The Romans ate absolutely anything that swam, walked, crawled, hopped, flew or slithered. Quail, pigeon, peacocks, pheasants, ostriches, thrushes, camels, boar, dormice, grasshoppers, eels, land and sea snails. Hadrian was particularly fond of a dish made from pheasant, peacock, sow's udder and wild boar flesh all baked together in a crust like a grotesque meat tart. In 69 A.D., the emperor Vitellius sent warships to gather ingredients "collected in every corner of the empire from the Parthian frontier to the Straits of Gibraltar" for a votive offering to the Goddess. Of all his attempts to please Her, She most preferred a divine repast of "The Shield of Minerva," an elaborate concoction consisting of charfish livers, pheasant and peacock brains, flamingo tongues, and lamprey entrails. Yum.