Deipnosophistae

Athenaeus of Naucratis

Athenaeus. The Deipnosophists or Banquet Of The Learned Of Athenaeus. Yonge, Charles Duke, translator. London: Henry G. Bohn, 1854.

And Axionicus speaks of a certain Pythodelus as a very intemperate man, in his Etrurian, saying—

Here Pythodelus comes, who is surnamed
Isoballion, greediest of men,
And on his steps does follow that wise woman
Ischas, bearing a drum, and very drunk.

And Anaxandrides attacks Polyeuctus, turning him into ridicule in the comedy called Tereus—

A. You shall be call'd a bird.
B. Why so, by Vesta?
Is it because I ate my patrimony
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Like that most fashionable Polyeuctus?
A. No, but because you, though you were a man,
Were torn in pieces by the women so.

And Theopompus, in the tenth book of his account of the Exploits of Philip, (a book from which some separate the conclusion, in which there is the mention made of the demagogues at Athens,) says that Eubulus the demagogue was an intemperate man. And he uses the following expressions—

And he so far exceeded the whole nation of the Tarentines in luxury and extravagance, that this latter is only im- moderate in its indulgence in feasts; but he spent on his luxury even the revenues of the Athenian people. But Callistratus,

he continues,

the son of Callicrates, who was himself also a demagogue, was very intemperate in his pleasures, but still he was very attentive to the business of the state.

And speaking of the Tarentines, in the fifty-second book of his Histories, he writes as follows—

The city of the Tarentines sacrifices oxen nearly every month, and celebrates public festivals; and the chief body of private individuals is always occupied in banquets and drinking parties. And the Tarentines hold some such language as this: That other men, because they are fond of personal exertion, and because they devote themselves to actual labour, prepare their subsistence in this way for the future: but that they, by means of their banquets and pleasures, are not about to live, but are living already.

But concerning the intemperance and general habits and life of Philip and his companions, Theopompus gives the following account, in the forty-ninth book of his Histories—

When Philip became master of great treasures, he did not spend them quickly, but he threw them away and squandered them; being of all the men that ever lived, not only the worst manager himself, but all those who were about him were so too. For absolutely not one of them had any idea of living properly, or of managing his household with moderation. And of that he himself was the cause, being a most insatiable and extravagant man, doing everything in an offhand manner, whether he was acquiring property or giving it away. For though he was a soldier, he was unable, out of pure laziness, to count what he had coming in and what he spent. And then his companions were men collected together
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from all quarters; for some of them came from his own country, and some from Thessaly, and some from other parts of Greece, not being selected with any care; but if among either Greeks or barbarians there was any lascivious, or im- pure, or avaricious man, he had almost every one of the same character assembled in Macedonia, and they were all called friends of Philip. And even if any one came who was not entirely of that disposition, still under the influence of the life and manners of the Macedonians, he very soon became like the rest. For their wars, and military expeditions, and other great expenses, encouraged them to be audacious, and to live, not in an orderly manner, but after a prodigal fashion and like robbers.

But Duris, in the seventh book of his History of the Affairs of Macedonia, speaking of Pasicyprus the king of Cyprus, and of his intemperate habits, writes as follows—

Alexander, after the siege of Tyre, dismissed Pnytagoras, and gave him many presents, and among them he gave him the fortified place which he asked for. And that very place Pasicyprus the king had previously sold, in a luxurious freak, for fifty talents, to Pymatus the Cittiæan, selling him both the fortress itself and his own royal authority over it. And when he had received the money he grew old in Amathus.

Such also was Aethiops the Corinthian, as Demetrius the Scepsian relates, of whom mention is made by Archilochus;

for he, out of his love of pleasure and intemperance, sailing with Archias to Sicily when he was about to found Syracuse, sold to his messmate for a cake of honey the lot which he had just drawn, and was about to take possession of in Syracuse.

But Demetrius carried his extravagance to such a height, he, I mean, who was the descendant of Demetrius Phalereus, according to the account of Hegesander, that he had Aristagora the Corinthian for a mistress, and lived in a most expensive manner. And when the Areopagitæ summoned him before them, and ordered him to live more decorously—

But even now,

said he,

I live like a gentleman, for I have a most beautiful mistress, and I do no wrong to any one, and I drink Chian wine, and I have a sufficiency of everything, as my own revenues suffice for all these expenses. And I do not live as some of you do, corrupted by bribes myself,
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and intriguing with other men's wives.

