It is very true that democracy, now thought to make a country richer, made everybody poorer in those days. This is accepted by all Greek writers without exception and without any suspicion. The people under monarchies in the East had extremely high standards of living compared to Ancient Greece. In other words, the civilization of the East was probably more sophisticated in terms of prosperity, healthiness and way of life.
"Concerning the luxury of the Persian kings Xenophon writes thus in
Agesilaus: "For the benefit of the Persian king they go about the
entire country in search of something he may like to drink, and
countless persons devise dishes which he may like to eat. No one could
say, either, what trouble they give themselves that he may sleep in
comfort. But Agesilaus, being devoted to hard work, was glad to drink
anything that was before him, and was glad to eat whatever came first
to hand, and any place was satisfactory to him for securing grateful
sleep." In the work entitled Hieron, speaking of what food is prepared
for the delectation of tyrants and of men in private station, he says:
" 'I know too, Simonides, that most persons infer that we eat and
drink with greater zest than ordinary people from this fact, that they
would themselves, as they believe, be more pleased to dine on the meal
that is set before us than on what is served to themselves.
For it is anything that transcends the usual that gives pleasure,
which is the reason why all men except tyrants look forward with joy
to holiday feasts. For since the tables set before tyrants are always
heavily laden, they have nothing special to offer on feast-days, so
that here is the first particular in which they are at a disadvantage
compared with men in private station, namely in the delight of
anticipation. Then secondly, he said, I am sure that you have learned
that the more abundantly one is supplied with things which go beyond
his needs, the more quickly he suffers from satiety as regards eating.
Theophrastus, in his treatise On Monarchy dedicated to Cassander (if
the work is authentic; for many declare that it is by Sosibius, for
whom the poet Callimachus wrote a congratulatory poem in elegiac
verse), says that Persian kings, to gratify their love of luxury,
offer a large sum of money as a reward for all who invent a new
pleasure. And Theopompus, in the thirty-fifth book of his Histories,51
says that whenever the Paphlagonian prince Thys dined, he had a
hundred do everything prepared for the table, beginning with oxen; and
even when he was carried away a captive to the Persian king's court
and kept under guard,
he again had the same number served to him, and lived on a splendid
scale. Wherefore, when Artaxerxes heard of it, he said that it was
plain to him that Thys was living as though he had made up his mind to
die soon. 145 The same Theopompus, in the fourteenth book of his
History of Philip,52 says that "whenever the Great King visits any of
his subjects, twenty and sometimes thirty talents are expended on his
dinner; others even spend much more. For the dinner, like the tribute,
has from ancient times been imposed upon all cities in proportion to
their population."
Heracleides of Cumae, author of the Persian History,53 writes, in the
second book of the work entitled Equipment: B "All who attend upon the
Persian kings when they dine first bathe themselves p163 and then
serve in white clothes, and spend nearly half the day on preparations
for the dinner. Of those who are invited to eat with the king, some
dine outdoors, in full sight of anyone who wishes to look on; others
dine indoors in the king's company. Yet even these do not eat in his
presence, for there are two rooms opposite each other, in one of which
the king has his meal, in the other his invited guests. The king can
see them through the curtain at the door, but they cannot see him. C
Sometimes, however, on the occasion of a public holiday, all dine in a
single room with the king, in the great hall. And whenever the king
commands a symposium54 (which he does often), he has about a dozen
companions at the drinking. When they have finished dinner, that is,
the king by himself, the guests in the other room, these
fellow-drinkers are summoned by one of the eunuchs; and entering they
drink with him, though even they do not have the same wine; moreover,
they sit on the floor, while he reclines on a couch supported by feet
of gold; D and they depart after having drunk to excess. In most cases
the king breakfasts and dines alone, but sometimes his wife and some
of his sons dine with him. And throughout the dinner his concubines
sing and play the lyre; one of them is the soloist,55 the others sing
in chorus. And so, Heracleides continues, the 'king's dinner,' as it
is called, will appear prodigal to one who merely hears about it, but
when one examines it carefully it will be found to have been got up
with economy p165 and even with parsimony; E and the same is true of
the dinners among other Persians in high station. For one thousand
animals are slaughtered daily for the king; these comprise horses,
camels, oxen, asses, deer, and most of the smaller animals; many birds
also are consumed, including Arabian ostriches — and the creature is
large — geese, and cocks. And of all these only moderate portions are
served to each of the king's guests, and each of them may carry home
whatever he leaves untouched at the meal. F But the greater part of
these meats and other foods are taken out into the courtyard for the
body-guard and light-armed troopers maintained by the king; there they
divide all the half-eaten56 remnants of meat and bread and share them
in equal portions. Just as hired soldiers in Greece receive their
wages in money, so these men receive food from the king in requital
for services. Similarly among other Persians of high rank, all the
food is served on the table at one and the same time; but when their
guests have done eating, whatever is left from the table, consisting
chiefly of meat and bread, is given by the officer in charge of the
table to each of the slaves; this they take and so obtain their daily
food. 146 Hence the most highly honoured of the king's guests go to
court only for breakfast; for they beg to be excused in order that
they may not be required to go twice, but may be able to entertain
their own guests."
