And hence it comes, that whenever an early hour in that age is mentioned, some imputation is conveyed also of indulgence and excess: for luxury in the higher ranks had, for prolongation of convivial enjoyment, gradually carried back the hour of dining towards the middle of the day. Without pretending to trace the origin and progress of fashion in this respect, we may appeal to Tully's authority about 45 B. c. as apparently decisive that three was then a fashionable hour for the voluptuous. Epist. ad Divers. 1x. 26. Accubueram horâ nonâ, cum ad te harum exemplum in codicillis exaravi. Dices, ubi? apud Volumnium Eutrapelum; et quidem supra me Atticus, infra Verrius, familiares tui. Miraris tam exhilaratam esse servitutem nostram ... Infra Eutrapelum Cytheris accubuit, &c. &c. ..... At the time that Horace wrote the second book of Satires (B. C. 34.) it should appear from his account of that famous entertainment, 2 S. VIII. Ut Nasidieni, &c., that the luxurious hour for dining must have been at least as early as one or two: what he says to Fundanius, who was in the number of the guests on that day, Nam mihi quærenti convivam dictus here illic De medio potare die....... even with some allowance for hyperbole, can hardly be otherwise interpreted. Long after, in the age of Martial, three had become the regular hour. Epigram. IV. 8. Imperat extructos frangere nona toros...... and Juvenal mentions, evidently with severity of remark, the practice of Marius to begin at two. Sat. 1. 49, 50. Exul ab octavá Marius bibit, et fruitur Diis Iratis.... Thus much for the hour at which Horace usually took his dinner. On the constituents of his humble meal enough has been said elsewhere, Prel. Diss. pp. 56-58. It is not to be denied, however, that from this habitual average both of diet and of time he frequently deviated; but the confession of gaieties and follies in the following characteristic passage, from the mention of his favourite but short-lived Cinara, (4 C. XIII. 21, 2. Cinara breves | Annos fata dederunt.) may be received as belonging to a brief period only in the heyday of his life. 1 E. xiv. 32-36. Quem tenues decuere toga nitidique capilli, Quem scis immunem Cinaræ placuisse rapaci, Quem bibulum liquidi mediâ de luce Falerni, Cœna brevis juvat, et prope rivum somnus in herbâ ; Nec lusisse pudet, sed non incidere ludum. [sc. puderet.] For a specimen of his company and the preparations for their entertainment, that delightful Epistle to Torquatus (1 E. v. Si potes Archiacis ...) happily supplies so much of particular and interesting description; that it may be as well to present the following extracts to the reader's eye. vv. 4-6. Vina bibes iterum Tauro diffusa palustres v. 7. Jamdudum splendet focus, et tibi munda supellex vy. 9-11. cras nato Cæsare festus Dat veniam somnumque dies; impune licebit vv. 21-26. Hæc ego procurare et idoneus imperor, et non Corruget nares; ne non et cantharus et lanx Ostendat tibi te; ne fidos inter amicos Sit qui dicta foras eliminet; ut coëat par Here first of all we have an example of good-natured arrangement proposed betwixt the host and his principal guest: “you hear what kind of wine I profess to give: if you have any better, order it to my house: [arcesse-ad me. Vet. Schol.] or be content with what I offer you." With Virgil again we shall find him playfully bargaining to produce a finer and costlier wine on condition of his friend's bringing to the dinner a richer perfume. (The costliness of unguents in that age may be estimated by their being one of the common causes of ruin to the vain and the gay. 1 E. XVIII. 22. Gloria quem supra vires et vestit et unguit.) 4 C. XII. 17, 18. Nardi parvus onyx eliciet cadum, Qui nunc Sulpiciis accubat horreis. Catullus on the contrary (XIII. Canabis bene, mi Fabulle, apud me) offers the very choicest perfume to Fabullus, if he will bring the materials of a good dinner along with him. Another variety of good fellowship is presented to us in that Ode 3 C. XIX. Quantum distet ab Inacho... where the Poet incidentally gives the principal requisites of a dinner, for which the richest wine was to be purchased at the common expense, Quo Chium pretio cadum | Mercemur: what friend's house was to have the preference, Quo præbente domum; and as it was a day in winter, the provision of a warm room against an assigned hour, Qutoâ | Pelignis caream frigoribus; form other points of consideration. The words, Quis aquam temperet ignibus, in such a context can bear but one meaning, that on a wintry day they would naturally mingle hot water with their wine. The "calidæ gelidæque minister" of Juvenal (S. v. 63.) would have had but half his province on a day like that in the very depth of winter. The 7th line of the Epistle Jamdudum... forcibly reminds one of the Ode to Mæcenas, (3 C. xxIx.) by that expressive word, but still more by contrast in the preparation there made by the Poet to receive his patron. vv. 2-5. Non ante verso lene merum cado Cum flore, Mæcenas, rosarum, et Pressa tuis balanus capillis where for once his invitation includes choice wine, garlands of roses, and unguents of exquisite odour, such articles as never occur in like manner mentioned elsewhere. The lines next quoted from the Epistle serve incidentally to show, that Horace for that year at least staid in the city over the birth-day of the Great Julius; then observed as a dies festus by cessation from business and affording opportunity in its eve for a longer night of cheerfulness than his friend the lawyer could otherwise have enjoyed. The day itself (F. H. B. c. 100) fell on the 12th of July, quarto Idus Quintiles and on the preceding evening the sun would set at Rome nearly at seven o'clock of our reckoning. This particular may here deserve notice, if it be only to introduce one remark; that as the natural or solar day with them was divided into twelve hours (from the 1st to the XIIth) of different length at different seasons, I may be excused in trusting to the intelligence of the reader for more exact calculation, whenever in these pages the Roman hour is assumed generally as answering to our own, on the well known scale, at the time of the Equinox. Libra die somnique pares ubi fecerit horas. Geo. i. 208. The remaining lines of the Epistle sufficiently exemplify that charm of the mundæ pauperum cœnæ, superadded to the more essential taste in selecting a party of congenial spirits; which to the humble triclinium of Horace, neat but narrow, (such the lecti of Archias's making seem to have been,) must have imparted a peculiar attraction, beyond the purchase of luxury and opulence. In the usual arrangements of his time, Horace never appears to have been what we call a late sitter-up for literary purposes: nor was such the general custom of the Romans. Of Augustus, however, the contrary practice is recorded (Sueton. in August. 78.) partly for the completion of his regular journal, and partly from his dislike, as a bad sleeper perhaps, to early rising. A cœnâ lucubratoriam se in lecticulam recipiebat... Matutinâ vigiliâ offendebatur. To his morning studies Horace must have paid assiduous application, as we see him on his couch ad quartam engaged in the lucubratio matutina; and again when appealing to his own habits in the cultivation of self-knowledge, towards the conclusion of that admirable Satire, 1 S. Iv. 133, 4. neque enim, cum lectulus aut me Porticus excepit, desum mihi. Elsewhere too, at a much later period of life, he playfully tells of himself, 2 E. 1. 111–113. Ipse ego qui nullos me affirmo scribere versus, Invenior Parthis mendacior; et prius orto Sole vigil, calamum et chartas et scrinia posco. And in the hortatory address to his young friend Lollius, when he solemnly recommends the task of moral reflection; the morning hour, as a matter of course, is mentioned for that purpose. 1 E. 11. 32-37. Ut jugulent hominem, surgunt de nocte latrones; Ut teipsum serves, non expergisceris? Atqui Si noles sanus, curres hydropicus: et ni |