Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 6.djvu/839

 ETHICS OF WEALTH 825

were dissolved in wine by Cleopatra and the emperor Caligula in order that the draft might be rare and novel. The eccen- tric Caligula also caused mountains to be constructed or to be removed, not for any useful purpose, but simply to gratify a peculiar whim or caprice. Lucullus, the Roman general of the first century of the Christian era, had mountains tunneled to bring salt water to his villa near Naples in order that sea fish might be kept near at hand, ready for his table. The emperor Vitellius is said to have participated in a feast composed in part of two thousand choice fishes and seven thousand rare birds. Suetonius tells the well-known story of the immense dish called the "shield of Minerva" prepared for the same emperor by chopping up together the livers of char-fish, the brains of pheas- ants and peacocks, the tongues of flamingoes, and the entrails of lampreys.

The costumes were changed as often as eleven times during a single meal, and Martial tells us that many of the Romans were so inane that they relied upon their slaves to tell them when to eat. One is said, according to the same writer, to have asked of his slave in all seriousness : " Am I sitting down now ?" Such facts as these are familiar to the historian ; and the effect of these luxurious tendencies upon the national existence of the Roman empire is carefully noted.

Gibbon says :

Under the Roman empire the labor of an industrious and ingenious people was variously but incessantly employed in the service of the rich. In their dress, their tables, their houses, and their furniture, the favorites of fortune united every refinement of conveniency, of elegance, and of splendor, what- ever could soothe their pride or gratify their sensuality. Such refinements, under the odious name of luxury, have been severely arraigned by the moral- ists of every age ; and it might perhaps be more conducive to the virtue as well as happiness of mankind, if all possessed the necessaries and none the superfluities of life. 1

In the same strain he says elsewhere :

The most remote countries of the ancient world were ransacked to supply the pomp and delicacy of Rome. The forests of Scythia afforded some valu- able furs. Amber was brought overland from the shores of the Baltic to the

'Vol. I, p. 67.