Through a narrow passage one entered the peristyle, or open court, surrounded by a colonnade, in the centre of which a splashing fountain fell into a coloured marble basin. The colonnade, open to the north, contained, besides other rooms, the banqueting hall, in which the company was now assembled. Cethegus had stipulated that he should not be present at the c[oe]na, or actual banquet, but only at the compotatio, the drinking-bout which followed. So he found the friends in the elegant drinking-room, where the bronze lamps upon the tortoise-shell slabs on the walls were already lighted, and the guests, crowned with roses and ivy, lay upon the cushions of the horse-shoe-shaped triclinium. A stupefying mixture of wine-odours and flower-scents, a glare of torches and glow of colour, met him upon the threshold. "_Salve_, Cethegus!" cried the host, as he entered. "You find but a small party." Cethegus ordered the slave who followed him, a beautiful and slender young Moor, whose finely-shaped limbs were rather revealed than hidden by the scarlet gauze of his light tunic, to unloose his sandals. Meanwhile he counted the guests. "Not less than the Graces, nor more than the Muses," he said with a smile. "Quick, choose a wreath," said Kallistratos, "and take your place up there, upon the seat of honour on the couch. We have chosen you beforehand for the king of the feast." The Prefect was determined to charm these young people. He knew how well he could do so, and that day he wished to make a particular impression. He chose a crown of roses, and took the ivory sceptre, which a Syrian slave handed to him upon his knees. Placing the rose-wreath on his head, he raised the sceptre with dignity. "Thus I put an end to your freedom!" "A born ruler!" cried Kallistratos, half in joke, half in earnest. "But I will be a gentle tyrant! My first law: one-third water--two-thirds wine." "Oho!" cried Lucius Licinius, and drank to him, "_bene te!_ you govern luxuriously. Equal parts is usually our strongest mixture." "Yes, friend," said Cethegus, smiling, and seating himself upon the corner seat of the central triclinium, the "Consul's seat," "but I took lessons in drinking amongst the Egyptians; they drink pure wine. Ho, cupbearer--what is he called?" "Ganymede--he is from Phrygia. Fine fellow--eh?" "So, Ganymede, obey thy Jupiter, and place near each guest; a patera of Mamertine wine--but near Balbus two, because he is a countryman." The young people laughed. Balbus was a rich Sicilian proprietor, still quite young, and already very stout. "Bah!" said he, laughing, "ivy round my head, and an amethyst on my finger--I defy the power of Bacchus!" "Well, at which wine have you arrived?" asked Cethegus, at the same time signing to the Moor who now stood behind him, and who at once brought a second wreath of roses, and, this time, wound it about his neck.