When he was ill his physician prescribed a thrush as diet, but those who tried to get one did not find any, for thrushes were out of season; however, somebody said that they would be found at the house of Lucullus, where they were kept the year round. ‘So then,’ said Pompey, ‘if Lucullus were not a voluptuary, Pompey could not live !’ and letting his physician go, he made his diet of things not so hard to procure. 1
1 Cf. Plutarch's Life of Pompey, chap. ii. (620 B); Life of Lucullus, chap. xl. (518 F); Moralia, 786 A. Stobaeus, Florilegium, xvii. 43, quotes from Musonius a similar story about Zeno the philosopher.
Plutarch. Moralia. with an English Translation by. Frank Cole Babbitt. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press. London. William Heinemann Ltd. 1931. 3.
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