facienda. Varr. R. R. i. 2, 23 : Si ager secundum viam et opportunus viatoribus locus, ædificandæ taberna diversoriæ. Suet. Claud. 38: (Senatorem relegavit) quod in ædilitate inquilinos prædiorum suorum contra vetitum cocta vendentes multasset, villicumque intervenientem flagellasset. The popine were restricted to the sale of drink only, under Tiberius (Suet. 34); the interdiction, however, did not continue long in force, but was removed under Claudius (Dio. Cass. lx. 6): revived again under Nero (Suet. Ner. 16), Interdictum, ne quid in popinis cocti præter legumina aut olera veniret, cum antea nullum non obsonii genus proponeretur; (Dio. Cass. lxii. 14, says, πλǹv λaxávwv kai érvovs); and again by Vespasian (Dio. Cass. lxvi. 10). To this is also to be referred, Mart. iii. 58: The name of such inns is caupona, taberna, taberna diversoria Plaut. Menæchm. ii. 3, 81, where Menæchmeus, who has just arrived from the ship, on making use of the opportunity offered to him, from his being confounded with his brother, says to Messenio, as he goes to breakfast with the Hetaera Erotium: Abduc istos in tabernam actutum diversoriam: also similarly, diversorium, or perhaps more correctly, deversorium. See Drakenb. ad Liv. xliv. 43. Val. Max. i. 7, ext. 10, in the story above quoted from Cicero, names it taberna meritoria, and in Martial, vi. 94, the same is expressed by stabulum. And often thus in the Dig. and in Appul. Similar houses of entertainment doubtless existed in Rome, but were only used by persons of the lower orders, who chanced to be there; for strangers of importance readily found an hospitium in a private house. [Thus the ambassadors of the Rhodians complained that they were forced to lodge at Rome, sordido diversorio, vix mercede recepti. Liv. xlv. 22.] For the population of the city itself, there were numerous places where refreshments were sold. The general name for these establishments was taberna and caupona; the first denotes generally every booth, not only for the sale of wares, but those of the tonsores, the medici, and argentarii also. Caupona, on the contrary, is only used for such places where wine particularly, and other necessaries, were sold; it still remains to be proved that caupo denotes every sort of retailer. Whenever the caupo is mentioned, he is the seller of the necessaries of life, especially wine; hence the joke of Martial, about the rain in the vintage, i. 57: Continuis vexata madet vindemia nimbis. Non potes, ut cupias, vendere, caupo, merum : and hence the modest poet wishes to have for life, besides the lanius, a caupo, in order to be insured a supply of meat and drink, ii. 48. The popinæ, cookshops, were a particular class, in which cooked meat chiefly, but drinks also, were sold; whilst the caupo mostly sold his refreshments to be taken out of the shop, the popa (the occupier of the popina) sold his viands for consumption in the taberna, and drew wine which was drunk on the premises. Cic. Mil. 24: Quin etiam audiendus sit popa Licinius nescio quis de Circo maximo: servos Milonis apud se ebrios factos sibi confessos esse, etc.; then, sed mirabar tamen credi popœ. [Hor. Ep. i. 14, 21, uncta popina.] Originally, only persons of the lowest class and slaves were to be found taking their seats on the chairs of the taberna, and to do so was considered unseemly. [Juv. viii. 172 mentions nautæ, fures fugitivi.] The neat epigram of Martial (v. 70) alludes to this: Infusum sibi nuper a patrono Plenum, Maxime, centies Syriscus Circa balnea quatuor peregit. Even if we were disposed to assign to the passage another meaning, and compare the sellariola popine with the lecticariola (xii. 58), the following verses clear up all doubt as to the meaning: O quanta est gula, centies comesse ! Quanto major adhuc, nec accubare! In later times such eating-houses were the lounge of idle and disorderly-living persons of the better classes; [as Gabinius in Cic. in Pis. 6; and Thrasyllus in Appul. Met. viii. init. See Juv. viii. 158; Suet. Gramm. 15; Vit. 13;] and it is clear that good entertainment was to be met with in them, from Syriscus having squandered away in a short time centies sesterces; for which no doubt pleasures of all sorts were to be had. Ganeum, or ganea, is so far different, that every popina may certainly be called a ganeum, though not vice versa. The ganeum means generally only a place for secret debauchery, whence Livy twice (xxvi. 2, and Epit. 1. c.) joins it with lustrum. [Cic. Sext. 9, ganeis adulteriisque confectus. Suet. Cal. 11.] Trin. iv. 3, 6) What Plautus (Curc. ii. 13, 10; Rud. ii. 6, 45; calls thermopolium, is nothing more than the popina, as we see from the imperial interdicts which are cited. Salmasius ad Spart. Hadr. 22, says that tabernæ in Rome were never opened before the ninth hour. Although we have not the authority of any old author, to quote in opposition to this assertion, it appears scarcely credible in itself, as doubtless many took their prandium there, and several passages occur which cannot at all be reconciled with it. In the case of the baths and lupanaria (see the Excursus Sc. VI. and Exc. 1 Sc. VII.), it is very natural that a fixed hour was appointed, before which they could not be opened; but as regards