Epistle V. — Ausonius to Paulus

Of oysters famed through the lavish feasts of high-born prodigals, whether dredged from the depths of various seas or left bare by ebbing shallows, or sheltered beneath rugged caves and in jagged clefts amid the rocks, those which green moss, which stained seaweed hides, whose welded shells are firm-shut as the stones, which when removed from their home and planted in rich ooze are fattened by the inward moisture of the packed slime; — of these you bid me tell all the kinds, Paulus, my old comrade, made used to my trifling by sportive verse. I will approach the task albeit the theme stir not an old man's zest nor be thought fit for the notice of a frugal man. For I have no Salian fare, no repasts of savour such as had the banquets of Penelope's wastrel suitors or of the sleek and scented youth about Alcinous. Yet will I tell o'er the tale following report and testimony according to the tastes of men ever diverse in judgment.

Howbeit, for me the choicest above all are those bred by the Ocean of the Meduli,' which, named after Bordeaux, high esteem hath raised even to Caesar's board, no less renowned than are our famous wines. These amongst all have won the pride of place, the rest lagging far behind: these be of substance both full fat and snowy white, and with their sweet juice most delicately mingle some flavour of the sea touched with a fine taste of salt. Next, though next at distance of long interval, are the oysters of Marseilles, which Narbo feeds near Venus' haven; and those which, untended, the Hellespontine wave shelters at Abydos; or those which cling afloat to the piles of Baiae; those washed by the Santonic surge; those known to the Genoni; or those harboured by Ebora's stream where it joins the sea, so that they lie covered with a deep bed of weed: rough of shell are these, and sweet and rich of meat.

There are, too, such as praise the oysters of the Armoric deep, and those which shoremen gather on Pictonic coasts, and which the tide sometimes leaves bare for the wondering Caledonian.' Add those which, reared below Byzantium's shores and the vexed beaches of Propontis, late-born renown now honours with distinction after the name of Promotus the general.

These I tell thee, no bard, no historian, nor yet a world-wandering gourmand, but things I have heard from many, as wont is, whenever a challenge from a table on the right provokes gentle Lyaeus with friendly converse. These are known to me not from common company nor from taverns, nor from the guilds of Plautine parasites, but because I myself have often celebrated festal days, sometimes with gatherings of my friends, or going in turn to banquets as a bidden guest, when perchance a friend observed a birthday or a marriage feast, or a carouse sanctioned by our fathers' custom: there I have heard many a worthy man praise these, and I remember them.