Herodotus, in the seventh book, says57 that those p167 Greeks who
received the king and entertained Xerxes at dinner were reduced to
such dire distress that they lost house and home. On one occasion,
when the Thasians, to save the towns belonging to them on the
mainland, received and entertained the army of Xerxes, B four hundred
talents in silver were expended in their behalf by Antipater, a
prominent citizen; for cups and mixing bowls of silver and gold were
furnished at table, and after the dinner (these were carried off as
spoil by the Persians). If Xerxes had eaten there twice, taking
breakfast as well as dinner, the cities would have been utterly
ruined." And in the ninth book, also, of his Histories58 he says: "The
Great King gives a royal banquet which is held once a year on his
birthday. The name given to the dinner in Persian, is tukta, which in
Greek means 'complete.' On that day alone the king smears his head
with ointment and gives presents to the Persians." C Alexander the
Great, every time he dined with his friends, according to Ephippus of
Olynthus, in the book59 which describes the demise of Alexander and
Hephaestion, spent one hundred minas,60 there being perhaps sixty or
seventy friends at dinner. But the Persian king, as Ctesias61 and
Dinon62 (in his Persian History) say, used to dine in company with
15,000 men, and four hundred talents63 were expended on the dinner. D
This amounts, in p169 the coinage of Italy, to 2,400,000 denarii,
which, divided among 15,000 men, make 160 denarii, Italic currency,
for each man. Consequently it comes to the same sum as that spent by
Alexander, which was one hundred minas, as Ephippus related. But
Menander, in The Carouse,64 reckons the expense of the largest banquet
at a talent only when he says: "So then, our prosperity accords not
with the way in which we offer sacrifice. For though to the gods I
bring an offering of E a tiny sheep bought for ten drachmas, and glad
I am to get it so cheap; but for flute-girls and perfume, harp-girls,
Mendean and Thasian wine, eels, cheese, and honey, the cost is almost
a talent; and whereas by analogy it is . . ." He evidently mentions a
talent as though it were an extravagant expenditure. Again, in The
Peevish Man,65 he has the following: "So burglars sacrifice: they
bring chests and wine-jars, not for the gods' sake, but for their own.
The frankincense is required by religion, and so is the meal-cake; F
the god gets this, offered entire on the fire. But they, after giving
the end of the spine and the gall-bladder to the gods — because unfit
to eat — gulp down the rest themselves."
Philoxenus of Cythera, in the poem entitled The Banquet (granting that
it is he and not the Leucadian Philoxenus, who was mentioned by the
comic poet Plato in Phaon),66 describes the arrangements of a p171
dinner in these terms:67 "And slaves twain brought unto us a table
with well-oiled face, 147 another for others, while other henchmen
bore a third, until they filled the chamber. The tables glistened in
the rays of the high-swinging lamps, freighted with trenchers and
condiments delectable in cruets, full . . . and luxuriant in divers
artful inventions to pleasure life, tempting lures of the spirit. Some
slaves set beside us snowy-topped barley-cakes in baskets, while
others (brought in loaves of wheat). After them first came not an
ordinary tureen, my love, but a riveted vessel of huge size; . . . a
glistening dish of eels to break our fast, full of conger-faced
morsels that would delight a god. After this another pot of the same
size came in, and a soused ray of perfect roundness. B There were
small kettles, one containing some meat of a shark, another a
sting-ray. Another rich dish there was, made of squid and sepia-polyps
with soft tentacles. After this came a grey mullet hot from its
contact with fire, the whole as large as the table, exhaling spirals
of steam. After it came breaded squid, my friend, and crooked prawns
done brown. C Following these we had flower-leaved cakes and fresh
confections spiced, puff-cakes of wheat p173 with frosting, large as
the pot. This is called the 'navel of the feast' by you and me, I
ween. Last there came — the gods are my witnesses — a monstrous slice
of tunny, baked hot, from over the sea where it was carved with knives
from the meatiest part of the belly. Were it ours ever to assist at
the task, great would be our joy. Yet even where we were wanting, the
feast was complete. Where it is possible to tell the full tale, my
powers still hold, and yet no one could recount truly to you all the
dishes that came before us. I nearly missed a hot entrail, D after
