raries was—in Seneca’s eyes—the very cause of a vast 
number of diseases ranging from swollen nerves and 
vomiting of bile to ‘‘pins and needles’’ in the brain. 
Seneca’s explanation: 
““Tll health was simple and sprang from a simple cause: multipli- 
cation of the dishes caused multiplication of disorders.’’ (Seneca, ep. 
mor,, ep. 95, transl. by E. P. Barker, p. 144) 
To Seneca, excessive gormandizing and gluttony are 
the roots of the malaise of Roman society, the ultimate 
cause of the physical and moral decay of his contempo- 
raries. He complains of the school of rhetoricians and 
philosophers standing empty while young people crowd 
around the cooking pots of gormandizers. He then goes 
into the details of the great banquets: 
‘“Transeo puerorum infelicium greges, quos post transacta convivia 
aliae cubiculi contumeliae exspectant. Transeo agmina exoletorum 
per nationes coloresque discripta, ut eadem omnibus levitas sit, eadem 
primae mensurae lanuginis, eadem species capillorum, ne quis, cui 
rectior est coma, crispulis misceatur. Transeo pistorum turbam, transeo 
ministratorum, per quos signo dato ad inferendam cenam discurritur. 
Di boni, quantum hominum unus venter exercet! Quid? Tu illos boletos, 
voluptarium venenum, nihil occulti operis iudicas facere, etiam st praesen- 
tanei non fuerunt? Quid? Tu illam aestivam nivem non putas callum 
iocineribus obducere? Quid? Illa ostrea, inertissimam carnem caeno 
saginatam, nihil existimas limosae gravitatis inferre? Quid? Illud 
sociorum garum, pretiosam malorum piscium saniem, non credis urere 
salsa tabe praecordia? Quid? Illa purulenta et quae tantum non ex 
ipso igne in os transferuntur, iudicas sine noxa in ipsis visceribus ex- 
tingui?’’ (Seneca, ep. mor. XV, ep. 95, 24-25, A. Beltram ed.) (5) 
‘“*T won’t enlarge on the shoals of unhappy young people for whom 
waits the further dishonour of the bed when service at the board was 
over. I won’t linger over the companies of epicene favourites, all in 
each group having the same softness of skin, the same development 
of adolescent down, the same growth of hair, no straight locks in- 
truding among the curly heads. I won’t say much about the horde 
of confectioners, of serving-men who at a nod scurry all ways at once 
to bring the dinner in. Good heavens, what a mess Qf humanity for one 
belly to busy! And now, do you really think those mushrooms— sensuous 
bane —set no veiled energies to work, even tf their effects are not immediate? 
Again, do you suppose your snow in summertime doesn’t indurate the 
(223 J 
