Sir W. Hamilton’s Acc. of Discov. at Pompeii, p. 41. Cf. Casaub. ad Theoph. Char. p. 269. ----- To diminish the chances of being robbed, stealing from a bath was at Athens made a capital offence;[341] so that the persons who frequented them ran very little risk. The price was usually moderate, though in some cities, as for example at Phaselis, they were in the habit of doubling their charges to foreigners, which drew from a witty sophist a very cutting remark; for his slave disputing with the keeper of the bath, and contending that his master ought not to be charged more than other persons, the sophist, who overheard the dispute, exclaimed, “Wretch, would you make me a ‘Phaselitan for a farthing?’”[342] ----- Footnote 341: Aristot. Problem. xix. 14. Casaub. ad Theoph. Char. p. 215. Footnote 342: Athen. viii. 45. ----- The roofs of the more ancient Greek houses were generally flat,[343] not sloping upwards to a point, as was afterwards the fashion.[344] In Egypt and Syria, and almost throughout the East, the same taste still obtains; and as palm trees, loftier than the buildings, often grow beside the walls, and extend their beautiful pendulous branches over a great part of the roof, nothing can be more delightful on a mild serene evening than to sit aloft on those breezy eminences sipping coffee, gazing over the green rice fields, or watching the stars as they put forth their golden lamps through the violet skirts of day. But there a parapet usually preserves him who enjoys the scene from falling. It was otherwise of old in Greece. The roof consisted simply of a number of beams laid close together and covered with cement, so that, as was proved by the fate of Elpenor,[345] the practice of sleeping there in warm weather, quite common throughout the country, was not wholly without danger. ----- Footnote 343: Æsch. Agam. 3, sqq. We find, however, an allusion to the pointed roof in Iliad. ψ. 712, seq. Footnote 344: Antich. di Erc. tav. 3, p. 11. Footnote 345: Odyss. κ. 559. Eustath. ad loc. p. 1669, l. 15. Feith. Ant. Hom. iii. 10, p. 249. -----