which came in the intestine of a home-bred pig, a chine, and a rump
with hot dumplings. And the slave set before us the head, boiled
whole, and split in two, of a milk-fed kid all steaming; then boiled
meat-ends, and with them skin-white ribs, snouts, head, feet, and a
tenderloin spiced with silphium. And other meats there were, of kid
and lamb, boiled and roast, and sweetest morsel of underdone entrails
from kids and lambs mixed, E such as the gods love, and you, my love,
would gladly eat. Afterwards there was jugged hare, and young
cockerels, and many hot portions of partridges and ring-doves were now
lavishly laid beside us. Loaves p175 of bread there were, light and
nicely folded; and companioning these there came in also yellow honey
and curds, and as for the cheese — every one would avow that it was
tender, and I too thought so. And when, by this time, we comrades had
reached our fill of food and drink, the thralls removed the viands,
and boys poured water over our hands."
Socrates of Rhodes, in the third book of the Civil War,68 describes
the banquet given by Cleopatra, the last queen of Egypt, F who married
the Roman general, Antony, in Cilicia. His words are: "Meeting Antony
in Cilicia, Cleopatra arranged in his honour a royal symposium, in
which the service was entirely of gold and jewelled vessels made with
exquisite art; even the walls, says Socrates, were hung with
tapestries made of purple and gold threads. And having spread twelve
triclinia, Cleopatra invited Antony and his chosen friends. 148 He was
overwhelmed with the richness of the display; but she quietly smiled
and said that all these things were a present for him; she also
invited him to come and dine with her again on the morrow, with his
friends and his officers. On this occasion she provided an even more
sumptuous symposium by far, so that she caused the vessels which had
been used on the first occasion to appear paltry; and once more she
presented him with these also. As for the officers, each was allowed
to take away the couch on which he had reclined; even the sideboards,
as well as the spreads for the couches, were divided among them. And
when they departed, she furnished litters for the guests of high rank,
with p177 bearers, B while for the greater number she provided horses
gaily caparisoned with silver-plated harness, and for all she sent
along Aethiopian slaves to carry the torches. On the fourth day she
distributed fees, amounting to a talent, for the purchase of roses,
and the floors of the dining-rooms were strewn with them to the depth
of a cubit,69 in net-like festoons spread over all."
He also records that Antony himself, on a later visit to Athens,
erected a scaffold in plain sight above the theatre, and roofed with
green boughs, like the "caves"70 built for Bacchic revels; C on this
he hung tambourines, fawnskins, and other Dionysiac trinkets of all
sorts, where he reclined in company with his friends and drank from
early morning, being entertained by artists summoned from Italy, while
Greeks from all parts assembled to see the spectacle. "And sometimes,"
Socrates continues, "he even shifted the place of his revels to the
top of the Acropolis, while the entire city of Athens was illuminated
with torches hung from the roofs. And he gave orders that henceforth
he should be proclaimed as Dionysus throughout all the city." D So,
too, the Emperor Gaius, who had the cognomen Caligula71 from the
circumstance that he was born in camp, was named "the new Dionysus,"
and not only that, but he also assumed the entire garb of Dionysus,
and made royal progresses and sat in judgement thus arrayed.
Viewing all this, which surpasses what we have, we may well admire
Greek poverty, having also before our eyes the dinners of the Thebans,
an p179 account of which is given by Cleitarchus in the first book of
his History of Alexander.72 He says that "after the demolition of
their city by Alexander, E their entire wealth was found to be under
440 talents; he further says that they were mean-spirited and stingy
where food was concerned, preparing for their meals mincemeat in
leaves, and boiled vegetables, anchovies, and other small fish,
sausages, beef-ribs, and pease-porridge. With these, Attaginus, the
son of Phrynon, entertained Mardonius together with fifty other
Persians, and Herodotus says in the ninth book73 that Attaginus was
well supplied with riches. F I believe that they could not have won
the battle, and that the Greeks need not have met them in battle-array
at Plataeae, seeing that they already had been done to death by such
food."
