body a little raised, and fupported by cufhions, and the lower part ftretched at length upon the bed behind the back of the next in order. They leaned upon the left elbow, and made ufe of the right hand. He who was fecond, had his head oppofite to the breaft of the firft. If he wanted to speak to him, especially if the thing was to be fecret, he was obliged to lean upon his bofom; and in converfation, he who fpake fat almost upright, with his back fupported by cushions.

A piece of cloth was hung above the table, to prevent the guests from being incommoded with duft, or other filth.

Before they placed themfelves at table, they took off their fhoes, and left them at the bed-feet, that the rich ftuffs they were covered with might not be spoiled with duft and mire. Thus, they took their places bare-footed, or with a kind of flippers, and refumed their fhoes when they rofe from table. Plautus fays, in one of his comedies, "Good, I find myself better, take "off my fhoes, give me fome "drink." And, fome time after, "Quick, give me my fhoes, and "hafte to remove the table."

The guefts being thus placed, each having his own cover, they diftributed among them bills of fare, then they placed cups before them.

Thefe cups were brought from a buffet loaded with other veffels

of gold and filver, ftill more váluable for the fineness of the work than for the materials themselves. On that of Craffus were feen veffels of filver which coft him for the fashion at the rate of fix thousand fefterees the pound weight. Amongst them were two goblets particularly remarkable, the work of Mentor, a celebrated artist, for which he had paid one hundred thousand fefterces *.

When they went to fup with any one, a flave bore the napkin, and took care to carry it back, but not empty; they put into it some pieces of the entertainment. It was not even unufual, in the middle of the meal, to fend fomething to a wife, a relation, a neighbour, or a friend.

They always began by libations, which confifted in pouring out a little wine upon the table in honour of the gods, and were accompanied with fome prayers.

They placed little images upon the table †, befides which they put the falt; by that they thought to confecrate the table. They looked upon falt as a facred thing. If it was forgot, or happened to be overturned, the table was profaned, and they thought, that fome miffortune was threatened: a fuperftition which the Romans derived from the Greeks, and which many people keep up at this day, as well as that other of dreading the number thirteen at table.

the libations were made.

The

The feasts usually confifted of three courfes, comprehending the deffert. They began with eggs, and finished with fruit.

I have faid, that the Roman feafts were of three courfes. The first was composed of fresh eggs, afparagus, olives, oyfters, fallads, &c. Like us they boiled their asparagus very lightly; we learn this little particularity from a common saying of Auguftus. When that emperor wanted to have an affair dispatched quickly, "You must," said he, take no more time about it than "would boil afparagus, afparago "citius."

The fecond course comprehended the ragouts and roast meats, amongst which they always mingled fome difhes of fish; a favourite food of the Romans, and without which they reckoned no good cheer.

For the third, they ferved up fruits and confections, and all thofe delicacies which the Greeks called Mila and the Latins Dulciaria and Bellaria. The custom was, to ferve it upon another table; fo Virgil calls it, Menfæ grata fecundæ

dona.

In the times that immediately followed the re-establishment of the republic, it was the custom at feasts,

to fing the praises of great men, accompanied with the flute and the lyre; but the Romans had no fooner conquered the Afiatics, than buffoons, farce-players, female muficians, and dancers, and pantomimes, came into fashion, and there was no good feast without all that train.

In the interval of the courses, and after the feaft, they played at dice, already in ufe in the times of the republic; for although gaming was prohibited by the Roman laws, except during the Saturnalia *, that prohibition was not always regarded.

The fupper was commonly followed by an extraordinary regale, called comeffatio, from the word xp, because the ancient Romans, who dwelt more willingly in the country than in the city, regaled each other there in their turns, Sometimes, even after having fupped in one place, they repaired to another; and it happened but too often, that they paffed whole nights in debauchcery and drunkenness.

Laftly, the guests taking leave of their hofts, received prefents, called apophoreta.

The Romans, in the early times, lay upon ftraw, or upon leaves, having no covering but the

skins of animals, which also served them for mattreffes.

But afterwards they not only employed mattreffes, and the fineft down, but the frames of them were adorned with figures in relief or inlaid. They had them of ivory, and even of maffy filver, with coverings of purple, heightened with gold. Thefe beds, made much like our coaches, or day beds, without curtains or canopies, but with a back which went on one fide from head to foot, were fo high that they afcended them by several steps.

The toga, which was the first habit they wore, appears to have been a robe, round and ample, open before as far as the girdle, and without fleeves. It enveloped the whole body: they fastened it upon the left shoulder, leaving the right arm and fhoulder at liberty. The measure of it was not fixed, it varied as well as the fineness of the ftuff, according to the fortune, rank, or tafte for finery of the wearer.

They had toga of different kinds. That which they called picta, or palmata, was interwoven with purple and gold, imboffed and embroidered with leaves reprefenting palms. The generals of armies wore thefe when they entered Rome in triumph. The toga called trabea, was of purple ftripped with fcarlet and white; it had been the habit of the kings; it was that of the Roman knights the day of their general review, yearly on the Ides of July. The prætexta was edged with a binding of purple; it was the robe of the magiftrates and the principals among the priests.

Young people of rank wore it with a golden ball hung to a collar. At the age of twelve years they quitted the infantine habit, which

was a party-coloured mantle, called alicata chlamys, to take the robe prætexta. Girls wore it till they were married, and youths till they took the viril robe, fo called because it was the habit worn by men full grown. It was white, and without ornament.