And hereupon he enumerated some who acted in this manner by name. And Antigonus the king, having heard this, made him a thesmothete. And he, being an hipparch at the Panathenæa, erected a seat close to the statues of Mercury for Aristagora, higher than the Mercuries themselves. And when the mysteries were celebrated at Eleusis, he placed a seat for her close to the temple, saying that those who endeavored to hinder him should repent it.

But Phanodemus, and also Philochorus, have related that in former times the judges of the Areopagus used to summon before them and to punish profligate and extravagant men, and those who had no ostensible means of living: and many others have told the same story. At all events, those judges sent for Menedemus and Asclepiades the philosophers when they were young men and poor, and asked them how they managed to look so sleek and comfortable when they spent the whole day idling with philosophers, and had no property. And they replied that some one of the men about the mill had better be sent for. And when he came and said that they came every night to the mill and threshed and ground the corn, and each earned two drachmæ, the judges of the Areopagus marvelled, and presented them with two hundred drachmæ as a reward.

And the citizens of Abdera brought Democritus to trial, on the ground that he had wasted the estate which he had inherited from his father. And when he had read to them his Great World, and his treatise concerning the Things in the Shades below, and had said that he had spent it on these works, he was discharged.

But those men who are not so luxurious, as Amphis says—

Drink two entire days in every day,
Shaking their heads through their too mighty draughts.

And according to Diphilus—

Having three heads, like to Diana's statue.

Being enemies to their own estate, as Satyrus in his treatise on Characters said, running through their land, tearing to pieces and plundering their own houses, selling their own property as if it were the spoils of the enemy, considering not what has been spent, but what will be spent, and not

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what will remain afterwards, but what will not remain, having spent beforehand in their youth the money which ought to have carried them safely through old age, rejoicing in companionship, not in companions, and in their wine, and not in those who drink it with them. But Agatharchides the Corinthian, in the twenty-eighth book of his Commentary on the Affairs of Europe, says

that Gnosippus, who was a very luxurious and extravagant man in Sparta, was forbidden by the Ephori to hold intercourse with the young men.

And among the Romans, it is related, according to the statement of Posidonius, in the forty-ninth book of his Histories, that there was a man named Apicius who went beyond all other men in intemperance. This is that Apicius who was the cause of banishment to Rutilius, who wrote the history of the Romans in the Greek language. But concerning Apicius, the man, I mean, who is so notorious for his extravagant luxury, we have already spoken in our first book.

But Diogenes the Babylonian, in his treatise on Nobility of Birth, says

that the son of Phocion, whose name was Phocus, was such a man that there was not one Athenian who did not hate him. And whenever any one met him they said to him, 'O you man who are a disgrace to your family!' For he had expended all his patrimony on intemperance; and after this he became a flatterer of the prefect of Munychia; on which account he was again attacked and reproached by every one. And once, when a voluntary contribution was being made, he came forward and said, before the whole assembly, ' I, too, contribute my share.' And the Athenians all with one accord cried out, 'Yes, to profligacy.' And Phocus was a man very fond of drinking hard; and accordingly, when he had conquered with horses at the Panathenæa, and when Sopater entertained his companions at a banquet, the preparation was very splendid, and foot-tubs full of wine and spices were set before all who came in. And his father, seeing this, called Phocus, and said, 'Will you not stop your companion from polluting your victory in this fashion?'

And I know too of many other intemperate and extravagant men, whom I leave you to find out, with the exception of Callias the son of Hipponicus, whom even the tutors of little children have heard of. But concerning the others whom I have been a little hasty in mentioning, if you have

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anything to say, I have the doors of my ears open. So speak; for I want to know something.

Besides Magnus used the words ἐπεσθίειν and ἐπιφαγεῖν. And Aemilianus said, you have the word ἀσώτιον used by Strattis, in his Chrysippus, where he says—

He will not e'en have time to ease himself,
Nor to turn to an ἀσώτιον, nor e'en,
If a man meets him, to converse with him.

