That most of the Doric states, and particularly the colonies, degenerated from this noble and beautiful simplicity, does not require to be proved. The splendour of Rhodes was proverbial, nor was any dress more effeminate than the transparent and loose robe of Tarentum;(1296) and the Sicilian garments, which Lysander or Archidamus received as a present from Dionysius, he rejected as unfit for his daughters.(1297) Among the accompaniments of the toilette may be mentioned the baths; with respect to which it may be remarked, that the Lacedæmonian custom only admitted of two kinds; viz., the cold daily baths in the Eurotas (which also formed a part of the regimen of king Agesilaus(1298)), and from time to time a dry sudorific bath.(1299) But the weakening of the body by warm or tepid baths was strictly prohibited.(1300) Chapter III. § 1. Syssitia of the Dorians and other Greek races. § 2. Simple fare of Sparta. § 3. Public tables of Sparta and Crete. § 4. Abandonment of the simple fare in some Doric colonies. 1. With respect to the food and meals of the Dorians, we will only mention those points which are connected with some historical or moral fact, since we have already considered this subject in connexion with the economy of the state. In the first place, the adherence of the Dorians to ancient Greek usages is visible in their custom of eating together, or of the _syssitia_. For these public tables were not only in use among the Dorians (with whom, besides in Crete and Sparta, they also existed at Megara in the time of Theognis,(1301) and at Corinth in the time of Periander),(1302) but they had also once been a national custom among the Œnotrians(1303) and their kinsmen the Arcadians, particularly at Phigalia;(1304) and among the Greeks of Homer the princes at least eat together, and at the cost of the community; a custom which was retained by the Prytanes at Athens, Rhodes, and elsewhere. In particular, the public tables of Sparta have in many points a great resemblance to the Homeric banquets (δαῖτες)(1305); only that _all_ the Spartans were in a certain manner considered as princes. The Spartans, however, so far departed from the ancient custom, that at the time of Alcman they _lay_(1306) at table; while the Dorians of Crete always _sat_,(1307) like the heroes of Homer and the early Romans, according to the ancient European usage, which was entirely supplanted among the early Greeks by the oriental custom introduced by the Ionians.