EXTRAVAGANT LIVING

Greymouth Evening Star, 3 August 1929, Page 2

EXTRAVAGANT LIVING

OF ANCIENT ROMANS.

For extravagant the records of the ancient Romans will probably never be surpassed (says a writer in the Melbourne “Sun News Pictorial”). There was Nero, for instance, who had a thousand carriages at his command, and often took them all along with him when he went on a journey. His mules were shod with silver, and his servants bedecked with gold. He dwelt, “Like a man,” in a palace with porticoes a mile long and vestibule large enough to hold a statue of himself one hundred and thirty feet high. Poppaea, Nero’s wife, maintained a herd of five hundred she-asses, at home and abroad, to supply milk for her daily bath. Caligula’s favourite horse wore a purple harness and a collar of pearls, and had a marble stall with a trough of ivory. In Cicero’s time there was a spendthrift, given to the pleasures of the table, who paid a fabulous sum for a dish of roasted song birds. Caligula is said to have squandered a hundred times that amount on a single repast. Mark Anthony bestowed a city of thirty-five thousand population upon a chef who had prepared for him an especially well-cooked meal. Nero had an acquaintance who owned a wine ladle that was made of a substance called murha, and was worth a king’s ransom. Rathei- than let the precious article fall into another’s hands, he dramatically and most effectively smashed it to pieces, when about to die.

Fish was a popular food of the Romans, and most of the mansions of the wealthy had built-in pools stocked with a living supply. The finny creatures were caught on gold hooks and broiled on silver gridirons, usually in sight of dinner guests. Some of the fish, mullet for example, were worth a goodly sum apiece. Yet these were an insignificant item on a bill of fare of any pretensions. Costly dishes, such as flamingo’s tongues, peacock’s brains, and parrot heads topped a list of exotic delicacies. Caesar served a typical Roman full-course dinner to sixty-five thousand persons during the ceremonies attending the burial of a daughter. The statesman, Crassus, gave one, to which he invited all the citizens of Rome.

Emperor Augustus laid claim to public gratitude by exhibiting eight thousand gladiators, and brought more than thirty-five hundred wild beasts to be killed in the arena. In the course of tho festivities, instituted by Titus, to celebrate the opening of the Colosseum five thousand beasts were let loose.

Where in modern annals can one find parallels to such extravagance?