The Private Life of the Romans Part 12

After the grapes were gathered they were first trodden with the bare feet (Fig. 117) and then pressed in the _prelum_ or _lorcular_. The juice as it came from the press was called _mustum_, "new," and was often drunk unfermented, as "sweet" cider is now. It could be kept sweet from vintage to vintage by being sealed in a jar smeared within and without with pitch and immersed for several weeks in cold water or buried in moist sand. It was also preserved by evaporation over a fire; when it was reduced one-half in this way it became a grape-jelly (_defrutum_) and was used as a basis for various beverages and for other purposes (--290).

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 118. WINE CELLAR]

--297. Fermented wine (_vinum_) was made by collecting the _mustum_ in huge vat-like jars (_dolia_, shown in Fig. 116), large enough to hide a man and containing a hundred gallons or more. These were covered with pitch within and without and partially buried in the ground in cellars or vaults (_vinariae cellae_), in which they remained permanently. After they were nearly filled with the _mustum_, they were left uncovered during the process of fermentation, which lasted under ordinary circ.u.mstances about nine days. They were then tightly sealed and opened only when the wine required attention[3] or was to be removed. The cheaper wines were used directly from the _dolia_, but the choicer kinds were drawn off after a year into smaller jars (_amphorae_), clarified and sometimes "doctored" in various ways, and finally stored in depositories often entirely distinct from the cellars (Fig. 118). A favorite place was a room in the upper story of the house, where the wine was artificially aged by the heat rising from the furnace or even by the smoke escaping from the fire. The _amphorae_ were sometimes marked with the name of the wine, and the names of the consuls for the year in which they were filled.

[Footnote 3: Spoiled wine was used as vinegar (_acetum_), and vinegar that became insipid and tasteless was called _vappa_. This last word was used also as a term of reproach for shiftless and worthless men.]

--298. Beverages.--After water and milk, wine was the ordinary drink of the Romans of all cla.s.ses. It must be distinctly understood, however, that they always mixed it with water and used more water than wine.

Pliny mentions one sort of wine that would stand being mixed with eight times its own bulk of water. To drink wine unmixed was thought typical of barbarism, and among the Romans it was so drunk only by the dissipated at their wildest revels. Under the Empire the ordinary qualities of wine were cheap enough to be sold at three or four cents a quart (--388); the choicer kinds were very costly, entirely beyond the reach, Horace gives us to understand, of a man in his circ.u.mstances. More rarely used than wine were other beverages that are mentioned in literature. A favorite drink was _mulsum_, made of four measures of wine and one of honey. A mixture of water and honey allowed to ferment together was called _mulsa_. Cider also was made by the Romans, and wines from mulberries and dates. They also made various cordials from aromatic plants, but it must be remembered (--281) that they had no knowledge of tea or coffee.

--299. Style of Living.--The table supplies of a given people vary from age to age with the development of civilization and refinement, and in the same age with the means and tastes of cla.s.ses and individuals. Of the Romans it may be said that during the early Republic, perhaps almost through the second century B.C., they cared little for the pleasures of the table. They lived frugally and ate sparingly. They were almost strictly vegetarians (--273), much of their food was eaten cold, and the utmost simplicity characterized the cooking and the service of their meals. Everything was prepared by the _mater familias_ or by the maidservants under her supervision (--90). The table was set in the _atrium_ (--188), and the father, mother, and children sat around it on stools or benches (--225), waiting upon each other and their guests (--104). Dependents ate of the same food, but apart from the family. The dishes were of the plainest sort, of earthenware or even of wood, though a silver saltcellar was often the cherished ornament of the humblest board. Table knives and forks were unknown, the food being cut into convenient portions before it was served, and spoons being used to convey to the mouth what the fingers could not manage. During this period there was little to choose between the fare of the proudest patrician and the humblest client.

