MASTER NEGATIVE NO. 93-81575- MICROFILMED 1 993 COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES/NEW YORK ^ / as part of the "Foundations of Western Civilization Preservation Project'' Funded by the ^MENT FOR THE HUMANITIES Reproductions may not be made without permission from Columbia University Library COPYRIGHT STATEMENT The copyright law of the United States - Title 17, United States Code - concerns the making of photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material. Under certain conditions specified In the law, libraries and archives are authorized to furnish a photocopy or other reproduction. One of these specified conditions is that the photocopy or other reproduction Is not to be "used for any purpose other than private study, scholarship, or research." If a user makes a request for, or later uses, a photocopy or reproduction for purposes in excess of fair use," that user may be liable for copyright Infringement. This Institution reserves the right to refuse to accept a copy order if, in its judgement, fulfillment of the order would involve violation of the copyright law. A UTHOR: SEWELL WILLIAM TITLE: THE DOMESTIC VIRTUES AND MANNERS OF ... PLACE: OXFORD DATE: [1 828] COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES PRESERVATION DEPARTMENT Master Negative # BIBLIOGRAPHIC MICROFORM TARCFT n84 leS Original Material as FUmed - Existing Bibliographic Record ■«*nBMR» Restrictions on Use: Sewell, V:i?.lian, 1804-1874:# TIiG donoGtic virtues and nannors of tlio CrcoliG and RonanG, conparod \7ith thoGo of the noGt re- fined states of Europe, a prize oscay, recited in the theatre, O:c?ord, June XVIIL, lIDGCGrJCVIII... 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BAXTER, PRINTER, OXFORD. <: c t t f I • •• «. • • t • •t 1 • • * < : I ( • • > * ( • • • • •• « ••• •. c « « • • • • at • • • '• • • • t t « • • •• • • • • •• • • • • • • • (If •.• 't • • .•• • • e : t ARGUMENT. Observations on the different estimate of domestic vir- tues in modern and ancient states. Circumstances which led the Athenians in particular to neglect them. Different si- tuation of the Romans, Character of the conjugal relation in Greece and in Rome. Parental connexion in Rome and in Greece. Connexion between master and slave in Rome and in Greece. Manners of the Greeks and of the Romans. Their amusements and entertainments. Diffi- culty of drawing a right comparison between the ancients and the moderns. Argument from antecedent probability to prove the superior morality of the moderns. State of the domestic relations, and principles on which they are founded in modern states. Conclusion. ^ CT> wm • •• ■ • • • • • • *\ •» » » • • » »t » ••• ••# : i" •••aai !»»*!» ■»•• » • ■»* t • I • I t * » • • • > > > '■■".' J 'J > > TAe Domestic Virtues and Manners of the Greeks and Romans compared with those of the most refined States of Europe, JL HERE are few errors more striking in the poli* tical philosophy of the ancients than the relative value it assigned to civil and domestic institutions. Justly considering that the perfection of humanity was attainable only in a state of poUtical union, it nevertheless, in admiration of the end, neglected the means by which natiure had willed its accompUsh- ment. It sacrificed the domestic affections to the civil duties of man; it gave an unnatural but dazzling ascendancy to social disinterestedness ; and in an ambitious pursuit of the ** Honestum," it destroyed or debiUtated the strongest link which connects the whole progressive chain of virtues with the main principle of our self-love. And hence arises a remarkable distinction in the internal poUcy of modem and ancient society. The former proposes for its end a soUd and substantial advantage in the aggregate accumulation of private happiness ; the latter, a mere fiction of abstraction, which resided in the whole, though in none of the B .* .#v tl (!« t • • • I ■■ I ,• • •. < t • • • t • ■ ;• • • •• 1»« i • • • t * • • « * c • t t t • • • 't « t {«• •»«■••• t « I I I • II J- -paa^/siicFfar whose precarious support an enonnous sacrifice of individual * prosperity was perpetually extorted, by vague and inflammatory appeals to the worst and most dangerous of passions. .. • On the same principle, and as a necessary con- sequence, the sacredness and independence of pri- vate life were exposed to perpetual violation; at one time, by sumptuary restrictions, at another, by checks upon domestic intercourse, by an arbitrary interference with the internal ceconomy of famiUes, by legahzed faciUties for divulging the property and resources of individuals, by a compulsory diver- sion of the natural channels of education, or by a transfer of all right of superintendence, of interest, and of property, in children, firom the parent to the state. These observations apply, though in unequal ex- tent, to the states both of Greece and Italy ; and the principle appears to have prevailed to a greater or less degree, wherever a metaphysical philosophy has suggested, and an unnatural simplicity of poU- tical combination has required, a departure from the dictates of nature. Nor is it till recently that a more accurate analysis of the human mind, and a iuster arrangement of our moral and social duties, aided perhaps by alterations in the commercial and pohtical systems of Europe, have established the opposite principle, and released as far as possible the movements of domestic life from the fetters of public restrictions; entrusting to each individual, as to its fittest and natural guardian, his own culti- vation and happiness ; binding him to his country, not by vanity, or arrogance, or a visionary enthu- siasm, but by his comforts, his interests, and his affections ; and leaving it to the hand of nature, from the virtues of the husband, the father, the brother, and the son, to generate the virtues of the citizen. The effect of this alteration in social poUcy in expanding more naturally, and more effectu- ally, the narrow instincts of human selfishness into an useful, a rational, and a comprehensive, benevolence, must be obvious to every observer of our nature and its history. But it is more imme- diately the object of the present enquiry, to con- sider the influence which this and other external circumstances exerted on the developement of do- mestic virtue, and on the purification of that moral atmosphere in which the first germs of our social affections are destined to spring and imfold them- selves. Our domestic virtues are virtues of feeUng, rather than of reasoning, and are all modifications of that sympathy which binds together in an infinite variety of forms the elements of human society. This sjmpathy, whether we consider it as a distinct b2 I] i i!'i )i 4 principle, or assign to it an identity of origin and character with our self-love, seems principally to be developed if not created by the following operating causes ; by habit, by appropriation, by community of interest, by reciprocal utility, by a concentration of feeling to particular objects, and by an equaUty and similarity in the attractive phcenomena of character. And every obstruction to the fiill operation of these principles will proportionately weaken and dete- riorate the energies of our domestic aflFection, whe- ther it be by an interruption to the regular flow of confidential intercourse, by a discordance or dis- proportion of mutual interests, by clashing or pre- dominating attractions, or by an unequal distribu- tion of the elements of respect and affection. Very many causes have concurred in the modem system of Uving, to render our domestic habits and associations more permanent and binding. By the convulsion which accompanied the irruption of the northern nations, the centre of the civiUzed worid was thrown under a diff*erent climate, and amidst very different materials of national character. Even the former of these circumstances, as a mere physical cause operating upon morals through the medimn of manners, is not to be overlooked in investigating the various springs which modify the human disposition. In that part of a nation which is employed in agriculture, inclemency and muta- biUty of climate, united as they generally are with barrenness and intractabiUty of soil, assist in draw- ing closer the ties of domestic life, by requiring a greater combination of labour in the process of pro- duction. And on the whole mass of population they act in a similar way, by compeUing a greater frequency, intimacy, and privacy of family inter- course, and a more sedulous attention to internal convenience and comfort. In the situation, how- ever, of the Greek, these compulsory circumstances had no existence. His cUmate was genial, and his soil not unfertile. The employment of slaves in cultivation, the consequent stigma branded upon manual labour, and the almost total exclusion of the lower classes from property in land, precluded him from a Ufe of laborious but honourable in- dustry. The Umited demands of nature in such a cUmate at the same time diminished its neces- sity ; while the general predilection for a residence in cities, and the gratuitous support afforded by the spirit of democracies to their pauper population, still fiulher conspired to encourage at once a sys- tematic indulgence of