THE COTTABUS.
And sprinkle it around; and I myself
Will bring a garland to each guest, and give it;
Let some one mix the wine.—Lo! now it's mix'd
Put in the frankincense, and say aloud,
"Now the libation is perform'd."[1] The guests
Have deeply drunk already; and the scolium
Is sung; the cottabus, that merry sport,
Is taken out of doors: a female slave
Plays on the flute a cheerful strain, well pleasing
To the delighted guests; another strikes
The clear triangle, and, with well-tuned voice,
Accompanies it with an Ionian song.
2. And after this quotation there arose, I think, a discussion about the cottabus and cottabus-players. Now by the term [Greek: apokottabizontes], one of the physicians who were present thought those people were meant, who, after the bath, for the sake of purging their stomach, drink a full draught of wine and then throw it up again; and he said that this was not an ancient custom, and that he was not aware of any ancient author who had alluded to this mode of purging. On which account Erasistratus of Julia, in his treatise on Universal Medicine, reproves those who act in this way, pointing out that it is a practice very injurious to the eyes, and having a very astringent effect on the stomach. And Ulpian addressed him thus—
Arise, Machaon, great Charoneus calls.[2]
For it was wittily said by one of our companions, that if there were no physicians there would be nothing more stupid than grammarians. For who is there of us who does not know that this kind of [Greek: apokottabismos] was not that of the ancients? unless you think that the cottabus-players of Ameipsias vomited. Since, then, you are ignorant of what this is which is the subject of our present discussion, learn from me, in the first place, that the cottabus is a sport of Sicilian invention, the Sicilians having been the original contrivers of it, as Critias the son of Callæschrus tells us in his Elegies, where he says—
The cottabus comes from Sicilian lands,
And a glorious invention I think it,
Where we put up a target to shoot at with drops
From our wine-cup whenever we drink it.
And Dicæarchus the Messenian, the pupil of Aristotle, in his. </poem> ]
