Cookery and Dining in Imperial Rome

another word, one upon which much contemptuous witticism and serious energy has been spent. _Garum_ simply is a generic name for fish essences. True, _garus_ is a certain and a distinct kind of Mediterranean fish, originally used in the manufacture of _garum_; but this product, in the course of time, has been altered, modified, adulterated,--in short, has been changed and the term has naturally been applied to all varieties and variations of fish essences, without distinction, and it has thus become a collective term, covering all varieties of fish sauces. Indeed, the corruption and degeneration of this term, _garum_, had so advanced at the time of Vinidarius in the fifth century as to lose even its association with any kind of fish. Terms like _garatum_ (prepared with g.) have been derived from it. Prepared with the addition of wine it becomes _{oe}nogarum_,--wine sauce--and dishes prepared with such wine sauce receive the adjective of _{oe}nogaratum_, and so forth. The original _garum_ was no doubt akin to our modern anchovy sauce, at least the best quality of the ancient sauce. The principles of manufacture surely are alike. _Garum_, like our anchovy sauce, is the _purée_ of a small fish, named _garus_, as yet unidentified. The fish, intestines and all, was spiced, pounded, fermented, salted, strained and bottled for future use. The finest _garum_ was made of the livers of the fish only, exposed to the sun, fermented, somehow preserved. It was an expensive article in old Rome, famed for its medicinal properties. Its mode of manufacture has given rise to much criticism and scorn on the part of medieval and modern commentators and interpreters who could not comprehend the "perverse taste" of the ancients in placing any value on the "essence from putrified intestines of fish." However, _garum_ has been vindicated, confirmed, endorsed, reiterated, rediscovered, if you please, by modern science! What, pray, is the difference in principle between _garum_ (the exact nature of which is unknown) and the oil of the liver of cod (or less expensive fish) exposed to the beneficial rays of ultraviolet light--artificial sunlight--to imbue the oil with