Chap. 49.] INSTANCES OP LUXURY IN SILYEli PLATE. 131 



remarked. He it was who gave the celebrated plane-tree and 

 vine of gold to King Darius, and who entertained at a 

 banquet the troops of Xerxes, seven hundred and eighty- 

 eight thousand men in all ; with a promise of pay and corn 

 for the whole of them during the next five months, on con- 

 dition that one at least of his five children, who had been 

 drawn for service, should be left to him as the solace of his old 

 age. And yet, let any one compare the wealth of Pythius to 

 that possessed by King Croesus ! 



In the name of all that is unfortunate, what madness it is 

 for human nature to centre its desires upon a thing that has 

 either fallen to the lot of slaves, or else has reached no known 

 limit in the aspirations even of kings ! 



CHAP. 48. AT WHAT PERIOD THE ROMAN PEOPLE FIRST MALE 



VOLUNTARY CONTRIBUTIONS. 



The Eoman people first began to make voluntary contribu- 

 tions^* in the consulship of Spurius Posthumius and Quintus 

 Marcius.'^^ So abundant was money at that period, that the 

 people assessed themselves for a contribution to L. Scipio, to 

 defray the expenses of the games which he celebrated. ^^ As 

 to the contribution of the sixth part of an as, for the purpose 

 of defraying the funeral expenses of Agrippa Menenius, I look 

 upon that to have been a mark of respect paid to him, an 

 honour, too, that was rendered necessary by his poverty, 

 rather than in the light of a largess. 



CHAP. 49. (11.) — INSTANCES OE LUXURY IN SILVER PLATE. 



The caprice of the human mind is marvellously exemplified 

 in the varying fashions of silver plate ; the work of no indi- 

 vidual manufactory being for any long time in vogue. At one 

 period, the Furnian plate, at another the Clodian, and at 

 another the Gratian,^^ is all the rage — for we borrow the shop 

 even at our tables.-^ — Now again, it is embossed plate^^ that 



2^ " Stipera spargere." 25 ^ u.c. 568. 



26 In performance of a vow made in the war with King Antiochus. 

 See Livy, B, xxxix. 



27 So called from the silversmiths who respectively introduced them. 

 The Gratian plate is mentioned by Martial, B. iv. Epigr. 39. 



28 " Etenim tabernas mensis adoptamus." 



29 " Anaglypta." Plate chased in reUef. It is mentioned in the Epi- 

 gram of Martial above referred to. 



k2 