the eating-houses, no proof has been adduced, nor does such a restriction appear admissible. Passages in opposition to it are Plaut. Most. iv. 2, 52: Vide sis, ne forte ad merendam quopiam devorteris, Menæchm. v. 1, 3: Immersit aliquo sese credo in ganeum : but it is about mid-day, and Menæchmeus is himself just coming from prandium. Pseud. ii. 2, 63, Harpax says: The most decisive Ego devortor extra portam huc in tabernam tertiam. Et hoc quoque etiam, quod pæne oblitus fui, Nunc dum scribilitæ æstuant, occurrite. and if we are not inclined to attach much weight to this passage, as being a joke, let us add thereto an actual fact. Cic. Pis. 6: Meministine, cœnum, cum ad te quinta fere hora cum C. Pisone venissem, nescio quo e gurgustio te prodire, involuto capite, soleatum? et cum isto ore fœtido teterrimam nobis popinam inhalasses, excusatione te uti valetudinis, quod diceres, vinolentis te quibusdam medicaminibus solere curari? The whole class of innkeepers was despised in Rome, and it is very easy to perceive why. When Hor. Sat. i. 1, 29, calls them perfidi and maligni (5, 4), [Mart. iii. 57, callidos] it is because people of this kind were infamous in Greece and Rome, for cheating, adulteration of wares, and fraud of every description; so that in Greek, кañŋλɛúɛi means also to adulterate.' Heind. ad I. i. 29. The popina also exhibited generally, if not always, the union of all kinds of debauchery. [The interdicted game of hazard was most likely played in the popinæ. Mart. v. 84: Arcana modo raptus e popin Edilem rogat udus aleator. So that the surveillance of the ædiles was very necessary. Suet. Tib. 34; Claud. 38.] There were perhaps among the rest exceedingly dirty holes, as may fairly be expected from the character of the company. Comp. Stockmann, De popinis Rom. L. 1805. [Wunderlich, De Vett. popinis; Scheid, De cauponum origine.] Respectable people therefore did not, at least till a later period, enter such houses or booths; but they were not without places of social entertainment, for not unfrequently many assembled in the medicina, tonstrinæ, and such like places, for their recreation. See Salmas. ad Plaut. Epid. ii. 2, 14; and Heindorf on Hor. Sat. i. 7, 3. At a later period it was customary to congregate in the taberna librariæ, and in the gymnasia, to converse on all manner of subjects. Gell. xiii. 30: Laudabat venditabatque se nuper quispiam in libraria sedens. But the public baths were the chief places of assembling. [In the so-called lupanar, at Pompeii, there is a fresco representing several persons sitting and drinking in a tavern. The utensils of such an establishment are enumerated. Paull. Dig. xxxiii. 7, 13, dolia, vasa, ancones, calices, trulla, urna, congiaria, etc. The woodcut below is from a shield carved in stone, in a tavern at Pompeii.] EXCURSUS. SCENE V. THE GARDENS., THE description given in the Fifth Scene of the gardens belonging to the villa, may appear but little in accordance with the habits and tastes of antiquity, and many may be inclined to imagine that some garden in the old French mode of the seventeenth or eighteenth century had served as a model. But the old proverb, that there is nothing new under the sun, holds good in this case. Gardens laid out in this style, in which vegetation was forced into stiff geometrical figures, and the knife and shears of the gardener annihilated every vestige of nature's free dominion, were in fashion at Rome, and not reserved for the invention of a later age. [This is further evident from the frescos at Pompeii, representing gardens.] Indeed the ancients were more deserving of excuse for such absurdities, for the means afforded by nature in those days were but small in comparison with the abundant resources of our time. Foreign countries had not as yet unfolded their rich treasures of luxuriant and splendid vegetation, nor their thousand shrubs and flowers; and restricted to a barren flora, but little improved by culture, the Romans sought to create, by artificial means, a striking contrast to the free forms of Nature; and their trees and shrubs, such as the laurel, the cypress, the taxus, the buxus, the myrtle, and the rosemary, [which in Italy reaches to the height of six or seven ells,] being in some measure naturally stiff in form, were quite adapted for their purposes. Were we to take from our parks the ornament of the seringas, bignonias, spiræa, the cytisus, the ribes, and pyrus-were we to banish from our flower-beds the magnificent tulips and hyacinths, the numerous varieties of roses and dahlias, the rich fund of perennials and annuals, we should soon begin to think how we could, by means of artificial designs, distinguish the garden from the woods and fields. [Wüstemann more correctly thinks that this odd taste was an imitation of Oriental gardening; for the Greeks knew nothing of these unnatural forms.] It may certainly be doubted whether there were at that period entire gardens laid out in this formal fashion. On the contrary, we may conclude, from the descriptions extant, that a mixture was resorted to, and that artificially trained hedges and alleys alternated with thickets and clear green spaces, and in most cases vines, fruit, and even vegetables, were not excluded. |