Book 14
74
The verb χηνίζω, to cackle like a goose (χὴν), is used and applied to those who play on the flute. Diphilus says in his Synoris— Ἐχήνισας,,—this noise is always made By all the pupils of Timotheus.
75
And since there is a portion of a fore-quarter of pork which is called πέρνα placed before each of us, let us say Something about it, if any one remembers having seen the word used anywhere. For the best πέρναι are those from Cisalpine Gaul: those from Cibyra in Asia are not much inferior to them, nor are those from Lycia. And Strabo mentions them in the third book of his Geography, (and he is not a very modern author). And he says also, in the seventhThere is probably some great corruption here; for Posidonius was a contemporary of Cicero. book of the same treatise, that he was acquainted with Posidonius the Stoic philosopher, of whom we have often spoken as a friend of Scipio who took Carthage. And these are the words of Strabo—In Spain, in the province of Aquitania, is the city Pompelo, which one may consider equivalent to Pompeiopolis, where admirable πέρναι are cured, equal to the Cantabrian hams.
75
The comic poet Aristomenes, in his Bacchus, speaks of meat cured by being sprinkled with salt, saying— I put before you now this salted meat. And in his Jugglers he says— The servant always ate some salted crab.
76
But since we have here fresh cheese (τρόφαλις), the glory of fair Sicily, let us, my friends, also say something about cheese (τυρός). For Philemon, in his play entitled The Sicilian, says— I once did think that Sicily could make This one especial thing, good-flavour'd cheese; But now I've heard this good of it besides, That not only is the cheese of Sicily good, But all its pigeons too: and if one speaks Of richly-broider'd robes, they are Sicilian; And so I think that island now supplies All sorts of dainties and of furniture.
