SPARUS, GILTHEAD, a genus of fishes belonging to the order of thoracii. See ICHTHYOLOGY INDEX. The farus auratus, or gilthead, was well known to the Romans, who did not esteem them unless they were fed with Lucrine oysters, as Martial informs us,
Non omnis laudem pretiumque AURATA meretur,
Sed qui solus erit concha Lucrina cibus.
Lib. xiii. Ep. 90.