The Samnite envoys found Manius Curius, the conqueror of Pyrrhus (275 B.C.), eating his dinner of vegetables (--275) from an earthen bowl. A century later the poet Plautus calls his countrymen a race of porridge eaters (_pultiphagonidae_, --283), and gives us to understand that in his time even the wealthiest Romans had in their households no specially trained cooks. When a dinner out of the ordinary was given, a professional cook was hired, who brought with him to the house of the host his utensils and helpers, just as a plumber or surgeon responds to a call nowadays.

--300. The last two centuries of the Republic saw all this changed. The conquest of Greece and the wars in Asia Minor gave the Romans a taste of eastern luxury, and altered their simple table customs, as other customs had been altered by like contact with the outside world (----5, 101, 112, 192). From this time the poor and the rich no longer fared alike. The former constrained by poverty lived frugally as of old: every schoolboy knows that the soldiers who won Caesar's battles for him lived on grain (--282 and note), which they ground in their handmills and baked at their campfires. The very rich, on the other hand, aping the luxury of the Greeks but lacking their refinement, became gluttons instead of gourmands. They ransacked the world[4] for articles of food, preferring the rare and the costly to what was really palatable and delicate. They measured the feast by the quant.i.ties they could consume, reviving the sated appet.i.te by piquant sauces and resorting to emetics to prolong the pleasures of the table and prevent the effects of over-indulgence. The separate dining-room (_triclinium_) was introduced, the great houses having two or more (--204), and the _oeci_ (--207) were pressed into service for banquet halls. The dining couch (--224) took the place of the bench or stool, slaves served the food to the reclining guests, a dinner dress (--249) was devised, and every _familia urbana_ (--149) included a high-priced chef with a staff of trained a.s.sistants. Of course there were always wealthy men, Atticus, the friend of Cicero, for example (--155), who clung to the simpler customs of the earlier days, but these could make little headway against the current of senseless dissipation and extravagance. Over against these must be set the fawning poor, who preferred the fleshpots of the rich patron (----181, 182) to the bread of honest independence. Between the two extremes was a numerous middle cla.s.s of the well-to-do, with whose ordinary meals we are more concerned than with the banquets of the very rich. These meals were the _ientaculum_, the _prandium_, and the _cena_.

[Footnote 4: Gellius (2d century A.D.) gives a list from a satirical poem of Varro: Peac.o.c.k from Samos, heath-c.o.c.k from Phrygia, crane from Media, kid from Ambracia, young tunny-fish from Chalcedon, _murena_ from Tartessus, cod (?) from Pessinus, oysters from Tarentum, scallop from Chios (?), sturgeon (?) from Rhodes, _scarus_ from Cilicia, nuts from Thasos, dates from Egypt, chestnuts (?) from Spain.]

--301. Hours for Meals.--Three meals a day was the regular number with the Romans as with us, though hygienists were found then, as they may be found nowadays, who believed two meals more healthful than three, and then as now high livers often indulged in an extra meal taken late at night. Custom fixed more or less rigorously the hours for meals, though these varied with the age, and to a less extent with the occupations and even with the inclinations of individuals. In early times in the city and in all periods in the country the chief meal (_cena_) was eaten in the middle of the day, preceded by a breakfast (_ientaculum_) in the early morning and followed in the evening by a supper (_vesperna_). In cla.s.sical times the hours for meals in Rome were about as they are now in our large cities: that is, the _cena_ was postponed until the work of the day was finished, thus crowding out the _vesperna_, and a luncheon (_prandium_) took the place of the old-fashioned "noon dinner." The evening dinner came to be more or less of a social function, guests being present and the food and service the best the house could afford, while the _ientaculum_ and _prandium_ were in comparison very simple and informal meals.

