“Inguina succinctus nigri tibi servus aluta
Stat, quoties calidis nuda foveris aquis.”
[“A slave—his middle girded with a black apron—stands before you,
when, naked, you take a hot bath.”—Martial, vii. 35, i.]
They all powdered themselves with a certain powder, to moderate their sweats.
The ancient Gauls, says Sidonius Apollinaris, wore their hair long before and the hinder part of the head shaved, a fashion that begins to revive in this vicious and effeminate age.
The Romans used to pay the watermen their fare at their first stepping into the boat, which we never do till after landing:
“Dum aes exigitur, dum mula ligatur,
Tota abit hora.”
[“Whilst the fare’s paying, and the mule is being harnessed, a whole
hour’s time is past.”—Horace, Sat. i. 5, 13.]
The women used to lie on the side of the bed next the wall: and for that reason they called Caesar,
“Spondam regis Nicomedis,”
[“The bed of King Nicomedes.”—Suetonius, Life of Caesar, 49.]
They took breath in their drinking, and watered their wine
“Quis puer ocius
Restinguet ardentis Falerni
Pocula praetereunte lympha?”
[“What boy will quickly come and cool the heat of the Falernian
wine with clear water?”—Horace, Od., ii. z, 18.]
And the roguish looks and gestures of our lackeys were also in use amongst them: