Note 338 — Chapter VIII · THE TWO PLINYS—MARTIAL—WAS THE ROD JOINTED?

Pliny (XXXII., 21) and other writers show that epicures, then as now, were divided as to which was the best oyster. Mucianus awards the palm over all the other oysters to those from Cyzicus: “Cyzicena majora Lucrinis, dulciora Britannicis, suaviora Medulis, acriora Lepticis, pleniora Lucensibus, sicciora Coryphantenis, teneriora Istricis, candidiora Circeiensibus,” but Pliny in “Sed his neque dulciora neque teneriora esse ulla, compertum est,” evidently plumps for those of Circeii in Latium. The British oysters came chiefly from Rutupiæ (in Kent), now Richborough, not far from our Whitstable of oyster fame. The castle and camps of Rutupiæ and Regulbum were built by the Romans to command and secure the entrance to the Thames by the arm of the sea, which then separated Kent from the Isle of Thanet. These oysters find mention in Juvenal (IV. 141), “Rutupinoque edita fundo Ostrea callebat primo deprendere morsu.” Dalecampius says of them, “Præstantissima nutriunt.” Our modern rule that no oyster should be eaten in a month whose name lacks an r probably descends from the Mediæval