subject,—“Alios etiam multis versibus decoravit, et ubi gentium quisque eorum inveniatur, ostendit qualiter assus, aut jussulentus optime sapiat; nec tamen ab eruditis reprehenditur.” The eleven lines which remain, and which have been preserved by Apuleius, mention the places where different sorts of fish are found in greatest perfection and abundance— “Brundusii Sargus bonus est; hunc, magnus erit si, Sume: Apriclum piscem scite, primum esse Tarenti; Surrentei fac emas Glaucum,” &c.