Chap. 28.] 
271 
same purpose, and various other mixtures, which I should 
feel quite ashamed any further to enlarge upon. 
We see the more prudent among those who are given to this 
habit have themselves parboiled in hot-baths, from whence they 
are carried away half dead. Others there are, again, who can- 
not wait till they have got to the banqueting couch, ^'^^ no, not 
so much as till they have got their shirt on,^'^ but all naked . 
and panting as they are, the instant they leave the bath they # 
seize hold of large vessels filled with wine, to show off, as it 
were, their mighty powers, and so gulp down the whole of the 
contents only to vomit them up -again the very next moment. 
This they will repeat, too, a second and even a third time, 
just as though they had only been begotten for the purpose of 
wasting wine, and as if that liquor could not be thrown away 
without having first passed through the human body. It is 
to encourage habits such as these that we have introduced the 
athletic exercises^* of other countries, such as rolling in the 
mud, for instance, and throwing the arms back to show off a 
brawny neck and chest. Of all these exercises, thirst, it is 
said, is the chief and primary object. 
And then, too, what vessels are employed for holding wine 1 
carved all over with the representations of adulterous intrigues, 
as if, in fact, drunkenness itself was not sufiiciently capable of 
teaching us lessons of lustfulness. Thus we see wines quaffed 
out of impurities, and inebriety invited even by the hope of a 
reward, — invited, did I say ? — may the gods forgive me for 
saying so, purchased outright. We find one person induced 
to drink upon the condition that he shall have as much to eat 
as he has previously drunk, while another has to quaff as 
many cups as he has thrown points on the dice. Then it is 
that the roving, insatiate eyes are setting a price upon the 
matron's chastity ; and yet, heavy as they are with wine, they 
do not fail to betray their designs to her husband. Then 
it is that all the secrets of the mind are revealed ; one man is 
heard to disclose the provisions of his will, another lets fall 
some expression of fatal import, and so fails to keep to himself 
words which will be sure to come home to him with a cut 
This seems to he the meaning of lectum hut the passage is ob- 
scure. 63 Tunicam. 
He satirizes, probahly, some kind of gymnastic exercises that had 
been introduced to promote the speedy passage of the wine through the body. 
