The Deipnosophists, or Banquet of the Learned of Athenaeus Part 49

_A._ You shall be call'd a bird.

_B._ Why so, by Vesta?

Is it because I ate my patrimony Like that most fashionable Polyeuctus?

_A._ No, but because you, though you were a man, Were torn in pieces by the women so.

And Theopompus, in the tenth book of his account of the Exploits of Philip, (a book from which some separate the conclusion, in which there is the mention made of the demagogues at Athens,) says that Eubulus the demagogue was an intemperate man. And he uses the following expressions--"And he so far exceeded the whole nation of the Tarentines in luxury and extravagance, that this latter is only immoderate in its indulgence in feasts; but he spent on his luxury even the revenues of the Athenian people. But Callistratus," he continues, "the son of Callicrates, who was himself also a demagogue, was very intemperate in his pleasures, but still he was very attentive to the business of the state." And speaking of the Tarentines, in the fifty-second book of his Histories, he writes as follows--"The city of the Tarentines sacrifices oxen nearly every month, and celebrates public festivals; and the chief body of private individuals is always occupied in banquets and drinking parties. And the Tarentines hold some such language as this: That other men, because they are fond of personal exertion, and because they devote themselves to actual labour, prepare their subsistence in this way for the future: but that they, by means of their banquets and pleasures, are not about to live, but are living already."

62. But concerning the intemperance and general habits and life of Philip and his companions, Theopompus gives the following account, in the forty-ninth book of his Histories--"When Philip became master of great treasures, he did not spend them quickly, but he threw them away and squandered them; being of all the men that ever lived, not only the worst manager himself, but all those who were about him were so too. For absolutely not one of them had any idea of living properly, or of managing his household with moderation. And of that he himself was the cause, being a most insatiable and extravagant man, doing everything in an offhand manner, whether he was acquiring property or giving it away.

For though he was a soldier, he was unable, out of pure laziness, to count what he had coming in and what he spent. And then his companions were men collected together from all quarters; for some of them came from his own country, and some from Thessaly, and some from other parts of Greece, not being selected with any care; but if among either Greeks or barbarians there was any lascivious, or impure, or avaricious man, he had almost every one of the same character a.s.sembled in Macedonia, and they were all called friends of Philip. And even if any one came who was not entirely of that disposition, still under the influence of the life and manners of the Macedonians, he very soon became like the rest. For their wars, and military expeditions, and other great expenses, encouraged them to be audacious, and to live, not in an orderly manner, but after a prodigal fashion and like robbers."

63. But Duris, in the seventh book of his History of the Affairs of Macedonia, speaking of Pasicyprus the king of Cyprus, and of his intemperate habits, writes as follows--"Alexander, after the siege of Tyre, dismissed Pnytagoras, and gave him many presents, and among them he gave him the fortified place which he asked for. And that very place Pasicyprus the king had previously sold, in a luxurious freak, for fifty talents, to Pymatus the Cittiaean, selling him both the fortress itself and his own royal authority over it. And when he had received the money he grew old in Amathus." Such also was aethiops the Corinthian, as Demetrius the Scepsian relates, of whom mention is made by Archilochus; "for he, out of his love of pleasure and intemperance, sailing with Archias to Sicily when he was about to found Syracuse, sold to his messmate for a cake of honey the lot which he had just drawn, and was about to take possession of in Syracuse."

64. But Demetrius carried his extravagance to such a height, he, I mean, who was the descendant of Demetrius Phalereus, according to the account of Hegesander, that he had Aristagora the Corinthian for a mistress, and lived in a most expensive manner. And when the Areopagitae summoned him before them, and ordered him to live more decorously--"But even now,"

said he, "I live like a gentleman, for I have a most beautiful mistress, and I do no wrong to any one, and I drink Chian wine, and I have a sufficiency of everything, as my own revenues suffice for all these expenses. And I do not live as some of you do, corrupted by bribes myself, and intriguing with other men's wives." And hereupon he enumerated some who acted in this manner by name. And Antigonus the king, having heard this, made him a thesmothete. And he, being an hipparch at the Panathenaea, erected a seat close to the statues of Mercury for Aristagora, higher than the Mercuries themselves. And when the mysteries were celebrated at Eleusis, he placed a seat for her close to the temple, saying that those who endeavoured to hinder him should repent it.

65. But Phanodemus, and also Philochorus, have related that in former times the judges of the Areopagus used to summon before them and to punish profligate and extravagant men, and those who had no ostensible means of living: and many others have told the same story. At all events, those judges sent for Menedemus and Asclepiades the philosophers when they were young men and poor, and asked them how they managed to look so sleek and comfortable when they spent the whole day idling with philosophers, and had no property. And they replied that some one of the men about the mill had better be sent for. And when he came and said that they came every night to the mill and threshed and ground the corn, and each earned two drachmae, the judges of the Areopagus marvelled, and presented them with two hundred drachmae as a reward.

And the citizens of Abdera brought Democritus to trial, on the ground that he had wasted the estate which he had inherited from his father.