But the instruments used by a cook are enumerated by Anaxippus, in his Harp-player, as follows:—

Bring me a ladle and a dozen spits,
A flesh-hook, and a mortar, and a cheese-scraper,
A cylinder, three troughs, a knife, four choppers.
Will you not, O man hated by the gods,
Make haste and put the kettle on the fire
And are you now still dawdling at that dish?
And with that largest chopper?

But Aristophanes calls the dish which we commonly call χύτρα, a κακκάβη, in his play of the Women occupying the Tents; saying—

Warm now the κακκάβη of the preceptor.

And, in his Daitaleis, he says—

To bring the κακκάβη from thence.

And Antiphanes, in his Friend to the Thebans, says—

We now have everything; for that fine eel
From Thebes, a namesake of the one in-doors,
Mingling within the hollow κακκάβη,
Is warm, and leaps, is boiled, and bubbles up.

But Antiphanes calls a dish βατάνιον, in his Euthydicus—

Then came a polypus all cut in pieces,
And boiled ἐν βατανίοισιν.

And Alexis, in his Asclepioclides, says—

But I when sojourning in Sicily,
Learn'd to cook with such dexterity,
That I make all the guests with eagerness
Invade the dishes (βατάνια) with their teeth at times.

But Antiphanes spells the word with a π; writing it πατάνιον, in his Wedding—

πατάνια, beet, and assafœtida,
Dishes and candles, coriander and onions,
And salt and olives, and round dishes too.

And Philetærus says, in his Œnopion—

Here let the cook of dainty dishes (πατανίων) come.

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And, in a subsequent passage, he says—

He seems to have more pupils for his dishes
Than even Stratonicus had.

And Antiphanes, in his Parasite, said this—

A. Another bulky man, large as a table,
And nobly born, will come besides this man.
B. Whom do you mean?
A. A new Carystian,
Born of the earth and warm.
B. Tell me his name,
Or else begone.
A. I mean a κάκκαβος,
But you, perhaps, would call it merely dish.
B. What do I care what name you give to it?
Whether men like to call it κάκκαβος
Or σίττυβος, I know the thing you mean.

But Eubulus, in his Ionian, uses both forms, both βατάνιον and πατάνιον, where he says—

Round dishes, and βατάνια, and caccabia,
And Iopadia, and πατάνια, in crowds
Countless, I could not tell you half their names.

But Alexis made a catalogue of seasonings, in his play called the Caldron, saying—

A. Let me have no excuses, no
I have not.

B. But tell me what you want—I will take all.
A. Quite right. Go first of all and take some sesame.
B. There's some within.
A. Take some grapes dried and cut,
Some fennel, anise, assafœtida,
Mustard and cabbage, some dry coriander,
Sumach and cummin, capers, marjoram,
Leeks, garlic, thyme, sage, seseli,
Some new-made wine boil'd down, some rue and spinach.

And, in his Woman working all Night, or the Spinners, he introduces a cook as saying—

I must run round, and bawl for what I want;
You'll call for supper when you home return,
And I have got no vinegar, nor anise,
Nor marjoram, nor fig-leaves, nor sweet oil,
Nor almonds, nor the lees of new-made wine,
Nor garlic, no, nor leeks, nor onions,
No fire, no cummin seed, no salt, no eggs,
No wood, no trough, no frying-pan, no rope;
No pail, no cistern, neither well nor pitcher;
Here I stand useless with but knife in hand,
Girt and prepared for action all in vain.

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And, in his Wicked Woman, he says—

First of all take a dish of goodly size,
And put in marjoram and pounded herbs,
Steep'd to a fair extent in vinegar,
Colour'd with new made wine, and flavoured with
Plenty of potent assafœtida.

And Teleclides used the word ἐπεσθίειν, in his Prytanes, in this manner:—

τύριον ἐπεσθίοντα, eating cheese.

And Eupolis used the word ἐπιφαγεῖν in his Taxiarchs—

Wishing to eat (ἐπιφαγεῖν) of nothing
But just an onion and three pickled olives.

And Aristophanes, in his Plutus, says—

Once, out of poverty, he ate up (ἐπήσθιεν) everything.

