lustres,[XXXV-14] and round which are several ranks of seats, not unlike
the folding-stools and arm-chairs we meet with in the present day in the
most elegant _boudoirs_.[XXXV-15] The guests seat themselves, and anon
Egyptian slaves approach with perfumed snow-water, which flows from
golden vases of the most graceful forms, and cools the hands of senators
and Roman knights,[XXXV-16] whilst other servants disincumber them of
their patrician shoes, the end of which represents a crescent.[XXXV-17]
The feet then received a similar ablution, and fresh slaves, skilful
orthopœdists, accomplish in a twinkling the delicate toilet of these
extremities,[XXXV-18] and imprison them again in elegant and commodious
sandals, fastened by ribands which cross on the top.[XXXV-19]
Here and there a few persons are remarked who still wear their togas,
having doubtless forgotten to substitute the banqueting dress. So soon
as the major-domo perceives them he makes a sign to some youths clothed
in white tunics, who hasten to present to each of these guests a
_synthesis_, or short woollen vestment of different colours,[XXXV-20]
which envelopes the whole body, but leaves the shoulders and breast
uncovered if the wearer desire it.[XXXV-21]
These indispensable preliminaries being terminated, the seats
disappeared, and the guests stood waiting for the freed-man, Seba, who
speedily entered accompanied by the two consuls, for whom places of
honour had been reserved on couches beside their pompous amphitryon. The
latter deigned to address a few words of welcome to his noble company,
and each one stretched himself on his couch of gold and purple. The
fourth couch was given up to the parasites and shadows.[XXXV-22]
Meanwhile, slaves were burning precious perfumes in golden vases
(_acerræ_), and young children were pouring on the hair of the guests
odoriferous essences, which filled the banqueting hall with balmy
fragrance. Rome had borrowed this custom from the east.[XXXV-23]
The golden panelling of the hall shone with dazzling brightness as it
reflected a torrent of light from the crystal candelabra,[XXXV-24] and
the melodious sounds of the hydraulic organ[XXXV-25] announced the
commencement of the banquet.[XXXV-26]
At this signal, servants, richly dressed, place within the circle formed
by the couches lemon-wood tables of inestimable price,[XXXV-27] which
they immediately cover with a rich tissue of gold and silk. That done,
sylph-like hands spread them over with a profusion of the rarest flowers
and rose leaves.[XXXV-28]
Musicians (_symphoniaci_) then occupy a kind of orchestra or platform,
raised at one of the extremities of the hall,[XXXV-29] among whom the
flute and harp players are to be particularly remarked.[XXXV-30] The
former constitute, among the Romans, a special body dubbed with the name
of _College_, and they have the exclusive right to attend banquets and
enliven the pomp of ceremonies.[XXXV-31]
These musicians execute a slow, dulcet melody while the slaves are
placing on the tables the statues of some of the principal
gods,[XXXV-32] together with that of the divine Nero, whom a
pusillanimous flattery ranks already with the immortals. At this moment
they also arrange here and there the salt-cellars,[XXXV-33] while the
more meditative of the guests invoke Jupiter, before they give
themselves up to the pleasures of the feast.[XXXV-34] Hardly is this
short prayer finished when joyous cup-bearers distribute charming little
crystal cups,[XXXV-35] which Æthiopian slaves[XXXV-36] fill to the brim
with a generous, honeyed wine, drawn, in the first instance, from those
large pitchers which the Greeks have named _amphoræ_.
Some drops of the exhilarating liquid are offered to the _Lares_
(household gods), by sprinkling it in their honour on the floor and the
table.[XXXV-37] This pious libation precedes the entrance of the first
course (_antecœna_),[XXXV-38] composed of the lightest and least
succulent kinds of viands, by means of which a generous host stimulates
the appetites of his guests, as a preparative for brilliant
exploits.[XXXV-39]
Lettuces, olives, pomegranates, Damascus plums,[XXXV-40] tastefully
arranged on silver dishes,[XXXV-41] serve to encircle dormice, prepared
with honey and poppy juice,[XXXV-42] forcemeat balls of crab, lobster,
or cray-fish, prepared with pepper, cummin, and benzoin root.[XXXV-43] A
little further, champignon and egg sausages, prepared with
garum,[XXXV-44] are placed by the side of pheasant sausages, a delicious
mixture of the fat of that bird, chopped very small, and mixed with
pepper, gravy, and sweet sun-made wine, to which a small quantity of
hydrogarum is added.[XXXV-45] Tempting as these delicate viands may be,
the practised epicureans seem to have a decided preference for peacocks’
eggs, which they open with spoons. These eggs, a master-piece of the
culinary artist, who presides over Seba’s stoves, are composed of a fine
perfumed paste, and contain, each one, a fat, roasted, ortolan
surrounded with yolk of egg, and seasoned with pepper.[XXXV-46]
We will not go through the list of all the dishes which composed the
_antecœna_. The nomenclature was offered, according to custom, to the
guests of the rich freed-man, but the reader would doubtless think it a
little tiresome. We must, however, inform him, that the true
gastronomists--and there were many at that banquet--did no more than
give note of preparation to their appetite, by plying it with pickled
radishes,[XXXV-47] some few grasshoppers of a particular species, fried
with garum,[XXXV-48] grey peas, and olives fresh from their
brine.[XXXV-49]
DESCRIPTION OF PLATE No. XXX.
