1892 The flowing bowl when and what to drink (1892, c1891)

OUR ANCESTORS.

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with the luxuries of the table, and furnished them with cooks, bakers and confectioners in the persons of slaves who were sold at high prices. Thenceforth gastronomy became a study, and the ordering and pre- paration of a dinner a science and an art. The Re- public had already had a Lucullus, whose name ever after was associated with sumptuous repasts; but the gastronomic art, for which he was so renowned, did not attain its perfection and glory until imperial times. Then, when Rome had extended her sway over the whole world, the expansion of trade and intercourse brought the dainties of all lands to the capital; the farthest East, and the farthest West, the delicacies of India, the spices of Arabia, the fish and shell-fish of the Atlantic, the game of Gaul and Germany, and the dates of the oases, all met in the Roman kitchen. The Em- peror Vitellius, perhaps the most enormous eater that the Empire ever knew, sent out his legions to hunt game where it was found in the highest perfection, and employed his fleets in furnishing his table with fresh So many arms were set in motion by a single Remark- ably large or fine fish were bought by wealthy gour- mands at fabulous prices, as many anecdotes tell us, but probably more for the sake of notoriety than any- thing else. Fish, oysters, snails, mussels and other shell-fish, of which the Roman kitchen boasted a greater variety fish. stomach ! At this time it was that all the breeding and fattening establishments were erected.