§308. Courses.--In classical times even the simplest dinner was divided into three parts, the _gustus_ ("appetizer"), the _cena_ ("dinner proper"), and the _secunda mensa_[5] ("dessert"); the dinner was made elaborate by serving each of the parts in several courses. The _gustus_ consisted of those things only that were believed to excite the appetite or aid the digestion: oysters and other shell-fish fresh, sea-fish salted or pickled, certain vegetables that could be eaten uncooked, especially onions, and almost invariably lettuce and eggs, all with piquant sauces. With these appetizers _mulsum_ (§298) was drunk, wine being thought too heavy for an empty stomach, and from the drink the _gustus_ was also called the _promulsis_; another and more significant name for it was _antecena_. Then followed the real dinner, the _cena_, consisting of the more substantial viands, fish, flesh, fowl, and vegetables. With this part of the meal wine was drunk, but in moderation, for it was thought to dull the sense of taste, and the real drinking began only when the _cena_ was over. The _cena_ almost always consisted of several courses (_mensa prima_, _altera_, _tertia_, etc.), three being thought neither niggardly nor extravagant; we are told that Augustus often dined on three courses and never went beyond six. The _secunda mensa_ closed the meal with all sorts of pastry, sweets, nuts, and fruits, fresh and preserved, with which wine was freely drunk. From the fact that eggs were eaten at the beginning of the meal and apples at the close came the proverbial expression, _ab ovo ad mala_.
[Footnote 5: This is the most common form, but the plural also occurs, and the adjective may follow the noun.]
§309. Bills of Fare.--We have preserved to us in literature the bills of fare of a few meals, probably actually served, which may be taken as typical at least of the homely, the generous, and the sumptuous dinner. The simplest is given by Juvenal (died 2d century A.D.): for the _gustus_, asparagus and eggs; for the _cena_, young kid and chicken; for the _secunda mensa_, fruits. Two others are given by Martial (43-101 A.D.): the first has lettuce, onions, tunny-fish, and eggs cut in slices; sausages with porridge, fresh cauliflower, bacon, and beans; pears and chestnuts, and with the wine olives, parched peas, and lupines. The second has mallows, onions, mint, elecampane, anchovies with sliced eggs, and sow's udder in tunny sauce; the _cena_ was served in a single course (_una mensa_), kid, chicken, cold ham, haricot beans, and young cabbage sprouts; fresh fruits, with wine, of course. The last we owe to Macrobius (died 5th century A.D.), who assigns it to a feast of the pontifices during the Republic, feasts that were proverbial for their splendor. The _antecena_ was served in two courses: first, sea-urchins, raw oysters, three kinds of sea-mussels, thrush on asparagus, a fat hen, panned oysters, and mussels; second, mussels again, shell-fish, sea-nettles, figpeckers, loin of goat, loin of pork, fricasseed chicken, figpeckers again, two kinds of sea-snails. The number of courses in which the _cena_ was served is not given: sow's udder, head of wild boar, panned fish, panned sow's udder, domestic ducks, wild ducks, hares, roast chicken, starch pudding, bread. No vegetables or dessert are mentioned by Macrobius, but we may take it for granted that they corresponded to the rest of the feast, and the wine that the pontifices drank was famed as the best.