But there was another class of men somewhat different from the cooks, called τραπεζοποιοὶ, setters out of tables. But what their office was is plainly stated by Antiphanes, in his Sojourner—

Hither I come, and bring this table-setter,
Who soon shall wash the cloths, and trim the lamps,
Prepare the glad libations, and do every thing
Which to his office may pertain.

And it is worth inquiring whether the τραπεζοκόμος is the same person as the τραπεζοποιός. For king Juba, in his treatise on Similitudes, says that the τραπεζοκόμος is the same person who is called by the Romans structor, quoting from the play of Alexander, which is entitled Potation—

Now for to-morrow I must get a flute-player,
A table-setter, and a workman too.
This was my master's reason for despatching me
On this commision from his country seat.

But they called him τραπεζοποιὸς who took care of the tables, and of everything else which required order and good mnagement. Philemon says, in his

The Uninvited Guest

—

There is no need of long deliberation
About the kitchen, for the table-setter
Is bound to look to that; that is his office.

They also used the word ἐπιτραπεζώματα, meaning by th s the food which was placed upon the table. Plato says, in the Menelaus—

How little now is left of the ἐπιτραπεζώματα.

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They also called the man who bought the meat, the ʼἀγοραστὴς, but now they call him ὀψωνάτωρ, an officer whom Xenophon mentions, in the second[*](This is a mistake; the passage occurs in the first book.) book of the Memorabilia, speaking thus:—

Could we expect to get a steward and buyer of such a character for nothing

But the same word is used in a more general sense by Menander, in his Phanius—

He was a thrifty and a moderate buyer (ἀγοραστής):

And Aristophanes calls him ὀψώνης, in his Tagenistæ, saying—

How the purveyor (ὀψώνης) seems to delay our supper.

Cratinus, too, uses the verb παροψωνέω, in his Cleobulinæ, where he says * * * * * * And Alexis uses the verb παραγοράζω, in the same sense, (to buy dainty side-dishes,) in his Dropidas.

There are people called εἰλέατροι; they are those, according to Pamphilus, who invite people to the king's table, having their name derived from ἐλεός (a kitchen table). But Artemidorus calls them δειπνοκλήτορες.

They also used to call the tasters (according to the statement of the same Pamphilus) ἐδέατροι, because they ate of dishes before the king with a view to his safety. But now, the person called ἐδέατρος is the superintendent of the whole management of the feast; and that office is very eminent and honourable. Accordingly, Chares, in the third book of his Histories, says that Ptolemy surnamed Soter, was originally appointed as the taster (ἐδέατρος) of Alexander. And it appears that the person whom the Romans now call the taster was at that time called by the Greeks προτένθης. As Aristophanes, in the earlier of his plays, called the Clouds, says—

A. Why then do not the magistrates receive
The prytanea on the new-moon's day,
But on the day before?
B. They seem to me
To act like tasters (πρότενθαι) who in hopes to take
The prytanea with all possible speed,
Taste them on this account all on one day.

And Pherecrates mentions them, in his Countrymen—

Do not you marvel; we are of the number
Of skilful tasters (προτένθων), but you know us not.

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And Philyllus says, in his Hercules—

Must I then tell you who I am to-day?
I am that taster called Dorpia.

And I find also a decree passed, while Cephisodrus was archer at Athens, in which the tasters are mentioned as a regular guild or college; just like the men who are called parasites. For the decree runs thus:—

Phocus proposed that, in order that the council might celebrate the Apaturia with the rest of the Athenians, in accordance with the national customs, that it should be decreed by the council, that the councillors should be released for the day, as also the other councils have been dismissed, for a holiday of five days from the day which the tasters (οἱ πρότενθαι) celebrate.

And that the ancients had people who were called

tasters

Xenophon tells us in his treatise which is entitled Hiero or the Tyrant, where he says,

The tyrant lives, never trusting either meat or drink, but they order those who minister to them to taste them first, in the place of offering libations to the gods; because they feel a distrust lest they should eat or drink something pernicious.

And Anaxilas, in his Calypso, says—

First the old woman here shall taste your drink.