--302. Breakfast and Luncheon.--The breakfast (_ientaculum_ or _iantaculum_) was eaten immediately after rising, the hour varying, of course, with the occupation and condition of the individual. It consisted usually merely of bread, eaten dry or dipped in wine or sprinkled over with salt, though raisins, olives, and cheese were sometimes added. Workmen pressed for time seem to have taken their breakfast in their hands to eat as they went to the place of their labor, and schoolboys often stopped on their way to school (--122) at a public bakery (--286) to buy a sort of shortcake or pancake, on which they made a hurried breakfast. More rarely the breakfast became a regular meal, eggs being served in addition to the things just mentioned, and _mulsum_ (--298) and milk drunk with them. It is likely that such a breakfast was taken at a later hour and by persons who dispensed with the noon meal. The luncheon (_prandium_) came about eleven o'clock. It, too, consisted usually of cold food: bread, salads (--276), olives, cheese, fruits, nuts, and cold meats from the dinner of the day before. Occasionally, however, warm meat and vegetables were added, but the meal was never an elaborate one. It is sometimes spoken of as a morning meal, but in this case it must have followed at about the regular interval an extremely early breakfast, or it must itself have formed the breakfast, taken later than usual, when the _ientaculum_ for some reason had been omitted. After the _prandium_ came the midday rest or siesta (_meridiatio_), when all work was laid aside until the eighth hour, except in the law courts and in the senate. In the summer, at least, everybody went to sleep, and even in the capital the streets were almost as deserted as at midnight. The _vesperna_, entirely unknown in city life, closed the day on the farm.

It was an early supper which consisted largely of the leavings of the noonday dinner with the addition of such uncooked food as a farm would naturally supply. The word _merenda_ seems to have been applied in early times to this evening meal, then to refreshments taken at any time (cf. the English "lunch"), and finally to have gone out of use altogether.

--303. The Formal Meal.--The busy life of the city had early crowded the dinner out of its original place in the middle of the day and fixed it in the afternoon. The fashion soon spread to the towns and was carried by city people to their country estates (--145), so that in cla.s.sical times the late dinner (_cena_) was the regular thing for all persons of any social standing throughout the length and breadth of Italy. It was even more of a function than it is with us, because the Romans knew no other form of purely social intercourse. They had no receptions, b.a.l.l.s, musicales, or theater parties, no other opportunities to entertain their friends or be entertained by them. It is safe to say, therefore, that when the Roman was in town he was every evening host or guest at a dinner as elaborate as his means or those of his friends permitted, unless, of course, urgent business claimed his attention or some unusual circ.u.mstances had withdrawn him temporarily from society. On the country estates the same custom prevailed, the guests coming from neighboring estates or being friends who stopped unexpectedly, perhaps, to claim entertainment for a night as they pa.s.sed on a journey to or from the city (--388). These dinners, formal as they were, are to be distinguished carefully from the extravagant banquets of the ostentatious rich. They were in themselves thoroughly wholesome, the expression of genuine hospitality. The guests were friends, the number was limited, the wife and children of the host were present, and social enjoyment was the end in view.

Before the meal itself is described something must be said of the dining-room and its furniture.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 119. TABLE AND COUCHES]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 120. TABLE AND COUCHES]

--304. The Dining Couch.--The position of the dining-room (_triclinium_) in the Roman house has been described already (--204), and it has been remarked (--300) that in cla.s.sical times the stool or bench had given place to the couch. This couch (_lectus tricliniaris_) was constructed much as the common _lecti_ were (--224), except that it was made broader and lower, had an arm at one end only, was without a back, and sloped from the front to the rear. At the end where the arm was, a cushion or bolster was placed, and parallel with it two others were arranged in such a way as to divide the couch into three parts.

Each part was for one person, and a single couch would, therefore, accommodate three persons. The dining-room received its name (_triclinium_) from the fact that it was planned to hold three of these couches (_????a?_ in Greek), set on three sides of a table, the fourth side of which was open. The arrangement varied a little with the size of the room. In a large room the couches were set as in Fig.

119, but if economy of s.p.a.ce was necessary they were placed as in Fig.

120, the latter being probably the more common arrangement of the two.

