The Deipnosophists; or, Banquet of the Learned of Athenæus, Vol. 1 (of 3)Athenaeus, of Naucratis
General
The Deipnosophists; or, Banquet of the Learned of Athenæus, Vol. 1 (of 3)
Athenaeus, of Naucratis
Civilization, Greco-Roman; Dinners and dining -- Greece; Greece -- Social life and customs; Homosexuality -- Greece
29. And Socrates the Rhodian, in the third book of his History of the
Civil War, describing the entertainment given by Cleopatra the last
queen of Egypt, who married Antony the Roman general in Cilicia, speaks
in the following manner:--"But Cleopatra having met Antony in Cilicia,
prepared him a royal entertainment, in which every dish was golden and
inlaid with precious stones, wonderfully chased and embossed. And the
walls," continues he, "were hung with cloths embroidered in gold and
purple. And she had twelve triclinia laid; and invited Antony to a
banquet, and desired him to bring with him whatever companions he
pleased. And he being astonished at the magnificence of the sight,
expressed his surprise; and she, smiling, said that she made him a
present of everything which he saw, and invited him to sup with her
again the next day, and to bring his friends and captains with him. And
then she prepared a banquet by far more splendid than the former one, so
as to make that first one appear contemptible; and again she presented
to him everything that there was on the table; and she desired each of
his captains to take for his own the couch on which he lay, and the
goblets which were set before each couch. And when they were departing
she gave to all those of the highest rank palanquins, with the slaves
for palanquin bearers; and to the rest she gave horses, adorned with
golden furniture: and to every one she gave Ethiopian boys, to bear
torches before them. And on the fourth day she paid more than a talent
for roses; and the floor of the chamber for the men was strewed a cubit
deep, nets being spread over the blooms." And he relates further, that
"Antony himself, when he was staying at Athens, a short time after this,
prepared a very superb scaffold to spread over the theatre, covered with
green wood such as is seen in the caves sacred to Bacchus; and from this
scaffold he suspended drums and fawn-skins, and all the other toys which
one names in connexion with Bacchus, and then sat there with his
friends, getting drunk from daybreak,--a band of musicians, whom he had
sent for from Italy, playing to him all the time, and all the Greeks
around being collected to see the sight. And presently," continues he,
"he crossed over to the Acropolis, the whole city of Athens being
illuminated with lamps suspended from the roof; and after that he
ordered himself to be proclaimed as Bacchus throughout all the cities in
that district."
And Caius the emperor, surnamed Caligula, because he was born in the
camp, was not only called the young Bacchus, but was also in the habit
of going about dressed in the entire dress of Bacchus, and he used to
sit on the tribunal as judge in that dress.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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