Note 499 — Chapter XIV

Horace, Sat., II. 4. 73; Martial, III. 77. 5; and V. ii., 94. The greatest delicacy of all these mixtures, the so-called Garum Sociorum, exported all over the Empire from Carteia, New Carthage, etc., was compounded of the intestines of the Spanish Mackerel. The absence of beard in the Mackerel is accounted for by this fish being convicted of treason against the reigning Monarch, and condemned to perpetual loss of beard. Keller, op. cit., 326, omits a reference to this Fischeprozess, but cites the habit of writers—especially Bucolic—explaining any natural curiosity by putting into poetic or other shape a legend or Volkslied dealing with the point, e.g. Æsop’s fable why the Camel lacks horns.