Fishing from the earliest times - Blog

C LEOPATRA—PTOLEMY—APICIUS 209the Nile and the Red Sea figured conspicuously),pales beforethat of a supper given in honour of Xerxes and his captainsby Antipater of Thasos, i.e. 400 (presumably Attic) talentsor some ;^ioo,ooo ! No wonder Herodotus mournfully adds," Wherever Xerxes took two meals, dinner and supper, thatcity was utterly ruined " 1!Nor at the feasts, which the invader of Media made " fora great multitude every day," was it a case of taking up of thefragments that remained but twelve basketsful, because, asPosidonius (in the 14th book of his History) continues, " besidesthe food that was consumed and the heaps of fragmentswhich were left, every guest carried away with him entirejoints of beasts, and birds, and fishes, which had never beencarved, all ready dressed, ^ in sufficient quantities to fill awaggon. And after this they were presented with a quantityof sweatmeats," etc.The prize, however, for mad lavishness must be adjudgedeven in a race of such strenuous competitors, to " that mostadmirable of all monarchs," Ptolemy Philadelphus. It is" Eclipse first, the rest nowhere," if the description of thecoronation feast given by CalHxenus in his History of Alexandriabe faithfully rendered by Athenaeus.^The imagination of the average reader before reaching thelast chapters will have been fatigued and appalled by thepicture of overwhelming wealth and magnificence, but asPtolemy, after a reign of grandiose and continuous expenditure,left at his death ;^200,ooo,ooo in the treasury, the cost of thewhole entertainment must have been as nought compared withhis revenue.M. Gavius Apicius, after squandering half a million sterlingon the indulging his passion for creating new dishes and newcombinations of food from materials collected in Europe,Asia, and Africa, one day balanced his accounts. Finding1 Herodot., VII. 1 18-120, Athen., IV. 27.* See Athenaeus (V. 46), who is so struck that he quotes the passage twice !The culinary accommodations must have been " prodeegeous !" At thebirthday feast of a mere Persian grandee, an ox and an ass, and other animalsthat were his, even a horse and a camel, were roasted whole in stoves (or ovens).Herodot., I. 133.^ V. 25-35.