MULLUS, the SUMMULLET, in ichthyology, a genus of fishes belonging to the order of thoracici. See Plate CCCXV. This fish was highly esteemed by the Romans, and bore an exceeding high price. The capricious epicures of Horace's days valued it in proportion to its size; not that the larger were more delicious, but that they were more difficult to be got. The price that was given for one in the time of Ju-
Mulus venal and Pliny is a striking evidence of the luxury and extravagance of the age :
Multiply.
mz.
* 1. 48.
s. 9 d.
M. Vm. sex millibus. mlt
Requiem sane pariter sobria libet. Juv. Sat. IV.
The lavish slave
Six thousand pieces for a mullet gave,
A fencer for each pound. DRYDEN.
Penns. But Asinius Celer, a man of consular dignity, gave a still more unconfessionable sum ; for he did not scruple bestowing 8000 nummi, or 64 l. 11 s. 8 d. for a fish of so small a size as the mullet ; for, according to Horace, a mullus trifidus, or one of three lb. was a great rarity ; so that Juvenal's spark must have had a great bargain in comparison of what Celer had. But Seneca says, that it was not worth a farthing except it died in the very hand of your guest ; that such was the luxury of the times, that there were flews even in the eating-rooms, so that the fish could at once be brought from under the table, and placed on it ; and that they put the mullets in transparent vases, that they might be entertained with the various changes of its rich colour while it lay expiring. Apicius, a wonderful genius for luxurious inventions, first hit upon the method of suffocating them in the exquisite Carthaginian pickle, and afterwards procured a rich sauce from their livers. — This is the same gentleman whom Pliny, in another place, honours with the title of Nepotum omnium altissimi gusti gurgur ; an expression too forcible to be rendered in our language. The body of this fish is very thick, and covered with large scales ; beneath them the colour is a most beautiful rosy red, the changes of which under the thin scales gave that entertainment to the Roman epicurea as above-mentioned ; the scales on the back and sides are of a dirty orange ; those on the nose a bright yellow ; the tail a reddish yellow.