idleness, and an aUenation from the employments of home. By these means an immense mass of craving and profligate indi- gence was habitually thrown on the precarious bounty of individuals, or the state, demoralized by all the degradation of mendicity, insulated from all natural connexion with their country and its interests, and Unked to their domestic associations by no sense of manly freedom or honourable pride, si 1 m li ll'ii and stiU less by that endearing tie— participation in honourable toil. It is moreover a very probable assumption, even from the little information we possess, that the great mass even of the sovereign Athenians were merged in an abject and distressing poverty. They appear mdeed to have been rendered in some degree caflous to its existence by habits of humiUating dependence, by tiie frequency and splendour of their public recreations, and by the wild and arro- gant enthusiasm of a democratical tyranny. And that the human mind may be thus inured to ex- tremities of privation and suflFering by habitual de- pression and intensity of political zeal we may learn from the condition of the Irish population at pre- sent, and of the French commonalty during the progress of their revolution. But such an indif- ference, where it does exist, must be fatal to domestic virtue. And in its absence we need not be told how foreign the soil of poverty must be to the growth of all kindly affections, or how soon the endearments of home must perish amidst squaUidness, misery, and famine; amidst the acrimony of privation, and the apathy of de- spair. Even in the wealthier classes, the financial system of Athens, forming as it did an essential part of its constitutional poUcy, must have de- tached the mind from domestic associations and interests, by almost annihilating the principle of property ; by abandoning the more opulent citizens in very many instances to the curiosity or malignity of individuals; and by rendering the acquisitions of industry not merely insecure from oppression, but the avowed and legitimate bank to be drawn upon arbitrarily and unlimitedly by the necessities of an impoverished treasury, or the caprices of a licentious populace. At the same time, the ill- constituted and petty governments of nearly all the Grecian states ; the virulence and animosity of factions, where no middle order existed to balance or coerce them ; the importance of every individual, where power was destined to be the prize of physical force, or of even numerical supe- riority ; and in Athens especially, not only the enactments of positive laws, but the stiU more imiversal compulsion of public opinion, perpetu- ally called forth the hopes and fears and inte- rests of the citizen from the narrow circle of his own hearth, to absorb them in the wider and more agitated sphere of political contention. The re- tired and tranquil sympathies of home fast disap- • peared in the feverish excitement and anxieties of ambition, or the fierce and deadly struggle for power and for existence. The same intensity moreover of poUtical feeling which in Greece, as more recently in Europe during the heat of the French revolution, dissevered all the ties of local and rational connexion, and substituted the more diffusive interests of party for the nar- 8 rower prejudices of country and of soil, effected at each period a previous and similar obliteration of the duties and obligations of affinity. When all the fountains of depravity were broken up through- out the whole of Greece, the attachments of con- sanguinity, the least deeply rooted in the hearts and understanding of the citizen, were the first to be swept away in the torrent. Ka\ /t^v xa* to ^vyyhes Tou era^§^xou uWorgiu/regov eysvero, hoi to hoifi^oregov slmi a'jrpo^aiuyovFt, ro fAifCiXrafczvof, Lysias Usgi tou Auvarou. " You are each of you, says the defendant to the Senate, accustomed to stroll into the shops, some to the perfumers, some to the barbers, another to the shoemakers, just as it may happen; and you patronize the shops near the market, more than those at a distance." In another speech, one of the topics of panegyric on the defendant is, that he was not in the habit of frequenting the shops in the market. So also St. Paul in the Acts, and Demosthenes PhiUpp. Nubes 1003. The same thing is evident from the splendour of their public buildings contrasted with the meanness of their private houses. Roman family dinners. It is a great distinguishing feature in the Roman meals, that ladies and children were admitted to them. " Quern uxorem pudet ducere in convivium.'' Corn. Nepos and Sue- tmius tell us that Claudius used to sup with his children. See also Minutola de Domibus, Meursius de Luxu Roman, " Habuisti honorem Diis, et illud humile limen intrasti et adisti mensam ad quam cum venire caepimus, Deos invocamus." Quint. Decl. 30J. p. Statues of gods were frequently placed on the table. Arnobius. Petronius states that the salt cellar was consecrated, and altars have been found in the Triclinia at Pompeii. In fact almost 58 all the ancient feasts appear to have originated in sacrifices and other sacred ceremonies. Laurentius^ and Bacchms de Conmviis Antiqicorum passim. State of females in Greece. " Nam quod Plato dubitare videtur, utro in genere ponat mulierem, rationalium animalium an brutorum, nihil aliud voluit, quam insignem ejus sexus stultitiam indicare." Erasmi Stultit. Laur. p. 418. Aristotle^ Rhetoric, " €>>)X6*o)v II aggrij (twiuolto^ juiv xaAAoj xa» fjieysQo$. ^vx^^ ^^ (rct)^go(ruvYi xai ^iXegyloi avsu avsXevSegloi$.'^'' 1. 1. c. 5. He also recommends, CEcon. 1. ii. that wives when in the wrong should be reproved, not beaten. The servitude of the marriage state is also curiously ascertained by a practice in the nuptial ceremonies, koltol- Xva-fjMTot were poured on the liead of the bride, as they were on the head of a newly purchased slave. See the scholia on Plutus, ver. 790. Ischomachus, in Xenophon's CEconomics, gives an amus- ing account of the education of his wife, and her introduc- tion to her domestic duties. " I married her, says he, at fif- teen, totally ignorant of the world, having been carefully pre- vented during her previous life from hearing any thing, seeing any thing, or asking any questions. She knew how to work, and, what was a great point, was extremely temperate. I proceeded myself to instruct her in her duties, admitted her as a favour to an equal interest with myself in all our domestic affairs, shewed her how to arrange the furniture, direct the slaves, leave off paint and superfluous ornament, and preserve her health notwith- standing the want of exercise. The recipe for the last was to work at the loom standing, to assist in making the beds, superintend the housekeeper, and occasionally work in the bakehouse." This wife, whom Xenophon intends w. X I f 59 to hold out as a pattern to Athenian ladies, receives her husband's advice with a most amusing naivete, perfectly astonished at the power she is to possess, and the means she has of contributing to her husband's happiness. She fulfills all his injunctions with the greatest care, and her husband professes himself so well pleased, that he assigns it as the reason why he is never at home. " My wife," says he, " is quite competent to manage my domes- tic affairs.'* Ischomachus then proceeds to give an account of the mode in which he passed the day himself. " I get up early in the morning, while I am likely to find persons at home. If I have any business in the city, I transact it, strolling about as you see me. If not, my boy takes my horse on to my country house, and I walk there. On arriving, I look over my farm, give orders to my labour- ers, &c. I then mount my horse, and ride across the country, never refusing either hedges, or ditches, or any other obstructions, only taking care not to lame the animal. My boy rides her home, and I start on foot, sometimes walking, and sometimes running. On arriving, I use the strigil and eat my dinner, taking only suflicient to satisfy my hunger.'' To an enquiry of Socrates as to his intellectual studies, " 1 practise my reasoning powers, says he, occasionally in defending myself against ima- ginary accusations, or in accusing others, in discussing questions of morality, and in settling disputes among my slaves. And I have more than once been assisted in these questions by my wife, (a fact apparently quite beyond Socrates's conception.) I also endeavour to instruct my domestics in the duties of their office, and to make them like me. They are not allowed wine, and must get up early. I lay it down as a rule, (and with such a rule it is curious that the evil of the system was not more glaring,) I I 60 that the obedience of men is only to be secured by making it their interest. I therefore propose rewards to them for their diligence.