Book 3
93
And Xenophon, that most accomplished of writers, in his treatise entitled Hiero, or the Tyrant, abuses all such food, and says, For what, said Hiero, have you never noticed all the multitudinous contrivances which are set before tyrants, acid, and harsh, and sour; and whatever else there can be of the same kind?—To be sure I have, said Simonides, and all those things appeared to me to be very contrary to the natural taste of any man. And do you think, said Hiero, that these dishes are anything else but the fancies of a diseased and vitiated taste; since those who eat with appetite, you well know, have no need of these contrivances and provo- catives.
