Capon Capon A capon (from ) is a cockerel (rooster) that has been castrated to improve the quality of its flesh for food and, in some countries like Spain, fattened by forced feeding. In the United Kingdom, birds sold as capons are chemically or physically castrated cocks. The origins of caponised chickens are contested. They were known in ancient China as well as in ancient Greece and ancient Rome. An early record of caponisation is found under the Roman Republic: the Lex Faunia of 162 BC forbade fattening hens to conserve grain rations, so the Romans instead castrated roosters, which resulted
Rooster Gallic rooster is an emblem of France. The rooster is also an emblem of Wallonia and the Turkish city of Denizli. Among Roman deities, Priapus was sometimes represented as a cock, with its beak as a phallus and its wattles as testicles. The cock or a man with rooster attributes was similarly used as an erotic symbol, "Priapus Gallinaceus" The Cockburn clan in Scotland use the cock as their badge. Their canting coat-of-arms is "Argent three cocks gules", and their motto is ACCENDIT CANTU (Latin: He rouses us with song). A fighting cockerel on a ball is the symbol of