De luoouria et libidine et quinquepertito mortia
The Seductive Gates of Luxury
The author introduces the dangers of luxury and gluttony, explaining how they infiltrate the soul through the five senses.
On the introduction, and which senses are more dangerously prone to pleasure, and the three types of guests according to Portunianus, and the ruin of gluttony, and the banquets of Dido and Evander in Virgil. The discussion has now reached the point where it must challenge either virtue or common public opinion. For a struggle against flesh and blood is already looming, and we seem to be closing the doors to generosity and taking joy out of life when we restrict the two paths of luxury, despite the protests of the Epicureans. For luxury is a seductive evil, as Valerius says, which is much easier to criticize than to avoid. For even the scroll that the prophet is commanded to eat tastes sweet as honey in the mouth, but the stomach turns bitter when that sweetness of words must be digested into the practice of deeds. Libido is related to and joined with luxury; its consequence is impurity, and its inevitable end is confusion. Let that which is prior in origin and cause come first in the discussion. Although the enticements of luxury may enter equally through the five gates of the senses, the pleasure of the ears seems to lean more toward cleanliness, while what comes from taste or touch is filthier, and the delight of smell and sight holds a middle ground. Sometimes it lacks sufficient purity, yet it doesn't sink entirely into the most destructive filth. Death truly enters through the windows of the eyes when someone takes pleasure in circus games, athletic contests, the movements of actors, the beauty of women, or the splendor of gems, clothing, metals, and other things that take the freedom of the soul captive. Again, if the hearing is soothed by the varied singing of instruments and the modulations of voices, or by the poems of poets, the acts of comedies and tragedies, the wit and tricks of mimes, and whatever else of this kind enters through the ear, it makes the strength of the mind effeminate. No one but a dissolute person would deny that the sweetness of scents, various incenses, amomum, musk, and the skin of a foreign mouse all contribute to dissolute habits. For the comic poet and the cook teach that exotic scents are only suitable for the dissolute and for lovers. Furthermore, greed for food is the mother of avarice, and it keeps the soul weighed down on the earth as if by shackles. Therefore, for the sake of a brief pleasure of the throat, people scour lands and seas; they labor their whole lives just so that spiced wine and precious food might pass down their throats. Even the very walls of Jerusalem, though they may seem to be built upon rock, eventually fall and are leveled to the ground when Nebuzaradan, the captain of the cooks, gives the order.
The Madness of Lust and Gluttony
A warning against the destructive cycle of lust and the false nobility of excessive feasting.
Touching other people's bodies and feeling an intense craving for women is close to madness. Whatever the senses might devise, it's all just child's play compared to what this madness—to use the comic poet's words—brings about. From this, we desire, we grow angry, we are eager, we envy, we are anxious; and once the pleasure is satisfied, we are set on fire again through a kind of regret, and we seek to do the very thing that, once done, we'll regret all over again. Therefore, when these wedges of agitation enter through these gates into the citadel of our mind—as blessed Jerome says, 'Where will its freedom be? Where its strength? Where the thought of God?'—especially when the memory of touch paints past pleasures for itself, and by recalling these vices, forces the soul to sympathize and, in a way, to practice what it isn't actually doing? Perhaps this is why, although the Apostle decided that we must struggle against all vices, he prescribed flight rather than confrontation for fornication: 'Flee,' he says, 'from fornication.'✦ For this vice, while it's being practiced, is almost entirely forgetful of the Lord; and when it returns to the memory of past things, it stirs up pestilential pleasures. To say nothing of others whom simplicity led into error, Origen—that most acute philosopher, most learned Christian, and most fervent in the faith, as Ecclesiastical History reports—castrated himself, fleeing fornication most effectively and guarding against every imaginable suspicion, so that he might thereafter live among virgins without reproach. What is even more remarkable, some philosophers are said to have gouged out their own eyes so they wouldn't be captured by the allurements of external things. They were certainly burning with a good and honorable zeal, even if they lacked the knowledge of what is right. Aristotle’s saying is well-known and worth knowing: he suggests that the beginnings of pleasures should be consigned to oblivion, and only their outcomes remembered. For he submits to our minds that they are exhausting and full of repentance, so that we might be less eager to repeat them, and he commands that what is pleasant in them be hidden away, so that they do not return. Let the Apostle say what he will, for it is either impossible or extremely difficult to flee from fornication and to be temperate in eating. Even that part of gluttony which drains the body of its strength is by no means free from adultery. Bacchus often conquers Venus, yet they meet in the shrine of pleasure with no one to object. If Bacchus prevails, he doesn't extinguish Venus, but rather the pleasure itself. Either there should be no drunkenness, or it should be so great that it robs you of your strength; anything in between is harmful. In both cases, one turns away from God, though I wouldn't easily say in which one wanders further. Yet the latter is no longer judged as an error, because it casts off the stigma of greed and seems to possess the image of noble generosity. Since the effect of generosity is praised depending on the place, time, quantity, persons involved, or the frequency of its exercise, that which shines most clearly in food and in those things that nature requires or that adorn civil life is believed to be especially commendable.
The Vanity of the Banquet
A critique of performative hospitality and the anxiety of the host who values reputation over true virtue.
