About the time of Tiberius, there lived a man named Apicius - very rich and luxurious - for whom several cheesecakes called 'Apician' are named. He lived chiefly in Minturnae, a city of Campania, and spent many drachmas on his belly, especially on very expensive crawfish, a local specialty that was bigger than those of Smyrna and even those of Alexandria. On hearing that the crawfish in Africa were also very good, he sailed there without delay, leaving that very day. Before he reached the shore, he was greeted by the local fishermen who approached him in their boats, offering him some of their very fine crawfish (the news of his visit had created a great stir among the Africans). But when Apicius saw the crawfish, he asked if there were any finer, and when he was told that these were the finest available, he recalled the crawfish of Minturnae, turned his ship round without disembarking, and returned to Italy.