When you meet with a man who takes only one meal, Or a poet who music pretends not to feel; The man half his life, the bard half his art, loses; And sound reason to call either living refuses. And Plato says, "he not only was not content with one meal a-day, but sometimes he even dined twice the same day." We know that men used to call sweetmeats νωγαλεύματα. Araros says in the Campylion-- These νωγαλείματα are very nice. And Alexis says-- In Thasian feasts his friends he meets, And νωγαλίζει, sweatmeats eats. And Antiphanes, in the Busiris, says-- Grapes, and pomegranates, and palms, And other νώγαλα. Philonides used the word ἀπόσιτος for _fasting_; and Crobylus has the word αὐτόσιτος, writing παράσιτον, αὐτόσιτον. Eupolis, too, used ἀναρίστητος for _without breakfast_; Crates has the word ἀναγκόσιτος, _eating by force_, and Nicostratus uses ἀναγκοσιτέω. There is a youth most delicately curl'd, Whom I do feed by force beneath the earth. And Alexis has the word ἀριστόδειπνον, _breakfast-dinner_-- By whom the breakfast-dinner is prepared. 29. After this we rose up and sat down again as each of us pleased, not waiting for a nomenclator to arrange us in order. Now that rooms were fitted up with couches for three, and with couches for four, and for seven, and for nine, and for other successive numbers, in the time of the ancients, we may prove from Antiphanes, who says-- I bring you, since you are but three, To a room with equal couches. And Phrynichus says-- One room had seven couches fine, While another boasted nine. And Eubulus says-- _A._ Place now a couch for seven. _B._ Here it is. _A._ And five Sicilian couches. _B._ Well, what next _A._ And five Sicilian pillows. And Amphis says-- Will you not place a couch for three? Anaxandrides-- A couch was spread, And songs to please the aged man. Open the supper rooms, and sweep the house, And spread the couches fair, and light the fire; Bring forth the cups, and fill with generous wine. 30. . . . . . And Plato the philosopher, "Men now distinguish the couches and coverings with reference to what is put round the couch and what is put under it." And his namesake, the comic poet, says-- There the well-dress'd guests recline On couches rich with ivory feet; And on their purple cushions dine, Which rich Sardinian carpets meet. For the art of weaving embroidered cloths was in great perfection in his time, Acesas and Helicon, natives of Cyprus, being exceedingly eminent for their skill in it; and they were weavers of very high reputation. And Helicon was the son of Acesas, as Hieronymus reports: and so at Pytho there is an inscription on some work--