Nine may be taken, therefore, as the ordinary number at a Roman dinner party. More would be invited only on unusual occasions, and then a larger room would be used where two or more tables could be arranged in the same way, each accommodating nine guests. In the case of members of the same family, especially if one was a child, or when the guests were very intimate friends, a fourth person might find room on a couch, but this was certainly unusual; probably when a guest unexpectedly presented himself some member of the family would surrender his place to him. Often the host reserved a place or places for friends that his guests might bring without notice. Such uninvited persons were called _umbrae_. When guests were present the wife sat on the edge of the couch (Fig. 121) instead of reclining, and children were usually accommodated on seats at the open side of the table.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 121. WOMAN SITTING ON DINING COUCH]

--305. Places of Honor.--The guest approached the couch from the rear and took his place upon it, lying on the left side, with his face to the table, and supported by his left elbow, which rested on the cushion or bolster mentioned above. The position of his body is indicated by the arrows in the cut above (Fig. 119). Each couch and each place on the couch had its own name according to its position with reference to the others. The couches were called respectively _lectus summus_, _lectus medius_, and _lectus imus_, and it will be noticed that persons reclining on the _lectus medius_ had the _lectus summus_ on the left and the _lectus imus_ on the right. Etiquette a.s.signed the _lectus summus_ and the _lectus medius_ to guests, while the _lectus imus_ was reserved for the host, his wife, and one other member of his family. If the host alone represented the family, the two places beside him on the _lectus imus_ were given to the humblest of the guests.

--306. The places on each couch were named in the same way, (_locus_) _summus_, _medius_, and _imus_, denoted respectively by the figures _1_, _2_, and _3_ in the cut. The person who occupied the place numbered _1_ was said to be above (_super_, _supra_) the person to his right, while the person occupying the middle place (_2_) was above the person on his right and below (_infra_) the one on the left. The place of honor on the _lectus summus_ was that numbered _1_, and the corresponding place on the _lectus imus_ was taken by the host. The most distinguished guest, however, was given the place on the _lectus medius_ marked _3_, and this place was called by the special name _locus consularis_, because if a consul was present it was always a.s.signed to him. It will be noticed that it was next the place of the host, and besides was especially convenient for a public official; if he found it necessary to receive or send a message during the dinner he could communicate with the messenger without so much as turning on his elbow.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 122. SIDEBOARD]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 123. SIDEBOARD]

--307. Other Furniture.--In comparison with the _lecti_ the rest of the furniture of the dining-room played an insignificant part. In fact the only other absolutely necessary article was the table (_mensa_), placed as shown in the figures above between the three couches in such a way that all were equally distant from it and free access to it was left on the fourth side. The s.p.a.ce between the table and the couches might be so little that the guests could help themselves, or on the other hand so great that slaves could pa.s.s between to serve the food.

The guests had no individual plates to be kept upon the table, so that it was used merely to receive the large dishes in which the food was served, and certain formal articles, such as the saltcellar (--299) and the things necessary for the offering to the G.o.ds. The table, therefore, was never very large (one such would be almost lost in a modern dining-room), but it was often exceedingly beautiful and costly (--227). Its beauties were not hidden either by any cloth or covering; the table-cloth, as we know it, did not come into use until about the end of the first century of our era. The cost and beauty of the dishes, too, were limited only by the means and taste of the owner.

Besides the couches and the table, sideboards (_abaci_) were the only articles of furniture usually found in the _triclinium_. These varied from a simple shelf to tables of different forms and sizes and open cabinets, such as shown in Figs. 122 and 123 and in Schreiber LXVII, 11. They were set out of the way against the walls and served as do ours to display plate and porcelain when not in use on the table.

--308. Courses.--In cla.s.sical times even the simplest dinner was divided into three parts, the _gustus_ ("appetizer"), the _cena_ ("dinner proper"), and the _secunda mensa_[5] ("dessert"); the dinner was made elaborate by serving each of the parts in several courses.