So, anyone who welcomes everyone to their table is practicing the most extreme form of generosity; in fact, they are all the more generous the more people they invite, but by this calculation, very few people actually qualify. The next level is the person who, even if they don't invite everyone, treats those they do bring in with such food and drink, and supports and seats them in their dining halls with such care, that nothing more lavish could even be imagined. Dishes are multiplied, foods are stuffed inside other foods, they are seasoned with one another, and in an insult to nature, they are forced to abandon their own inherent flavor and take on a foreign one; even the pickles are prepared with artifice. Nothing is cheaper than fish sauce, unless it promises the effect of many ingredients and the appearance of exotic spices. Yet it's remarkable that such things please mimes, actors, and gossip-mongers; for all this is done not for the sake of truth, but for the sake of reputation. The cooks' anxiety boils over; sauces are extracted with complex art, and the household dictator deliberates night and day about what should be served on which day and how it should be presented to the guests. They hunt everywhere for stimulants for the appetite and ways to rouse a dulled palate, thinking nothing is accomplished unless the intemperance has been satisfied. There are also those who wash down their food with drink, and who, as if by the authority of a Homeric decree, imagine it to be a stimulant for the mind, a fuel for virtue, and a kind of fountain of joy, if only they can soak themselves completely in wine or strong drink. They rise up like the Phaeacians, and whoever is most ruined by draining cups is judged the most powerful. It is commonly said that the more skilled a gambler is in his art, the more wicked he is; and clearly, whoever is the most bibulous surpasses others in malice and iniquity. Israel once sacrificed his sons and daughters to demons while apostatizing from his Savior; and these people, while they drain their spirit in the gorging of wine or strong drink, extinguish the little spark of reason, prostitute themselves entirely to filth, and devote themselves to the spirit of revelers—what more intimate thing could they possibly sacrifice? However, there are those who despise such things, since this seems to be the profession of common and (if I may say so) plebeian banquets (for some are called philosophical, others civil, and others plebeian). In those circles, it's often considered praiseworthy to squander your wealth all at once, so that for the next three months, you wander around as a hungry, shameless guest at others' tables. This is often a sign of prodigality, and sometimes of avarice; for, as the saying goes, when a miser begins to spend, he exceeds all measure. You can see many who study parsimony for almost the entire year, and to cleanse the stain of avarice, they summon gluttons, parasites, and a college of fools who are captured by the scent of another's kitchen; they gorge and distend those they wish to honor more with larger cups, and until they've exhausted their ravenous appetite, they believe something has been subtracted from friendship or festivity. But this is so far removed from any urbanity that it's more familiar to the vices of barbarism than to civil life; for the standard of civil banquets is a middle way, so that it may even brighten sobriety and, in the midst of abundance, avoid the gluttony of drunkenness. He has an abundance of food and drink, and like someone dispensing from a cornucopia, he holds back in such a way that he pours out, and pours out in such a way that he holds back; he doesn't exactly neglect the account he keeps for himself, but, as Portunianus says, his faith doesn't show the account of his spending. Nothing is more annoying than seeing a dinner host sitting there calculating the costs. That's why I don't find those people very civilized who boast about their foolish generosity, yet every night sit down with their servants to run the numbers and lament what they spent during the day—whether through use or abuse—as if they were shedding tears at night. Arguments break out, threats are made, servants are accused of theft or stupidity and are thrown out as if they had mismanaged things; sometimes they're even tortured or forced to pay back what they were ordered to spend. Everyone involved is upset while the master dwells on the money that slipped away with sighs and grief. It often happens that someone who has gone off to attend to the needs of nature will, in that place where modesty avoids human sight, keep a very precise account of expenses with his staff—and rightly so, because no place seems more appropriate to them for dealing with such sordid matters. I wouldn't call it sordid for a diligent head of a household to ensure his expenses are accounted for, provided that his rank or the dignity of his position doesn't make it inappropriate. But to spend one's life on this, to be entirely consumed by it, and to act in such a way that one seems to be a different person—I don't think that is at all free from sordidness. Indeed, according to Portunianus, the rule for civilized dinner parties is that guests should be allowed as much freedom as is customary for those living together, provided that a cheerful sobriety is maintained; for one must conduct oneself among guests in such a way that a more relaxed atmosphere doesn't slide into the filth of excess.
The Physical and Moral Toll of Excess
The author examines the health consequences of intemperance and the spiritual necessity of fasting.
