ROMANS A LA MODE. 141 



and the conquests in the East awakened new ideas. 

 In the days of old, the Romans had been content to 

 decorate their door-posts with trophies obtained in 

 single combat, and their halls with the waxen por- 

 traits of their ancestors. The only spoils which they 

 could then display were flocks and herds, waggons of 

 rude structure, and heaps of spears and helmets. But 

 now the arts of Greece and the riches of Asia adorned 

 the triumphs of tbeir generals ; and the reign of 

 taste and luxury commenced. A race of Dandies ap- 

 peared, who wore semi-transparent robes, and who 

 were always passing their hands in an affected manner 

 through their hair ; who lounged with the languor of 

 the Sybarite, and spoke with the lisp of Alcibiades. 

 The wives of senators and bankers became genteel, 

 kept a herd of ladies' maids, passed hours before their 

 full-length silver mirrors, bathed in asses' milk, rouged 

 their cheeks, and dyed their hair, never went out 

 except in palanquins, gabbled Greek phrases, and 

 called their slaves by Greek names, even when they 

 happened to be of Latin birth. The houses of the 

 great were paved with Mosaic floors, and the painted 

 walls were works of art : side-boards were covered 

 with gold and silver plate, with vessels of amber, and 

 the tinted Alexandrine glass. The bath-rooms were 

 of marble, with the water issuing from silver tubes. 



New amusements were invented ; and new customs 

 began to reign. An academy was established, in 

 which five hundred boys and girls were taught Castanet 

 dances, of anything but a decorous kind. The dinner 

 hour was made later ; and instead of sitting at table, 

 they adopted the style of lying down to eat on sofas 

 inlaid with tortoise-shell and gold. It was chiefly in 

 the luxuries of the cuisine that the Romans exhibited 



