word used anywhere. For the best [Greek: pernai] 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 seventh[1] 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 [Greek: pernai] are cured, equal to the Cantabrian hams."
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 ([Greek: trophalis]), the glory of fair Sicily," let us, my friends, also say something about cheese ([Greek: tyros]). 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.
The Tromilican[2] cheese also has a high character, respecting which Demetrius the Scepsian writes thus in his second book of the Trojan Array—"Tromilea is a city of Achaia, near which a delicious cheese is made of goat's milk, not to be compared with any other kind, and it is called Tromilican. And Simonides mentions it in his Iambic poem, which begins thus—
You're taking wondrous trouble beforehand,
Telembrotus:
and in this poem he says—
And there is the fine Achaian cheese,
Called the Tromilican, which I've brought with me.