In fact, this must be avoided as the most terrible and bitter enemy of all nations. Diogenes asserts that tyrants, the destruction of cities, and wars—whether foreign or civil—are stirred up not by a simple diet of vegetables and fruit, but by meat and the luxuries of the banquet table. He would have identified luxury—which is the mother and nurse of foreign and civil wars, and which doesn't consist solely in satisfying gluttony—as the cause; but he understood the whole through a part, when he narrowed it down to the appearance of gluttony, which consists in food, drink, lust, and splendid attire. For luxury stands out and does the most damage among those whose meditation and constant practice is to feast sumptuously every day. For this intemperance subverts good morals and prejudices the health of the whole person. Unless it's restrained, it completely dissolves the fabric of the human body. Hippocrates is the authority that when thick and obese bodies have reached their limit of growth, bloodletting is necessary so they have room to grow again; otherwise, the satiety of a distended fullness breaks out into paralysis and the worst kinds of diseases. For it is impossible for the nature of bodies to remain in one state; it is necessary for them to grow or shrink by their own motion, and unless a living creature is capable of growth, it cannot subsist at all. They say that Galen even prescribed fasting every tenth day as a highly effective and healthy medical treatment, and that it's not easy for someone to suffer from serious illnesses—unless they have a naturally corrupt constitution—if they abstain from all food every tenth day or live on the simplest diet. There are still those who spend every Friday fasting without food or who use the absolute minimum; those who have tried it say this certainly serves both their religious life and their health. Pompeius Trogus reports that Dionysius, the most detestable tyrant of Sicily, lost his eyesight while he was given over to gluttony and overeating. Nothing brings on a cloudier or quicker dimness of mind than constant gluttony; for as Portunianus says, overeating grinds down food but devours the eyes. Galen, as quoted by Jerome, the learned interpreter of Hippocrates, says in his exhortation to medicine that athletes—whose life and art is fattening—can neither live long nor remain healthy, and that their souls are so wrapped in excess blood and fat, as if in mud, that they think of nothing refined or heavenly, but always of meat, belching, and the gluttony of the belly. We also read that some people suffering from joint disease and gouty humors recovered after their property was confiscated and they were reduced to a simple table and meager food; they had been freed from the anxiety of managing a household and the abundance of feasts, which break down both the body and the soul. Horace mocks the appetite for foods that, once consumed, leave only regret: 'Spurn pleasures; pleasure bought with pain is harmful.' And when he was describing himself as fat and plump in a very pleasant field, mocking the voluptuous, he joked with these words: 'You’ll see me fat and sleek, with well-cared-for skin, whenever you want to laugh at a pig from the herd of Epicurus.' But you must also avoid overeating, even with the simplest foods. Nothing weighs down the soul like a full stomach, especially one that is churning, tossing and turning, and venting itself through belching or flatulence. What kind of fasting is that—or what kind of recovery after a fast—when we stuff ourselves with yesterday's leftovers and turn our throats into a sewer? While we want to seek the hunger of a longer fast, we devour so much that a single night can barely digest it. Therefore, it shouldn't be called fasting, but rather gluttony and a foul, burdensome digestion. So says Jerome. And although he mentions fasting, he also commends the greatest and most wholesome benefits of frugality, even when religious discipline is set aside. Portunianus puts this elegantly and truly: no one dines in a civilized way unless they set a standard of frugality and modesty for themselves in food and drink.
Dido and Evander: A Study in Contrasts
Using Virgil's accounts of Dido and Evander, the author contrasts the ruinous luxury of the former with the sober, virtuous hospitality of the latter.
Immoderation in food and drink drives away temperance, the steward of all our duties. Driven by this, a person becomes slow to listen, quick to speak, and quick to anger; they become prone to lust and reckless toward any kind of vice. Whoever abandons modesty easily slips into a common, vulgar way of dining. Virgil, that most faithful imitator of Homeric perfection, hints at this when he recounts Ulysses being received by the King of the Phaeacians and introduces the shipwrecked Aeneas into Dido’s banquet; he elegantly expresses the luxury of both the Phaeacians and the Africans in a single feast: 'After the first rest from the feast and the tables were removed, they set up the great bowls and crowned the wine.' A clamor arises in the halls, and they roll their voices through the spacious atria; burning lamps hang from the golden, paneled ceilings, and torches overcome the night with flames. Here the queen asked for a cup heavy with gems and gold, and filled it with unmixed wine, as Belus and all from Belus were accustomed to do; then silence fell in the halls: 'Jupiter—for they say you give laws to guests—may you wish this day to be a happy one for the Tyrians and those who have come from Troy, and may our descendants remember it.' 'May Bacchus, the giver of joy, and good Juno be present; and you, O Tyrians, celebrate with favor.' She spoke, and poured a libation of the vast wine, and after the libation, she touched it to the brim with her lips. Then he handed it to Bitias with a challenge; he eagerly drained the foaming cup and drowned himself in the full gold; the other nobles followed. The long-haired Iopas plays on his golden lyre what the great Atlas taught; he sings of the origin of the human race and the beasts, the source of rain and fire, of Arcturus, the rainy Hyades, and the twin Bears; he tells why the winter suns rush so hard to dip themselves in the Ocean, and what holds up the slow-moving nights. The Tyrians redouble their applause, and the Trojans follow suit. And so, unhappy Dido drew out the night with varied conversation, drinking in long draughts of love. Do you see the arrangements of this delicate banquet, its progression, and its outcome? Indeed, he indicates that superfluities had come first and that the luxury of the feast was heavy by what he puts at the beginning: 'After the first rest from the feast.' Elsewhere, noting the sobriety of a more sparing table and one that delights only in necessities, he says: 'After hunger was removed from the feast.' But because food makes men silent, while drink makes them talkative, he wisely added the noise and other marks of luxury that arise from the license of drinking. Even in the very custom of 'agapetae,' it's easy to find a superstition by which the grace of the divine is solicited and, as it were, invited with religious prayers, while it is driven far away by the luxury and impurity that are