A.This is an admirable law at Corinth,
That when we see a man from time to time
Purveying largely for his table, we
Should ask him whence he comes, and what's his business:
And if he be a man of property,
Whose revenues can his expenses meet,
Then we may let him as he will enjoy himself.
But if he do his income much exceed,
Then they bid him desist from such a course,
And fix a fine on all who disobey.
And if a man having no means at all
Still lives in splendid fashion, him they give
Unto the gaoler.
B.Hercules! what a law.
A.For such a man can't live without some crime.
Dost thou not see? He must rove out by night
And rob, break into houses, or else share
With some who do so. Or he must haunt the forum,
A vile informer, or be always ready
As a hired witness. And this tribe we hate,
And gladly would expel from this our city.
B.And you'd do well, by Jove; but what is that to me?
A.Because we see you every day, my friend,
Making not moderate but extravagant purchases.
You hinder all the rest from buying fish,
And drive the city to the greengrocer,
And so we fight for parsley like the combatants
At Neptune's games on th' Isthmus. Does a hare
Come to the market? it is yours; a thrush
Or partridge? all do go the selfsame way.
So that we cannot buy or fish or fowl;
And you have raised the price of foreign wine.

And Sophilus, in his Androcles, wishes that the same custom prevailed at Athens also, thinking that it would be a good thing if two or three men were appointed by the city to the regulation of the provision markets. And Lynceus the Samian wrote a treatise on purveying against some one who was very difficult to please when making his purchases; teaching him what a man ought to say to those homicidal fishmongers, so as to buy what he wants at a fair rate and without being exposed to any annoyance.

[[361]] 13. Ulpian again picking out the thorns from what was said, asked—Are we able to show that the ancients used silver vessels at their banquets? and is the word πίναξ a Greek noun? For with reference to the line in Homer—

The swineherd served up dishes (πίνακας) of rich meat,[361:1]

Aristophanes the Byzantine said that it was a modernism to speak of meats being placed on platters (πίνακες), not being aware that in other places the poet has said—

Dishes (πίνακας) of various meats the butler brought.[361:2]

I ask also, if any men among the ancients had ever acquired a multitude of slaves, as the men of modern times do: and if the word τήγανον (frying-pan) is ever found, and not the form τάγηνον only. So that we may not fix our whole attention on eating and drinking, like those who from their devotion to their bellies are called parasites and flatterers.

14. And Æmilianus replied to him,—The word πίναξ, when used of a vessel, you may find used by Metagenes the comic writer, in his Valiant Persians: and Pherecrates, my friend, has used the form τήγανον in his Trifles, where he says—

He said he ate anchovies from the frying-pan (τηγάνον).

And the same poet has also said in the Persæ—