Page:The Deipnosophists (Volume 2).djvu/184

 answered him:—Theopompus the Chian, in his History of Greece, and in the thirteenth book of his History of the Affairs and Exploits of Philip, says that the Egyptians sent to Agesilaus the Lacedæmonian, when he arrived in Egypt, some fatted ([Greek: siteutous]) calves and geese [Greek: chênas]). And Epigenes the comic poet says in his Bacchanalian Women—

But if a person were to take me like A fatted goose ([Greek: chêna siteuton]).

And Archestratus, in that celebrated poem of his, says—

And at the same time dress the young of one Fat goose ([Greek: siteutou chênos]), and let him too be roasted thoroughly.

But we have a right now, O Ulpian, to expect you to tell us, you who question everybody about everything, where this very costly dish of the livers of geese has been mentioned by any ancient writer. For Cratinus is a witness that they were acquainted with people whose business it was to feed geese, in his Dionysalexander, where he says—

Geese-feeders, cow-herds

And Homer uses the word [Greek: chên] in both the masculine and feminine gender; for he says—

[Greek: Aietos argên chêna pherôn]—An eagle carrying off a lazy goose.

And again he says—

And as he seized a fine home-fatten'd goose ([Greek: chêna atitallomenên]).

And in another place he says—

I've twenty geese, fond of the lucid stream, Who in my house eat wheat, and fatten fast.

And Eupolis mentions the livers of geese (and they are thought an excessive delicacy at Rome), in his Women Selling Garlands, where he says—

If you have not a goose's liver or heart.

33. There were also heads of pigs split in half and served up as a dish. And this dish is mentioned by Crobylus, in his Son falsely held to be Supposititious—

There came in half a head of a young pig, A tender dish; and I did stick to it So close, by Jove, that I left none of it.

After these things there was served up a haricot, called [Greek: kreôkakkabos]. And this dish consists of meat chopped up with blood and fat, in a sauce richly sweetened: and Aristophanes the Grammarian says that it was the Achæans who