rry wives invite a great many to the entertainment, that many may
see and be witnesses that they being born free take to themselves wives
of the same condition. For, on the contrary, the comedians reflect on
those who revel at their marriages, who make a great ado and are pompous
in their feasts, as such who are taking wives with not much confidence
and courage. Thus, in Menander, one replies to a bridegroom that bade
him beset the house with dishes,...

Your words are great, but what's this to your bride?

But lest I should seem to find fault with those reasons others give,
only because I have none of my own to produce, continued he, I will
begin by declaring that there is no such evident or public notice given
of any feast as there is of one at a marriage. For when we sacrifice to
the gods, when we take leave of or receive a friend, a great many of our
acquaintance need not know it. But a marriage dinner is proclaimed by
the loud sound of the wedding song, by the torches and the music, which
as Homer expresseth it,

The women stand before the doors to see and hear.
(Iliad, xviii. 495.)

And therefore when everybody knows it, the persons are ashamed to omit
the formality of an invitation, and therefore entertain their friends
and kindred, and every one that they are anyway acquainted with.

This being generally approved, Well, said Theo, speaking next, let it be
so, for it looks like truth; but let this be added, if you please,
that such entertainments are not only friendly, but also kindredly, the
persons beginning to have a new relation to another family. But there
is something more considerable, and that is this; since by this marriage
two families join in one, the man thinks it his duty to be civil
and obliging to the woman's friends, and the woman's friends think
themselves obliged to return the same to him and his; and upon this
account the company is doubled. And besides, since most of the little
ceremonies belonging to the wedding are performed by women, it is
necessary that, where they are entertained, their husbands should be
likewise present.

QUESTION IV. WHETHER THE SEA OR LAND AFFORDS BETTER FOOD.

CALLISTRATUS, SYMMACHUS, POLYCRATES.

Aedepsus in Euboea, where the baths are, is a place by nature every
way fitted for free and gentle pleasures, and withal so beautified with
stately edifices and dining rooms, that one would take it for no other
than the common place of repast for