[353] One of the offices of the Prytanes was to introduce those who asked admission to the Senate, but it would seem that none could obtain this favour without payment. Without this, a thousand excuses would be made; for instance, it would be a public holiday, and consequently the Senate could receive no one. As there was some festival nearly every day, he whose purse would not open might have to wait a very long while. [354] This was only offered to lesser deities. [355] In the Greek we have a play upon the similarity of the words, [Greek: bous], a bull, and [Greek: boan], to shout the battle cry. [356] Theagenes, of the Piraeus, a hideous, coarse, debauched and evil-living character of the day. [357] That is the vocative of [Greek: oïs], [Greek: oïos], the Ionic form of the word; in Attic Greek it is contracted throughout--[Greek: ois], [Greek: oios], etc. [358] An obscene jest. The Greek word, says the Scholiast, means both barley and the male organ. [359] Before sacrificing, the officiating person asked, "_Who is here?_" and those present answered, "_Many good men._" [360] The actors forming the chorus are meant here. [361] Lysimacha is derived from [Greek: luein], to put an end to, and [Greek: mach_e], fight. [362] A tragic poet, reputed a great gourmand. [363] A tragedy by Melanthius. [364] Eels were cooked with beet.--A parody on some verses in the 'Medea' of Melanthius. [365] As a matter of fact, the Sicyonians, who celebrated the festival of Peace on the sixteenth day of the month of hecatombeon (July), spilled no blood upon her altar. [366] A celebrated diviner, who had accompanied the Athenians on their expedition to Sicily. Thus the War was necessary to make his calling pay and the smoke of the sacrifice offered to Peace must therefore be unpleasant to him. [367] A town in Euboea on the channel which separated that island from Thessaly. [368] When sacrificing, the tail was cut off the victim and thrown into the fire. From the way in which it burnt the inference was drawn as to whether or not the sacrifice was agreeable to the deity. [369] This was the part that belonged to the priests and diviners. As one of the latter class, Hierocles is in haste to see this piece cut off. [370] The Spartans. [371] Emphatic pathos, incomprehensible even to the diviner himself; this is a satire on the obscure style of the oracles. Bacis was a famous Boeotian diviner. [372] Of course this is not a _bona fide_ quotation, but a whimsical adaptation of various Homeric verses; the last is a coinage of his own, and means, that he is to have no part, either in the flesh of the victim or in the wine of the libations. [373] Probably the Sibyl of Delphi is meant. [374] The skin of the victim, that is to say. [375] A temple of Euboea, close to Oreus. The servant means, "Return where you came from." [376] This was the soldier's usual ration when on duty. [377] Slaves often bore the name of the country of their birth.