*" It is to be observed, that Ischomachus, like his wife, is held out as a pattern, and that we ai-e not to infer the general existence of characters, (as Socrates appears to conceive,) so miraculously excellent. Xenophon. (Economic passim. In another part of the (Economics, Socrates asks Critobulus, " Is there any one to whom you entrust matters of so much importance as to your wife ? Yet is there any one with whom you associate so little." " The beauty of the married life," says Aristotle in his (Economics, " is that the husband and wife should attain such a happy indifference as to feel no pain at one another's absence, and no pleasure at their presence." In the speech of Lysias on the murder of Eratosthenes, Euphiletus the husband of the adulteress pleads his own cause. His object of course, as it would be in a similar case in our own courts, was to excite the sympathy of the Jury by a description of his happiness in the married state, pre- vious to the commission of the crime. " I married, says he, my wife at a very early age. My conduct to her was such, as neither to annoy her, nor yet to permit her much liberty. I did not begin to trust her till after the birth of our first child." In the same speech we learn, that the same law with respect to murdering adulterers extended to mistresses as well as wives. See also the tone observed to women in the Greek Tragedies, the vulgar abuse of them which occurs perpe- tually in Euripides. The behaviour of Ulysses to Hecuba, Creon to Antigone, Jason to Medea, &c. Also the respect paid to prostitutes, not only by the so- ciety that frequented their houses, but by the permission of 61 their sacred festivals. Gronov. Antig. vol. ix. p. 1351. The laws also of Solon, with respect to marriage, Laurent, de Spon, No women were allowed to leave by will. The numerous restrictions upon their dress, &c. are so many marks of contempt. None were allowed to go out of doors either undressed, under a penalty of 1000 drachmae, or with more than three dresses, or more than one small basket, nor at night without a lantern in a carriage. Petit, de Legibus Athen. Athenians were allowed to marry two wives, " pro familiar i copia," as in the case of Cimon, Agell. 1. XV. c. 20. Arist. Pol. 1. vii. The characters of Medea, Jocasta, Clytemnestra, Phae- drg,, Electra, Hecuba, Deianira, in tragedy are all crimi- nal. Even in their best females, as Iphigenia and Alcestis, the Greek poets appear totally unable to conceive a character, which should really represent female excellence in its full perfection. Their sympathy is all selfish, their courage too masculine, their lamentations childish and wearisome. The few lines of Lucretius on Iphigenia speak more to the heart, than all the sorrows of the Greek drama. " Muta metu terram genibus submissa petebat, &c." It is unnecessary to adduce quotations from dramatic writers to prove to how great an extent the retirement of females was carried, and what a virtue it was considered. Lysias, Ugos Si/tcova. " My sister and niece were sitting with me, says the plaintiff, at the time of the assault. Ladies who had been educated so well, and always con- ducted themselves with so much propriety, that they were ashamed to be seen even by their own relations." In Boeo- tia, one of the marriage ceremonies was, to burn the axle- tree of the carriage which brought the bride at the door of her husband's house. !«M" *»*~ 62 A brief summary of the character and propensities of the Athenian ladies is given in the Thesmophoriazusae of Aristophanes. It is afterwards developed more fully, and many curious anecdotes introduced, but they are of such a nature as not to bear translation. Mrs. Speaker^ I rise, I can assure you, from no feeling Of party spirit ; but I long have seen. And grieved to see, this honourable House Abused and slandered by that worst of poets, Euripides, the Costermonger's son. No calumny or lie, however atrocious. Has he not heaped upon us ; smeared his filth On all our characters, and brought us forward. Scorn of the mob, in tragedies and farces. 'Tis always. Women, Women ; cunning, drunkards. Traitresses, babblers, good for nothing wretches. Plagues of mankind. The city's all infected ; — Soon as the courts are up, our husbands entering. Knit up their brows, and look at us askance. Then search the cupboards, closets, screens, to see If we've a friend concealed there. E'en our old And sacred privileges now are lost Through that vile rhymester. What if one makes up A tasty head dress : strait one's deep in love ; Or break a jug, when stumbling through the house At midnight in the dark. " Hollo, who's there ?" Bawls the good man. What, Ma'am, your gallant there Hid in the closet ? Or perchance a girl Has got the vapours ; instantly her brother Mutters and hems, " I do'nt like this, she's pale"— " There's something wrong there." Why we ca'nt e'en borrow A baby to support our childless age. So close they block up e'en our chamber doors, And watch our every motion. What old man Will mairy now ? are they not always harping On that vile line ? *' Young brides are old men's curses." 63 'Tis he too that has made them lock us in. Bolt all our doors, and seal us up at night. Keep mastiff dogs to scare away our lovers. Yet this, e'en this, were bearable j but now, — We who once used to keep the larder keys. Acted as butlers, housekeepers, and knew Each bin within the cellar, who could take Bread, butter, oil, and wine, just as we liked, — Why now each husband has his private lock, A vile Laconian lock, with three stout wards. Which no picklock or nail can reach to open. And all these fancies. Ladies, 'tis this wretch, Euripides, who taught them. I shall therefore Conclude by moving, that the House determine By force or fury, stratagem or poison. Some way or other to effect his ruin. Thesmophor. 1. 3S3. Since no one's disposed here our cause to befriend. Let us step forward. Ladies, ourselves to defend. Perhaps you may. Gentlemen, find it amusing To be always the poor race of females abusing. And swearing we plague out your livfes ; and that no man Can enjoy peace or quiet while vexed with a woman. If we are such a plague ; if we prove so mischievous ; Why marry at all. Sirs ? Pray, why don't you leave us ? Why, if thus the source of woe, discord, and war. Do you treasure us up so within bolt and bar. And din into our ears, " To your chambers ; keep in do ; Don't stir out of doors, don't be seen at the window." And if a poor woman should pop out her eye. Or be caught in the street, your are ready to die. If she was such a plague, why your slaves you should bid dance. Make a feast, laugh and sing, thank the gods for your riddance. Not so. Sir ; perchance I should borrow a bed. At the house of a friend. " What ? the plague ? Is she fled ?" There's an uproar at once. Off you start for your life. And search all the beds for this plague of a wife. (« I 1!! 64 The plague longs to be seen," says your lordship emphatic. If I happen perchance to peep out of the attic. But when I retire full of shame 'neath the curtain. The men in the streets don't say so, I am certain. Thesmophor. 1. 785. ■9 . I have selected these two passages, as indicating, and 1 only wish to indicate, the state of the female mind in Greece. The details of their character are too common to require notice, and are in fact too gross to permit it. Schlegel on the Greek Drama. Mitchell's Preface to his Aristophanes. Aristot. Rhet. 1. i. cap. 5. Pol. 1. ii. c. 9. Dion. Halic. 1. i. cap. 71. Xenoph. Repub. Spart. Plautus, Epid. so. ii. a. 1. Poenul. act. i. sc. 2. Aulul. act. 3. Athen. cap. 2. 1. x. An oflFence of which we frequently find Athenian ladies accused, is, stealing meat from the safe or pantry, and laying the blame on the cat. Their fondness for the bottle was also proverbial. In the Lysistrate, an amusing parody is given on the celebrated scene in the Septem contra Thebas, where the seven Chiefs take an oath over a black shield. Instead of the shield, Lysistrate proposes to substitute a black bottle (or skin) of wine. Instantly, not ten thousand swords, but almost as many bottles, leap from the pockets of the assembled ladies, who had come to the house well provided. Now then, says Lysistrate, tak- ing one, let us put it down and take the oath. The odour, however, is such an attraction, that the ladies collect round, when the cork is drawn, and can scarcely be pre- vented from devouring the victim at once, without the ceremony of swearing. With great difficulty they are, however, induced to refrain, and take the oath in proper form. The imprecation on its violator is, " So may I 65 never taste another bottle, and all my wine be mixed with water. »> It appears also that there was a certain ferocity in the character of the Athenian sex, hardly to be expected from their depressed situation. We hear in Herodotus of two murders committed by them " en masse." And in the law, which allowed ladies of character to expel improper per- sons from any temples where they had dared to intrude, the dress and ornaments of the unfortunate woman were given up to the insulted feelings of the others, with permission to strip her, beat her, and kick her out, security being only taken for her life. Petit de Leg. Ath. Sup- posititious children were it seems very common; and the mode in which they were introduced into the house, their mouths stuffed with wax to prevent their crying, and the artifices employed to draw off the attention of the wary husband, always ready to suspect something of the kind, and to delude him afterwards, are given in the Thesmo- phoriazusae. Poisoning and assassination appear not to have been rare, especially if we may judge from the moderate tone and manner in which an injured party treats the most horrible and atrocious case of the kind ever perhaps brought before a court of justice. Antiphon on a Case of Poisoning. The numerous dresses of the Athenian ladies are enu- merated in various places in Plautus; and the milhner's bill appears to have been quite as great a source of horror to Greek husbands as a modern dress. The traits of character in the Spartan ladies given occa- sionally in Aristophanes are amusing. How are you, my dear Lampito.'