And the ancients used to call those who made sweetmeats and cheesecakes δημιουργοί. Menander, in his False Hercules, blaming the cooks as attempting what they ought not, says—

Holloa, you cook, why do you sulky seem?
'Tis the third time you've asked me what's the number
Of tables which will be required to-day.
We go to sacrifice one little pig.
Eight tables are required, or two, or one;
What can that be to you?—I want but one.
May we not make some candyli[*](The candylus or candaulus was the name of a Lydian dish.) and dishes
Such as you're used to season; honey, eggs,
And semilago; but now everything
Is contrary; the cook makes cakes in moulds,
Roasts cheesecakes, and boils groats, and brings on table
After the salted meats fig-leaves and grapes.
And for the sweetmeat-makers, they, with duties
Turn'd upside down, roast joints of meat and thrushed
Instead of delicate confections; thus
He who believes he sups doth feed on dainties,
And when perfumed and crown'd, again doth feast
On honey'd cheese-cakes interspersed with thrushes.

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But that all these different duties were formerly separated, when the demiurgi, as they called them, attended to the sweetmeats, and the cooks to the regular cookery, Antiphanes shows us plainly enough, in his Chrysis, where he says—

Four female flute-players do have their wages,
Twelve cooks, and just as many sweetmeat-makers,
Asking for plates for honey.

And Menander, in his Demiurgus, says—

A. What now is this, my boy, for you, by Jove,
Have come in a most business-like set fashion.
B. Yes, for we are inventing fine inventions,
And all the night long we've been hard at work,
And even now we have much left unfinish'd.

But Seleucus says that Panyasis is the earliest author who speaks of sweetmeats, in the book in which he speaks of the human sacrifices practised by the Egyptians, saying that many sorts of pastry and sweetmeats are put on the table, and many kinds of young birds. And before his time Stesichorus, or Ibycus, in the poem entitled the Contest, wrote as follows:—-

Bring gifts unto the maiden, cakes of cesane,
And groats, and cakes of oil and honey mixed,
And other kinds of pastry, and fresh honey.

But that this poem is the work of Stesichorus, Simonides the poet is a most undeniable witness; who, when speaking of Meleager, says—

Who with the spear excell'd his fellows all,
Hurling beyond the eddying Anauros
From the grape-famous Iolcos.
For thus did Homer and Stesichorus
Sing to the nations.

For Stesichorus had sung so in the previously quoted poem, namely, the Contests—

Amphiaraus gain'd the prize in leaping,
And with the dart the godlike Meleager.

But I am not ignorant of what Apollodorus the Athenian has said of the Delians, that they supplied all who came to their sacred ceremonies with the assistance of cooks and table-setters; and from their actions they were named Magis and Gongylis;—since, says Aristophanes, they furnished them at these banquets with round barley-cakes, (γόγγυλαι μάζαι,) as if they had been women. And even to this very day some of them are called Chœraci, and Amni, and Artysilai, and

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Sesami, and Artusitragi, and Neocori, and Icthyboli. And of the women, some are called Cuminanthæ. But all are called by one common name Eleodytæ, because they attend on the kitchen tables, and minister at the festivals. For ἔλεος means a kitchen or cook's table. Homer says—

But when he roasted the meat, and placed it ἐν ἐλεοισῖν.

On which account, also, Polycraton the son of Crithon, a Rhenæan, when instituting a prosecution against hem, did not call them Delians, but inscribed his action

against the whole body of the Eleodytæ.

And the law of the Amphictyons commands the Eleodytæ to provide water; meaning by Eleodytæ the table-setters, and all attendants of that sort. But Criton the comic poet, in his Busy-body, calls the Delians the parasites of the god, in these lines—

When we had forced this great Phœnician,
The master of a well-provided purse,
Though captain of the ship, to stay in harbour,
And * * * two ships
To come to Delos from Piræus' port;
He heard from all men that this place alone
Seem'd to have three good things for a parasite,
A well-stored market, a large population
From every country, and the native Delians,
Themselves a tribe of parasites of the god.

But Achæus the Eretrian, in his Alcmæon, a satyric drama, calls the Delphians makers of sauces, in these words:—

I see the sauce-makers, and spit on them.

