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
Being enemies to their own estate, as Satyrus in his treatise on
Characters said, running through their land, tearing to pieces and
plundering their own houses, selling their own property as if it were
the spoils of the enemy, considering not what has been spent, but what
will be spent, and not what will remain afterwards, but what will not
remain, having spent beforehand in their youth the money which ought to
have carried them safely through old age, rejoicing in companionship,
not in companions, and in their wine, and not in those who drink it with
them. But Agatharchides the Corinthian, in the twenty-eighth book of his
Commentary on the Affairs of Europe, says "that Gnosippus, who was a
very luxurious and extravagant man in Sparta, was forbidden by the
Ephori to hold intercourse with the young men." And among the Romans, it
is related, according to the statement of Posidonius, in the forty-ninth
book of his Histories, that there was a man named Apicius who went
beyond all other men in intemperance. This is that Apicius who was the
cause of banishment to Rutilius, who wrote the history of the Romans in
the Greek language. But concerning Apicius, the man, I mean, who is so
notorious for his extravagant luxury, we have already spoken in our
first book.
67. But Diogenes the Babylonian, in his treatise on Nobility of Birth,
says "that the son of Phocion, whose name was Phocus, was such a man
that there was not one Athenian who did not hate him. And whenever any
one met him they said to him, 'O you man who are a disgrace to your
family!' For he had expended all his patrimony on intemperance; and
after this he became a flatterer of the prefect of Munychia; on which
account he was again attacked and reproached by every one. And once,
when a voluntary contribution was being made, he came forward and said,
before the whole assembly, 'I, too, contribute my share.' And the
Athenians all with one accord cried out, 'Yes, to profligacy.' And
Phocus was a man very fond of drinking hard; and accordingly, when he
had conquered with horses at the Panathenæa, and when Sopater
entertained his companions at a banquet, the preparation was very
splendid, and foot-tubs full of wine and spices were set before all who
came in. And his father, seeing this, called Phocus, and said, 'Will you
not stop your companion from polluting your victory in this fashion?'"
And I know too of many other intemperate and extravagant, men, whom I
leave you to find out, with the exception of Callias the son of
Hipponicus, whom even the tutors of little children have heard of. But
concerning the others whom I have been a little hasty in mentioning, if
you have anything to say, I have the doors of my ears open. So speak;
for I want to know something.
Besides Magnus used the words ἐπεσθίειν and ἐπιφαγεῖν. And Æmilianus said,
you have the word ἀσώτιον used by Strattis, in his Chrysippus, where he
says--
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