[Sidenote: Trimalchio’s banquet.] The chief of these is the _Cena Trimalchionis_ (_Trimalchio’s Banquet_), the description of an elaborate entertainment given by a rich and purse-proud freedman, Trimalchio. The scene of the banquet is laid at Cumæ, or Puteoli. The house is large and full of costly things, but shows utter lack of taste. Trimalchio himself is a fat old fellow, who comes to the dinner after all the guests have been seated for some time. He informs them that it was inconvenient for him to come, but that he did not wish to disappoint them. At first he plays checkers with an attendant, but presently takes part in the feast and the conversation. The first course brought in is a wooden fowl sitting on eggs, which prove to be made of paste, and to contain finely seasoned birds. When a silver dish falls on the floor, Trimalchio orders it to be swept up with the rubbish. Another course consists of a great boar, out of which, when it is cut open by a slave in hunting costume, fly live thrushes. Again a roast pig is cut open, and sausages of all kinds fall out. The entertainment has other than gastronomical surprises, for a troupe of Homeric actors appear and perform scenes of the Trojan War, speaking in Greek. At the end of their performance a boiled calf is brought in, and the actor who takes the part of Ajax hacks it with his sword in imitation of the attack made by Ajax in his madness upon the cattle at Troy, and offers the astonished guests pieces of meat on his sword point. Acrobats also come in, and when one of them falls from a ladder upon Trimalchio, he is at once freed from slavery, lest it be said that so great a man as Trimalchio was injured by a slave. Presently the ceiling rolls apart, and a great hoop is let down, upon which are jars of perfumes as keepsakes for the guests. All these astonishing performances are made more amusing by the naive pride of Trimalchio, who prates much of his great wealth, and exhibits his ignorance by trying to make a show of learning. One of the guests tells a ghost story and another a tale of an adventure with a werewolf. Further excitement is caused by a fight between a fat little dog brought by Trimalchio’s friend, the stone-cutter Habinnas, and a large dog belonging to Trimalchio. The slaves then take part in the banquet, Trimalchio has his will read, and all weep. After a bath, the company passes to a second dining-room. Here Trimalchio has a furious quarrel with his wife, who is jealous of a favorite slave boy. Trimalchio finally has his grave-clothes brought in, and lies down as if dead, ordering his horn-blowers to play funereal music. The noise is so great that the police, thinking something is the matter, break into the house, whereupon the guests escape. All this, with many more details of the lavish and tasteless expenditure, the pride of the vulgar Trimalchio, and the absurd features of the banquet, is described with much satirical humor. The language of the narrative is refined,