This even was not enough for voluptuous Romans, slaves to their strange caprices; their beverages did not appear to them as yet sufficiently cool,[XXV_26] and the summit of the Alps was put under contribution to furnish ice for the fashionable tables of the imperial city.[XXV_27]
The Romans were also frequently supplied with snow water,[XXV_28] clarified by being passed through the colum nivarium, or snow cullender,[XXV_29] a charming little utensil of silver, pierced with a great number of holes, through which the iced beverage passed into a recipient beneath. This drink was sometimes mortal, but always exquisite.[XXV_30] From this vessel, it was poured into an ampula, or a sort of crystal bottle of rotund form, which was often enormously dear on account of the elaborate chasing with which it was embellished.[XXV_31] This water bottle, with its long and narrow neck, was the principal ornament of the sideboards and tables, when it bore the name of some skilful artist from Campania or the Island of Samos.[XXV_32] [O]
Iced beverage lost all its charm at the end of the fine season, and hot water took its place during winter.[XXV_33] The same custom existed in Greece in the best classes of society.[XXV_34] At Rome, it was much more general, for there were a great number of taverns, where the middle classes and citizens of the lowest order gorged themselves copiously with pork and warm water. The Emperor Claudius caused them to be closed, and severely punished the proprietors of those houses who opposed his ordinance.[XXV_35]
At the commencement of the repast, a copper vessel was placed on the table purposely to boil water. It was much like a French bouilloire (which nearly resembles a tankard), and contained a cylinder of about four inches in diameter, covered with a moving lid, and pierced with holes for the ashes to pass through. They fell into the lower part of the cylinder. The space around was filled with water by means of a small funnel soldered to the boiler. The taps of these vases were always slightly above the bottom, so that the sediment of the water should not pass into the cups.[XXV_36]
Ancient medicine attributed to water a singular curative virtue, which it has also been supposed to possess in our days. This system, so much talked about now by some persons, is, therefore, not new. Hippocrates carefully distinguished the difference between good and bad water.[XXV_37] The best, according to him, ought to be clear, light, inodorous, without any flavour, and drawn from springs exposed to the east.[XXV_38] He interdicts all those which proceed from melted snow.[XXV_39]
Asclepiades made his patients drink plentifully of water, and frequently ordered them cold baths.[XXV_40]