The _gustus_ consisted of those things only that were believed to excite the appet.i.te or aid the digestion: oysters and other sh.e.l.l-fish fresh, sea-fish salted or pickled, certain vegetables that could be eaten uncooked, especially onions, and almost invariably lettuce and eggs, all with piquant sauces. With these appetizers _mulsum_ (--298) was drunk, wine being thought too heavy for an empty stomach, and from the drink the _gustus_ was also called the _promulsis_; another and more significant name for it was _antecena_. Then followed the real dinner, the _cena_, consisting of the more substantial viands, fish, flesh, fowl, and vegetables. With this part of the meal wine was drunk, but in moderation, for it was thought to dull the sense of taste, and the real drinking began only when the _cena_ was over. The _cena_ almost always consisted of several courses (_mensa prima_, _altera_, _tertia_, etc.), three being thought neither n.i.g.g.ardly nor extravagant; we are told that Augustus often dined on three courses and never went beyond six. The _secunda mensa_ closed the meal with all sorts of pastry, sweets, nuts, and fruits, fresh and preserved, with which wine was freely drunk. From the fact that eggs were eaten at the beginning of the meal and apples at the close came the proverbial expression, _ab ovo ad mala_.

[Footnote 5: This is the most common form, but the plural also occurs, and the adjective may follow the noun.]

--309. Bills of Fare.--We have preserved to us in literature the bills of fare of a few meals, probably actually served, which may be taken as typical at least of the homely, the generous, and the sumptuous dinner. The simplest is given by Juvenal (2d century A.D.): for the _gustus_, asparagus and eggs; for the _cena_, young kid and chicken; for the _secunda mensa_, fruits. Two others are given by Martial (43-101 A.D.): the first has lettuce, onions, tunny-fish, and eggs cut in slices; sausages with porridge, fresh cauliflower, bacon, and beans; pears and chestnuts, and with the wine olives, parched peas, and lupines. The second has mallows, onions, mint, elecampane, anchovies with sliced eggs, and sow's udder in tunny sauce; the _cena_ was served in a single course (_una mensa_), kid, chicken, cold ham, haricot beans, and young cabbage sprouts; fresh fruits, with wine, of course. The last we owe to Macrobius (5th century A.D.), who a.s.signs it to a feast of the pontifices during the Republic, feasts that were proverbial for their splendor. The _antecena_ was served in two courses: first, sea-urchins, raw oysters, three kinds of sea-mussels, thrush on asparagus, a fat hen, panned oysters, and mussels; second, mussels again, sh.e.l.l-fish, sea-nettles, figp.e.c.k.e.rs, loin of goat, loin of pork, frica.s.seed chicken, figp.e.c.k.e.rs again, two kinds of sea-snails. The number of courses in which the _cena_ was served is not given: sow's udder, head of wild boar, panned fish, panned sow's udder, domestic ducks, wild ducks, hares, roast chicken, starch pudding, bread. No vegetables or dessert are mentioned by Macrobius, but we may take it for granted that they corresponded to the rest of the feast, and the wine that the pontifices drank was famed as the best.

--310. Serving the Dinner.--The dinner hour marked the close of the day's work, as has been said (--301), and varied, therefore, with the season of the year and the social position of the family. In general it may be said to have been not before the ninth and rarely after the tenth hour (--418). It lasted usually until bedtime, that is, for three or four hours at least, though the Romans went to bed early because they rose early (----79, 122). Sometimes even the ordinary dinner lasted until midnight, but when a banquet was expected to be unusually protracted, it was the custom to begin earlier in order that there might be time after it for the needed repose. Such banquets, beginning before the ninth hour, were called _tempestiva convivia_, the word "early" in this connection carrying with it about the same reproach as our "late" suppers. At the ordinary family dinners the time was spent in conversation, though in some good houses (notably that of Atticus, cf. --155) a trained slave read aloud to the guests. At "gentlemen's dinners" other forms of entertainment were provided, music, dancing, juggling, etc., by professional performers (--153).