hostile to pious minds; for either God is not sober, or drunkenness is displeasing to Him. They drink without measure to a measure; and the one who prevails is he who has laid low or defeated his drinking companions, whether by gluttony or by trickery. You'll find there someone who drinks away the years of Nestor, as many as the old Sibyl has become through her cups. Drink does indeed relieve the soul of cares and loosen the mind, but it cannot hide the joy it has conceived; it bursts out into songs and, from there, veers toward lust. The long-haired Iopas doesn't play foolish songs or pastoral poems of lovers on his lyre, but rather those things that befit the grace of a civilized gathering and the majesty of a philosophical one. If only those things that the long-haired and unkempt Iopas sang at Dido's luxurious banquet were remembered in the gatherings of Christians. If only the pastoral or foolish songs of lovers would rest in the house of the wise, and only those things would resonate in the hearing of all that either profit them or soothe them without shame and corruption. And indeed, the most learned poet of the ancients elegantly hints at this gravity in the song of the minstrel, for they admitted nothing into a civilized gathering that didn't excel in the instruction of nature or of morals. Varied conversation follows the applause of the banquet, and as the duties of Venus take charge, the drunken mind drinks in a long, insoluble, and pestilent love, which the philosopher defines as the desire for sexual union. It is well known from historical accounts that luxury was highly useful to the city; it took hold of Hannibal—who was invincible in arms—with its enticements and handed him over to the Roman soldier to be conquered. It called the most vigilant leader and the most fierce army to sleep and delights with large feasts, abundant wine, the fragrance of ointments, and the more wanton use of Venus. And then at last, Punic ferocity was broken and crushed once the Seplasia and the Alban camp began to exist. What, then, is more foul and damaging than these vices by which virtue is worn away, victories grow sluggish, glory is lulled to sleep and turned into infamy, and the strengths of both mind and body are so thoroughly conquered that you wouldn't know whether it is more ruinous to be captured by enemies or by these things? The city of the Volumnenses, opulent in wealth, adorned with customs, and ordered by laws, was considered the head of Etruria. But after luxury slipped in, the city fell into a depth of injury and shame, subjecting itself to the insolent domination of slaves. These slaves, having dared to enter the senatorial order when they were few at first, soon occupied the entire republic, ordered wills to be written according to their own whim, forbade the banquets and gatherings of free men, and took the daughters of masters. Finally, they decreed by law that their debaucheries with widows and married women alike should go unpunished, and that no virgin should marry a free man whose chastity someone from their number had not first defiled. Aesopus the tragedian depicts a young man of furious luxury, whom it is agreed was accustomed to sprinkle pearls of great value, liquefied in vinegar, into his drinks, so that he could swallow a vast patrimony in a single gulp. Metellus Pius is criticized by those who record memorable events because he allowed himself to be received by his hosts with altars and incense, and looked on with a joyful spirit as the walls were covered with Attalic tapestries upon his arrival, and allowed the most elaborate games to be interspersed with massive feasts, and celebrated banquets in embroidered robes, and received the garlands lowered from the ceilings as if he were a heavenly being. And where did this happen? Not in Greece or Asia, whose luxury is accustomed to corrupt even severity itself, but in a rugged and warlike province—one that was used to blinding the eyes of Roman armies with Lusitanian weapons. Xerxes took such pleasure in the ostentatious display of royal wealth and luxury that he issued an edict offering a reward to anyone who could invent a new kind of pleasure; yet, while he was too caught up in these delights, he barely escaped on a single ship after the ruin of his vast empire at Salamis. But since you’ve taken the luxurious banquet of feminine excess from Maro, you’ll find the sobriety of a more frugal table and a more restrained gathering in Aeneas’s reception by Evander, as a duty of humanity. The men are brought together, the king of peace offers his hand, and the gracious host speaks words of kindness. Once these things were said, he ordered the food to be served and the cups cleared, and he himself seated the men on a grassy bank. He honored Aeneas by seating him on a couch covered with a shaggy lion skin and invited him to a chair made of maple wood. Then the chosen young men compete to bring the roasted innards of the bulls, while the priest fills baskets with gifts of labor-intensive grain, and they serve the wine. Aeneas eats, and the Trojan youth along with him, feasting on the back of the perpetual ox and the lustral entrails. There, everything is golden and shines with its own brilliance; here, there is a grassy seat, a simple throne, and—as befits a strong man—the shaggy hide of a flayed lion. Here, chosen young men serve what is necessary; there, servants provide what is superfluous and harmful. There, rest is barely granted after the feast; here, hunger is removed, and the craving for eating is suppressed by frugal meals. There, a long-haired glutton delights the crowd of revelers; here, the priest of the altar consecrates a sober meal to religious life. Here, after the meal, serious matters are discussed and manly strength is built up to improve the public good; there, they invite the gods with poured prayers so that they might favor their luxury. Many laws were therefore passed, as we read in the book of the Saturnalia, to curb luxury; it won't be tedious or entirely useless to make a passing mention of them at the end of this civil banquet.
Read the original Latin
introitu, et quorum sensuum sit uoluptas pemiciosior, et triplici genere conuiuarum secundum Portunianum, et pernicie gulae j et de conuiuio Didonis et Euandri apud Virgilium. Eatenus iam sermo processit ut aut uirtutem aut publicam fere opinionem oporteat impugnari. Imminet enim iam colluctatio aduersus camem et sanguinem, et fores uidemur liberalitati praecludere et iocunditatem auferre de uita, cum geminae uias luxuriae, Epicureis reclamantibus, coartamus. Est enim blandum, ut ait Valerius, luxuria malum quam accusare aliquanto facilius est quam uitare. Nam et uolumen, quod propheta uorare praecipitur, in ore quidem dulcescit ut mel, sed amaricatur uenter cum ipsa dulcedo uerborum digerenda est in usum operum. Est autem libido cognata, et coniuncta luxuriae, cuius sequela immunditia, finis indubitatus confusio est. Praecedat ergo sermone quae origine et causa prior est. Licet autem per quinque sensuum portas lenocinia luxus aeque introeant, a uoluptas aurium ad munditiam magis uidetur accedere, et quae ex gustu uel tactu prouenit sordidior est, et olfaciendi et uidendi delectatio medium locum tenet.