* says Lysistrate, to the Spartan ambassadress just arrived at the female congress at Athens; I am so rejoiced to see you. But, my sweetest girl, how well you F I # 66 are looking ; what a charming complexion ; and in what good condition you seem. Why you could strangle a bull " Yeth," says Lampito, with a modest complacency at her own muscular powers, " Fm pethy well thank you, by Jupiter. For I thake plenthy of exercise, and leap every day till my heels touch my bacir And what a beautiful" bust you have, says Lisistrate. Why, returns Lampito, not knowing exactly what to make of Lysistrate s caresses, you are feeling me as you would a victim, to see if I was fat. Lysistrate, ver. 78. State of females in Rome. It is curious to see how much more frequently the Roman generals encouraged their soldiers before battle, by recalling to their minds their children and wives, (Livy passim.) than the Greeks, in the few hortatory orations which have come down to us. Their appeal was always to the pride of the citizen. Peri^ks Epita, Nicias' speech in Sicily. Thucydides passim. mmys. Halic. cap. 7L 'O U Tco^JXoj o^e a,^) xar^ W^ ^'K^vzm T«v8s ^ovT« xarao-Trjo-iftsvor V ^^ TOiOj l\ h vo>oj yuvaTxayoftlTtjv xaTivo>o.j Ugouj ^.veXfiot^crav ^v8§i xoivcovov omkYzm slvai x?')/^'^"^"^^ ''** Ugiv— (rco^govof5(ra y^^ xal ^^avra owrs^ xai 6 av^^. The Romans permitted funeral orations in honour ot women. Plat, de Morib. Mul and their statues were car- ried in funeral processions. Cicer. de Oratore, 1. ii. There is something very elegant in their marriage ceremonies, especially if we interpret them with Plutarch in conformity 67 with their general sentiments. The auspices were scru- pulously taken. Demp. ad Ros. p. 967. Ill omened days were avoided. Every emblem was introduced that could carry back the mind to preceding happy and chaste marriages. The recta tunica was worn by the bride in honour of Caia Cecilia, Plin. 1. viii. c. 48. The flam- meum in correspondence with the wife of the Flamen Dialis,who was not allowed a second marriage, and abdicated on the death of his wife. Pliny Do. The use of the terms Caius and Caia, and Thalassius, also indicate it. Pint QucBst. Rom. The assumed compulsion of the bride, (Festm), the procession by night, the symbols of houses hold industry, in the distaff, spindle, and wool, the cere- mony of standing on a woollen rug, are emblematic of the same thing, Pliny 1. vii. cap. 48. The anointing the doors, and crowning them. Plut Qucest. Rom. 29. The avoiding to touch the threshold, the ceremony of touching fire and water. Plut. Qucest. Rom. 1. The receiving the keys of the house. The scattering nuts. Plifi. 1. XV. cap. 22. The consecration, &c. of the lectus genialis, the banquet, the carrying the ^ve torches, the division of the hair with the spear ; the Pronubse, the joint sacrifice of the husband and wife, on the next dav ; all of these ceremonies, as explained in ancient Roman writers, are full of feeling and elegance. The only ex- ception is to be found in the Fescennine verse sung on the occasion, and the Nyctelian rites. Aug. de Civ. Dei, 1. vii, cap. 24. But these do not appear to have been common, and the latter were conducted with great secrecy. I should be more willing on the authority of Plutarch to interpret the privilege given to near relations to kiss females, as a mark of affection and respect, than as a gross precaution against their drunkenness. Notwithstanding the severity of the laws against this vice in women, the f2 68 early Romans had a great dislike to early marriages. They crowned those who married but once ; Valer. Max, lib. ii. cap. 1. and those who married twice were forbidden to touch the statue of Modesty. Meur, de Lux Rom. cap. I 10. Women were always considered in a state of tutelage. Cicero Pio Mur. cap. 23. Many inscriptions have been found testifying the concord of marriage union. Cam. Cent. i. p. 332. If quarrels occurred, there was a regular \ temple of the Dea Viriplaca, where they were reconciled ^n the presence of their relations. Val. ii. lib. % cap. 1. The power of life and death given to the husband in case of drunkenness, poisoning, and adultery, appears rather repugnant to our feelings ; but I beheve no instance of its exercise is recorded. The Romans admired retirement in women, biit corrected its evil tendency by admitting them to their meals and private associations. Virgins were not allowed to marry on Holidays. The husband always sent to his wife to announce his approach when returning from the country. Plut. QucBst. Rom. The ladies had way made for them, and no one when in company with his wife was compelled to descend from their chariot when the consul passed. See also the privileges of the Vestal Vir- gins; the several priesthoods filled by females; the dis- tinctions made between concubines and wives ; the princi- ples of the three kinds of marriage, Usus, Confarreatio, Coemptio; no servile employments, as cooking, baking, &c. were permitted to women; Cato's indignation at a person's kissing his wife in his daughter's presence ; Gron. vol. vi. p. 1120. the prohibition of husbands and wives to exchange presents, as an indication of their equality ; the laws respecting adultery. Hotman de Ritu Nuptiarum. Plat. Quaest. Rom. Brissonius de Jure Connub. Hotman de Sponsal. See too the cases of Virginia, Lucretia, Co- riolanus, the Sabine women. Corneha Aurelia, Attia. 69 Auctor Dialogi de Orat. cap. 28. which goes under the name of Tacitus. " Jam pridem suus cuique filius ex casta parente natus non in cella emptae nutricis sed gremio ac sinu matris educabatur, cujus praecipua laus erat tueri domum et in- servire liberis."" And again, " Eligebatur autem aliqua major natu propinqua, cujus probatis spectatisque moribus omnis cujuspiam familiae soboles committebatur. Sic Corneliam Gracchorum," &c. Claudius de Nutricibus et Pcedagogis. Cicero mentions not only the advantage he himself derived from female society, but many other instances, particularly with respect to the purity of language. See also the reluctance with which the Roman people were led out to war. Livy passim. The first divorce, and that compulsory, was 520 U. C. and Carvilius incurred by it the hatred of the whole people. Dion, Halic, &c. It is needless to give instances of the depravity of the sex in the later period of the Roman empire. See the sixth Satire of Juvenal; the regulations of the Lex Julia. Seneca de Benef. lib. iii. cap. 16. Suetonius in Tiberio, cap. 35. Suet, in Augus, cap. 34. Ovid. Amor. Where also it appears that they were put under a strict surveil- lance. El. xiv. 2. Brissonius de Adulteriis, &c. r. Relation of father and son at Rome. For the despotic power of the father over the son, see Dionys. Hal. lib. ii. cap. 72. The father was allowed to imprison, to scourge, send him to work in the country, sell him three times over, put him to death, though in the highest situation in the state. " The principle,"" says Dio- nysius, " was probably received from tradition, preserved by the kings, and first embodied in an actual law by the i ^ 70 decemvirs." It is needless to enumerate instances. Just Instit. lib. i. But it is curious how much more frequently the gods are addressed by the appellations of Pater and Mater, in Roman poetry than in Greek. See also the regulations of the Pater Patratus. The meaning of the terms Patronus, Patricia, and Liberi. Alew, ah Alex. lib. ii. cap. 25. Apophthegmata Plutarchi. Plut in Vita Catmis. The respect paid to those who had many children, and the privileges enjoyed by them, though these privileges were afterwards granted indiscriminately. Dion. Cass, lib* Iv. Constantine passed an edict, that sons should not be sold to prostitution. Antoninus Pius first put a stop to the general cruelty practised on children. Petit de Leg. Ath. Seneca de Clem. lib. i. cap. 14. Xenophon. Spartan Constitution. State of sons in Greece. 0» AoLxaives Sriqwh^s SiTregyatl^ovTon tov$ val^ag. Arist. Pol. lib. iv. cap. 88. Instances of the Spartan pride are collected by Plutarch in his Apophthegmata. Sons were exposed, abdicated, and sold by the laws of Solon. Petit de Leg. Ath. See also Plutarch xeg* IlaiSa- yooylos. Demosthenes vgog ""Ajrotrovgioov. " I seized upon his children as a pledge, that if the ship sailed away, and any loss was incurred, the deficiency might be made up by their sale." See numerous instances of parental conduct. AHsto- phanis Vespee. Achar. Plant. Aulularia. Asinaria. Ca- sina^ &c. Lysias pro Aristoph. makes it one of his virtues that he was not in the habit of contradicting his father. Plato Theages. " Has not your father taught you all that gentlemen usually are taught; to read and write. 