Story of the Flute
to appear to be a good player, he must imitate their example and expend large sums on rich furniture and keep many servants. In fact, the expression "to live the life of a flute-player" became proverbial as typifying luxury. Good players were paid as much as £200 for a concert. In the year 309 B.C. the Roman flute-players who performed at the sacrifices were deprived of the privilege of eating in the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus. They accordingly struck and retired to Tivoli. They were beguiled back by a stratagem: having been all made drunk at a feast (but this is denied by some as impossible!), they were carried in waggons back to Rome and given three days' holiday
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Fig. 8.—Capistrum and Bulbed Double Flute
in each year, and the right to eat in the Temple was restored to them. Professional flute-players wore a dress peculiar to themselves, generally of yellow or saffron, with green or blue slippers embroidered with silver, and had a bandage of leathern thongs, called ϕορβεία περιστόμιον, or Capistrum across the mouth, with a small hole for the breath to pass through. (Fig. 8.) Its object was to keep the lips and cheeks firm and prevent, undue distension, and also perhaps to hold up the instrument so as to leave the hands free to turn the rings on the flute. Competitions in flute-playing were frequent among the Greeks, and their endeavour was to produce the highest and loudest notes. Heliodorus
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