Nam neque satis interdum habet munditiae nec ad sordes pemiciosissimas usque prolabitur. Siquidem mors per oculorum fenestras ingreditur, cum quispiam delectatur circensibus, certamine athletarum, histrionum mobilitate, mulierum formis, splendore gemmarum, uestium, metallorum, aliorumque quibus libertas animae captiuatur. Rursus, si auditus uario organorum cantu uocumque flexionibus mulceatur ad carmina poetarum, comediarum et tragediarum actus, mimorum urbanitates et strophas, et quicquid huiusmodi per aurem incedit, uirilitatem mentis efFeminat. Odoris autem suauitas et diuersa thimiamata et amomum, muscus, peregrini muris pellicula, quod dissolutis moribus faciant nemo nisi dissolutus negat. Nam peregrinos odores non nisi dissolutis et amatoribus conuenire comicus et Cocus docent. Porro ciborum auiditas auaritiae mater est, et animum quasi quibusdam compedibus degrauatum tenet in terra. Ergo propter breuem gulae uoluptatem terrae lustrantur et maria; et ut mulsum uinum pretiosusque cibus fauces pertranseat, totius uitae opere desudatur. Ipsi quoque muri lerusalem, etsi uideantur in petra solidati, tandem ruunt et complanantur aequati solo, Nabuzardan cocorum principe imperante.
Tactus autem alienorum corporum et feminarum ardentior appetitus uicinus insaniae est. Quicquid sensus quilibet moliatur, ludus ac iocus est prae hiis quae affert, ut uerbis comici utar, huius rabies. Hinc enim cupimus, irascimur, gestimus, emulamur, solliciti sumus, et expleta uoluptate per quandam penitudinem rursus accendimur, quaerimusque facere quod cum fecerimus iterum peniteamus. Ergo, cum per has portas quasi quidam cunei perturbationum ad arcem nostrae mentis intrauerint, ut ait beatus leronimus, ubi erit libertas, ubi fortitudo eius, ubi de Deo cogitatio, niaxime cum recordatio tactus depingat sibi etiam praeteritas uoluptates et rememoratione uitiorum cogat animam compati et quodammodo exercere quod non agit? Forte hinc est quod, cum Apostolus uitiis omnibus censuerit reluctandum, aduersus fomicationem non congressum sed fugam indicens: Fugite, inquit, fomicationem. Nam haec fere, dum exercetur, Domini immemor est; et praeterita, dum ad memoriam redit, pestiferas excitat uoluptates. Vt de ceteris taceam quos simplicitas egit in culpam, philosophus acutissimus et litteratissimus Christianus et feruentissimus in fide Origenes, sieut Ecclesiastica refert Historia, seipsum castrauit, fomicationem efficacissime fugiens, immo et omnem quae fingi posset praecauens suspicionem, ut exinde sine nota cum uirginibus habitaret. Quod autem mirabilius est, leguntur quidam philosophorum a sibi etiam oculos effodisse, ne exteriorum illecebris caperentur.
Vtique admirando boni et honesti feruebant zelo, etsi recti scientiam non haberent. Scitum est et scitu dignum Aristotilis dictum, quo uoluptatum initia obliuioni mandanda assemit et solos exitus recordandos; fessas enim penitentiaeque plenas, quo minus auide repetantur, subicit animis, et quod in eis iocundum est, ne redeant, iubet abscondi. Dicat Apostolus quod uoluerit, quia fomicationem fugere et gulae semire aut omnino impossibile aut difficillimum est; nam et illa pars gulae quae corpori uires adimit nequaquam mechiae expers est. Venerem Bachus plemmque expugnat et tamen in sacello uoluptatis nemine reclab mante conueniunt. Si Bachus optinuerit, Venerem non uoluptatem extinguit. Aut nulla ebrietas aut tanta sit ut tibi uires eripiat; si qua est inter utramque, nocet. Vtrobique a Deo receditur, sed qua magis aberretur non facile dixerim; sed iam alterum erroris nomine non censetur, quia auaritiae propellit notam et ingenuae liberalitatis habere uidetur imaginem. Cum enim liberalitatis effectus nunc a loco, nunc a tempore, nunc a quantitate, nunc a personis, nunc ab usu et assiduitate exercendi laudetur, illa praecipue commendabilis creditur quae in alimentis et hiis quibus natura indiget aut uita ciuilis ornatur clarius enitescit.
Ergo qui omnes admittit ad mensam, exactissimae liberalitatis est; plane quidem, eoque liberalior quo plures adc mittit; sed hoc calculo paucissimi colliguntur. Proximus est qui, etsi non omnes admittat, eos quos introducit sic eibat, sic potat, sic in tricliniis fulcit et locat discumbentes in sedilibus, ut nichil uel excogitari lautius possit. Multiplicantur fercula, cibi alii aliis farciuntur, condiuntur haec illis et in iniuriam naturae innatum relinquere et alienum coguntur afferre saporem, conficiuntur et salsamenta. Garo nichil uilius est, nisi complurium polliceatur effectus et indicia specierum. Egregium tamen est in huiusmodi quod mimis et histrionibus et rumigerulis placet; haec enim non ad ueritatem sed ad opinionem omnia fiunt. Cocorum soUicitudo feruet, arte multiplici eliciuntur iura, quid quo die geri oporteat et cotidianis ministrari conuid uiis domesticus dictator nocte dieque deliberat. Vndecumque conquirit irritamenta gulae et unde palati uires excitet hebetati, nichil arbitrans expeditum, nisi cum intemperantiae fuerit satisfactum. Sunt et qui poculis fercula subruant, et quasi Homerici auctoritate decreti incentiuum ingenii et fomitem uirtutis et quendam hilaritatis fontem opinantur, si se omnino mero siceraue proluerint.
