The delicate flesh of the lamb was the ornament of the tables of the voluptuous inhabitants of Sion and Samaria. The prophet Amos reproaches them with this luxury, and threatens them with the Divine anger[XVI-118] on that account. The Greeks carried their love for this meat to such a height, that the magistrates of Athens were obliged to forbid the eating of lamb which had not been shorn.[XVI-119] This restriction did not prevent the epicures of Attica from buying one of these animals every day, which cost them ten drachmas[XVI-120] (6_s._ 5_d._), and the head of which, prepared with art, heightened the beauty of the first course.[XVI-121] Rome and Italy imitated Greece,[XVI-122] and the flocks of the fertile Campania hardly sufficed for the exigencies of the capital of the world, especially towards the end of autumn, a period at which lambs afforded, according to the Romans, a more highly flavoured and wholesome meat than in the spring.[XVI-123] _Lamb’s Head à la Quirinale._--The head is boiled with pepper, garum, and beans, and served with a sauce consisting of garum, pepper, benzoin, and cummin, to which is added a little oil, and small pieces of bread, soaked in sweet wine.[XVI-124] _Quarter of Lamb à l’Esquilin._--Place a quarter of lamb in a saucepan with onions and coriander, chopped very small. Then pound pepper, alisander, and cummin; put to it some oil, wine, and garum. Pour the whole on the lamb; cook well, and thicken with fine flour.[XVI-125] _Palatine Broil._--Leave a piece of lamb during some time in a mixture of pepper, benzoin, garum, and oil. After having cooked it in oil and garum, put it a little while on the gridiron, sprinkle with pepper, and serve.[XVI-126] _Roast Lamb à la Phrygienne._--Bake a lamb and serve it with the following sauce:--Mix well half an ounce of pepper, six scruples of cinnamon, a little ginger, half a pint of excellent garum, and the quarter of that quantity of oil.[XVI-127] _Lamb à la Trimalcion._--Draw a lamb at the neck; preserve the intestines entire, and wash them with the greatest care; fill them with force meat and garum; put them back again by the same way; sew up the opening, and place the lamb in the oven. Then mix gravy and milk; add pounded pepper, garum, wine, sweet wine, and oil; let it boil only an instant; thicken with fine floor, and serve it with the lamb.[XVI-128] Blount informs us of a very ancient and rather strange custom. He says:--