71 m to play on the harp, to wrestle, leap, and other gymnastic exercises.?'' The young man very naturally wishes for something more. Plato, heg. vii. gives a number of rules respecting dancing and music, as one of the principal branches of education ; so also Aristotle in his Politics, lib. vii. Plat. Rep. i. accounts for the difficulty of uniting religion with the education of children. Aristoph. Nubes, Dispute between the Just and Unjicst Reason. Petit de Leg. Ath. especially the laws respecting what iEschines calls uhxYiiucrcov [LsyoL^Mv jxev, yiyvofjiivoov 8e oljxai h TYJ fToXjei. There also for the danger of Athenian schools, ^schines cont. Timarchum. Arist. Ethic. 1. vi. cap. 4. Ho- race Walpole's Postscript to his Tragedy of the Mysterious Mother. Alcestes, 632. Aves, 1336. Thucyd. hb. iv. cap. 80. Xenoph. Spartan Republ. Aristot. Polit. Plat, de Republ. Athen. lib. vi. cap. 10. Slaves at Athens. At Corinth there were 460,000 slaves. In the census of Athens by Demetrius Phalereus, 21,000 citizens, 40,000 slaves, Nicias had 1000, Mnasces of Phocis 1000, ^Egina 47,000. Xenoph. 7rs§) Ilgocro&ov. Athen. lib. vi. cap. 11. Among the Romans many individuals possessed 10,000 or 20,000 slaves. Athen. lib. vi. Pignorius de Servis. Xenoph. de Ath. Republ. Plato in Leg. Plut. de Garrulitate, all mention the familiarity and impudence of the Athenian slaves ; and Xenophon expressly assigns the reasons. iEschines cont. Timarchum, alluding to the laws which protected slaves from the criminal passions of their mas- ters, alleges, that in passing them the legislature had no reference whatever to the interests of the slave, but in- tended them solely as a protection to freemen, ou^ ^h twv olxsrwv, &c. So also Plato in his Nojxoj recommends good 72 treatment to slaves, " not for their sake, but our own." So also Aristotle in his Politics and QEconomics ; and it is borne out by the peculiar character of the laws which regulated slaves. Petit de Leg. Athen. Slaves at Rome, Poly bins says, that Scipio Africanus carried only five slaves abroad with him, and one of them dying, he wrote to some friend to purchase him another. Ath. lib. vi. cap. 18. The festivals of the Matronalia and Saturnalia convey an idea of pristine equality. The instances of the slave put to death in the Forum, (Livy, lib. ii. cap. 36.) .provoked the anger of the. gods. The various modes of manumitting slaves, the right of pecuhum, &c. Pignarius de Servis. Plautus Stic. iii. ver. 23. Alea;. ah Alew. lib. iv. cap. 10. Plant. Menced. v. ver. 7. indicate a mitigation in their condition. Branding was evidently not in use at an early period. Seneca de Clementia mentions a de- bate in the Senate to distinguish slaves by their dress. The objection was, that their numbers would be too evident. If branding had been in use, this would not have made any difference. Cato indeed appears to have approached to the Grecian manners as he did to their Stoicism. He exchanged his wife, sold his old slaves when they became useless, and held the female character in the highest contempt ; but Plutarch deservedly repro- bates him for it. Plut. Vit. Colon. The case of Herdonius, Livy, lib. iii. where only 4000 insurgents were collected, and a great majority of them Sabines and exiles, proves either that they were not inclined to revolt, or were not in great numbers. Grecian manners. I must apologize for the great length of the following ^ 73 notes; but as the rudeness of the Athenian manners is not generally acknowledged, and the polish of their litera- ture is too often transferred to their own minds, I may perhaps be excused in stating at greater length the grounds of the opinion which I have ventured to adopt. We have in the remains of the Greek orators many sketches of private life and conduct, and it is from these I have principally drawn the inference ; keeping in mind that the parties concerned in the transactions are in general persons of consequence, and none of them below respecta- bility ; that the facts are stated without any adequate indignation, frequently treated as common occurrences, and arising out of circumstances which must have perpetually recurred under the Athenian system of government. I think also that the nature of that government is in itself a strong a priori argument for the ungentlemanly character of their manners. * Now one instance occurs in the speech of Demosthenes against Euergus and Mnesibulus. The head of one of the Symmoriae, of course a man of consequence, receives orders to enforce the payment of some arrears due to the state from one of the members. " I accordingly," says he, " after commanding him by a message to produce the stores he was bound to furnish, and receiving no answer, took a police officer, and went to his house. As he was not at home, I sent the servant maid to fetch him. When he arrived, I demanded the bill of the stores, which he refused to give up, and commenced threatening and abusing me. I told my boy to call any one who happened to be in the street to witness what passed. I then requested him to go with me before a magistrate, and threatened, if he refused, to seize upon some of his goods. This however he declined doing. I accordingly seized upon the servant maid, who was standing at the door, and Theophemus 74 pulled her away from me ; but as the door happened to be open, and I knew Theophemus was not married, I endeavoured to get into the house ; upon which he dou- bled his fist, and struck me a blow on the mouth. I ■called the byestanders to witness the assault, and pro- ceeded to defend myself."" (The servant maid, ^ avd^owroj, by the bye was to be put to the torture, to qualify her for giving evidence on the subject ; and the circumstance occurs perpetually in the Orators.) The story goes on. " Theophemus, having by suborned witnesses obtained a verdict against the plaintiff, and damages to a small amount, when called upon after a few days'* indulgence to accompany his adversary to the bank to receive the money, proceeds instead to the plaintifTs estate near the race-course, and seizes upon fifty of his finest sheep, with the shepherd and all his appurtenances, besides a boy, with a brass jug of son^e value, which was moreover borrowed. " Not content with this, says the plaintiff, they adjourned to the house, and on the road made an attack on my servants, who very wisely ran away. They then knocked down the garden gate, and rushed into the court, where my wife and children and an old nurse (who appears to have acted as duenna when the trierarch was absent) were sitting very quietly at supper."" In spite of the lady''s remonstrances, they com- menced carrpng off the furniture. She in vain assures them that the property is not her husband'*s, but her own ; that they had already got the fifty sheep and the brass jug; (for some one had knocked at the door, and informed them of it ;) and that the money was then ready at the banker's. " The nurse, says the plaintiff, seeing the irrup- tion, very providently seized on the cup out of which she was drinking, and endeavoured to conceal it in h«" bosom. They perceived it, seized on the old lady, one held her 75 arms, the other very nearly throttled her; and after having pulled her about, beiaten her, bruised her till she was black and blue, and almost completed the operation of strangling, they succeeded in forcing the cup from her. The neighbours are called to assist : and a gentleman of the name of Agnophilus, who happens to be passing by, not liking to enter the house in the absence of the master, coolly watches the ruffians carrying off the furniture. The same operation is repeated the next day ; and when the plaintiff proceeds to Theophemus, requesting him to receive his debt, and pay the physician for curing the nurse, Theophemus refuses to give up any of the fifty sheep, unless he is promised an indemnity for the assault. The old nurse dies a few days after, and the plaintiff is afraid of prosecuting for her death or his own insult, lest he should incur unpopularity and odium ! ! !'' Demosth. Ugog NixocTT^aTov. Apoliodorus having had a quarrel with Arethusius, (a man of some consequence, for he owes a talent to the city,) Arethusius, among other means of revenge, gets without his knowledge a verdict passed against him as debtor to the public. To enforce the payment, he goes to the house of Apoliodorus, carries off all the furniture, worth about sixty pounds, and leaves not a farthing. After this he enters his property by night, cuts down his fruit-trees, destroys his flower-beds, " just as an invading army,"*" is the expression made use of to describe the de- vastation committed. " The next day," says Apoliodorus, "our houses lying near each other, he sent a boy, the son of a citizen, into my garden, ordering him to pull up all my finest potherbs ; that if I should mistake him for a slave, and so strike him, or put him in my black hole, an action might he against me.""' Lastly, as the plaintiff is coming home one night late from the Piraeus, the defendant 76 meets him by the stone quarries, strikes him with his fist, seizes him round the waist, and, if some persons had not heard the cries, would have pitched him into the quarries. Plautus in several places mentions the danger of having a beautiful wife; particularly the nocturnal annoyances to which it exposed the house. " Why, they