The Deipnosophists; or, Banquet of the Learned of Athenæus, Vol. 3 (of 3)Athenaeus, of Naucratis
Philosophy
The Deipnosophists; or, Banquet of the Learned of Athenæus, Vol. 3 (of 3)
Athenaeus, of Naucratis
Civilization, Greco-Roman; Dinners and dining -- Greece; Greece -- Social life and customs; Homosexuality -- Greece
50. And Duris says, in the twenty-second book of his
History,—"Pausanias, the king of Lacedæmon, having laid aside the
national cloak of Lacedæmon, adopted the Persian dress. And Dionysius,
the tyrant of Sicily, adopted a theatrical robe and a golden tragic
crown with a clasp. And Alexander, when he became master of Asia, also
adopted the Persian dress. But Demetrius outdid them all; for the
very shoes which he wore he had made in a most costly manner; for in
its form it was a kind of buskin, made of most expensive purple wool;
and on this the makers wove a great deal of golden embroidery, both
before and behind; and his cloak was of a brilliant tawny colour; and,
in short, a representation of the heavens was woven into it, having
the stars and twelve signs of the Zodiac all wrought in gold; and
his head-band was spangled all over with gold, binding on a purple
broad-brimmed hat in such a manner that the outer fringes hung down
the back. And when the Demetrian festival was celebrated at Athens,
Demetrius himself was painted on the proscenium, sitting on the world."
And Nymphis of Heraclea, in the sixth book of his treatise on his
Country, says—"Pausanias, who defeated Mardonius at Platæa, having
transgressed the laws of Sparta, and given himself up to pride, when
staying near Byzantium, dared to put an inscription on the brazen
goblet which is there consecrated to the gods, whose temple is at the
entrance of the strait, (and the goblet is in existence to this day,)
as if he had dedicated it himself; putting this inscription on it,
forgetting himself through his luxury and arrogance—
Pausanias, the general of broad Greece,
Offered this goblet to the royal Neptune,
A fit memorial of his deathless valour,
Here in the Euxine sea. He was by birth
A Spartan, and Cleombrotus's son,
Sprung from the ancient race of Hercules."
51. "Pharax the Lacedæmonian also indulged himself in luxury," as
Theopompus tells us in the fourteenth book of his History, "and he
abandoned himself to pleasure in so dissolute and unrestrained a
manner, that by reason of his intemperance he was much oftener taken
for a Sicilian, than for a Spartan by reason of his country." And in
his fifty-second book he says that "Archidamus the Lacedæmonian, having
abandoned his national customs, adopted foreign and effeminate habits;
so that he could not endure the way of life which existed in his own
country, but was always, by reason of his intemperance, anxious to live
in foreign countries. And when the Tarentines sent an embassy about
an alliance, he was anxious to go out with them as an ally; and being
there, and having been slain in the wars, he was not thought worthy
even of a burial, although the Tarentines offered a great deal of money
to the enemy to be allowed to take up his body."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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