--311. When the guests had been ushered into the dining-room the G.o.ds were solemnly invoked, a custom to which our "grace before meat"

corresponds. Then they took their places on the couches (_acc.u.mbere_, _disc.u.mbere_) as these were a.s.signed them (--306), their sandals were removed (--250), to be cared for by their own attendants (--152), and water and towels were carried around for washing the hands. The meal then began, each course being placed upon the table on a waiter or tray (_ferculum_), from which the dishes were pa.s.sed in regular order to the guests. As each course was finished the dishes were replaced on the _ferculum_ and removed, and water and towels were again pa.s.sed to the guests, a custom all the more necessary because the fingers were used for forks (--299). Between the chief parts of the meal, too, the table was cleared and carefully wiped with a cloth or soft sponge.

Between the _cena_ proper and the _secunda mensa_ a longer pause was made and silence was preserved while wine, salt, and meal, perhaps also regular articles of food, were offered to the Lares. The dessert was then brought on in the same way as the other parts of the meal.

The signal to leave the couches was given by calling for the sandals (--250), and the guests immediately took their departure.

--312. The Comissatio.--Cicero tells us of Cato and his Sabine neighbors lingering over their dessert and wine until late at night, and makes them find the chief charm of the long evening in the conversation. For this reason Cato declares the Latin word _convivium_ "a living together," a better word for such social intercourse than the one the Greeks used, _symposium_, "a drinking together." The younger men in the gayer circles of the capital inclined rather to the Greek view and followed the _cena_ proper with a drinking bout, or wine supper, called _comissatio_ or _compotatio_. This differed from the form that Cato approved not merely in the amount of wine consumed, in the lower tone, and in the questionable amus.e.m.e.nts, but also in the following of certain Greek customs unknown among the Romans until after the second Punic war and never adopted in the regular dinner parties that have been described. These were the use of perfumes and flowers at the feast, the selection of a Master of the Revels, and the method of drinking.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 124. END OF DRINKING BOUT]

--313. The perfumes and flowers were used not so much on account of the sweetness of their scent, much as the Romans enjoyed it, as because they believed that the scent prevented or at least r.e.t.a.r.ded intoxication. This is shown by the fact that they did not use the unguents and the flowers throughout the whole meal, but waited to anoint the head with perfumes and crown it with flowers until the dessert and the wine were brought on. Various leaves and flowers were used for the garlands (_coronae convivales_) according to individual tastes, but the rose was the most popular and came to be generally a.s.sociated with the _comissatio_. After the guests had a.s.sumed their crowns (and sometimes garlands were also worn around the neck), each threw the dice, usually calling as he did so upon his sweetheart or some deity to help his throw. The one whose throw was the highest (--320) was forthwith declared the _rex_ (_magister_, _arbiter_) _bibendi_. Just what his duties and privileges were we are nowhere expressly told, but it can hardly be doubted that it was his province to determine the proportion of water to be added to the wine (--298), to lay down the rules for the drinking (_leges insanae_, Horace calls them), to decide what each guest should do for the entertainment of his fellows, and to impose penalties and forfeits for the breaking of the rules.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 125. MIXING BOWL]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 126. DRINKING CUPS]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 127. CYATHUS]

--314. The wine was mixed under the direction of the _magister_ in a large bowl (_crater_), the proportions of the wine and water being apparently constant for the evening, and from the _crater_ (Fig. 125), placed on the table in view of all, the wine was ladled by the servants into the goblets (_pocula_, Fig. 126) of the guests. The ladle (_cyathus_, Fig. 127) held about one-twelfth of a pint, or more probably was graduated by twelfths. The method of drinking seems to have differed from that of the regular dinner chiefly in this: at the ordinary dinner each guest mixed his wine to suit his own taste and drank as little or as much as he pleased, while at the _comissatio_ all had to drink alike, regardless of differences in taste and capacity. The wine seems to have been drunk chiefly in "healths," but an odd custom regulated the size of the b.u.mpers. Any guest might propose the health of any person he pleased to name; immediately slaves ladled into each goblet as many _cyathi_ (twelfths of a pint) as there were letters in the given name, and the goblets had to be drained at a draft. The rest of the entertainment was undoubtedly wild enough (--310); gambling seems to have been common, and Cicero speaks of more disgraceful practices in his speeches against Catiline.

