_Arist._ You couldn’t get a poor lunch. For the eatables had been supplied to redundancy, so far as ever the market had them; this I know.
_Lurc._ In no place has this more certainly happened. But the very abundance palled. The director of the table busied himself with laying knives and forks. Then came in, with great pomp, the chief steward with a long band of boys, younger and older, who bore away the dishes of the first course.
SCOPAS, SIMONIDES, CRITO, DEMOCRITUS, POLAEMON
Concerning Scopas, _see_ Cicero, book 2, _de Orat._ As to Polaemon, _see_ Val. Max. bk. 6, cap. 11. There are three kinds of banquets, είλαπίνη, a magnificent and splendid banquet; γάμος, a nuptial banquet; and ἔρανος, when each guest came at his own expense and brought his own food. Homer links together those forms of banquets: εἰλαπίνη ἠὲ γάμος· ἐπεὶ οὐκ ἔρανος τάδε γ’ ἐστί (_Odyssea_, i. 226).
The parts of this dialogue are these: Initium, apparatus, finis. Apparatus contains two courses.
{ _Cibus_ { Panis { Carnes { { Obsonia { Pultes { { Pisces FIRST { _Potus_ { Vinum { { Aqua { { Cerevisia { { Pocula
_Crit._ He said he would come immediately after he had met a debtor of his in the market.
_Scop._ He does rightly. He will more easily get away from a debtor than he would from a creditor.
_Scop._ It is as in a victory, the victor imposes the conditions, not the vanquished. The debtor comes away from the creditor when he will, the creditor when the debtor is willing. But have you not all met, as you arranged, and left the seriousness of home, bringing with you cheerfulness, wit, grace, pleasantness?
_Crit._ Clearly these things are so, I hope, and we will be as M. Varro advises, an agreeable company.
_Sim._ Ah, how boorish it all is! But you see I was invited to lunch, not for a period of detention in business. But have I really kept you waiting long?
_Sim._ Why did you not set to the meal without me? At least you could have begun with the fruit which I am not much given to eating.
_Scop._ Courteous words, but how could we sit down without you?
_Crit._ Enough of civilities. Let us begin our description. The best and lightest of bread! It is as light in weight as a sponge. The wheat is soft as a medlar. You must have an industrious miller.