Barnes general history by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History
Publisher: New York, Cincinnati [etc.] American book conmpnay
Published: 1899-03-25T05:00:00+00:00

with wedge-shaped pins, fitting into sockets or rings, and then we pass into the atrium, the room about which cluster the most sacred memories of Roman domestic life. Here in ancient times all the simple meals were taken beside the hearth on which they were prepared, and by which the sacrifices were daily offered up to the beloved Lares and Penates. 1 Here was welcomed the master's chosen bride, and here, a happy matron, 2 she afterward sat enthroned in the midst of her industrious maids, spinning and weaving the household garments. From their niches upon these walls, by the side of glistening weapons captured in many a bloody contest, the waxen masks of honored ancestors have looked down for generations, watching the bodies of the family descendants, as one by one they have lain in state upon the funeral bier. — But increase of luxury has banished the stewing-pans, the busy looms, and the hospitable table to other apartments in the growing house. The Lares and Penates have left their primitive little closets by the atrium cooking-hearth for a larger and separate sacrarium, and spacious kitchens now send forth savory odors from turbot, pheasant, wild boar, and sausages, to be served up in summer or winter triclin-iums by a host of well-trained slaves. 3 The household dead are still laid here, but the waxen masks of olden times are gradually giving place to brazen shield-shaped plates on which are dimly imaged

1 At every meal the first act was to cast a portion of each article of food into the fire that huroed upon the hearth, in honor of the household gods.

2 The Roman matron, unlike the Greek, enjoyed great freedom of action, both within and without her house, and was always treated with attention and respect.

3 The Romans were fond of amazing their guests with costly dainties, such as nightingales, peacocks, and the tongues and brains of flamingoes. Caligula dissolved pearls in powerful acids, in imitation of Cleopatra, aud spent $400,000 on a siugle repast. A dramatic friend of Cicero paid over $4,000 for a dish of singing birds ; and one famous epicure, after having exhausted the sum of four million dollars in his good living, poisoned himself because he had not quite half a million left! Fish was a favorite food, and tlie mansions of the rich were fitted up with fish-ponds (piscince) for the culture of rare varieties, which were sometimes caught and cooked on silver gridirons before invited guests, who enjoyed the changing colors of the slowly dying fish, and the tempting odor of the coming treat. Turbots, mackerels, eels, and oysters were popular delicacies, and a fine mullet brought sometimes as much as $240. In game the fatted hare and the wild boar, served whole, were ranked first. Pork, as in Greece, was the favorite meat, beef and mutton being regarded with little favor. Great display was made in serving, aud Juvenal ridicules the airs of the professional carver of his time, who, he

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