The Deipnosophists, or Banquet of the Learned of Athenaeus Part 63

And the first man he sees both poor and young Buying his eels of Micio, let him seize him, And drag him off to prison by the throat.

And Diphilus, in his Merchant, says that there is some such law as this in existence among the Corinthians--

_A._ This is an admirable law at Corinth, That when we see a man from time to time Purveying largely for his table, we Should ask him whence he comes, and what's his business: And if he be a man of property, Whose revenues can his expenses meet, Then we may let him as he will enjoy himself.

But if he do his income much exceed, Then they bid him desist from such a course, And fix a fine on all who disobey.

And if a man having no means at all Still lives in splendid fashion, him they give Unto the gaoler.

_B._ Hercules! what a law.

_A._ For such a man can't live without some crime.

Dost thou not see? He must rove out by night And rob, break into houses, or else share With some who do so. Or he must haunt the forum, A vile informer, or be always ready As a hired witness. And this tribe we hate, And gladly would expel from this our city.

_B._ And you'd do well, by Jove; but what is that to me?

_A._ Because we see you every day, my friend, Making not moderate but extravagant purchases.

You hinder all the rest from buying fish, And drive the city to the greengrocer, And so we fight for parsley like the combatants At Neptune's games on th' Isthmus. Does a hare Come to the market? it is yours; a thrush Or partridge? all do go the selfsame way.

So that we cannot buy or fish or fowl; And you have raised the price of foreign wine.

And Sophilus, in his Androcles, wishes that the same custom prevailed at Athens also, thinking that it would be a good thing if two or three men were appointed by the city to the regulation of the provision markets.

And Lynceus the Samian wrote a treatise on purveying against some one who was very difficult to please when making his purchases; teaching him what a man ought to say to those homicidal fishmongers, so as to buy what he wants at a fair rate and without being exposed to any annoyance.

13. Ulpian again picking out the thorns from what was said, asked--Are we able to show that the ancients used silver vessels at their banquets?

and is the word p??a? a Greek noun? For with reference to the line in Homer--

The swineherd served up dishes (p??a?e?) of rich meat,[361:1]

Aristophanes the Byzantine said that it was a modernism to speak of meats being placed on platters (p??a?e?), not being aware that in other places the poet has said--

Dishes (p??a?a?) of various meats the butler brought.[361:2]

I ask also, if any men among the ancients had ever acquired a mult.i.tude of slaves, as the men of modern times do: and if the word t??a???

(frying-pan) is ever found, and not the form t?????? only. So that we may not fix our whole attention on eating and drinking, like those who from their devotion to their bellies are called parasites and flatterers.

14. And aemilia.n.u.s replied to him,--The word p??a?, when used of a vessel, you may find used by Metagenes the comic writer, in his Valiant Persians: and Pherecrates, my friend, has used the form t??a??? in his Trifles, where he says--

He said he ate anchovies from the frying-pan (t??????).

And the same poet has also said in the Persae--

To sit before the frying-pans (t??a?a) burning rushes.

And Philonides says, in his Buskins--

Receive him now with rays and frying-pans (t??a?a).

And again he says--

Smelling of frying-pans (t??a?a).

And Eubulus says, in his Orthane--

The bellows rouses Vulcan's guardian dogs, With the warm vapour of the frying-pan (t??a???).

And in another place he says--

But every lovely woman walks along Fed with the choicest morsels from the frying-pan (t??a???).

And in his t.i.tans he says--

And the dish Doth laugh and bubble up with barbarous talk, And the fish leap ?? ?s??s? t???????.

And Phrynichus also uses a verb derived from the word in his Tragedian--

'Tis sweet to eat fried meat, at any feast For which one has been at no cost oneself.

And Pherecrates, in his Ant Men says--"Are you eating fried meat (S? d' ?p?t??a???e??)?"

But Hegesander the Delphian says that the Syracusans call a dish t??a???, and the proper t??a??? they call ????t??a???; on which account he says that Theodorides says in some poem--

He in a t??a??? did boil it well, In a large swimming dish.

Where he uses t??a??? for ??pa?. But the Ionians write the word ??a???

without the letter t, as Anacreon says--

Putting his hand within the frying-pan ??a???.

15. But with respect to the use of silver plate, my good friend Ulpian, you make me stop to consider a little; but I recollect what is said by Alexis in his Exile--

For where an earthen pot is to be let For the cook's use.

For down to the times of the supremacy of the Macedonians the attendants used to perform their duties with vessels made of earthenware, as my countryman Juba declares. But when the Romans altered the way of living, giving it a more expensive direction, then Cleopatra, arranging her style of living in imitation of them, she, I mean, who ultimately destroyed the Egyptian monarchy, not being able to alter the name, she called gold and silver plate ???a??; and then she gave the guests what she called the ???aa to carry away with them; and this was very costly.

And on the Rosic earthenware, which was the most beautiful, Cleopatra spent five minae every day. But Ptolemy the king, in the eighth book of his commentaries, writing of Masinissa the king of the Libyans, speaks as follows--"His entertainments were arranged in the Roman fashion, everything being served up in silver ???a??. And the second course he arranged in the Italian mode. His dishes were all made of gold; made after the fashion of those which are plaited of bulrushes or ropes. And he employed Greek musicians.

16. But Aristophanes the comic writer, whom Heliodorus the Athenian says, in his treatise concerning the Acropolis, (and it occupies fifteen books,) was a Naucrat.i.te by birth, in his play called Plutus, after the G.o.d who gave his name to the play and appeared on the stage, says that dishes of silver were in existence, just as all other things might be had made of the same metal. And his words are--

But every vinegar cruet, dish and ewer Is made of bra.s.s; while all the dirty dishes In which they serve up fish are made of silver.

The oven too is made of ivory.

And Plato says, in his Amba.s.sadors--

Epicrates and his good friend Phormisius, Received many and magnificent gifts From the great king; a golden cruet-stand, And silver plates and dishes.

And Sophron, in his Female Actresses, says--

The whole house shone With store of gold, and of much silver plate.

17. And Philippides, in his Disappearance of Silver, speaks of the use of it as ostentatious and uncommon, and aimed at only by some foreigners who had made fortunes but lately--

_A._ I felt a pity for all human things, Seeing men n.o.bly born to ruin hasting, And branded slaves displaying silver dishes Whene'er they ate a pennyworth of salt-fish, Or a small handful of capers, in a plate Whose weight is fifty drachms of purest silver.