Note 730 — Chapter V · ENTERTAINMENTS.

Plut. Sympos. vii. 6. Each guest was also followed by a footman who stood behind his master’s chair and waited on him. Casaub. ad Theoph. Char. p. 219. To persons of this description the guests delivered the presents that were made them, or if they happened to be bad characters, what they stole. Athen. iv. 2. Plut. Anton. § 28. Lucian. Conviv. seu Lapith. § 46. Rich men then as now were usually haunted by flatterers who would pluck off the burrs from their cloaks or the chaff which the wind wafted into their beards, and try to screw a joke out of the circumstance by saying, they were grown grey! Theoph. Char. c. ii. p. 7. If the patron joked, they would stuff their chlamys into their mouths as if they were dying of laughter. In the street they would say to the person they met, “Stand aside, friend, and allow this gentleman to pass!” They would bring apples and pears in their pocket for his little ones and be sure to give them in his sight, with great praise both of father and children.