Note 574 — Chapter III · FOOD OF HOMERIC TIMES—MEAT, FISH, ETC.

Ass’s flesh was commonly eaten by the Athenians. Poll. ix. 48, et Comment. t. vi. p. 938, seq. Their neighbours the Persians, however, enjoyed one dainty not known, I believe, to the Greeks; that is to say, a camel, which, we are told, they sometimes roasted whole. Herod. i. 123. Athen. iv. 6. In the opinion of Aristotle the flesh of this animal was singularly good: ἔχει δὲ καὶ τὰ κρέα καὶ τὸ γάλα ἥδιστα πάντων.—Hist. Anim. vi. 26. It was this passage, perhaps, that first induced Heliogabalus to try a camel’s foot, which he appears afterwards to have much affected. Lamprid. Vit. Anton. Heliogab. § 19. Hist. Aug. Script. p. 195. The same emperor also tried the taste of an ostrich, whose eggs anciently constituted an article of food among certain nations of Africa. Lucian. de Dipsad. § 7.