No. 1. A Greek Etruscan vase, or amphora, of terra cotta, for wine
and water, commonly placed on the dinner table.--HAMILTON.
No. 2. A Greek terra cotta vase, for a particular wine.--CAYLUS.
No. 3. Etruscan terra cotta vase, to hold wine on the
table.--CAYLUS.
No. 4. A glass amphora, or vase, of large dimensions, for Falernian
wine.
All found at Herculaneum.--SAINT-NON.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: _Pl. 34._]
The first course was removed to the sound of music.[XXXV-50] Now came
chased silver cups, much larger than those of crystal[XXXV-51]--no doubt
because thirst is excited by drinking. Amphoræ of a secular wine were
ranged by the major-domo on the mosaic flooring of the hall, at some
distance from the triclinium, and they proceeded, by the invitation of
the consuls, to the choice of the _symposiarch_ (or master of the
banquet), upon whom devolved the duty of regulating how often any person
was to drink, and of preventing the guests, in the best manner he could,
from yielding too easily to bacchic provocations, which commonly led to
unseemly gaiety and the loss of reason.[XXXV-52]
This sort magiric magistracy was obtained by lot, or the unanimous call
for a personage worthy of such a distinction.[XXXV-53] That memorable
evening every voice named the senator Drusillus, one of the most
determined drinkers of the Roman aristocracy. Drusillus smiled, snapped
his fingers,[XXXV-54] and, by the order of his master, thus intimated, a
slave, who was standing behind him, filled a golden crater[C] with wine,
and presented it to the symposiarch.
Thereupon, the latter, slightly raising his head from the downy cushions
on which it rested, and supporting it from the left elbow,[XXXV-55]
makes a graceful bow to the amphitryon, the consuls, and the rest of the
assembly. Then, with a stentorian voice: “Slaves,” he cried, “bring
wreaths of flowers.[XXXV-56] Fugitive images of the spring and of
pleasure, they shall bind our brows.[XXXV-57] At the same time let
garlands adorn our craters, in which the cherished liquor of the son of
Semele sparkles;[XXXV-58] and let us bestow no thought, during the fleet
joys of the banquet, on the uncertain and fatal hour when Atropos shall
pronounce our doom.”
This speech, slightly impregnated with the epicurean philosophy so much
in fashion during the reign of Nero, had at least the merit of a
praiseworthy conciseness. Nor did it fail to attract applause from the
auditors, whose brows and cups were speedily adorned with wreaths of
roses, which young boys, clothed in white tunics, arranged with
marvellous art.
The slight rustling of the flowers was soon drowned by the shrill noise
of the trumpets which announced the second course. A flattering buzz
welcomed this profusion of viands, which encumbered the tables, and
well-nigh crushed them with their weight. There were the
peacock,[XXXV-59] the duck, whose breast and head are so much
coveted;[XXXV-60] capons’ livers,[XXXV-60] peppered
becaficoes,[XXXV-61] grouse, the turtle-dove, the phenicopter,[XXXV-62]
and an infinite number of rare birds, the costly tribute that Europe,
Asia, and Africa, exchanged against the gold of the prodigal Seba. Other
gold and silver dishes contained these inestimable fishes which Roman
luxury brought so much into fashion; the scarus, or parrot fish,
sturgeons, turbots, mullets, and those numerous inhabitants of every sea
with which the tanks were stocked, to supply the kitchen of the
freed-slave.
