Cost and nature of

public Liturgies.

you will injure yourselves." What the nature was, and what the
expenses were, of these liturgies, may be learned from one who thus
states the share he had borne in this species of taxation, which was
laid on the wealthy citizens. "In superintending the tragic chorus, I
spent thirty minæ: on the dances for Apollo and Artemis, in which 1
conquered, two thousand drachmas; on a military dance, eight hun-
dred; on public festivals, including a dedication of a tripod, five thon-
sand three hundred; in seven years, I laid out six talents of silver i
the capacity of trierarch; and afterwards, thirty minæ in contributions,
together with four thousand drachmas: on gymnastics, twelve mine:
on the comic chorus, sixteen; on a military dance, seven; at a boat-
race, fifteen; and on sacred processions, thirty." It appears from this
statement, that the more opulent part of the community were obliged
to provide, not only for the security, but also for the recreations, of
their poorer brethren. Sometimes, however, opportunities aros.
whereby the votes of those who were gratified by this expenditur
were made to indemnify those who bore it. If, for example, the latter
were engaged in questions of litigated property, the judges are re
minded of the costly entertainments exhibited for their enjoyment, in
comparison with which a just right and title is of secondary import
ance thus the people plundered the rich by legal taxation, and the
rich plundered one another through the medium of popular and vena.
courts. Even on the supposition that the legal decisions wer
equitable, the means employed to procure them prove the jury to have
been corrupt. Ample proofs of this state of things are to be found
in the writings of Isæus, who fully justifies the representation of the
Athenian dicast, as it is drawn in the Aristophanic comedy. What
ever be the question at issue, whether the validity of a will, or the
legality of the forms of adoption, the same mode of pleading is
pursued. Each party attempts to show that he has been service at
to the judges, and that his opponent has not. It is remarkable, t
that these persuasives are often placed towards the end of ther
respective speeches:—probably, because, though they might be total y
unconnected either with the question of law, or the question of fact,
they were known, by long experience, to be the most effective kind of
argument. "There was no judge's summing-up to counteract or miti-

Hence the friendship of the judges is esteemed so important by Aristotle,
Rhet. Hence, too, the following dialogue from the same treatise:-

Ts. Why do you not make your defence?

pa. Not yet, at any rate.

Ts. When then?

a. Not till I have seen some one else unjustly convicted.-Lib. ii. 3. 2 Isæus, de Apoll. and de Dic.

The contrast between this state of things, and the system of practical jurisprudence under which it is our happiness to live, is drawn thus briefly and forcibly in the Edinburgh Review for October, 1850:-"In England, the sole questions asked (in state trials for libel, treason, and sedition) are, what is the law, and has the me cused violated that law? To these questions all parties, judge, prosecutor, and

gate a false impression; the whole scene was too much like a theatrical exhibition, the parties combatants, and the jury spectators. A trial it was not of truth only, but of skill and strength; the jury, fresh from the charms of eloquence, with its music ringing in their ears, were called upon to give their verdict."1

prisoner, address themselves and confine themselves. Neither the counsel for the crown nor, generally, the counsel for the prisoner, make any appeal to the political predilections of the jury; they are supposed to bring no such predilections into court: the judge coldly explains the law, the jury impartially investigate the fact.' 1 Kennedy, Dem. p. 238.

Convivial habits of the Athenians.

SECTION VII.

IT was after the termination of the business of the courts of law,it was when the mercantile noise of the Piræus had subsided,-when the landed proprietors had returned to the city,-when philosophers had ceased to moralise in public, and statesmen to debate,-that the polite society of Athens indulged their taste for convivial meetings Food of the The first meal of all ranks was early and frugal: the lower classes commonalty. subsisted chiefly on bread, beans, olives, figs, lupines, turnips, vetches, peas, beech-mast, locusts, wild pears,' pickled provisions, and salt-fish seasoned with onions and garlic; and of such necessaries of life it has been computed, that a given sum of money would command abou eight times as much as it would at present. Among the higher orders, those meals to which each guest contributed his share, wer Banquets of customary forms of conviviality. Athenian parties were a transcript of the national character: their taste invested them with much that is elegant; their mythology with much that is poetical; their versatility of intellect admitted a combination of the lowest buffoonery with discussions of profound speculation; while their feelings of democratic equality introduced, amidst the habits of luxurious refinement, riot, insolence, and gross indelicacy. That the furniture of the banqueting 1 Walpole, Com. Fragm.; Græc. p. 10; Athen. lib. ii. p. 55. Boeckh thinks this too high; he says, whole, cheaper than at the present time."

the rich.

