are at the time.”[570] After the meal, a larger number of friends probably came in; this, at any rate, was a custom at the similar meetings held by the philosopher Menedemos a generation later.[571] The discourse often went on all night. There was a fixed code of rules to regulate these meals,[572] which is suggestive of Plato’s pleasantries in the _Laws_ about the educational value of strictly regulated bouts of intoxication. But drunkenness was, of course, not allowed: Plato had a particular objection to it, and used to tell drunkards to look in the looking-glass and they would never err in that way again.[573] It offended his strict canons of physical beauty and propriety. It is interesting to note that the author of the _Republic_ admitted women on terms of equality to this inner circle of the Akademeia, in defiance of Athenian prejudice. Lastheneia of Mantineia and Axiothea of Phlious, who dressed in male attire, are the first champions of women’s rights to a University education who appear in history.[574] The discussions of this clique were probably conducted after the model of the Platonic dialogue, and doubtless were in Plato’s mind when in the _Laws_ he constructed his curious ethical and political debating-society for the older and wiser members of his state. But admission to these mysteries must have been reserved for comparatively few, personal friends and mature thinkers: the members formed rather a private club than an educational system. The young Athenian who wished, when his primary education was finished, to study philosophy under Plato, had two means open to him: there were lectures in various public places; there was also a school for lads in the Akademeia.