The Book of Household Management by Mrs. Beeton

Apicius offered a prize to any one who could invent a new brine compounded of the liver of red mullets; and Lucullus had a canal cut through a mountain, in the neighbourhood of Naples, that fish might be the more easily transported to the gardens of his villa. Hortensius, the orator, wept over the death of a turbot which he had fed with his own hands; and the daughter of Druses adorned one that she had, with rings of gold. These were, surely, instances of misplaced affection; but there is no accounting for tastes. It was but the other day that we read in the "_Times_" of a wealthy _living_ English hermit, who delights in the companionship of rats! The modern Romans are merged in the general name of Italians, who, with the exception of macaroni, have no specially characteristic article of food.