Page:The age of Justinian and Theodora (Volume 1).djvu/138

 *circular table, on the convex side of which they recline at meals, still adhering to the custom of the earlier Greeks and Romans. By this table is set a ponderous gold vase with goblets of the same metal for mixing and serving out the wine. Rich carpets are strewn over the mosaic pavement; and troops of servants, either eunuchs or of barbarian origin, permeate the mansion. These domestics are costumed and adorned as expensively as are their masters, and in the largest establishments are retained to the number of one or two thousand. Like animals they are bought and sold; and, male and female alike, are as much the property of their owner as his ordinary goods and chattels; their life is virtually in his hands, but the growth of humanity under the Empire, and the tenets of Stoicism, have considerably ameliorated their condition since the time of the old Republic. In this, as in every other age, the artificial forms of*