No. 3. Glass bottle, with its cup, placed on the table for each guest.
perfumes, and whence flowers fell on the guests. In another of his dining-rooms admiration was excited by a magnificent dome, the rotary movement of which imitated, day and night, the course of the celestial bodies.[XXXI_6] These prodigies of ancient mechanism adorned the palace that the prodigal Cæsar called “the gilded house.”[XXXI_7] The colossal statue of that prince rose in the middle of the hall: it was 120 feet high![XXXI_8]
Studious people, or those who wished to appear so, covered some part of the dining-room with books; for it was a custom introduced into Rome to have recitations or readings during the repast.[XXXI_9] Atticus had always a reader;[XXXI_10] and Juvenal promises the friend he invites to supper that he shall hear some fragments from Virgil and Homer.[XXXI_11]
The Greeks yielded willingly to this intellectual pastime at the commencement of the banquet, whilst incense and other perfumes filled the room with a light vapour.[XXXI_12]
Opposite the entrance-door stood a buffet, sometimes of iron, but more generally among the Greeks of sculptured wood, bronze, or silver, on which were represented the heads of oxen or satyrs.[XXXI_13] This piece of furniture was placed under the protection of Mercury, and a curtain commonly veiled the front of it. It served for the display of precious plate—vases of silver, silver-gilt, and gold, enriched with magnificent precious stones.[XXXI_14]
The buffet of the Romans,—a sort of sideboard, of rare workmanship,—was appropriated to the same use.[XXXI_15] Sometimes a single foot supported a white marble table, surrounded with a border of vert-antique, and plates and dishes were arranged on two elegant shelves placed above.[XXXI_16] Again, the artist frequently conceived the idea of giving a whimsical form to the buffet, which enhanced its price—it was a ship laden with the vases necessary for the banquet; four enormous amphoræ occupied the deck, on the two sides of the mast; towards the prow was a candelabrum, and at the stern was displayed a large-bellied cantharus, or vase, with mobile handles;[XXXI_17] the main-topmast
DESCRIPTION OF [PLATE No. XXVI.]
No. 1. A glass vase, with two handles.
No. 2. A glass vase, with three handles.
No. 3. Etruscan vase, with three handles, terra cotta.