Sometimes the guests spent the evening roaming from house to house, playing host in turn, and making night hideous as they staggered through the streets with their crowns and garlands.

--315. The Banquets of the Rich.--Little need be said of the banquets of the wealthy n.o.bles in the last century of the Republic and of the rich parvenus (--181) who thronged the courts of the earlier Emperors.

They were arranged on the same plan as the dinners we have described, differing from them only in the ostentatious display of furniture, plate, and food. So far as particulars have reached us, they were grotesque and revolting, judged by the canons of to-day, rather than magnificent. Couches made of silver, wine instead of water for the hands, twenty-two courses to a single cena, seven thousand birds served at another, a dish of livers of fish, tongues of flamingos, brains of peac.o.c.ks and pheasants mixed up together, strike us as vulgarity run mad. The sums spent upon these feasts do not seem so fabulous now as they did then. Every season in our great capitals sees social functions that surpa.s.s the feasts of Lucullus in cost as far as they do in taste and refinement. As signs of the times, however, as indications of changed ideals, of degeneracy and decay, they deserved the notice that the Roman historians and satirists gave them.

CHAPTER IX

AMUs.e.m.e.nTS; BATHS

REFERENCES: Marquardt, 269-296, 834-861; Staatsverwaltung, III, 504-565; Goll, III, 455-480, 104-157; Guhl and Koner, 643-658, 804-829, 609-618; Friedlander, II, 295-637; Ramsay, 394-409; Pauly-Wissowa, _amphitheatrum_, _calx_, _circus_, _Bader_; Smith, Harper, Rich, _amphitheatrum_, _balneae_, _circus_, _gladiatores_, _theatrum_, and other Latin words in text; Baumeister, 694, 241-244, 2089-2111; Lubker, 1073 f., 1199 f., 477 f., 1048 f., 185, 1213; Kelsey-Mau, 135-161, 180-220.

--316. After the games of childhood (----102, 103) were pa.s.sed the Roman seemed to lose all instinct for play. Of sport for sport's sake he knew nothing, he took part in no games for the sake of excelling in them. He played ball before his dinner for the good of the exercise, he practiced riding, fencing, wrestling, hurling the discus (Fig.

128), and swimming for the strength and skill they gave him in arms, he played a few games of chance for the excitement the stakes afforded, but there was no "national game" for the young men, and there were no social amus.e.m.e.nts in which men and women took part together. The Roman made it hard and expensive, too, for others to amuse him. He cared nothing for the drama, little for spectacular shows, more for farces and variety performances, perhaps, but the one thing that really appealed to him was excitement, and this he found in gambling or in such amus.e.m.e.nts only as involved the risk of injury to life and limb, the sports of the circus and the amphitheater. We may describe first the games in which the Roman partic.i.p.ated himself and then those at which he was a mere spectator. In the first cla.s.s are field sports and games of hazard, in the second the public and private games (_ludi publici et privati_).

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 128. DISCUS THROWER]

--317. Sports of the Campus.--The Campus Martius included all the level ground lying between the Tiber and the Capitoline and Quirinal hills.

The northwestern portion of this plain, bounded on two sides by the Tiber, which here sweeps abruptly to the west, kept clear of public and private buildings and often called simply the _Campus_, was for centuries the playground of Rome. Here the young men gathered to practice the athletic games mentioned above, naturally in the cooler parts of the day. Even men of graver years did not disdain a visit to the Campus after the _meridiatio_ (--302), in preparation for the bath before dinner, instead of which the younger men preferred to take a cool plunge in the convenient river. The sports themselves were those that we are accustomed to group together as track and field athletics.

They ran foot races, jumped, threw the discus (Fig. 128), practiced archery, and had wrestling and boxing matches. These sports were carried on then much as they are now, if we may judge by Vergil's description in the Fifth Aeneid, but an exception must be made of the games of ball. These seem to have been very dull and stupid as compared with ours. It must be remembered, however, that they were played more for the healthful exercise they furnished than for the joy of the playing, and by men of high position, too--Caesar, Maecenas, and even the Emperor Augustus.