come and serenade you : nay, they will light a fire at your doors, and burn them down." Pers. a. iv. s. 4. Oration xara Kovcovoj. During the occupation of the post at Panactum, Conon and his sons were quartered, says the plain tiflP, near us. They used to pass the whole day in drinking, after finishing their dinner as quick as possible. And this they did the whole time we were upon guard. While we were at supper they used to play all sorts of drunken frolics on our slaves, and at last on ourselves. They would declare the boys smoked them when dressing our dinner, and beat them for it, xou ra^ a/t/Saj, xaTgo-xgSayyyov, xa) -Trgoasougouv, and omitted no other mark of insolence and wantonness. On finding this, and being annoyed by it, we complained to the captain. Not- withstanding however his censures, they were so far from ceasing their insults, that the same evening, as soon as it was dark, they fell upon us, began to abuse us, and at last beat us, till the piquet came up. All this, however, I endeavoured to forget, (surely not, unless it were of common occurrence.) But as I was walking some time after in the market, with my friend Philostratus, Conon's son, evidently drunk, met me near the Leocorium. The moment he saw me, he shouted out, and after mutterinff something to himself like a drunken man, he passed on to Pamphilus's, where he and some friends were drinking. Here he found the rest of the party, and calling them out, he proceeded with them to the market. As we were strolling about we fell in with them. The moment we 77 encountered each other, (this was early in the evening,) one of them fell upon Philostratus, and held him down, while Conon, his son, and another man, attacked me, first of all stripping me stark naked, (a frolic, it appears from many passages in Aristophanes and elsewhere, very com- mon). They then tripped me up, and rolled me in the mud, trampling on me and abusing me, till I was reduced to such a condition, that my lip was. cut through, my eyes closed up, and I could neither stand nor speak. All this time they abused and blasphemed in the most horrible manner; some of them crowing and clapping their arms like fighting^cocks. After this they ran off with my clothes, and I was taken home naked, put into a bath, and attended by a physician, who declared me in imminent danger. The defence to be set up is, that the whole oc- currence was a mere frolic, very common among the young men of the best famiHes in Athens : that they were in the habit of calling one another by nicknames, and fighting for their mistresses : that in fact it happened every day. Another picture of Athenian manners, of breaking into private houses, and of drunken quarrels in the streets, is to be found in Lysias Trgos ^i^umci. It is only astonishing that such a case could ever have been brought before a court of justice. See also Demosthenes, Oration against Midias. Lysias, cont. Alcibiaden, presupposes that Alcibiades is universally known for his insolent and overbearing conduct. And his father had gloried in the same thing before, as we find from Thucydides, 1. vi. cap. 16. So also in Demosth. cont. Midias. Mantitheus, in his Apology frsqi ^OKi[jia(rias, attributed to Lysias, passes a panegyric on himself, that he had never been tried before in a court of justice. What should we think of such a boast ? mm 78 In A ntiphon's famous speech on the case of murder, he is enumerating the various circumstances under which it might have occurred : " No one,'" says he, " could have killed the man in a fit of drunkenness, for the rest of the party would have known it: nor yet from Aoi^o^iaj, for they would not have chosen so late an hour, nor so de- serted a spot. They would have done it openly. They would not moreover have killed his slave with him." Antiphon also in another case of murder. "For if," says he, "in a drunken frolic a young man should seize an old man, and beat him, throttle him, and kill him," — What.^ why he would certainly deserve punish- ment. iEschines contra Timarchum. That cock-fighting, in itself a low and vulgar amusement, was a favourite game of the Athenians, is evident from this speech, as from many places in Aristophanes. A party, says the Orator, in a drunken frolic, after they had been gambling together, broke one night into a neighbour's house, against whom they had a grudge. They demolished all his furniture, threw the fragments into the street, among them some dice, dice-boxes, and other implements of gaming; killed all the man's quails and fighting-cocks, in which he took so much delight. They then bound him himself to a pillar, and whipped him in such a brutal manner, that all the neighbours heard his screams. The next morning the poor wretch took refuge at an altar in the Forum; and his tormentor, being a person of some consequence, and not liking the frolic to be known, comes up, and persuades him it was merely intended as a joke, and so appeases him. Most of these descriptions are not the subject of the action, but accidental notices. For allusions to the common practice of attacking people in the street, stripping them naked, &c. see Arist. Vesp. r 79 1313. Plut. 931. and numerous other passages. Alexis Iv Kogih, Atkence 1. viii. c. 16. With respect to the degrading servility of a great ma- jority of Athenians, see the many characters of the kind in Aristophanes, Plut. 931. Vesp. 546. and following : the quotations in Athenaeus 1. vi. from ancient authors on the subject : the common practice of sponging upon others for dinners: and the immense number of sycophants and parasites which filled Athens; for it is to be observed, that they never could have been tolerated or encouraged, except by a corresponding spirit on the part of their entertainers. For Plato's opinion of the Athenian character, see Athenaeus, 1. xi. cap. 15. Theopompus. Ukrj^eis elvai rag 'Afl^vaj hovu. There is a college in this University where one of the oaths taken at entrance is, that they will not abuse men who come from different counties. I think we may infer from the ridicule of this at present, that the manners of those days were much worse than they are at present. Now we have a law at Athens infinitely more striking, "That no one should abuse the dead fathers of other men." * Demosth. cont. Boeotum. See also Plut. in Solon. ^Eschines cont. Timarchum. Demosth. cont. Midiam. Lysias pro Me- lite. Petit de Leg. Athen. The tone used by orators to one another, particularly in Demosth. de Corona; the abuse of the dialogue in Aristophanes. Upon no other principle can we account for the introduction of rules with respect to the use of ridicule in a serious ethical work like the Ethics, lib. iv. than that its abuse was- common. The same observation holds good with respect to his rules for praising and making one's self agreeable, lib. iv. Athe- naeus also mentions the immense number of libels afloat at Athens, lib. v. cap. 20. In many religious ceremonies it was an important feature. Women lampooned one another at the Stenia and Sciria. Scholia to Aristoph. Plut. 834. Athen. lib. vi. cap. 18. It was common to abuse their wives and servants. Athen. lib. viii. cap. 17. lib. x. cap. 5. Platonius de Differentia Comoediarum. That the behaviour of Athenians in society was not quite accordant with our notions of common decorum may be inferred from many of the preceding notes. Herodotus, lib. i. mentions that they did not scruple to perform the offices of nature avr/ov aAA^Awv. Plutarch, debatino* whe- ther it is better to serve up separate messes to each person at a dinner, or have common dishes, has these remarkable words : " I do not think myself that it is a friendly or convivial prelude to a feast to seize and carry off the different delicacies, struggling for them, and snatching at one another, and pushing about with one's hands and arms; but rather out of place and uncivil, and frequently g2 *: i| 84 terminating in abuse and ill tetoper, not only towards each other, but even to the attendants and host."" Plutarch Ueqi tvfLiro(riaxuiv. Nubes,981. Aristotle gives directions in one of his works to dress for a party; not to rush at once to the table, but lounge about, and praise the furni- ture. Now this last precept is very contrary to our notion of good manners, unless it be very delicately complied with. Ath. Hb. v. cap. 27. Aristoph. Vespae. Capt. Plautus, act. iii. sc. 1. For the quarrels which were common at feasts, and instruments the combatants were in the habit of using, see Athen. passim. Macron, in a fragment of one of his parodies, gives us an account of his behaviour at a dinner party. I went to the house, says he, terribly hungry. The first thing that I saw there (and the sight appears to have gone to his heart) were the largest and most beautiful loaves of bread, " whiter than snow, which Boreas himself might have longed for." The master of the house is standing at the door to marshal the guests, and Chserephon a parasite by him, " looking like a starved cormorant." The dinner served up, the rest of the guests, says Macron, laid siege with their hands to the salad bowl. Not so I ; I attacked the bolbi, the asparagus, and the oysters, leaving the salt fish to those who liked it. The sea urchins he appears to have been peculiarly