OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 299 virtue of the Romans ; and eveiy stranger who could plead either merit or misfortune was reUeved or rewarded by their generosity. At present, if a foreigner, perhaps of no contempt- ible rank, is introduced to one of the proud and wealthy sena- tors, he is welcome indeed in the first audience, with such warm professions and such kind inquiries that he retires, enchanted with the affability of his illustrious friend, and full of regret that he had so long delayed his journey to Rome, the native seat of manners as well as of empire. Secure of a favourable reception, he repeats his visit the ensuing day, and is mortified by the discovery that his person, his name, and his country are already forgotten. If he still has resolution to persevere, he is gradually numbered m the train of dependents, and obtains the permission to pay his assiduous and unprofitable court to a haughty patron, incapable of gratitude or friendship ; who scarcely deigns to remark his presence, his departure, or his return. Whenever the rich prepare a solemn and popular entertainment ; *^ whenever they celebrate, with profuse and pernicious luxury, their private banquets ; the choice of the guests is the subject of anxious deliberation. The modest, the sober, and the learned are seldom prefen-ed ; and the nomen- clators, who are commonly swayed by interested motives, have the address to insert, in the list of invitations, the obscure names of the most worthless of mankind. But the frequent and familiar companions of the great are those parasites who pi-ac- tise the most useful of all arts, the art of flattery ; who eagerly applaud each word and every action of their immortal patron ; gaze with rapture on his marble columns and variegated pave- ments ; and strenuously praise the pomp and elegance which he is taught to consider as a part of his personal merit. At the Roman tables the birds, the squirrels,'^^ or the fish, which ['^'"•"'M ■*5 Distributio solemnium sportularum. The sporiu Its, or spoi-tellce, were small baskets, supposed to contain a quantity of hot provisions, of the value of lOO quadrantes, or twelvepence halfpenny, which were ranged in order in the hall, and ostentatiously distributed to the hungry or servile crowd who waited at the door. This indelicate custom is very frequently mentioned in the epigrams of Martial and the satires of Juvenal. See likewise Suetonius in Claud, c. 21, in Neron. c. 16, in Domitian. c. 4, 7. These baskets of provisions were afterwards converted into large pieces of gold and silver coin or plate, which were mutually given and accepted even by the persons of the highest rank (see Symmach. epist. iv. 55, ix. 124, and Miscell. p. 256) on solemn occasions, of consulships, marriages, &c. ■*8 The want of an English name obliges me to refer to the common genus of squirrels, the Latin ^/zj, the French loir: a little animal who inhabits the woods, and remains torpid in cold weather. (See Plin. Hist. Natur. viii. 82. Buffon, Hist. Naturelle, tom. viii. p. 158. Pennant's Synopsis of Quadrupeds, p. 289.) The art of rearing and fattening great numbers of ^'7ir« was practised in Roman