Pheacum ergo more consurgunt, et qui in exhauriendis poculis perditior est potior iudicatur. Dici solet quia aleator quanto in arte doctior, tanto nequior; et plane qui bibacior est alios malitia et iniquitate transcendit. Immolauit Israel, apostatans a Salutari suo, filios et filias suas demoniis; et isti, dum ingurgitatione uini aut sicerae spiritum depria munt, extinguunt scintillulam rationis, se totos immunditiae prostituunt et bachantium spiritui deuouent, quidnam possunt familiarius immolare? Ceterum sunt qui ista contempnant, quoniam haec uulgarium et (ut ita dicam) plebeiorum conuiuiorum uidetur esse professio (siquidem alia philosophica, alia ciuilia, alia dicuntur esse plebeia). In iis laudi plerumque ducitur, si sic tua prodigas semel ut trimenstruo toto esuriens conuiua impudens mensas circumeas alienas. Hoc quidem saepe prodigalitatis, interdum et auaritiae nota est; nam, ut dici solet, auarus cum incipit, modum excedit. Poteris uidere quamplurimos qui fere anno toto parsimoniae student, et ad purgandam auaritiae labem epulones conuocant et parasitos et collegium nugatorum, qui alienae nidore culinae capiuntur, et quos magis honorare uoluerint maioribus oneratos minoribus poculis ingurgitant et distendunt, et, donec rapidam orexim excutiant, aHquid amicitiae aut festiuitati credunt esse subtractum. At hoc ab omni urbanitate adeo procul est ut barbariei uitiis familiarius sit quam uitae ciuili; siquidem conuiuiorum ciuilium ratio media est, ut etiam sobrietatem exhilaret et in satietate opuientia crapulam uitet.
Nam et abundantiam cibi et potus habet et, quasi copiae cornu dispensans, omnia sic parcit ut effundat, sic effundit ut parcat, et quam habet penes se rationem non negligit quidem, sed, ut ait Portunianus, fides rationem non ostentat impensae. Nichil enim molestius est quam si triclinii praesul in conuiuio sedere uideatur ad calculum. Vnde non satis michi uidentur esse ciuiles quidam de liberalitate iq inepta gloriantium qui singulis noctibus cum seruis suis calculum ponunt et quod effuderunt usu uel abusu diurno quasi nocturnis lacrimis defient. Suboriuntur lites, accedunt minae, arguuntur aut furti aut insipientiae serui et quasi re male administrata eiciuntur et torquentur interdum, quandoque quod effundere iussi sunt refundere compelluntur; et conscii turbantur omnes, dum dominus pecuniam quae euasit suspiriis et dolore prosequitur. Saepe etiam euenit ut qui ad requisita naturae ingressus est, ibidem, quo uerecundia humanum fugit aspectum, cum ministris exactissimam sumptuum habeat rationem; recte quidem, quia nullus locus tractandis sordibus eis magis uidetur accommodus. Sane non quod sordidum dixerim, si diligens paterfamilias id agit ut ei ratio constet impensae; si tamen hoc gradus aut dignitas personae non adimit. Sed in eo uitam terere et tota mente uersari et sic quidem ut alius sit et alius uideatur, nequaquam arbitror a sordibus alienum. Et quidem conuiuiorum ciuilium teste Portuniano regula est ut his plurimum pro more condegentium liceat, sobrietate hilari non soluta; nam conuiuentibus sic morem geri oportet ut licentia letior nequaquam in turpitudinem luxuriae proniat.
Illa siquidem, quasi omnium gentium hostis teterrima et acerbissima, uitanda est. Dioa genes tirannos et subuersiones urbium bellaque uel hostilia uel ciuilia non pro simplici uictu olerum pomorumque sed pro camibus et epularum delitiis asserit excitari. Rectiua quidem bellorum hostihum uel ciuiHum matrem et altricem luxuriam, quae non in sola gula placanda consistit, posuisset; sed totum intellexit in parte, dum illam quae in cibo et potu et Venere et cultu splendido constat ad gulae speciem coartauit. Nam in his praecipue luxuria eminet et perniciosius nocet, quorum meditatio et iuge exercitium est ut epulentur cotidie splendide. Haec enim intemperantia bonos mores subuertit et totius hominis saluti praeiudicat et. nisi coherceatur, prorsus humani corporis fabricam soluit. Auctor est Hypocrates, crassa et obesa corpora cum crescendi modum impleuerint, necessariam esse sanguinis demptionem, ut habeant in quae rursus crescere possint; alioquin plenitudinis distentae satietas in paralisim et pessima genera morborum erumpit. Impossibile enim est in uno statu corporum permanere naturam, sed motu suo crescere uel decrescere necesse est et, nisi crescendi capax sit animal, omnino subsistere nequit.
