23 NOVEMBER 1956, Page 26

ROMAN BANQUETS

Well, first we had a pig crowned with a wine-cup, garnished with honey-cakes, and liver very well done, and beetroot of course, and pure whole-meal bread. . . . The next dish was a cold tart, with ex- cellent Spanish wine poured over warm honey. . . . Pease and lupines were handed, a choice of nuts and an apple each. . . . Oh! yes, my wife reminds me! There was a piece of bear on a side-dish. . . . I ate over a pound myself, for it tasted like proper wild hoar. What I say is this, since bears eat up us poor men, kow much better right has a poor man to eat up a bear?

Petronlus, Saryrlcon.