§311. When the guests had been ushered into the dining-room the gods were solemnly invoked, a custom to which our "grace before meat" corresponds. Then they took their places on the couches (_accumbere_, _discumbere_) as these were assigned them (§306), their sandals were removed (§250), to be cared for by their own attendants (§152), and water and towels were carried around for washing the hands. The meal then began, each course being placed upon the table on a waiter or tray (_ferculum_), from which the dishes were passed in regular order to the guests. As each course was finished the dishes were replaced on the _ferculum_ and removed, and water and towels were again passed to the guests, a custom all the more necessary because the fingers were used for forks (§299). Between the chief parts of the meal, too, the table was cleared and carefully wiped with a cloth or soft sponge. Between the _cēna_ proper and the _secunda mēnsa_ a longer pause was made and silence was preserved while wine, salt, and meal, perhaps also regular articles of food, were offered to the Lares. The dessert was then brought on in the same way as the other parts of the meal. The signal to leave the couches was given by calling for the sandals (§250), and the guests immediately took their departure. §312. The Comissatio.--Cicero tells us of Cato and his Sabine neighbors lingering over their dessert and wine until late at night, and makes them find the chief charm of the long evening in the conversation. For this reason Cato declares the Latin word _convīvium_ "a living together," a better word for such social intercourse than the one the Greeks used, _symposium_, "a drinking together." The younger men in the gayer circles of the capital inclined rather to the Greek view and followed the _cēna_ proper with a drinking bout, or wine supper, called _comissātiō_ or _compōtātiō_. This differed from the form that Cato approved not merely in the amount of wine consumed, in the lower tone, and in the questionable amusements, but also in the following of certain Greek customs unknown among the Romans until after the second Punic war and never adopted in the regular dinner parties that have been described. These were the use of perfumes and flowers at the feast, the selection of a Master of the Revels, and the method of drinking. [Illustration: FIGURE 124. END OF DRINKING BOUT]