[7] xxxvi. 1.
[8] From tabula, or tabella, a picture. Another derivation is, "quasi e tabulis compactum," because the large openings into it might be closed by shutters.
[9] This rule, however, is seldom observed in the Pompeian houses.
[10] The best of these were made at Ægina. The more common ones cost from $100 to $125; some sold for as much as $2000. Plin. Hist. Nat. xxxiv. 3.
[11] These citreæ mensæ have given rise to considerable discussion. Pliny says that they were made of the roots or knots of the wood, and esteemed on account of their veins and markings, which were like a tiger's skin, or peacock's tail (xiii. 91. sqq.) Some copies read cedri for citri; and it has been suggested that the cypress is really meant, the roots and knots of which are large and veined; whereas the citron is never used for cabinet work, and is neither veined nor knotted.
[12] About $161,000.
[13] The common furniture of a triclinium was three couches, placed on three sides of a square table, each containing three persons, in accordance with the favorite maxim, that a party should not consist of more than the Muses nor of fewer than the Graces, not more than nine nor less than three. Where such numbers were entertained, couches must have been placed along the sides of long tables.
[14] Plin. Ep. lib. ii. 17. We have very much shortened the original, leaving out the description of, at least, one upper floor, and other particulars which did not appear necessary to the illustration of our subject.
[15] Vitruvius, vi. 8.
[16] It was made of the entrails of fish macerated in brine. That made from the fish called scomber was the best. This word is sometimes translated a herring, but the best authorities render it a mackerel. It was caught, according to Pliny, in the Straits of Gibraltar, entering from the ocean, and was used for no purpose but to make garum. The best was called garum sociorum, a term of which we have seen no satisfactory explanation, and sold for 1,000 sesterces for two congii, about $20 a gallon. An inferior kind, made from the anchovy (aphya), was called alec, a name also given to the dregs of garum. "No liquid, except unguents," Pliny says, "fetched a higher price."—Hist. Nat. xxxi. 43.