It is true that the evil had taken deep root, and that the most ancient people, the gods, and the heroes, have left us examples of this dangerous seduction. The Scythians, the Celts, Iberians, and Thracians,[XXVII-1] were confirmed drunkards. The wise Nestor himself, who was so good a match for Agamemnon, often felt some difficulty in finding his tent.[XXVII-2] Alexander the Great slept sometimes two days and two nights, after having paid too much devotion to the god of good cheer;[XXVII-3] and Philip, his father, very frequently left the table with a very heavy head and staggering legs.[XXVII-4] It is reported that Dionysius the Younger, tyrant of Sicily, lost his sight through drinking too much, which will not be wondered at, if DESCRIPTION OF PLATE No. XVIII. No. 1. Drinking-cup, of terra cotta, in the form of a pig’s head, found at Herculaneum.--HAMILTON, I., IIe. No. 2. Also that of a dog’s head.--CAYLUS, I., Plan 35. [Illustration: _Pl. 18._] [Illustration: _Pl. 18A_] what is supposed, be true, that this miserable man was drunk every day, without fail, for three months together![XXVII-5] Shall we mention Tiberius--surnamed by the army, _Biberius_ (Tippler)--who, after he became Emperor, passed the days and nights drinking with Flaccus and Piso, at the very time they were working at the reformation of the Romans?[XXVII-6] This pagan Solomon, having to choose from among several very distinguished candidates who offered themselves for the quæstorship, preferred the least known, because he had drunk a whole pitcher of wine, which the prince himself had condescended to fill.[XXVII-7] Intoxication, with the Greeks, was noted as belonging to low company, if we are to judge by certain personages whom Æschylus and Sophocles did not fear to bring on the stage, and who struck each other with vases--a thing which the modern theatre has judiciously banished.[XXVII-8] Homer is more reserved; for Achilles, after copious libations, only threw a neat’s foot at Ulysses’ head,[XXVII-9] which probably was not of much consequence. The fact is, that the ancients did not at all profess the same principles that we do respecting intemperance. Hippocrates himself, advised men to seek mirth now and then in wine;[XXVII-10] Seneca recommends us to drown cares and fatigue in it;[XXVII-11] and Musæus decorates with crowns of flowers the foreheads of the sages who, sitting by the side of Plato at all new banquets, should find in continual drunkenness the sweetest reward for their virtues.[XXVII-12] A singular bliss, which only reason in delirium could have imagined. We have spoken of the delicious beverage which was so costly a seduction to choice epicureans, who took merit to themselves for not resisting it; for this reason, it was necessary to invent vessels worthy of containing it; and art, encouraged by luxury, produced those magnificent vases of which ostentatious antiquity has only left us a faint idea.