APICII (The Three),

There have been three Apicii in Rome famous for their gluttony. The first lived before the change of the republic; the second under Augustus and Tiberius, and the last under Trajan. Athenæus means the first Apicius, when having said on the testimony of Posidonius, that in Rome they preserved the memory of one Apicius who had outdone all men in gluttony; he adds, that it was the same Apicius who had been the cause of Ruti-lius’s exile. It is well known that Posidonius flourished in Pompey’s time, and that Rutilius was banished about the year of Rome 660.

The second Apicius was the most famous of the three. Athenæus places him under Tiberius, and says, he laid out prodigious sums on his belly, and that there were several sorts of cakes which bore his name. It is he whom Seneca speaks of in his ninetyfifth letter, and in the eleventh chapter of his book, “ De Vita Beata,” and in the treatise of consolation which he wrote to his mother Helvia under the emperor Claudius. We find in the last of these works, that this Apicius lived in Seneca’s time, and kept as it were, a school of gluttony in Rome; that he had consumed two millions and a half in good cheer, and that being much in debt, he at last bethought him of inquiring into the condition of his estate, and finding he had but 250,000 livres left, poisoned himself, lest he should be starved with such a sum. Dion, who calls him M. Gabius Apicius, reports the same thing. Pliny calls him M. Apicius, and often mentions the ragouts which he invented;Nepotum omnium altissimus gurges. A book had been written on his gluttony, which is quoted by Athenæus. It is not to be doubted but this is the Apicius of Juvenal, Martial, Lampridius,&c.

The third Apicius lived in Trajan’s time. He

had an admirable secret for preserving oysters, which he showed when he sent some to Trajan into Partida: they were still fresh enough when Trajan received them. The name of Apicius was for a long time given to several dishes, and made a kind of sect among the cooks. We have a treatise “ De re Culinaria,” under the name of Cælius Apicius, which some critics judge ancient enough, though they do not take it to be composed by any of these three. Some choose to call the author of this book Apicius Cælius. A learned Dane is of the number, who ascribes this work to him who sent the oysters to the emperor Trajan. This book was found by Albanus Torinus in the island of Maguelone near Montpellier, who published it twelve years after at Basil. It had been found elsewhere near an hundred years before by Enoch d’Ascoli, in the time of Pope Nicholas V. There was in the title-page M. Cæcilius Apicius. Vossius is of opinion that the author’s name was M. Cælius, or M. Cæcilius, and that he entitled his work, Apicius, because it treated of the kitchen.—Art.Apicius.