Inasmuch, forsooth, as they cut up the victims, it is plain that they cooked and seasoned them; and, having a regard to these facts, Aristophanes also said—

But O thou Phœbus, thou who sharpenest
The Delphian knives, and with an early warning
Givest instruction to thy ministers.

And, in the lines immediately following the former passage, Achæus says—

Why do you stay conceal'd,
Namesake of all the knives which cooks employ

For the Satyrs ridicule the Delphians, as devoting all their time and attention to festivals and sacrifices. And Semus says, in the fourth book of his Deliad,

The Delians used to provide the Delphians who came to Delos with salt, ad vinegar, and oil, and wood, and counterpanes.

And Arisotle, or

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Theophrastus, in his Commentaries, speaking of the Magne- sians who dwell on the banks of the river Mæander, as colonists of the Delphians, represents them as showing the same attentions to all foreigners who came to them; speaking as follows: —

The Magnesians who dwell on the banks of the river Mæander, being sacred to the god, and colonists of the Delphians, give shelter to all who come among them, and salt, and oil, and vinegar, and lights, and beds, and coverlets, and tables.

But Demetrius the Scepsian, in the sixteenth book of his Trojan Array, says that in Laconia, on the road which is called the Hyacinthine road, statues of the heroes Daiton and Ceraon were erected by those who made barley-cakes at the Phiditia, and by the attendants who mixed the wine. And the same writer reports also, in the twenty-fourth book of the same work, that Daitas the hero is worshipped among the Trojans, who is also mentioned by Mimnermus. And Hegesander the Delphian says that Jupiter is worshipped in Cyprus, under the names of Eilapinastes or the Feaster, and of Splanchnotomus or the Carver of Entrails.

And while much such conversation as this was proceed- ing, on a sudden a noise was heard from some one of the neighbouring places, as from an hydraulic organ, very pleasant and agreeable, so that we all turned round towards it, being charmed by the melody; and Ulpian looking towards the musical Alcides said, Do you hear, O you most musical of men, this beautiful harmony which has made us turn round, being enchanted by the music? And is it not the case, as it is said to be among you Alexandrians, that constant music of an unaccompanied flute causes pain rather than any musical pleasure to those who hear it? And Alcides said,—But this engine, the hydraulic organ, whether you choose to class it among stringed instruments or among wind instruments, is the invention of a fellow-countryman of ours, an Alexandrian, a barber by trade; and his name is Ctesibius. And Aristocles reports this, in his book on Choruses, saying—

The question is asked, whether the hydraulic organ is a stringed instrument or a wind instrument.

Now Aristoxenus did not feel sure on this point; but it is said, that Plato showed a sort of notion of the invention, making a nightly clock like the hydraulic organ; being very like an enormous hour-glass. And, indeed, the hydraulic organ does seem to be

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a kind of hour-glass. It cannot, therefore, be considered a stringed instrument, and one to be played by touching. But perhaps it may be called a wind instrument, because the organ is inflated by the water; for the pipes are plunged down into the water, and when the water is agitated by a youth, as the axles penetrate through the whole organ, the pipes are inflated, and emit a gentle and agreeable sound. And this organ is like a round altar; and they say that it was invented by Ctesibius the barber, who dwelt at that time in the territory of Aspendor, in the reign of the second Ptolemy surnamed Euergetes; and they say that he was a very eminent man; they say also, that he learnt a good deal from his wife Thais. But Trypho, in the third book of his treatise on Names, (and it is a dissertation on Flutes and Organs,) says Ctesibius the mechanic wrote a book about the hydraulis; but I am not sure that he is not mistaken as to the name. At all events, Aristoxenus prefers stringed instruments which are played upon by the touch to wind instruments; saying that wind instruments are very easy; for that many people, without having been taught, can play on the flute and pipe, as for instance, shepherds.

