and plumed,
and in full military fig.

On this principle we come to understand why it is, that, whenever the Latin
poets speak of an army as taking food, the word used is always _prandens_
and _pransus_; and, when the word used is _prandens_, then always it is an
army that is concerned. Thus Juvenal in a well-known satire--

----"Credimus altos
Desiccasse amnes, epotaque ftumina, Medo _Prandente_."

Not _coenante_, observe: you might as well talk of an army taking tea
and toast. Nor is that word ever applied to armies. It is true that the
converse is not so rigorously observed: nor ought it, from the explanations
already given. Though no soldier dined, (_coenabat_,) yet the citizen
sometimes adopted the camp usage and took a _prandium_. But generally the
poets use the word merely to mark the time of day. In that most humorous
appeal of Perseus--"Cur quis non prandeat, hoc est?" "Is this a sufficient
reason for losing one's _prandium_?" He was obliged to say _prandium_,
because no exhibitions ever could cause a man to lose his _coenia_, since
none were displayed at a time of day when anybody in Rome would have
attended. Just as, in alluding to a parliamentary speech notoriously
delivered at midnight, an English satirist must have said, Is this a speech
to furnish an argument for leaving one's bed?--not as what stood foremost
in his regard, but as the only thing that _could_ be lost at the time of
night.

On this principle, also, viz. by going back to the military origin of
_prandium_, we gain the interpretation of all the peculiarities attached to
it; viz.--1, its early hour--2, its being taken in a standing posture--3,
in the open air--4, the humble quality of its materials--bread and biscuit,
(the main articles of military fare.) In all these circumstances of the
meal, we read, most legibly written, the exotic and military character of
the meal.

Thus we have brought down our Roman friend to noonday, or even one hour
later than noon, and to this moment the poor man has had nothing to eat.
For, supposing him to be not _impransus_, and supposing him _jentasse_
beside; yet it is evident, (we hope,) that neither one nor the other means
more than what it was often called, viz. [Greek: Bouchismos], or, in
plain English, a mouthful. How long do we intend to keep him waiting?
Reader, he will dine at three, or (supposing dinner put off to the latest)
at four. Dinner was never known to be later than the tenth hour in Ro