Fish
Sim. Bah! fish and meat at the same sitting! To mix earth and sea. This is forbidden by physicians.
Scop. Nay, rather physicians are pleased by it.
Sim. I think it is because it is profitable to them.
Scop. Why, then, do the physicians forbid it?
Sim. I have made a mistake. I ought to have said that it is prohibited by the art of medicine, not by physicians. But what sort of fish is this?
Scop. Place them in order. The first is roasted pike with vinegar and capers, then turbot cooked with the juice of pointed sorrel, fried soles, a fresh pike and a capito (large-headed fish)—the salted pike serve for yourself—fresh roasted and salted tunny-fish, fresh maenae (small sea fish) fried, pasties, in which are many bearded-fishes, murenae, and trout, with suitable relishes, fried gudgeon and boiled lobsters and crabs. Mingle with them dishes with garlic, pepper, mustard, pounded up.
Sim. I will indeed speak of the fish, but not eat of them.
Crit. If a philosopher begins to conduct a controversy on fish, i.e., on a most uncertain, debatable question, then let us have a bed set up, so that we can sleep here.
Scop. No one is worthy to even taste these dishes. Take them away.
Sim. And yet formerly banquets at Rome were most splendid and they were accustomed to say that sumptuous ones were given which consisted entirely of fish.
Crit. Thus have times changed, although this custom also lasts with some people.