APICIUS. There were at Rome three persons of that name, all celebrated as epicures. The second, M. Gabius Apicius, is the most famous of the three. He lived under Tiberius, and invented various sorts of cakes and sauces which bore his name. He squandered L.800,000 on his luxurious appetite; and finding his fortune reduced to little more than L.50,000, he grew alarmed at the prospect of starvation, and poisoned himself. His last draught, according to Seneca, was the most commendable he had ever swallowed. His name was long venerated by the votaries of the gastronomic art, as the highest of culinary authorities; and rival schools of cookery claimed their descent from the great Apicius. A treatise, De Re Culinaria, sive de Obsoniis, &c., by an unknown writer under the assumed name of Cælius Apicius has been frequently reprinted. The best edition is that of Lister, Lond., 1705, 8vo.