Chap. 53.] THE ENORMOUS PllICE OF SILVER PLATE. 135 



Cornelius jS'epos says that before the victor}* gained 50 by 

 Sylla, there, were but two ba&qucttiag couches adorned with 

 silver at Home, and that in his own recollection, silver was 

 iirst used for adorning sideboards. Fenestclla, who died at the 

 end of the reign of Tiberius Ciosar, informs us that at that 

 period sideboards, inlaid even wfth tortoiseshell, 50 * had coxu; 

 into fashion ; whereas, a little before his time, they had been 

 made of solid wood, of a round shape, and not much larger 

 than our tables. He says, however, that when lie was quite 

 a boy, they had begun to make the sideboards square, and of 

 di ill- rent 51 pieces of wood, or else veneered with maple or 

 citrus: 5 ' and that at a later period the fashion was introduced 

 of overlaying the corners and the seams at the joinings with 

 silvt-r. The name given to them in his youth, he says, was 

 "tympana;" 43 and it was at this period, too, that the chargers 

 which had been known as 4< mugides" by the ancients, iirst 

 received the name of " lances," from, their resemblance** to the 

 scales of a balance. 



CHAP. 53. THE ENORMOUS TRICE; 0^ SILVER PLATE. 



It is not, however, only for vast quantities of plate that there 

 is such a rage among mankind, but even more so, if possible, 

 for the plate of peculiar artists: and this too, to the exculpa- 

 tion of our own age, has long been f the. x case. C. Gracchus 

 possessed some silver dolphins, for which he paid five thou- 

 sand sesterces per pound. Lucius Crnssus, the orator, paid 

 for two goblets chased by the hand of the artist Mentor,* 5 one 

 hundred thousand sesterces : but he confessed that for very 

 shame he never dared use them, as also tiiat he had other 

 articles of plate in his possession, for which he had paid at 

 the rate of six thousand sesterces per pound. It was the con- 

 quest of Asia 1 '* that iirst introduced luxury into Italy ; for wu 



40 Over the party of Marius. ** See B. ix. c. 13. 



51 '* Ompacta ;' probably meaninc: inlaid like Mosaic. 



M See Jt. xiii. c. 20, 15. xv. c. 7, ami U. xvi. cc. 2G, 1>7, 84. 



M Meaning, " drum sideboards," or * tambour sideboards," tilth-shape, 

 probably, being: like that of our dumb waiters. 



51 The name given to which was 'Manx," plural "lances." 



w His nge mid country are uncertain. "\Ve learn, however, from Chapter 

 !j of thi Hook, that he flourished before the burning of the TYmple of 

 Diana at EphcMis, H.C. 33G. He is frequently mentioned in the classical 

 writers. See aUo U. vii. c. 39. 



56 He includes, probably, under this name both Asia Minor and Syria. 

 See a similar passage in l.'ivy, 15. xxxii. 



