Petronius: Satires and the Book of Priapeia

wanted to test whether the whole household sang, and so I asked for a drink. The boy, most prepared, received me with a no less sharp song, and whoever was asked for something acted like a pantomime chorus, so that you would not believe it was the dining room of a head of a family. A very elegant appetizer was brought in, however; for everyone had already reclined except Trimalchio himself, for whom the first place was being reserved by a new custom. Furthermore, among the appetizers there was a Corinthian donkey placed with a saddlebag, which had olives in one part white, in the other black. Two platters covered the donkey, on the edges of which Trimalchio's name and the weight of the silver were inscribed. Small bridges metal stands also soldered to the platters held up dormice sprinkled with honey and poppy seed. There were also sausages placed hot over a silver grill, and below the grill Syrian plums with pomegranate seeds.

32 We were in the midst of these luxuries when Trimalchio himself was brought in to the sound of music, and being placed among very thickly cushioned pillows, he forced a laugh from the unwary. For he had excluded his shaven head from a scarlet cloak and had tucked a purple-striped shawl laticlavia garment with a broad purple stripe, indicating senatorial or high rank around his neck burdened with clothing, with fringes hanging down here and there. He also had on the little finger of his left hand a large ring, gold-plated, and on the final joint of the next finger a smaller one, as it seemed to me, entirely of gold, but evidently soldered with iron as if with stars. And lest he show only these riches, he bared his right arm, adorned with a golden armlet and an ivory circle fastened with a shining plaque. 33 As he then picked his teeth with a silver quill, "Friends," he said, "it was not yet pleasant for me to come to the dining room, but lest I be a cause of delay to you by being absent any longer, I denied myself all pleasure. You will allow me, however, to finish the game." A boy followed with a terebinth-wood board and crystal dice, and I noted the most delicate thing of all. For instead of white and black counters, he had gold and silver denarii standard silver coins. Meanwhile, while he exhausted the talk of all the weavers during the game, while we were still tasting, a tray was brought in with a basket in which there was a wooden hen with wings spread in a circle, such as they usually are when brooding eggs. Two slaves immediately approached, and with the music blaring, they began to search the straw, and having pulled out peahen eggs in succession, they divided them among the guests. Trimalchio turned his face to this scene and said, "Friends, I ordered peahen eggs to be placed under a hen. And by Hercules, I fear they are already..."