Book 14
67
And Lynceus, in his epistle to the comic poet, Posidippus, says—In the delineation of the tragic passions, I do not think that Euripides is at all superior to Sophocles, but in dried figs, I do think that Attica is superior to every other country on earth. And in his letter to Diagoras, he writes thus:—"But this country opposes to the Chelidonian dried figs those which are called Brigindaridæ, which in their name indeed are barbarous, but which in delicious flavour are not at all less Attic than the others. And Phœnicides, in his Hated Woman, says— They celebrate the praise of myrtle-berries, Of honey, of the Propylæa, and of figs; Now these I tasted when I first arrived, And saw the Propylæa; yet have I found nothing Which to a woodcock can for taste compare. In which lines we must take notice of the mention of the woodcock. But Philemon, in his treatise on Attic Names, says that the most excellent dried figs are those called Aegilides; and that Aegila is the name of a borough in Attica, which derives its name from a hero called Aegilus; but that the dried figs of a reddish black colour are called Chelidonians. Theopompus also, in the Peace, praising the Tithrasian figs, speaks thus— Barley cakes, cheesecakes, and Tithrasian figs. But dried figs were so very much sought after by all men, (for really, as Aristophanes says— There's really nothing nicer than dried figs;) that even Amitrochates, the king of the Indians, wrote to Antiochus, entreating him (it is Hegesander who tells this story) to buy and send him some sweet wine, and some dried figs, and a sophist; and that Antiochus wrote to him in answer, "The dried figs and the sweet wine we will send you; but it is not lawful for a sophist to be sold in Greece. The Greeks were also in the habit of eating dried figs roasted, as Pherecrates proves by what he says in the Corianno, where we find— But pick me out some of those roasted figs. And a few lines later he says— Will you not bring me here some black dried figs Dost understand? Among the Mariandyni, That barbarous tribe, they call these black dried figs Their dishes. I am aware, too, that Pamphilus has mentioned a kind of dried figs, which he calls προκνίδες.
