And very likely it is because of all this that Eratosthenes, in his Epistles, says, that Pempelus, when he was asked, "What sort of people the Bœotians appeared to him?" answered, "That they only spoke just as vessels might be expected to speak, if they had a voice, of how much each of them could hold." And Polybius of Megalopolis, in the twentieth book of his Histories, says that "the Bœotians, having gained great glory at the battle of Leuctra, after that relaxed their courage again, and turned to feasting and drunkenness, and to making parties for eating among friends; and many of them, even of those who had children, spent the greater part of their substance on their feasts; so that there were a great number of Bœotians who had more invitations to supper than there were days in the month. On which account the Megarians, hating such a system as that, abandoned their alliance, and joined themselves to the Achæans. [Sidenote: VORACITY OF THE TEMPERANCE.] 12. The people of Pharsalus also are ridiculed by the comic poets as being enormous eaters; accordingly Mnesimachus, in his Philip, says— _A._ Has any man of the Pharsalians come, That he may eat up e'en our very tables? _B._ There's no one come at all. _A._ So much the better; Perhaps they have all gone somewhere else to eat Some city of Achaïa ready roasted. And that it was a general imputation on all the Thessalians, that they were great eaters, Crates tells us in his Lamia, saying— Great words three cubits long, Cut into huge Thessalian slices thus:— and he by this alludes to the Thessalians as cutting their meat into overgrown pieces. And Philetærus, in his Lampbearers, says also— And a huge piece of pork, enough to break One's arm, cut in the coarse Thessalian fashion. They used to speak also of a Thessalian mouthful, as something enormous. Hermippus says in his Fates— But Jupiter, considering nought of this, Wink'd, and made up a huge Thessalian mouthful. And such great bits of meat Aristophanes, in his Men Frying, calls Capanic, saying— What is all this To the great Lydian and Thessalian banquets? And presently he says— More splendid (καπανικώτερα) far than the Thessalian; meaning big enough to load a wagon. For the Thessalians use the word καπάνη as equivalent to ἀπήνη. Xenarchus, in his Scythians, says— _A._ They kept to seven Capanæ for the games At Pisa. _B._ What do you mean? _A._ In Thessaly They call their carts Capanæ. _B._ I understand.