But dried figs were so very much sought after by all men, (for really, as Aristophanes says—
There's really nothing nicer than dried figs;)
that even Amitrochates, the king of the Indians, wrote to Antiochus, entreating him (it is Hegesander who tells this story) to buy and send him some sweet wine, and some dried figs, and a sophist; and that Antiochus wrote to him in answer, "The dried figs and the sweet wine we will send you; but it is not lawful for a sophist to be sold in Greece. The Greeks were also in the habit of eating dried figs roasted, as Pherecrates proves by what he says in the Corianno, where we find—
But pick me out some of those roasted figs.
And a few lines later he says—
Will you not bring me here some black dried figs?
Dost understand? Among the Mariandyni,
That barbarous tribe, they call these black dried figs
Their dishes.
I am aware, too, that Pamphilus has mentioned a kind of dried figs, which he calls προκνίδες.