Moreover, there were wild boars _à la Troyenne_,[XXXV-63] ranged in the
centre of the table, in silver basins of a prodigious value; stuffed
pigs, quarters of stag and roebuck, loins of beef, kidneys surrounded
with African figs,[XXXV-64] sows’ paps prepared with milk,[XXXV-65]
sows’ flank,[XXXV-66] and some pieces of Gallic bacon,[XXXV-67] which
certain gluttons loved to associate with a piece of succulent venison.
While the carvers were cutting up the meats with incredible address, to
the sound of a light but animated music, Numidian slaves filled the cups
from small leathern bottles with old Greek wine,[XXXV-68] a servant
carried bread round the tables in a silver basket,[XXXV-69] and others
ventilated the apartment,[XXXV-70] or offered the guests warm and iced
water.[XXXV-71]
In every direction trays circulated, covered with divers kinds of
meats,[XXXV-72] which they took care to humect with peppered
garum,[XXXV-73] that strange condiment, which the freed-slave procured
from Spain at a price equal to its weight in gold.
Suddenly the symposiarch commands silence: the musicians obey--the
slaves are motionless.
“Let us drain our cups,” said he, “in honour of Cæsar. Let us celebrate
the tenth anniversary of his glorious reign, and his happy return to the
metropolis of the world. Let us drink, senators and knights, as many
craters as there are letters in the cherished name of the
emperor.”[XXXV-74]
Sense and reason must have succumbed, had the patrician assembly toasted
Caius Lucius Domitius Nero: it would have been constructive treason not
to empty twenty-three cups; but they limited themselves to four, which
represented the last of these names.
Joy unrestrained floated with the fumy wine, furnished from large
DESCRIPTION OF PLATE No. XXXI.
No. 1. Curious silver dish, with Etruscan letters engraved around
the head of Medusa. Petronius speaks of two silver dishes, upon
which were engraved the name of Trimalcion, and the weight of each
dish.--ATHEN.; STUART.
Nos. 2 and 3. Silver dishes.--GORRIE, “_Etruscan Mus_.”
[Illustration: _Pl. 35._]
glass amphoræ, on which were these words: “Falernian wine of a hundred
leaves, made under the consulship of Opimius.”[XXXV-75][D] The consuls
and the Roman nobles almost forgot, in the voluptuousness of the
splendid repast, that the executioner of Britannicus and Burrhus, the
crowned tiger, was doubtless thinking at that very moment of taking some
of the heads then present. A funereal spectacle soon aroused their
dormant fears.
An officer of the palace presented himself at the door of the banqueting
hall. He advanced slowly, followed by two slaves, who laid on the table
an object covered with a winding-sheet. “Pressing occupations,” said the
imperial messenger, “prevent Cæsar from sharing with you the hospitality
of Seba; but he thinks of you, and sends you a testimony of his
remembrance.”
“Long live Cæsar!” cry the consuls, the freed-slave, and some few
trembling voices. The officer retires. The veil which shrouds Nero’s
present from every eye is removed, and all perceive a silver skeleton,
of terrifying truthfulness, and which, by its admirable mechanism,
proclaims artist to be one of those Greeks who have come to Rome to seek
fortune and celebrity.[XXXV-76]
This episode engrossed the thoughts of the greater part of the guests,
and the old senator, Lucius Vafra, could not help saying, with a sigh,
to his neighbour, Virginius Rufus, one of the consuls of the preceding
year: “Fear the Greeks: fear this disastrous present!”[XXXV-77]
But the hot wine which was being served,[XXXV-78] and the healths which
succeeded without interruption, drove the sinistrous presage from their
minds; and, moreover, the present of the emperor was nowise contrary to
the manners of the epoch, and the thought of death would only have
enlivened the repast, if it had been presented by any other than Nero.
At first healths were drunk in the Greek fashion,--that is, beginning by
the most distinguished personages, he who drank bowed and said: “I wish
you every kind of prosperity;” or simply: “I salute you.” In pronouncing
these words, he who drank the health took only a part of the wine
contained in the cup, and sent the remainder to the guest he had just
designated.[XXXV-79]
Many craters were then emptied in honour of the mistress of the house
(_dominæ_); neither were the illustrious dead nor absent friends
forgotten. The formula was nearly the same for all: “To your healths,”
said the symposiarch, “to our own, to that also of the friend whom we
cherish.”[XXXV-80]
Sometimes Drusillus, still fascinated with that dulcet poetry of the
Greeks with which, when young, he had stored his mind, would take up the
harmonious cadences of Horace, and thus personate, as it were, those
divine chanters of Attica who have immortalised themselves by
celebrating love, wine, and pleasure.