partial to, for he seizes them by handfuls, tears off their shells and spines, and throws them on the floor, where they are crushed beneath the feet of the slaves, and trodden into the spilt wine, fragments of meat, fish bones, and other filth, which appears generally to have covered the floors of ancient dining rooms. The second course introduces a " Phalerian anchovy," a " car- tilaginous psetta," and a " purple-cheeked mullet ;" all of which are saluted with the utmost veneration, and de- picted in the most animating colours ; one being the mis- 85 tress of Triton, another a bright-haired goddess, and a third having even aspired to share the couch of Jupiter. On the mullet, says Macron, I immediately fell tooth and nail, unfortunately not in time to get the best part. See- ing however Stratocles with the fish's head in his hand, I laid hold of it, and tore it from him. A " daughter of Nereus, or silver-footed Thetis,*" in the shape of a cuttle- fish, is soon followed by a " marine Tityus" in the disguise of an enormous conger ; and this gives way to a prodigious eel, big enough to fill a waggon, and which '' three men of these degenerate days"'' could scarcely carry. Other fish, the names and variety of which would puzzle the most acute modern fishmonger, have equal attention paid them by the guests, and excite no slight emulation as to who shall have the honour of attaining the most intimate ac- quaintance with them. No delay of carving appears to have been considered necessary, but they help themselves with their hands, and make no scruple of snatching the more tempting morsels from each other. One of them is represented as eating "like a lion," and with a view to secure a supper on his return home, keeping fast hold of the leg of a fowl, which he had contrived to possess him- self of. Macron himself, by his own account, does ample justice to the dainties, and shews no symptoms of giving in till he has reached the bottom of the carte. Just how- ever as he is beginning to recline back upon the sofa, there enters that first of all delicacies in an Athenian eye, a " large, beautiful, delicately browned, and circular cheese- cake," (or, as it is translated by some, a soufflet of some kind or another.) How, says Macron, how could I resist the divine cheese-cake ? No, not if I had ten hands, and ten mouths, and a heart of brass, or a digestion of iron. Athen. lib. iv. cap. 2. See also the Cook's Soliloquy upon the result of his I H 86 labours in dressing a fish in Philemon's Comedy of the Soldier. " I long," says he, " to tell it to heaven and earth : under what stars am I born ! only to think how tender it was ; how I served it up, not covered over with cheese, or coloured with sauce, but looking when roasted just as it did when alive. Why when it was put to table it was the same as when a bird has got a worm in its beak larger than it can swallow : ofF it runs to devour it at leisure ; away goes another after it. Just so the first man that got a morsel of my fish jumped up from table, ran round the room with it in his hands; all the rest after him. Happy the man who got a mouthful. Some went without, others seized on the whole. And yet, says the cook, 'twas but a river-fish, a mud-eating brute. What if it had been a scar or an owl-fish or a boar-fish r Athen. lib. vii. cap. 10. It does not appear either that the hospitality of the Athenians was of the most generous or delicate descrip- tion. " If you ask a friend to dinner," says an anonymous author quoted in Athenaeus, lib. viii. cap. 17. " do not be offended at his coming ; do your best to make him com- fortable.'' And again, " Now-a-days if a friend drops in to dinner we get out of sorts, and look sour at him, and long to shew him the door. Of course when he perceives it he begins to resume his shppers, and wish us a good afternoon. And if any one happens to say, Why where are you going ; why not sit down and take a glass of wine ? come puU off your slippers and be sociable ; No, says the master of the house, I beg you will not detain him, I should be sorry to keep him from his engagements. Is not this, asks the writer, what we meet with every day ? As it was a great point in Athenian gastronomy to eat 87 much and eat long, it was even a greater one to eat every thing in its hottest state. They practised therefore keep- ing their hands in hot water, and gargling their mouths with the same, to enable them to endure the greatest pos- sible heat in their viands. One gentleman invented finger- stalls to protect his hands on these occasions, and adapted a sort of crust or armour to his tongue, which gave him a decided superiority over all his competitors. The Athenians had moreover a great objection to a quiet tete a tete dinner, or a family party. " Defend mc" (says Menander, with evident horror at the thought) from family repasts, Where all the guests claim kin — nephews, and uncles. And aunts, and cousins to the fifth remove 1 First you've the sire, a goblet in his hand. And he deals out his dole of admonition ; Then comes my lady mother, a mere homily, ' Reproof and exhortation ! at her heels The aunt slips in a word of pious precept ; The grandsire last — a bass voice among trebles. Thunder succeeding whispers — ^fires away ; Each pause between his aged partner fills With " lack-a-day \" " good sooth !" and " dearest dear !" The dotard's head mean time for ever nods, Encouraging her drivelling . Athen. vol. ix. p. 2//. N. B. For this translation I am indebted to an anony- mous author in the Quarterly Review. Even this picture however has something pleasing and domestic about it. We may add to it the account given by the Peter Peeble's of Greek comedy, the Dicast in the Vespae, of his reception at home on returning from the courts. And they ar^, I beheve, the only two sketches, such as they are, to be met with of Athenian family comfort. 88 But the best of my lot I tad nearly forgot— the court left, and well loaded with honey. Scarce in sight of my home, all the house trooping come, and embrace me, such cozenage has money ! Next my girl, sprightly nymph, brings her napkin and lymph ; feet and ancles are quick in ablution ; Softening oils o'er them spread, she stoops down her head, and drops kisses in utmost profusion. I'm her sweetest papa, I'm the pride of the bar ; while her lips to my own neatly fitting. She fishes me out, as if angling for trout, from my mouth the three pence for my sitting. Seats her then by my side, Mrs. Dicast, my pride j feeling soul, she knows well what my calling ; And my labours to greet, brings •refreshments most sweet, while speeches still sweeter are falling : " Deign this pottage to sip ; pass this cake o'er your lip ; here's a soft and a soothing emulsion ; You cannot but choose eat this pulse ; nay I'll use, to my heart's dearest treasure, compulsion." Then I sip and I swill, and I riot at will, &c. Anstoph. VetpcB. MitcheWs Translation. Athenaeus tells an amusing story of a party who got so drunk, that they at last imagined themselves on board ship, and off at sea in a storm. To lighten the vessel they proceeded to throw all the furniture of the house out of window; and when the magistrates came the next morning to enquire into the tumult, the father of the party fell on his knees, saluted them ''AvS^s^ T^ireovoi, assures them the ship has been in great danger all night, that he himself was obliged to take refuge from the waves in the hold, but that if it got safe into harbour, a statue should be erected to them as their tutelary and preserving deities. It is also remarkable how little feeling is shewn in the tragedians in the mode of breaking bad news. Teiresias to Creon ; Antigone to (Edipus, Phoenissae ; message to 89 Jocasta; Creon's behaviour to Antigone; Jason*s to Medea, &c. &c. Menelaus' to Orestes ; Ulysses to Hecuba ; Her- cules to Admetus. In some points, even the Spartan legislator does not ap- pear to have encouraged much civility. To render them careful of their strength and habitually fond of fighting, he enacted that the Ephori should choose from the body of the people three men, who again should choose one hundred, assigning publicly the reasons why the rest were rejected. These of course felt considerable animosity to- wards both the electors, and the elected : a feeling, says Xenophon, very gratifying to the gods, and useful to the state. " Moreover it makes them careful of their health and prowess, for whenever they meet they are sure to come to blows." Xenoph. Rep, Lac. c. 1. Grecian amusements and entertainments. The great passion of the Greek was for dancing. Meursius de Saltatixmibus reckons up no less than one hundred and eighty different ones mentioned in Greek writers. They appear to have resembled in general our ballets and pantomimes. Many were extremely gross, and the AoiSogia formed a principal part of them. Socrates danced. Apollo's epithet was ogp^or^?. Even Jupiter, according to Arctinus quoted by Athenaeus, possessed the same propensity. It was the business of the Tragoedian to invent dances. And iEschylus shone in this as much as in his Agamem- non, For the guests to dance between the courses was a common amusement at dinners. Plato de Legibus, 1. vii. Arist. Politics. I 90 Singing was another favourite recreation. See the im- mense number of songs mentioned, Gronov. Antiq. Graec. vol. ix. p. 202. There was something elegant in the Scolia, the Bough of Myrtle, &e. Plut. Probl. 