Ferunt et Galienum decimae semper diei abstinentiam loco efficacissimae et saluberrimae medicinalis curae indixisse, nec facile posse, nisi eorruptioris naturae fuerit, morbis grauioribus subiacere qui decima quaque die ab omni cibo abstinet aut simplicisc sima dieta transigit uitam. Sunt adhuc qui sextam feriam in ieiunio sine cibo transigant uel eo utantur minimo; quod quidem et religioni et incolumitati, sicut experti loquuntur, certissime seruit. Refert Pompeius Trogus quod teterrimus Siciliae tirannus Dionisius, dum gulae et edacitati deditus erat, oculorum luraen amiserit. Nichil enim est quod certiorem aut citiorem inducat caliginem iugi ingluuie; quia, ut ait Portunianus, edacitas cibos terit sed oculos uorat. Galienus auctore leronimo doctissimus interpres Hypocratis dicit in exortatione medicinae athletas, quorum uita et ars sagina est, nec uiuere posse nec diu esse sanos, animasque eorum ita nimio sanguine et adipibus quasi luto inuolutas nichil tenue, nichil celeste, sed semper de carnibus et ructu cogitare et uentris ingluuie. Legimus etiam quosdam morbo articulari et podagrae humoribus laborantes proscriptione bonorum ad simplicem mensam et pauperes cibos redactos o conualuisse; caruerant enim sollicitudine dispensandae domus et epularum largitate, quae et corpus frangunt et animam. Irridet Oratius appetitum ciborum qui consumpti relinquunt penitentiam: Sperne uoluptates; nocet empta dolore uoluptas. Et, cum in amenissimo agro in morsum uoluptuosorum hominum se crassum pinguemque describeret, lusit his uerbis: Me pinguem et nitidum bene curata cute uises, a cum ridere uoles Epieuri de grege porcum.
Sed et ex uilissimis cibis uitanda satietas est. Nichil enim ita obruit animum ut plenus uenter et exestuans et huc illucque se uertens et in ructus uel in crepitus uentorum efflatione respirans. Quale illud ieiunium aut qualis illa refectio post ieiunium, cum pridianis epulis distendimur et guttur nostrum mediatorium efficitur latrinarum? Dumque uolumus prolixioris inediae famem quaerere, tantum uoramus quantum uix alterius diei nox digerat. Itaque non tam ieiunium appellandum est quam crapula ac fetens et molesta digestio. Haec quidem leronimus. Et, licet ieiunii faciat mentionem, etiam religione deducta frugalitatis maximas et saluberrimas commendat utilitates. Hoc autem eleganter et uere ait Portunianus, neminem ciuiliter conuiuari nisi qui sibi in cibo et potu frugalitatis et modestiae praescribit formam.
Immoderatio cibi et potus dispensatricem omnium officiorum temperantiam abigit. Ea impellente fit homo ad audiendum tardus, uelox ad loquendum et uelox ad iram; fit ad libidinem pronus et ad quaeuis flagitia praeceps. Qui modestiam deserit, ad plebeiam conuiuandi consuetudinem facillime prolabitur a ciuili. Innuit hoc Maro, Homericae perfectionis fidelissimus imitator, qui, dum a rege Pheacum Vlixem exceptum recolit, Eneam naufragum in conuiuium Didonis introducit, et Pheacum et Affrorum luxuriam in uno conuiuio eleganter expressit: Postquam prima quies epulis mensaeque remotae, crateras magnos statuunt et uina coronant. Fit strepitus tectis, uocemque per ampla uolutant atria; dependent ligni laquearibus aureis incensi, et noctem flammis funalia uincunt. Hic regina grauem gemmis auroque poposcit impleuitque mero pateram, quam Belus et omnes a Belo soliti; tunc facta silentia tectis: lupiter (hospitibus nam te dare iura loquuntur), hunc letum Tiriisque diem Troiaque profectis esse uelis nostrosque huius meminisse minores. Assit letitiae Bachus dator et bona luno; et uos o cetum Tirii celebrate fauentes. Dixit et immensum laticum libauit honorem primaque libato summo tenus attigit ore.
Tum Bitiae dedit increpitans; ille impiger hausit spumantem pateram et pleno se proluit auro; post alii proceres. Cythara crinitus lopas personat aurata docuit quae maximus Athlas; unde hominum genus et pecudes, unde imber et ignis, Artunim Pliadasque, Hiadas geminosque Triones; quid tantum Occeano properent se tinguere soles hiberni, uel quae tardis mora noctibus obstet. Ingeminant plausu Tirii, Troesque sequuntur. Nec non et uario noctem sermone trahebat infelix Dido longumque bibebat amorem. Videsne delicati instituta conuiuii processum, et exitum? Superflua siquidem praecessisse et luxum epularum grauem fuisse indicat quod praemisit: a Postquam prima quies epulis. Qui alibi, parcioris mensae sobrietatem notans et quae solis necessariis gaudet, ait: Postquam exempta fames epulis. Verum, quia cibus homines efiicit tacitos, potus loquaces, strepitum et cetera luxus insignia, quae de licentia bibendi proueniunt, prudenter adiunxit.
In ipsa quoque agapetarum consuetudine planum est inuenire superstitionem qua numinis sollicitatur gratia et quasi religiosis precibus inuitatur, qui luxu et immunditia, piis mentibus inimica, procul abigitur; siquidem aut Deus sobrius non est aut ei ebrietas displicet. Sine mensura bibitur ad mensuram; et is ceteris praeualet qui aut gula aut dolo strauit aut uicit compotores. Inuenies illic qui Nestoris ebibat annos, quot sit per calices facta Sibilla senex. Potus quidem animum a curis redimit, soluit mentem, conceptam letitiam dissimulare non potest; prorumpit in cantica et ab eis ab libidinem uergit. Cythara crinitus lopas non stulticinia uel bucolica personat amatorum sed ea quae ciuilis conuentus uenustatem deceant et philosophici maiestatem. Vtinam in Christianorum cetibus rememorentur illa quae in luxurioso Didonis conuiuio crinitus et incompositus lopas personuit. Vtinam bucolica uel stulticinia amatorum conquiescant in domo sapientis, et ea in auditu omnium resonent quae aut prosint aut sine turpitudine et corruptione demulceant. Et quidem eleganter innuit in cantico citharedi poeta doctissimus ueterum grauitatem, qui in cetu ciuili nichil admittebant nisi quod naturae aut morum instructione polleret.