One of his extempore strains, while sipping the sparkling liquor from
his cup, was:--
This dream of bliss maintain, prolong these happy hours,
O, all-enchanting wines! perfumed with flowers
Which Cos and Cyprus rear;
Let nothing ever change this soul-felt, rich delight;
For I would say, when parting for the realms of night,
I never knew a tear.
This sensual philosophy found numberless echoes in that vainglorious
Rome, who exhausted her disdain, outrage, and punishments on the (so
called) new fantastic folly that the Nazarenes were endeavouring to
introduce. A few years more, and their doctrine will subjugate the
universe!
Time passed rapidly, and the meats, divided into equal portions, were
served to the guests, who frequently did not touch them, but gave their
share to their servants, or sent it home.[XXXV-81]
So soon as the major-domo perceived that appetite began to flag, he
ordered the whole to be cleared, and the dessert, spread on ivory
tables,[XXXV-82] to be substituted for the more substantial comestibles,
with which the guests were satiated.
Exquisite drinks, artificial wines, delicate and light
aliments,[XXXV-83] still came to titillate the palate and the burthened
stomach--pears, apples, walnuts, dried-figs, grapes;[XXXV-84] a thousand
different kinds of raw, cooked, and preserved fruits; tarts, cakes, and
those incredible delicacies which the Latins designated by the
collective generic term _bellaria_, wooed the epicurean--if we may be
allowed the expression--with their mild, material, dangerous, and
irresistible eloquence.
Some one proposed to replace the half-faded flowers by Egyptian wreaths,
and every brow was soon bound with garlands of roses and myrtle,
interspersed with little birds, which, by their fluttering and
chirping, soon restored the drowsy company to that animation which
seemed to wane.[XXXV-85]
Then began the amusements of the evening.
A troop of strolling players were admired for their agility and
suppleness. Some rolled round a cord like a wheel which turns on its
axle; they hung by the neck, by one foot, and varied these perilous
exercises in a thousand different ways. Others slid down a cord, lying
on the stomach, with their arms and legs extended. Some revolved as they
ran along a descending cord. Some, in a word, performed feats of
strength and address on the horizontal rope which were truly
incomprehensible, and at an elevation from the flooring which would have
rendered a fall fatal.[XXXV-86]
To these acrobats succeeded prestigiators, who appeared to receive a
peculiar degree of attention. One placed under cups a certain number of
shells, dry peas, or little balls, and he caused them to disappear and
re-appear at will.[XXXV-87] The spectators strained their eyes without
being able to comprehend anything. Another of these mountebanks wrote or
read very distinctly while whirling rapidly round.[XXXV-88] Some vomited
flames from the mouth, or walked, head downwards, on their hands, and
beat with their feet the movements of the most agile dancers.[XXXV-89]
Then a woman appeared, holding in her hand twelve bronze hoops, with
several little rings of the same metal, which rolled round them. She
danced gracefully, throwing and successively catching the twelve hoops,
without ever allowing any of the rings to fall.[XXXV-90] After that,
another juggler rushed, with his breast uncovered, into the midst of a
forest of naked swords. Every one thought him to be covered with wounds,
but he re-appeared, with a smile on his countenance, whole and
sound.[XXXV-91]
These feats were followed by an interlude, in which the parts were
amusingly sustained by marionettes. The Greeks knew this childish
pastime,[XXXV-92] and Rome did not disdain it.[XXXV-93] These little
bronze and ivory figures[XXXV-94] played some comic scenes tolerably
well, and obtained the applauses of grave senators, who more than once
forgot their senility as they contemplated the grotesque pantomime.
The only thing now wanting to render Seba’s supper a worthy specimen of
nocturnal Roman feasts was, to produce before the guests one of those
spectacles which outrage morals and humanity. Nero’s freed-man had been
too well tutored to refuse them this diversion. Young Syrians,[XXXV-95]
or bewitching Spanish girls,[XXXV-96] went through lascivious
dances,[XXXV-97] which raised no blush on the brow of rigid
magistrates, who forgot, in the abode of the vile slave, the respect due
to their age and dignity.
After the voluptuous scenes of the lewd Celtiberians, blood was
required: for they seem to have been formed by nature to take a strange
delight in sudden contrasts. Ten couples of gladiators, armed with
swords and bucklers, occupied a space assigned to them, and ten horrible
duels recreated the attentive assembly. For a long time nothing was
heard but the clash of arms; but the thirst for conquest animated those
ferocious combatants, and they rushed with loud cries on one another.
