The ninth day of the August calends, and the thirteenth day of the November calends, a gastronomic solemnity—a monstrous gala—brought together the Roman pontiffs to celebrate the day of their inauguration (cœna pontificalis). This banquet was worthy of the proverbial delicacy of those sacred stomachs.[XXX_24]
The augurs treated themselves magnificently in their turn (cœna auguralis), when they entered on their functions. The pagan priests of Rome vied one with another in a noble emulation of exquisite refinement and ruinous viands;[XXX_25] but it is said that the ministers of Mars, who had the reputation of being arch-epicureans (cœna saliaris), always won the palm in this struggle of magnificence and voluptuousness.[XXX_26]
The day the Emperor took the title of Augustus, he gave a supper (cœna imperatoria) to the senators and magistrates. The tributes of a year were sometimes hardly sufficient to indemnify the grand master of these imperial orgies.[XXX_27]
The triumphal banquets (cœna triumphalis) were less elegant, no doubt, but they cost the victor who invited the people immense sums.[XXX_28] The guests crowded into the vast inclosure of the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus,[XXX_29] or the temple of Hercules.[XXX_30]
They sat down to table to celebrate the anniversary of a birth-day (cœna natalitia),[XXX_31] the happy wedding-day (cœna nuptialis),[XXX_32] the arrival of a friend (cœna adventitia),[XXX_33] the sad day of his departure (cœna viatica).[XXX_34] The melancholy ceremony of interment was followed by a supper (cœna funebris), at which the guests were the relations and friends of the deceased.[XXX_35] They drank to his manes, and, by degrees, the wine not only stifled their laments but called forth joyous smiles. The Romans have bequeathed to certain modern nations more than the remembrance of their funeral repasts.
In the palmy days of Athens, the Greeks evinced more of the epicurean than the glutton—a fact which may be inferred from the description of the supper of Dinias.[XXX_36] The most magnificent of their repasts was, perhaps, that which Alexander the Great had served to ten thousand guests, who received, each one, a present of a golden patera.[XXX_37]
In Greece, as in Rome, the greater part of the events of life occasioned the joyous meeting of relations and friends. At the birth of a child,[XXX_38] a banquet was given in his honour; he was named on the tenth day, and the ceremony terminated with a banquet,[XXX_39] in which they offered the guests cooked Cherso cheese, cabbage boiled in oil, pigeons, thrushes, fish, and brimming cups of excellent wine.[XXX_40] The teething repast took place when the child had attained his seventh month, and the weaning supper when he began to eat.[XXX_41]
These family feasts, more or less sumptuous according to the fortune and rank of the individuals who gave them, were generally signalized by a custom which ridiculous and egotistical vanity could alone authorise and maintain. On the banquet day care was taken to throw the feathers of the poultry before the door of the house, in order to excite the fruitless greed of the poor wretches, who, as they passed,[XXX_42] prayed heartily that the infernal divinities might take the proud amphitryon, his guests, and even the meanest of his servants.