1. For the absurd questions and frivolous tone of conversa- tion among even the philosophers, see Plato Euthydemus. For the gryphi, riddles, conundrums, &c. see Meursius de Luxu Romanorum. Robiarzechius de Conviviis. Bac- chius de Convion passim. The conversation at Athenian dinners, appears to have been always forced and artificial, frequently on set sub- jects. The office of diner out, " which in London requu-es little more than a stock of puns and laughable stories, was much more laborious at Athens. And it was common with these gentlemen, on any deficiency in their extempo- raneous salhes, immediately to have recourse to their common place book, and produce for the amusement of the company an essay, dissertation," &c. One or two specimens of the character of the parasite are given m Athenaeus, 1. vi. cap. 8. „ • • In the Spes of Epicharmus we have the following notice of an Athenian diner out. When I get a note to ask me out to dinner, this my answer ; " Dear Sir, at morning, noon, or night, for dinner, I'm your man, Sir." But if I symptoms smeU of feasts of great conviviaUty, Why I drop in, in a friendly way, without the least formality. There I bow and smile, and talk the while, and make myseU agree- able. Start a joke or pun, and fuU of fun shake with laughter all the table. Laud my host up to the skies, and if a guest should prove re- fractory. Doubt his word, or turn up at his jokes his instruments olfactory : 91 Strait I take the cudgels for my friend, as in duty bound to back him. And thunder down with shout and frown the wretch who dares at- tack him. Then having ate and drank my fill, till my sides I scarcely can turn, I crawl me home without a boy to light me with a lantern. Groping and stumbling i^ the dark, all at once I hear me, " Stop, man j> I'm sure, by some confounded fate, to fall among the watchmen. I cry in vain, Tm not to blame, for being there; 'tis odds. Sir, But they give me a good hiding, though I swear by all the gods. Sir. Home reached, I lay me on the floor, (Pve no bed, the truth to tell ye,) Nor feel, till sleep has cooled my head, that Pm beaten to a jelly. Epicharmi Spes ; quoted by Athenaeus, 1. vi. cap. 8. From a comedy of Diphilus : When a rich man invites me to dine, (and, be sure, Not one moment too late do I knock at the door,) Don't suppose that I look, wit6 an eye grave and solemn. On portico, statue, on triglyph, or column. No ; my heart is not there : but (oh prospect bewitching I) My eye's always fixed on the roof of the kitchen. How I'm ready to jump e'en from Cos to Methymne, If the smoke in black whirls issues out of the chimney ! How I sink, if I see it slight, meagre, and thin, ■* And sigh o'er a still slighter dinner within. Athenceus, 1. vi. cap. 8. From the Flatterer, a lost comedy of Eupolis. " Come and listen every one. Who in pride is starving ; How a diner out gets on. Though without a farthing. First of all you must not look For foot-boy, groom, or sutler, I've no kitchen for a cook. Nor cellar for a butler. i » » 92 Without a groat I never lack. Knife and fork to put my hand to ; I've just two shirts, one on my back, And one in my portmanteau. When the clean one has been washed, I stroll into the rue. Sir, Meet my friends, and ne'er abashed. Shake hands, and how d'ye do. Sir. At distance, lo! a wealthy cit. Whose dinners glad the sight well— I'm at him strsdt— Pull oflF my hat, " Fine dayr I hope you're quite well.' Low and submiss, his looks I prwse. Make enquiries for the ladies ; Nod deep assent to all he says. Offer plumbcakes for his babies. — The poor fool stares, as well he may. Such arts have I t'entrap ye. Then, "Pray, Sir, dine with me to day,' " Dear Sir, I'll be most happy." Atheiueus, lib. vi. cap. 8. The poor parasite however adds, that it was not impos- sible that he might be turned out of doors, unless he suc- ceeded in making himself amusing. It is needless to enumerate the absurd entertainments of the later Romans. Such as the peacocks, dying mullets, the fish weighed on the table, the elephants and gla- diators introduced into the room. With respect to the dress, see the dissertotion De Re Vestiaria, Gronov. Antiq. Seneca de Clementia enlarges on the anxiety with which the Romans dressed their hair. He also mentions an anecdote of a Roman dandy, who after bathing was brought out by his slaves, and being put into his sedan was obhged to enquire of them, " Num sedes ?"" Plato, Xenophon, Aristotle, Speusippua, Epicurus, Prytanis, Hieronymus, Dion, and Plutarch, all wrote 93 works on the subject of dinner parties. ' And a num- ber of others are mentioned in Athenaeus, 1. i. We ought never to get drunk, says Plato, except at cer- tain festivals. In his Republic, he evidently contem- plates the necessity for it, and proposes the appointment of certain old men at feasts, who are to keep themselves sober for the purpose of turning the drunken merriment of the young guests into good accbunt in the way of edu- cation. Upwards of one hundred different kinds of cups are mentioned in Athenaeus, lib. xi. We read also of prizes proposed for drunkenness. For the reasoning which led the Athenians to take so much deUght in the pleasures of the table, Athenaeus, lib. ii. cap. 3. The Athenian dinners are often contrasted with those barbarian feasts, where on great occasions they served up a baked horse, or a roasted mule. Herod, lib. i. Aiist. Achar. They consisted in general of minute delicacies, shell fish, herbs, &c. and various sorts of bread and cakes. The expense, however, of a handsome entertainment, is somewhere or another reckoned at a talent. « Poor starveling Greeks, who're only fit their roots and leaves to gobble, 'Mongst whom you get but mouthfuls four of minced meat for an obol. Off with your petty flimflams, cook, you're surely in a wrong key. What say you to a potted horse, or a carbonadoed donkey ? None of your nice tit bits for me, I hate your cakes and fishes. Give me an ox upon my plate, and sheep for corner dishes. Why 'twas but t'other day, a cook, though the beast was hard to carry. Served up before the Persian king a roasted dromedary." Atk. 1. iv. 2. My good cook, says Lynceus in the Centaur, you must know that my friend here is a Rhodian, and I am a 94 Perinthian. Now we neither of us like your confounded Athenian dinners. Why you send up a large tray with five little plates in it ; a leek in one, two echini in another, a cheese-cake in a third, ten cockles in a fourth, and a pickled herring in the fifth. While I am attacking one all the rest is gone. Now all this is very pretty to look at, but give me something to eat. Put me down a couple of hundred oysters at a time. Athenseus, lib. iv. cap. 2. The spirit of the Athenian luxury invested with great importance the two dignified professions of cook and fish- monger. The range of the accomplishments of the former was extremely extensive. It disdained the mere manual labour of turning the spit, blowing the fire, boiling the fish, &c. which, as Archestratus observed very justly, any one could do, and aspired to the title of a ru^avvix^ t^xvij, a royal art. It comprised painting, architecture, strategics, geometry, religion, medicine, and philosophy, and all of these were brought into play in adorning the viands, marshalling the guests, nicely adapting the dishes to the palate of each individual character, &c. Rhetoric also was an accomplishment essentially necessary to a good cook, and Lynceus wrote a work to develope the proper principles of eloquence to be applied in bargaining with that most hard-hearted of all Athenian shopkeepers, the fishmongers. At Rome, dancing and astronomy were added to the hst. The gesticulations and attitudes of the cook carving at the side table were a great subject for admira- tion, and the operation was frequently performed to music. Astronomy was also necessary, inasmuch as it was a frequent custom to arrange the dishes as an orrery : the constellation and signs of the zodiac being represented by suitable viands. Athenaeus, Aul. Gell. Olympias sent a cook to Alexander, when in Asia overturning the Persian empire, and accompanied it with 95 the following letter. " Olympias to Alexander, greeting. You will be pleased to accept at my hands a cook. His name Pelignas. You will pay him every attention, and be cautious of any neglect. Let me hear from you at your earliest leisure." The fishmonger's consciousness of his importance to Athenian happiness inspired him with the most insolent arrogance. When I see our generals, says Alexis, looking so haughty, I think it disgraceful, but am not oflFended at it ; but to behold those abominable fishmongers, with their bushy eyebrows, scarcely condescending to notice us, I would rather die than witness it. Amphis also gives us a specimen of a man driving a barcrain with a fishmonger. The one humble, obsequious, and" scarcely venturing to ask the price of the article ; the other hardly deigning to answer his question, affectedly mincin^.' ■ t i. 1 -.,v^ •-, -#* V.'i^* -•s %V ' ^1^ /- COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 0032145 ■11 L^j 36 W^^ % W,M^^.