30. Now a man looking at these instances which have occurred in our country before our time, may marvel at the poverty of the Greeks, especially if he sets his eyes upon the banquets which take place among the Thebans; concerning whom Clitarchus, in the first book of his Histories relating to Alexander, speaks, and says that all their wealth, when the city was razed to the ground by Alexander, was found to amount to four hundred and forty talents, because they were meanspirited and gluttons in eating and drinking, preparing in their banquets forced-meat balls, and boiled fish and anchovies, and encrasicholi, and sausages, and ribs of beef, and soup; on which Attaginus the son of Phrynon feasted Mardonius, with fifty other Persians; a man whom Herodotus mentions in his ninth book as having amassed an enormous amount of riches. And I think that they would never have escaped, and that there would have been no necessity for the Greeks being marshalled against them at Platæa, as they would certainly have been killed by such food as that. 31. But Hecatæus of Miletus, describing an Arcadian banquet in the third book of his Genealogies, says that it consists chiefly of barley-cakes and pork. But Harmodius of Lepreum, in the third book of his treatise on the Laws of the People of Phigalea, says--"The man among the Phigaleans who is appointed superintendent of the food, brought every day three choes of wine, and a medimnus of flour, and five minæ weight of cheese, and other things suitable for the preparing of the victims. And the city provided each of the choruses with three sheep, and a cook, and a water-carrier, and tables, and seats for the guests to sit down upon, and all other similar appointments; only that the choregus supplied the vessels which the cook required. And the banquet was of the following description: Cheese, and barley-cake, for the sake of preserving the laws, served up in brazen baskets, which are by some people called mazonoma, having derived their name from the use to which they are put; and together with the barley-cake and cheese, paunches and salt are given the guests to eat. And when they have offered these things to the gods, then they give every one a portion of wine to drink in a small mug, made of earthenware: and he who brings the wine says, May you sup well. And then there is put on the table for general use some soup and some minced meat; and every one has two slices of meat put within his reach. And it was a custom of theirs at all their banquets, and most especially at those which were called Mazones, or barley-feasts, (for even now the feast in honour of Bacchus has this name,) to give those of the young men who ate most manfully, a larger quantity of broth, and also to set before them barley-cakes and loaves, for such an one was considered a noble-minded and a valiant man; for a large appetite was considered an admirable and a famous thing among them. But after supper