And this is what I have got to say to you about the hydraulic organ, O Ulpian. For the Phoenicians used a kind of flute called the gingras, according to the account of Xenophon, about a span in length, and of a very shrill and mournful tone. And the same instrument is used also by the Carians in their wailings, unless, indeed, when he says Phœnicia he means Caria; and indeed you may find the name used so in Corinna and in Bacchylides. And these flutes are called gingri by the Phœnicians from the lamentations for Adonis; for you Phoenicians called Adonis Gingres, as Democlides tells us. And Antiphanes mentions the gingri flutes, in his Physician; and Menander does so too, in his Carina; and Amphis, in his Dithyrambus, saying—

A. And I have got that admirable gingras.
B. What is the gingras.
A. 'Tis a new invention
Of our countryman, which never yet
Has been exhibited in any theatre,
But is a luxury of Athenian banquets.
B. Why then not introduce it to this people?
A. Because I think that I shall draw by lot
Some most ambitious tribe; for well I know
They would disturb all things with their applause.

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And Axionicus says, in his Phileuripides—

For they are both so sick with love
Of the melodious strains of soft Euripides,
That every other music seems to them
Shrill as the gingras, and a mere misfortune.

But how much better, O most sagacious Ulpian, is this hydraulic organ, than the instrument which is called nabla; which Sopater the parodist, in his drama entitled Pylæ, says is also an invention of the Phoenicians, using the following expressions—

Nor is the noise of the Sidonian nabla,
Which from the throat doth flow, at all impair'd.

And in the Slave of Mystacus we find—

Among the instruments of harmony
The nablas comes, not over soft or sweet;
By its long sides a lifeless lotus fix'd
Sends forth a breathed music; and excites men,
Singing in Bacchic strain a merry song.

And Philemon says, in his Adulterer—

A. There should, O Parmeno, be here among us
A nablas or a female flute-player.
B. What is a nablas?
A. Don't you know? you idiot!
B. Indeed I don't.
A. What, do not know a nablas l
You know no good; perhaps a sambucistria
You ne'er have heard of either?

There is also an instrument called the triangle, which Juba mentions in the fourth book of his Theatrical History, and says it is an invention of the Syrians; as is also the sambuca, which is called λυροφοίνιξ. But this instrument Neanthes the Cyzicene, in the first book of his Seasons, says is an invention of Ibycus the Rhegian poet; as also the lyre called barbitos was of Anacreon. But since you are running all us Alexandrians down as unmusical, and keep mentioning the monaulos as our only national instrument, listen now to what I can tell you offhand about that.

For Juba, in the before-mentioned treatise, says that the Egyptians call the monaulos an invention of Osiris, just as they say that kind of plagiaulos is, which is called photinx, and that, too, I will presently show you is mentioned by a very illustrious author; for the photinx is the same as the flute, which is a national instrument. But Sophocles, in his Thamyras, speaks of the monaulos, saying—

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For all the tuneful melodies of pipes (πήκτιδες)
Are lost, the lyre, and monaulos too.

* * * * And Araros, in his Birth of Pan, says—

But he, can you believe it? seized at once
On the monaulos, and leapt lightly forth.

And Anaxandrides, in his Treasure, says—

I the monaulos took, and sang a wedding song.

And in his Bottle-bearer he says—

A. What have you done, you Syrian, with your monaulos?
B. What monaulos?
A. The reed.

And Sopater, in his Bacchis, says—

And then he sang a song on the monaulos.

But Protagorides of Cyzicus, in the second book of his treatise on the Assemblies in Honour of Daphne, says, "He touched every kind of instrument, one after another, castanets, the weak-sounding pandurus, but he drew the sweetest harmony from the sweet monaulos. And Posidonius the Stoic philosopher, in the third book of his Histories, speaking of the war of the Apameans against the Larisæans, writes as follows—

Having taken short daggers sticking in their waists, and small lances covered with rust and dirt, and having put veils and curtains over their heads which produce a shade but do not hinder the wind from getting to their necks, dragging on asses laden with wine and every sort of meat, by the side of which were packed little photinges and little monauli, instruments of revelry, not of war.

But I am not ignorant that Amerias the Macedonian, in his Dialects, says, that the monaulos is called tityrinus. So here you have, O excellent Ulpian, a man who mentions the photinx. But that the monaulos was the same instrument which is now called calamaules, or reedfife, is clearly shown by Hedylus, in his Epigrams, where he says—

Beneath this mound the tuneful Theon lies,
Whom the monaulos knew its sweetest lord;
Scirpalus' son; age had destroy'd his sight,
And when he was a child his sire him call'd
Eupalamus in his first birthday ode,
Showing that he was a choice bouquet where
The virtues all had met. For well he sung
The Muses' sports amid their wine-glad revels;
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He sang to Battalus, an eager drinker
Of unmix'd wine, and Cotalus and Pæncalus.
Say then to Theon with his calamaules,
Farewell, O Theon, tune fullest of men.

