describes it, "in a kind of nomad fashion, like the Scythians, looking out the best pastures, and following the dishes as the slaves handed them round." And still, as he ate and drank, he declaimed loudly against the luxury of such entertainments, until the host stopped his mouth with a cup of strong wine. The Peripatetic philosopher was observed to be flirting surreptitiously with a pretty waiting-maid—a proceeding to which the host had to put a stop by sending her quietly out of the room, and substituting a rough-looking groom in her place. As the wine went round, and tongues were loosened, the rhetorician began to recite passages from his orations; while the littérateur, not content with quoting Pindar and Anacreon, went on to favour the company with a very tiresome extempore poem of his own. There was a hired jester present, who, of course, launched his jokes indiscriminately, as occasion offered, at all the company. Most of them took it good-humouredly enough; but the Cynic, accustomed to make jests instead of being the subject of them, lost his temper, and engaged in a match at fisticuffs with the poor buffoon, who was a mere pigmy of a man, but who nevertheless gave him a good thrashing, to the great delight of the company.
But at this stage of the entertainment a slave entered with a note. One Stoic professor had been left out of the list of invitations, and had sent an angry remonstrance, in the form of a kind of speech, which the slave was instructed to read. "Though, as was well known, he disliked and despised feasts, as a mere form of sensual gratification; still, ingratitude was a thing he could
