DRINKING-CUPS on a rock, and on his left hand a satyr, bald, holding in his right hand a cothon of striped colours, with one handle."
68. There is also the labronia. This is a species of Persian drinking-cup, so named from the eagerness ([Greek: labrotês]) with which people drink: and its shape is wide, and its size large, and it has large handles. Menander, in his Fisherman, says—
We are abundantly well off at this time
For golden cylinders; and all those robes
From Persia, all those quaintly carved works,
Are now within, and richly-chased goblets,
Figures and faces variously carved,
Tragelaphi and labronia.
And in his Philadelphi he says—
And now the drinking of healths began, and now
Labroniæ, inlaid with precious stones,
Were set upon the board; and slaves stood round
With Persian fly-flappers.
And Hipparchus, in his Thais, says—
But this labronius is an omen now.
O Hercules! it is a cup which weighs
Of standard gold more than two hundred pieces.
Just think, my friend, of this superb labronius.
And Diphilus, in his Pithraustes, giving a catalogue of other kinds of cups, says—
A. The tragelaphus, and likewise the pristis,
The batiace, and labronius too.
B. These seem to me to be the names of slaves.
A. By no means; they are all the names of cups;
And this lambronius is worth twenty pieces.
And Didymus says that it resembles the bombylium and the batiacium.
69. There is also the lacæna. And this is a kind of cup so called either from the potter, as the Attic vessels usually are, or from the form which is usual in that district, on the same principle as the thericlean cups derive their name. Aristophanes, in his Daitaleis, says—
He gladly shared the Sybaritic feasts,
And drank the Chian wine from out the cups
Called the lacænæ, with a cheerful look.
70. Then there is the lepaste. Some mark this word [Greek: lepastê] with an acute accent on the last syllable, like [Greek: kale]; but some mark the penultima with an acute, as [Greek: megalê]. And this kind of cup derived its name from those who spend a