The day on which they affumed this drefs, was a day of feafting and rejoicing in the family. The father of the young man gave a feast for his relations, and friends, and all his family; at the end of the repaft they took off the robe prætexta, and the golden ball, which they confecrated to the gods Lares, and cloathed him with the toga virilis. After which the father, accompanied with his friends and relations, and followed by all the domeftics, led his fon to the Capitol, to do homage to the gods on his entering on the flower of man's age, by offering facrifices and prayers.

From thence the young man, attended by the fame train, was conducted to the forum, to make his entry into the world.

They called that ceremony tirocinium, noviciate, and those for whom it was performed tirones, novices.

The men as well as the women, wore a tunic under the toga, with this difference, that the tunic of the men went no lower than the knees, and that of the women to the heels; it had alfo fleeves, which they only were allowed to wear.

They fastened the tunic more or lefs with a girdle, to keep it tight, or to tuck it up. These girdles were different, according to the time of life, and ferved alfo for purses to keep the money they carried about them.

In

In time of peace, and in the city, they did not commonly wear a fword, or any arms. The emperors themselves conformed to that cuf

tom.

In the early ages, the Romans fuffered their hair and beard to grow, contenting themselves with clipping them from time to time; but they afterwards refumed that of fhaving.

In place of ftockings the Romans wrapped their legs in bands of ftuff; neither did they commonly wear breeches; only with the military habit, or in their exercises, or mounting on horfeback, they put on a fort of drawers.

The Roman ladies dreffed always in their hair; there was no difference but in the manner of arranging it. In the early ages, on the contrary, they never went out uncovered with a veil, but that mode went out with the fimplicity of man

ners.

The fashion of dreffing the head was at that time infinitely various; it kept pace with the inconftan cy of the ladies, and of the mode. They ftuck in their hair bodkins, loaded with pearls; they knotted them with little chains and rings of gold, with purple, or white ribands, enriched with precious ftones, and they wore rich earr-rings of gold and pearls.

The Roman ladies were extremely careful of their teeth; most part washed them with water, others

made ufe of a compofition which came from Spain, into which there. entered urine. They cleansed them with little brushes, and tooth-picks; they had fome of filver; thofe of the wood of the lentisk were regarded as the best.

In time their tunics multiplied; it became the fashion to wear three. Tafte foon formed the difference between them; the firft was a fimple fhift; the fecond, a kind of rochet; and the third, having infenfibly received more folds, and grown more voluminous, formed, by the help of the ornaments of which it was found capable, a woman's dress, called stola, which banished the toga, or, at least, left the use of it to the men, and tọ Courtezans.

The confent of the father was neceffary, they did not require the mother's, tho' it was afk'd out of decency. They then proceeded to the contract. It was accompanied with ceremonies, at which the priests and the augurs affifted. They agreed upon the portion, and other conditions, of which a deed was drawn and executed in the presence of witnesses, who fet their feal to it. They broke a ftraw as in other contracts, which was called ftipulation, from ftipula, a ftraw. The bridegroom made. presents to his bride in money, trinkets, &c. and gave her a ring for a pledge of the friendship which was to unite them*. Both of them gave prefents to those who had negotiated or favoured their marriage. The

em

brafs

emperors regulated, that thefe prefents fhould be proportioned to the portion. Laftly, the father, or the nearest relation of the bride, gave a feaft.

They never made a marriage without having first taken the aufpices, and without having offered facrifices to the gods, efpecially to Juno, who prefided over matrimonial engagements and marriages. They took the gall out of the animals that they facrificed, alluding to the kindnefs which ought to reign in marriage.

It was celebrated in three ways, distinguished by the names of confarreatio, coemtio, et ufus; confarreation, mutual purchafe, and ufage.

The firft was the most ancient. Romulus had established it. A priest, in presence of ten witneffes, pronouncing certain words, offered, in facrifice to the gods, a cake made of falt, water, and wheat flour, called far the bride and bridegroom eat of it, to fignify by that the union that ought to bind them. That manner of celebrating marriage, gave the wives a right of fharing in the particular facrifices, attached to the family of their hufbands, and even to their goods, if they died inteftate, and without children; if they left any, the wives were equal with them. Children born of these marriages, were preferred for the dignity of the priest of Jupiter.

The mutual purchase was a kind of imaginary bargain, that the bride and bridegroom contracted, by the form of giving each other

fome pieces of money. This way of marrying fubfifted longer than that of confarreation, which according to Tacitus, was no longer practifed in the time of Tiberius. According to fome authors, it was accompanied with the fame ceremonies, and gave the fame right to the

wives.

That which they called ufage, had place, when a woman, with confent of her parents, or her guardians, had cohabited a whole year with a man, with a view of being married to him: fhe then became his lawful wife without any other ceremony: it even appears, that fhe had the fame rights as the others."

After a pretty full account of thefe two customs of adoption and divorce, our author proceeds to the Roman education.

"The custom of the great at Rome was, to keep, even in their houses, fome philofopher, or other learned Grecian, giving him liberty to keep open fchool for the young nobility, who came thither to be taught with their children.

Whatever might harden the body, increase its ftrength, give nimblenefs and agility, form them for war, and give dexterity in arms, made a part of education, as well as politenefs and address.

After having gone through the ftudies of childhood, the young people were made to take the viril robe.

They then put them under the special protection of some senator,

care.

5

celebrated