"the necessaries of life were, upon the Vol. i. p. 83.

architecture.

room was at once elegant in shape, and costly in materials, is sufficiently attested by descriptions and relics' which exist. Many of the finest specimens of modern skill have done little more than copy or combine its excellencies. The very name of Grecian vases, couches, lamps, candelabra, and scrolls, suggests ideas of beauty, both in form and in decoration. Yet much of the original charm is necessarily lost, because the artist wrought on fictions, or on facts, whose interest no longer exists. In the Flatterer of Eupolis, a handsome banquet is reckoned at one hundred drachmæ, and the wine at the same sum. But in the construction of houses, as late as the time of Aristīdēs, Domestic domestic architecture had not been so applied as to mark, by the character of their residences, the different classes of society. Demosthenes, speaking of that age, says, "Privately, they were so moderate, and adhered so stedfastly to the customs of civil society, that if any of you chance to know the habitation of Aristides and Miltiades, and the illustrious men of that time, he perceives it to be not more conspicuous than its neighbour." But in later times, wealth and luxury took their usual course in the size and arrangement of dwellings as in other things, and hence Aristotle observes of the magnificent man (μεyаλоTрen's), that his house is appointed in a manner consistently with his wealth. It is also remarkable," that the works of the most eminent painters and statuaries were not at any time purchased for the embellishment of private mansions. Artists either worked for the state directly, or for individuals who intended their specimens of the fine arts as votive offerings." Patriotism at Athens was a passion; each citizen identified his own pleasure in these works with the glory of his country; and therefore would have had less pleasure in the personal appropriation of private collections, than in the architecture of the incomparable Parthenon, the paintings of the Pocile, and in the numberless statues which adorned the streets and porticoes of Athens.

secret

meaning of

But, if the luxury of art was absent, the arts of luxury abounded; Use and flowers decorated both the dining-room and the guests: of these, some had a figurative meaning, and others, a medicinal use; a chaplet of flowers." violets, for example, was thought to counteract the effects of wine;7 the rose, which poetry had dedicated to Aphrodītē, was suspended above the table as an emblem of confidential intercourse. This custom

1 E. g. the Portland vase.

2 Poll. ix. 59, quoted by Boeckh, vol. i. 137. “Four drachmæ are equal to about two shillings and threepence of our money." P. 153.

3 Olynth. 2.

4 Eth. iv. 2.

• Heeren.

"For those purposes, they think some part of the wealth of the country is as
usefully employed as it can be in fomenting the luxury of individuals: it is the
public ornament; it is the public consolation; it nourishes the public hope; the
poorest man finds his own importance and dignity in it."-Burke's Reflections.
7 Plut. Symp.

"Ce que les Grecs entendoient par l'amitié existoit entre les hommes: mais ils
[H. G.]
2 G

Festive habits.

Extravagance in perfumery.

is, perhaps, the origin of the proverbial expression now in use "under the rose." "Most of the flowers cultivated, moreover, suggested poetical or mythological associations;-thus the laurel recalled the tale and transformation of Daphne, the object of Apollo's love." Pollux gives a list of the flowers used in garlands.'

The festive habits of the Greeks contained many allusions to the poetical parts of their religion. The first fruits of each meal were offered to the goddess Hestia. Three cups of peculiar solemnity passed round; the first to the good genius, the second to Zeus the protector, the third to health. It was a maxim that the guests should not be less in number than the Graces, or more than the Muses; but, as extravagance and ostentation flourished, these poetical ideas were so far disregarded, that a sumptuary law was necessary, suffering no more than thirty invited guests.

Before each meal, and between each course, water was poured upon their hands. In the use of perfumery they were profuse. Oil from Egypt was applied to the feet; the palm-tree furnished ointment for the bosom, sweet marjoram for the hair and eye-brows, wild thyme for the arms. The room was fragrant with cinnamon and frankincense, Epicurism. myrrh, musk, camphor, and cassia. The feast had commonly three courses: the first provoked appetite, rather than satisfied it, by sharp herbs, eggs, oysters, asparagus, olives, and a mixture of honey and wine. The third consisted of sweetmeats, with Thasian, Lesbian, and Chian wines. But it was on the second course especially, that Athenian cooks exercised their art, and Athenian epicures their appetite. Poultry and fish were its chief materials. Of the latter, a fragment Grecian bill of a comedy, by Mnesimachus, enumerates, in a bill of fare, twentysix different kinds; the names of which are translatable, with a resonable probability of correctness. The shop of the Athenian poulterer also offered a tempting variety to the palate; ducks, pigeons, pullets, becaficas, quails, thrushes, larks, red-breasts, woodcocks, turtle-doves,

of fare.

ne savoient pas, mais leurs mœurs leur interdisoient d'imaginer, qu'on pouva rencontrer dans les femmes un être égal par l'ésprit, et soumis par l'amour; une compagne de la vie, heureuse de consacrer ses facultés, ses jours, ses sentimens, completer une autre existence."-De Stael, sur la Lit, vol. i. 85.

1 St. John, vol. ii. 304, 305.

2 Potter.

3 Mnesim. Fragm.

To perfume, clarify, and perfect wines the following strange ingredients wer used:-sea-water, resin, vine-flowers, cypress leaves, cedar, bitter almonds, milk, chalk, pounded shells, toasted salt, gypsum, olive kernels, tar, pitch, spikenard. myrrh, saffron, cassia; at last some were like a thick sirup. See Henderson on Wines.