160 NATURAL HISTORY OF PRECIOUS METALS, &c.
had
come in the buffoon Mandryenis, the grandson, as they say, of the
famous Strato of Attica, and made us almost split our sides with
laughter, and afterwards he performed a dance with his wife for partner
who was above eighty years old. At last came in the dessert, and we
were presented with sweetmeats in baskets woven out of ivory, and the
various kinds of cheesecakes, the Cretan, your own national Samian,
friend Lynceus, and the Attic, together with the dishes containing the
pastry. After this, we arose and took our leave, being fully sobered,
of a certainty, by our anxiety on account of the treasures we had
received. So whilst you staying at Athens think yourself happy in
listening to the lectures of Theophrastus, feeding upon wild salads,
and broth, and those fine twists of yours, and being a spectator of the
Lenaea, and Chytra festivals, we on the other hand, who were at the
feast of Caranus, having been regaled with riches instead of with
meats, are now all seeking to invest them, some of us in houses, some
in land, some in buying slaves."
MEDIEVAL PLATE.
As
soon as the social life of the Middle Ages had settled down into
sufficient security for any class, besides the ecclesiastic, to enjoy
opulence, and to venture upon the indulging in luxury, the nobles
almost vied with their predecessors of the Lower Empire in the amount
and elaborateness of the silver and even gold plate under which their
sideboards groaned. This display of wealth did not begin to exhibit
itself, as the rule binding upon all laying claim to fashion, much
before the beginning of the 14th century, for Dante introduces old
Cacciaguida, by three generations only his senior, contrasting the
simple frugality of his own times with the extravagance in archi-