As, therefore, they now call those who play on a pipe of reeds (κάλαμοι) calamaules, so also they call them now rapaules, according to the statement of Amerias the Macedonian, in his dialects.

But I wish you to know, my most excellent Ulpian, that a more musical and accomplished people than the Alexandrians is not mentioned. And I do not speak only of playing on the harp, with which even the poorest people among us, and those who do not make a profession of it, and who are utterly ignorant of every other kind of learning, are so familiarized that they can in a moment detect any error which has been made in striking the strings,—but especially are they skilful with the flute; and not only in those which are called girls' flutes and boys' flutes, but also in men's flutes, which are called perfect and superperfect; and also in those which are called harp-flutes and finger-flutes. For the flutes called elymi, which Sophocles mentions in his Niobe and in his Drummers, we do not understand to be anything but the common Phrygian flute. And these, too, the Alexandrians are very skilful in. They are acquainted also with the flute with two holes, and also with the intermediate flute, and with those which are called hypotreti, or bored underneath. And Callias also speaks of the flute called elymi, in his Pedetæ. But Juba says that they are an invention of the Phrygians, and that they were also called scytaliæ, from their resemblance in thickness to the scytale. And Cratinus the younger says that the Cyprians also use them, in his Thera- menes. We know, too, of some which are called half-bored, of which Anacreon says—

What lust has now seized thus upon your mind,
To wish to dance to tender half-bored flutes?

And these flutes are smaller than the perfect flutes. At all events, Aeschylus says, speaking metaphorically, in his Ixion—

But very soon the greater swallows up
The lesser and the half-bored flute.

And these half-bored flutes are the same as those which are called boys' flutes, which they use at banquets, not being fit

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for the games and public shows; on which account Anacreon called them tender.

I am acquainted, too, with other kinds of flutes, the tragic flute, and the lysiodic[*](αυσιῳδὸς, ὁ καὶ ἡ, a man who played women's characters in male attire; so called from Lysis, who wrote songs for such actor.—Liddell and Scott, in voc.) flute, and the harplike flute; all which are mentioned by Ephorus, in his Inventions and by Euphranor the Pythagorean, in his treatise on Flutes, and also by Alexon, who wrote another treatise on Flutes. But the flute made of reeds is called tityrinus among the Dorians in Italy, as Artemidorus the Aristophanian tells us, in the second book of his History of Doris. And the flute which is called magadis, which is also named palæo-magais, sends forth a sharp and a deep note at the same time, as Anaxandrides says in his Armed Fighter—

I will speak like a magadis, both loudly and gently

And the flutes called lotus flutes are the same which are called photinges by the Alexandrians; and they are made of the plant called the lotus; and this is a wood which grows in Libya. But Juba says that the flute which is ma e out of the leg bones of the kid is an invention of the Thebans; and Tryphon says that those flutes also which are called elphantine flutes were first bored among the Phoenicians. I know, too, that the magadis is a stringed instrument, as is the harp, the lyre, and the barbitos. But Euphorion the epic poet says in his book on the Isthmian Games—

Those men who are now called players on the nablas, and on the pandurus, and on the sambuca, do not use any new instrument, for the baromus and the barbitos (both of which are mentioned by Sappho and Anacreon), and the magadis, and the triangle, and the sambuca are all ancient instruments. At all events, a statue of one of the Muses was erected in Mitylee by Lesbothemis, holding a sambuca in her hand.

But Aristoxenus calls the following foreign instruments—phœnices, and pectides, and magadides, and sambucæ, and triagles, and clepsiambi, and scindapsi, and the instrument called the enneachord or nine-stringed instrument. But Plato, in the third book of his Polity, states—

' We shall not, hen,' said I, 'have much need of many strings or of much harmony in our songs and melodies.' 'I think not,' said he. 'But we
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shall have triangles, and pectides, and all sorts of instruments which have many strings and are very harmonious.'