And when he had read to them his Great World, and his treatise concerning the Things in the Shades below, and had said that he had spent it on these works, he was discharged.

66. But those men who are not so luxurious, as Amphis says--

Drink two entire days in every day, Shaking their heads through their too mighty draughts.

And according to Diphilus--

Having three heads, like to Diana's statue.

Being enemies to their own estate, as Satyrus in his treatise on Characters said, running through their land, tearing to pieces and plundering their own houses, selling their own property as if it were the spoils of the enemy, considering not what has been spent, but what will be spent, and not what will remain afterwards, but what will not remain, having spent beforehand in their youth the money which ought to have carried them safely through old age, rejoicing in companionship, not in companions, and in their wine, and not in those who drink it with them. But Agatharchides the Corinthian, in the twenty-eighth book of his Commentary on the Affairs of Europe, says "that Gnosippus, who was a very luxurious and extravagant man in Sparta, was forbidden by the Ephori to hold intercourse with the young men." And among the Romans, it is related, according to the statement of Posidonius, in the forty-ninth book of his Histories, that there was a man named Apicius who went beyond all other men in intemperance. This is that Apicius who was the cause of banishment to Rutilius, who wrote the history of the Romans in the Greek language. But concerning Apicius, the man, I mean, who is so notorious for his extravagant luxury, we have already spoken in our first book.

67. But Diogenes the Babylonian, in his treatise on n.o.bility of Birth, says "that the son of Phocion, whose name was Phocus, was such a man that there was not one Athenian who did not hate him. And whenever any one met him they said to him, 'O you man who are a disgrace to your family!' For he had expended all his patrimony on intemperance; and after this he became a flatterer of the prefect of Munychia; on which account he was again attacked and reproached by every one. And once, when a voluntary contribution was being made, he came forward and said, before the whole a.s.sembly, 'I, too, contribute my share.' And the Athenians all with one accord cried out, 'Yes, to profligacy.' And Phocus was a man very fond of drinking hard; and accordingly, when he had conquered with horses at the Panathenaea, and when Sopater entertained his companions at a banquet, the preparation was very splendid, and foot-tubs full of wine and spices were set before all who came in. And his father, seeing this, called Phocus, and said, 'Will you not stop your companion from polluting your victory in this fashion?'"

And I know too of many other intemperate and extravagant, men, whom I leave you to find out, with the exception of Callias the son of Hipponicus, whom even the tutors of little children have heard of. But concerning the others whom I have been a little hasty in mentioning, if you have anything to say, I have the doors of my ears open. So speak; for I want to know something.

Besides Magnus used the words ?pes??e?? and ?p?fa?e??. And aemilia.n.u.s said, you have the word ?s?t??? used by Strattis, in his Chrysippus, where he says--

He will not e'en have time to ease himself, Nor to turn to an ?s?t???, nor e'en, If a man meets him, to converse with him.

68. But the instruments used by a cook are enumerated by Anaxippus, in his Harp-player, as follows:--

Bring me a ladle and a dozen spits, A flesh-hook, and a mortar, and a cheese-sc.r.a.per, A cylinder, three troughs, a knife, four choppers.

Will you not, O man hated by the G.o.ds, Make haste and put the kettle on the fire?

And are you now still dawdling at that dish?

And with that largest chopper?

But Aristophanes calls the dish which we commonly call ??t?a, a ?a????, in his play of the Women occupying the Tents; saying--

Warm now the ?a???? of the preceptor.

And, in his Daitaleis, he says--

To bring the ?a???? from thence.

And Antiphanes, in his Friend to the Thebans, says--

We now have everything; for that fine eel From Thebes, a namesake of the one in-doors, Mingling within the hollow ?a????, Is warm, and leaps, is boiled, and bubbles up.

But Antiphanes calls a dish at?????, in his Euthydicus--

Then came a polypus all cut in pieces, And boiled ?? ata????s??.

And Alexis, in his Asclepioclides, says--

But I when sojourning in Sicily, Learn'd to cook with such dexterity, That I make all the guests with eagerness Invade the dishes (at???a) with their teeth at times.

But Antiphanes spells the word with a p; writing it pat?????, in his Wedding--

?at???a, beet, and a.s.saftida, Dishes and candles, coriander and onions, And salt and olives, and round dishes too.

And Philetaerus says, in his nopion--

Here let the cook of dainty dishes (pata????) come.

And, in a subsequent pa.s.sage, he says--

He seems to have more pupils for his dishes Than even Stratonicus had.

And Antiphanes, in his Parasite, said this--

_A._ Another bulky man, large as a table, And n.o.bly born, will come besides this man.

_B._ Whom do you mean?

_A._ A new Carystian, Born of the earth and warm.

_B._ Tell me his name, Or else begone.

_A._ I mean a ????a??, But you, perhaps, would call it merely dish.

_B._ What do I care what name you give to it?

Whether men like to call it ????a??

Or s?tt???, I know the thing you mean.

But Eubulus, in his Ionian, uses both forms, both at????? and pat?????, where he says--

Round dishes, and at???a, and caccabia, And lopadia, and pat???a, in crowds Countless, I could not tell you half their names.