[228] NICEROS. See Mart. _Ep._ VI, 55 (“because you smelt Niceros’s leaden vials ...”) Mart. _Ep._ X, 38, (“the lamps that exhaled Niceros’s sweet perfumes ...”) and Mart. _Ep._ XII, 65, (“a pound of ointment from Cosmus or Niceros.”) [229] RIBBONS AND TRIMMINGS OF AMETHYST-PURPLE. Garments of amethystine-purple, woollen material (_amethystina_ or _vestes amethystinae_) were among the most magnificent and costly clothes. See Mart. _Ep._ I, 97, 7, and Juv. _Sat._ VII, 136. The color was so-called because it glittered in the amethyst, a violet-blue gem. [230] EXQUISITE ROSES. Roses and violets were the favorite flowers of the ancients. The use of these blossoms was enormous. For the rose-culture in Rome, see Varro, _R. Rust_, I, 16, 3. [231] THE STEWARD OF THE TABLES. The chief slave in the dining-room, the butler, was called _Tricliniarcha_. (Petr. XXII, 6, _Inscr. Orell._ No. 794.) [232] PAESTUM (Παὶστον) in the most ancient times Posidonia, a city on the western coast of Lucania, south of the mouth of the Silarus, (now Sele) was famous for its magnificent roses. [233] ATELLANIAN BUFFOON. Atellanae (_Atellanae fabulae, ludi Atellani_) was the name given to a species of dramatic performance, somewhat coarsely comical in character. The material for these plays was taken from the lives of the humble citizens and country people. The language used was that of every-day life, and they were often written in the Oscan dialect. The name comes from the Campanian city Atella, where this style of play first originated. Certain fundamental characteristics of the Atellanae representations are still visible in Italian popular farces. [234] PHOENIX. See Tac. _Ann._ VI, 28, Plin. _Hist. Nat._ X. 2, _Ov. Met._ XV, 392. [235] LIKE CRAPE FROM COS. Corduba, now Cordova, on the Baetis, now the Guadalquivir, was one of the most important commercial cities in Spain, the principal place in Hispania Baetica, the seat of the imperial governor. See Strabo III, 141. Materials woven from Spanish flax (_carbasus_) were considered specially delicate for clothing. [236] EPIC from Epos (ἒπος)--word, speech, tale. Afterwards the Greeks distinguished epic poetry from lyric by the ἒπη. CHAPTER XI.