Plin. For the time being, whilst others are present, tallow or wax candles; when they have retired, take them away and place here for me the lampstand.
Cels. What for?
Plin. For working.
Time
Cels. Don’t you study better in the morning? Then it seems to me the season of the time and the condition of the body invite study, since at that time there is the least exhalation from the brain, digestion having been completed.
Plin. But this hour is very quiet, when every one has gone to rest and everything is silent, and for those who eat at mid-day and morning it is not inconvenient. Some follow the old custom and only eat one meal and that in the evening; others merely at mid-day, according to the advice of the new doctors; and again others both mid-day and evening, according to the usage of the Goths.
Cels. But were there no mid-day meals before the Goths?
Plin. There were, but light meals. The Goths introduced the custom of eating to satiety twice a day.
Cels. On that account Plato condemned the meal-times of the Syracusans, who had two good meals every day.