y kind here.

Pompeii's natural and pleasant disposition, therefore, is ever so much
more in evidence. Not a single one of this charming city's movements
was intended for posterity. Her life stands before our eyes in clear
reality, in naked, unadorned truth. Indeed, there were many things
that the good folks would have loved to point to with pride. You have
to search for these now. There are, alas and alack, a few things they
would have hidden, had they only known what was in store for them. But
all these things, good, indifferent and bad, remained in their places;
and here they are, unsuspecting, real, natural, charming like Diana
and her wood nymphs.

Were it not quite superfluous, we would urgently recommend the study
of Pompeii to the students of life in general and to those of
Antiquity in particular. Those who would know something about the
ancient table cannot do without Pompeii.

THREE ANCIENT WRITERS: ANACHARSIS, APICIUS, PETRONIUS

To those who lay stress upon documentary evidence or literary
testimony, to those trusting implicitly in the honesty and reliability
of writers of fiction, we would recommend Petronius Arbiter.

His _cena Trimalchionis_, Trimalchio's dinner, is the sole surviving
piece from the pen of a Roman contemporary, giving detailed
information on our subject. It is, too, the work of a great writer
moving in the best circles, and, therefore, so much more desirable as
an expert. Petronius deserves to be quoted in full but his work is too
well-known, and our space too short. However, right here we wish to
warn the student to bear in mind in perusing Petronius that this
writer, in his _cena_, is not depicting a meal but that he is
satirizing a man--that makes all the difference in the world as far
as we are concerned. Petronius' _cena_ is plainly an exaggeration, but
even from its distorted contours the student may recognize the true
lines of an ancient meal.

There is, not so well-known a beautiful picture of an Athenian dinner
party which must not be overlooked, for it contains a wealth of
information. Although Greek, we learn from it much of the Roman
conditions. Anacharsis' description of a banquet at Athens, dating
back to the fourth century B.C. about the time when the Periclean
regime flourished, is worth your perusal. A particularly good version
of this tale is rendered by Baron Vaerst in his book "Gastrosophie,"
Leipzig, 1854, who has based his version on the original translatio