er's entertainments; they were good for nothing but to starve a man,
and the makers of them were kings more stingy and observant than the
Italian cooks; insomuch that in the midst of a battle, whilst they were
at handy-blows with their enemies, they could exactly reckon up how many
glasses each man drank at his table. But those that Pindar describes are
much better,--

Where heroes mixed sat round the noble board,

because they maintained society and good fellowship; for the latter
truly mixed and joined friends, but our modern system divides and
asperses them as persons who, though seemingly very good friends, cannot
so much as eat with one another out of the same dish.

To this polite discourse of Hagias they urged me to reply. And I
said: Hagias, it is true, hath reason to be troubled at this unusual
disappointment, because having so great a belly (for he was an excellent
trencherman) he had no larger mess than others; for in a fish eaten
together Democritus says, there are no bones. But that very thing is
likely to increase our share beyond our own proper allowance. For it is
equality, as the old woman in Euripides hath it,

That fastens towns to towns, and friends to friends;
(Euripides, "Phoenissae," 536.)

and entertainments chiefly stand in need of this. The necessity is from
nature as well as custom, and is not lately introduced or founded only
on opinion. For when the same dish lies in common before all, the man
that is slow and eats little must be offended at the other that is too
quick for him, as a slow ship at the swift sailor. Besides, snatching,
contention, shoving, and the like, are not, in my mind, neighborly
beginnings of mirth and jollity; but they are absurd, doggish, and
often end in anger or reproaches, not only against one another, but also
against the entertainer himself or the carvers of the feast. But as long
as Moera and Lachesis (DIVISION AND DISTRIBUTION) maintained equality
in feasts, nothing uncivil or disorderly was seen, and they called the
feasts [Greek omitted], DISTRIBUTIONS, the entertained [Greek omitted],
and the carvers [Greek omitted], DISTRIBUTERS, from dividing and
distributing to every man his proper mess. The Lacedaemonians had
officers called distributers of the flesh, no mean men, but the chief of
the city; for Lysander himself by king Agesilaus was constituted one of
these in Asia. But when luxury crept into our feasts, distributing was
thrown out; for