§313. The perfumes and flowers were used not so much on account of the sweetness of their scent, much as the Romans enjoyed it, as because they believed that the scent prevented or at least retarded intoxication. This is shown by the fact that they did not use the unguents and the flowers throughout the whole meal, but waited to anoint the head with perfumes and crown it with flowers until the dessert and the wine were brought on. Various leaves and flowers were used for the garlands (_corōnae convīvālēs_) according to individual tastes, but the rose was the most popular and came to be generally associated with the _comissātiō_. After the guests had assumed their crowns (and sometimes garlands were also worn around the neck), each threw the dice, usually calling as he did so upon his sweetheart or some deity to help his throw. The one whose throw was the highest (§320) was forthwith declared the _rēx_ (_magister_, _arbiter_) _bibendī_. Just what his duties and privileges were we are nowhere expressly told, but it can hardly be doubted that it was his province to determine the proportion of water to be added to the wine (§298), to lay down the rules for the drinking (_lēgēs īnsānae_, Horace calls them), to decide what each guest should do for the entertainment of his fellows, and to impose penalties and forfeits for the breaking of the rules. [Illustration: FIGURE 125. MIXING BOWL] [Illustration: FIGURE 126. DRINKING CUPS] [Illustration: FIGURE 127. CYATHUS] §314. The wine was mixed under the direction of the _magister_ in a large bowl (_crātēr_), the proportions of the wine and water being apparently constant for the evening, and from the _crātēr_ (Fig. 125), placed on the table in view of all, the wine was ladled by the servants into the goblets (_pōcula_, Fig. 126) of the guests. The ladle (_cyathus_, Fig. 127) held about one-twelfth of a pint, or more probably was graduated by twelfths. The method of drinking seems to have differed from that of the regular dinner chiefly in this: at the ordinary dinner each guest mixed his wine to suit his own taste and drank as little or as much as he pleased, while at the _comissātiō_ all had to drink alike, regardless of differences in taste and capacity. The wine seems to have been drunk chiefly in "healths," but an odd custom regulated the size of the bumpers. Any guest might propose the health of any person he pleased to name; immediately slaves ladled into each goblet as many _cyathī_ (twelfths of a pint) as there were letters in the given name, and the goblets had to be drained at a draft. The rest of the entertainment was undoubtedly wild enough (§310); gambling seems to have been common, and Cicero speaks of more disgraceful practices in his speeches against Catiline. Sometimes the guests spent the evening roaming from house to house, playing host in turn, and making night hideous as they staggered through the streets with their crowns and garlands.