Fish were the chief object of the Roman epicures, of which the mullus, the rhombus, and the asellus were the most valued; it is recorded that a mullus (sea barbel), weighing but eight pounds, sold for eight thousand sesterces.

Equus, Mulus, Asellus, &c. aeque fere vescuntur ac pabula omnia, Mat. Riccius, lib. 5. cap.

As censor he had degraded a man named Asellus, whom Mummius afterwards restored to the equites.

Asellus impeached Scipio, and taunted him with the unluckiness of his censorshipits mortality, &c. 'No wonder,' said Scipio, 'for the man who inaugurated it rehabilitated you.' Such anecdotes show that he was a vigorous speaker.

Though of that extraction, he was a Roman citizen, and by far the bravest horseman of all the Campanians, insomuch that when he served under the Roman banners, there was but one man, Claudius Asellus, a Roman, who rivalled him in his reputation as a horseman.

Taurea having for a long time diligently sought for this man, riding up to the squadrons of the enemy, at length having obtained silence, inquired where Claudius Asellus was, and asked why, since he had been accustomed to dispute about their merit in words, he would not decide the matter with the sword, and if vanquished give him spolia opima, or if victorious take them.

Asellus, who was in the camp, having been informed of this, waited only to ask the consul leave to depart from the ordinary course and fight an enemy who had challenged him.

In the present year, at Capua, when Jubellius Taurea, the most expert horseman of the Campanians, gave a challenge, Claudius Asellus, the most expert among the Roman horsemen, was pitted against him.