The Deipnosophists; or, Banquet of the Learned of Athenæus, Vol. 3 (of 3) — John Shaqi
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
61. And Nicolaus the Peripatetic, in the tenth book of his History,
and again in the twentieth book, says that Lucullus, when he came
to Rome and celebrated his triumph, and gave an account of the war
against Mithridates, ran into the most unbounded extravagance, after
having previously been very moderate; and was altogether the first
guide to luxury, and the first example of it, among the Romans, having
become master of the riches of two kings, Mithridates and Tigranes.
And Sittius, also, was a man very notorious among the Romans for his
luxury and effeminacy, as Rutilius tells us; for as to Apicius, we
have already spoken of him. And almost all historians relate that
Pausanias and Lysander were very notorious for their luxury; on which
account Agis said of Lysander, that Sparta had produced him as a
second Pausanias. But Theopompus, in the tenth book of his History
of the Affairs of Greece, gives exactly the contrary account of
Lysander, saying that "he was a most laborious man, able to earn the
goodwill of both private individuals and monarchs, being very moderate
and temperate, and superior to all the allurements of pleasure; and
accordingly, when he had become master of almost the whole of Greece,
it will be found that he never in any city indulged in amatory
excesses, or in unreasonable drinking parties and revels."
62. But luxury and extravagance were so very much practised among the
ancients, that even Parrhasius the painter always wore a purple robe,
and a golden crown on his head, as Clearchus relates, in his Lives: for
he, being most immoderately luxurious, and also to a degree beyond what
was becoming to a painter, laid claim, in words, to great virtue, and
inscribed upon the works which were done by him—
Parrhasius, a most luxurious man,
And yet a follower of purest virtue,
Painted this work.
But some one else, being indignant at this inscription, wrote by the
side of it, ῥαβδοδίαιτος (worthy of a stick). Parrhasius also
put the following inscription on many of his works:—
Parrhasius, a most luxurious man,
And yet a follower of purest virtue,
Painted this work: a worthy citizen
Of noble Ephesus. His father's name
Evenor was, and he, his lawful son,
Was the first artist in the whole of Greece.
He also boasted, in a way which no one could be indignant at, in the
following lines:—
This will I say, though strange it may appear,
That clear plain limits of this noble art
Have been discover'd by my hand, and proved.
And now the boundary which none can pass
Is well defined, though nought that men can do
Will ever wholly escape blame or envy.
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