Blood flowed on all sides; the couches were dyed with it, and the white
robes of the guests were soon spotted. Some of the combatants fell, and
the rattles announced approaching death; others preserved, in their last
struggle, a funereal silence, or endeavoured to fix their teeth in the
flesh of their enemies standing erect beside them.[XXXV-98] The
spectators, stupified with wine and good cheer, contemplated this
carnage with cold impassibility; they only roused from their torpor when
one of those men, happening to trip against a table, struck his head on
the ivory, and his antagonist, prompt as lightning, plunged his sword
into the throat of his foe, whence torrents of black, reeking blood
inundated the polished ivory, and flowed in long streams among the
fruits, cups, and flowers.
The deed was applauded; servants washed the tables and the floor with
perfumed water, and these stirring scenes were soon forgotten. A last
cup was drunk to the good genius,[XXXV-99] whose protection they invoked
before returning home.
Meantime a stifling atmosphere pervades every part of the hall, and a
hollow noise, rumbling in the distance, excites at intervals in the
minds of the guests a sort of undefinable apprehension--the ordinary
presage of an unknown but imminent catastrophe. The consuls raise
themselves on their couches and listen; their host endeavours to calm
their fears; but at this moment a slave, panting for breath, rushes
towards Seba, and pronounces a few inarticulate words. “Fire!” cries the
anguished freed-man. “Where is the fire?” inquire all the terrified
guests, who have heard but this one sinistrous word. “Everywhere!”
replies the slave; “it has burst forth simultaneously in every part of
the city!” No one waits to hear more. Consuls, senators, knights,
musicians, and servants, jostle one another; and, abandoning those who
fall, arrive pell-mell at the atrium. The porter still chained, trembles
at his post; the flames already envelop the sumptuous edifice--the
entire street is one vast brazier! Rome burns, and will soon be a heap
of ruins and ashes! Flight is impossible--the flames intercept every
issue! * * * Nero has taken his measures well.
We will not attempt to depict the mute but terrible despair of those
proud patricians, at bay in the midst of an ocean of fire, in which they
are fated ere long to perish. The wreaths of flowers which bind their
brows are already parched by the scorching breath of those roaring
flames, which engulf and consume everything as they sweep along. A thick
smoke begrimes the lustrous robes, whose graceful folds erewhile
displayed the exquisite urbanity of Seba’s guests, and which now exhibit
only a sad emblem of festive joys. The dread of death, and I know not
what strange anguish at this all-important moment, blanch those human
faces, to which the choicest wines of Greece and Italy had just given a
hue of purple. These men feel--instinct tells them--that life is theirs
no longer, and they have not the courage to die!
The opulent freed-man calls to his slaves, and promises them their
liberty if they consent to risk their lives in an attempt to save his.
But the vile herd is already dispersed; the porter alone remains--for no
one has thought to liberate him--and he, in his impotent fury, replies
by insulting clamours to the cowardly supplications of his quondam
master.
This horrible scene soon changed by the very action of that torrent of
fire which was pursuing its devastating course; and the next day, when
Aurora appeared, a heap of ruins was all that remained of the odious
Seba’s magnificent palace.
The two consuls and some of the senators were fortunate enough to escape
the common danger. Less besotted, perhaps, by the wine and good cheer,
and finding in despair that incredible energy which sometimes operates
the same prodigies as courage, they rushed through the flames, and
gained the country, or those obscure portions of the city which the son
of Agrippina had apparently forgotten.
Thus it was that Lucius Domitius Nero celebrated the tenth anniversary
of his glorious reign. While the fire was rolling on with its resistless
flood of flame from temples to palaces, and from the Circus to the
Pantheon, the young, poetic Cæsar, his brow bound with laurel, and
holding in his hands a golden lyre, viewed from the top of a
tower--where he was surrounded by a troop of histrions and buffoons--the
conflagration he had just kindled.
And while the imperial Apollo sang some melancholy verses on the fatal
destiny of the antique city of Troy, his ignoble courtiers cried with
enthusiasm: “May the Gods preserve Nero, their august son, and the
delight of the human race!”
Such was the last gorgeous feast at which the magiric genius presided in
that Rome which Romulus had founded, and which engulfed the treasures
and wonders of the world. Destroyed by the imperial incendiary, it arose
from its ashes with increased beauty and voluptuousness; and the wild
joy of its new banquets caused the thoughtless queen of nations quickly
to forget the disasters of the past, and the sinistrous presages of the
future.
[Illustration: _Pl. 32._
NERO.
HELIOGABALUS.]
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES.
NERO.