the table spread and the guests assembled, each with his _mappa_ or napkin, and in his dinner dress, called _coenatoria_ or _cubitoria_, usually of a bright colour, and variegated with flowers. First they took off their shoes, for fear of soiling the couch, which was often inlaid with ivory or tortoise-shell, and covered with cloth of gold. Next they lay down to eat, the head resting on the left elbow and supported by cushions. There were usually, but not always, three on the same couch, the middle place being esteemed the most honourable. Around the tables stood the servants (_ministri_) clothed in a tunic, and girt with napkins; some removed the dishes and wiped the tables with a rough cloth, others gave the guests water for their hands, or cooled the room with fans. Here stood an eastern youth behind his master’s couch, ready to answer the noise of the fingers, while others bore a large platter of different kinds of meat to the guests. Dinner was set out in a room called _coenatio_ or _diaeta_ (which two words perhaps conveyed to a Roman ear nearly the same distinction as our dining-room and parlour). The _coenatio_, in rich men’s houses, was fitted up with great magnificence. Suetonius mentions a supper-room in the golden palace of Nero, constructed like a theatre, with shifting scenes to change with every course. In the midst of the coenatio were set three couches (_triclinia_), answering in shape to the square, as the long semicircular couches (_sigmata_) did to the oval tables. An account of the disposition of the couches, and of the place which each guest occupied, is given in the article TRICLINIUM. [Illustration: A Feast. (Vatican Virgil MS.)] COENĀCŬLUM. [DOMUS.] COENĀTĬO. [COENA.] COGNĀTI, COGNĀTĬO. The _cognatio_ was the relationship of blood which existed between those who were sprung from a common pair; and all persons so related were called _cognati_. The foundation of _cognatio_ is a legal marriage. The term _cognatus_ (with some exceptions) comprehends _agnatus_; an _agnatus_ may be a _cognatus_, but a _cognatus_ is only an _agnatus_ when his relationship by blood is traced through males. Those who were of the same blood by both parents were sometimes called _germani_; _consanguinei_ were those who had a common father only; and _uterini_ those who had a common mother only. COGNĬTOR. [ACTIO.] COGNŌMEN. [NOMEN.] CŎHORS. [EXERCITUS.] CŌLĂCRĔTAE (κωλακρέται, also called κωλαγρέται), the name of very ancient magistrates at Athens, who had the management of all financial matters in the time of the kings. Cleisthenes deprived them of the charge of the finances, which he transferred to the Apodectae. [APODECTAE.] From this time the Colacretae had only to provide for the meals in the Prytaneium, and subsequently to pay the fees to the dicasts, when the practice of paying the dicasts was introduced by Pericles.