"Strike them in the face!" cried Caesar at
Pharsalus, when the young patricians made their charge; and the
young patricians, who cared more for their looks than they did for
victory, turned and fled.
It was to the Field of Mars that Agrippa came, to whom Rome owed
the Pantheon and the demand for a law which should inhibit the
private ownership of a masterpiece. There, too, his eunuchs about
him, Mecaenas lounged, companioned by Varus, by Horace and the
mime Bathylle, all of whom he was accustomed to invite to that
lovely villa of his which overlooked the blue Sabinian hills, and
where suppers were given such as those which Petronius has
described so alertly and so well.
In the hall like that of Mecaenas', one divided against itself,
the upper half containing the couches and tables, the other
reserved for the service and the entertainments that follow, the
ceiling was met by columns, the walls hidden by panels of gems. On
a frieze twelve pictures, surmounted by the signs of the zodiac,
represented the dishes of the different months. Beneath the bronze
beds and silver tables mosaics were set in imitation of food that
had fallen and had not been swept away. And there, in white
ungirdled tunics, the head and neck circled with coils of
amaranth--the perfume of which in opening the pores neutralizes
the fumes of wine--the guests lay, fanned by boys, whose curly
hair they used for napkins.
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