Plausum conuiuii uarius sermo prosequitur, eoque Veneris munia procurante mens ebria longum insolubilem et pestiferum bibit amorem, quem diffinit philosophus esse concupiscentiam coeundi. Campanam luxuriam urbi fuisse perutilem historicorum testimonio celebre est; inuictum enim armis Hannibalem illecebris suis complexa Romano militi uincendum tradidit. Illa uigilantissimum ducem, illa exercitum acerrimum dapibus largis,habundanti uino unguentorum fragrantia, Veneris usu lasciuiore ad sompnum et delitias euocauit. Ac tum demum fracta et contusa Punica feritas est, cum Seplasia et Albana castra esse coeperunt. Quid ergo uitiis hiis fedius et dampnosius quibus uirtus atteritur, uictoriae relanguescunt, sopita gloria in infamiam uertitur animique pariter et corporis uires adeo expugnantur ut nescias ab hostibusne an ab illis capi pemiciosius habendum sit Vrbs Volumnensium, opulenta diuitiis, ornata moribus et legibus ordinata, caput Etruriae habebatur. Sed postquam luxuria prolapsa est, in profundum iniuriarum et turpitudinis decidit, ut seruorum se insolentissimae dominationi subiceret, qui a primi admodum pauci senatorium ordinem intrare ausi, mox uniuersam rem publicam occupauerunt, testamenta ad arbitrium suum scribi iubebant, conuiuia cetusque ingenuorum fieri uetabant, ducebant filias dominorum. Postremo lege sanxerunt ut strupra sua in uiduis pariter atque in nuptis impunita essent, ac ne qua uirgo ingenuo nuberet, cuius castitatem non ante aliquis ex numero ipsorum delibasset. Esopus tragedus furiosae luxuriae depingit iuuenem, quem constat aceto liquefactos grandis summae uniones potionibus aspergere solitum, ut amplissimum patrimonium posset una sorbitiuncula deglutire.
Metellus Pius ab his qui res memorabiles scribunt arguitur quod se aris et thure patiebatur ab hospitibus excipi letoque intuebatur animo Atthalicis auleis in aduentu suo contectos parietes, et immanibus epulis ludos apparatissimos sinebat interponi, et in ueste pahnata conuiuia celebrabat, dimissasque lacunaribus uelud celesti capite recipiebat coronas. Et ubi ista? Non in Grecia neque in Asia, quarum luxuria uel ipsam seueritatem corrumpere solet, sed in horrida et beUicosa prouincia et quae Romanorum exercituum oculos Lusitanis telis praestringere consueuit. Xerses opum regiarum ostentatione eximia eo usque luxuria gaudebat ut edicto praemium ei proponeret qui nouum uoluptatis genus repperisset, qua et deliciis dum nimis capitur, cum amplissimi ruina imperii apud Salaminam uix una naue euasit. Sed, quia luxuriosum muliebris intemperantiae conuiuium apud Maronem accepisti, frugalioris mensae sobrietatem et continentiorem cetum Enea apud Euandrum officio humanitatis exeepto inuenies. Siquidem confederantur uiri, rex pacis dexteram dat, humanitatis uerba officiosissimus hospes praeloquitur. Haec ubi dicta, dapes iubet et sublata reponi pocula, gramineoque uiros locat ipse sedili. Praecipuumque thoro et uillosi pelle leonis accipit Eneam solioque inuitat acemo.
Tum lecti iuuenes certatim araeque sacerdos uiscera tosta ferunt taurorum, onerantque canistris dona laboratae Cereris, Bachumque ministrant. Vescitur Eneas, simul et Troiana iuuentus, perpetui tergo bouis et lustralibus extis. Ibi cuncta sunt aurea et uniuersa suo nitore praef ulgent; hic sedile gramineum, acemum solium, et (quae uimm fortem deceat) spoliati leonis pellis uillosa. Hic lecti iuuenes necessaria, ibi famulae superflua et perniciosa ministrant. Ibi uix tandem ab epuhs quies indulgetur; hic eximitur fames et edendi epulis frugalibus comprimitur ardor. Ibi crinitus lopas luxuriantium letificat cetum; hic arae sacerdos refectionem sobriam consecrat religioni. Hic post mensam seria tractantur et ad erigendam rem publicam erigitur uirile robur; ibi ut luxuriae faueant fusis precis bus inuitantur et numina. Latae sunt ergo, sicut in Saturnaliorum libro legitur, ad luxuriam reprimendam leges plurimae, quarum perfunctoriam mentionem in calce ciuilis conuiuii ponere nec tediosum erit nec omnino inutile.
Scripture echoes
- ↩1Cor.6.18 — Flee sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.
Policraticus companion
Study the argument weekly; pray the tradition daily
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John of Salisbury argued that rulers must keep the law of God before their eyes daily; Chosen Portion gives modern readers that same daily discipline in five minutes a morning.
- 8 weeks, one book per week, with the 3-4 key chapters flagged in each
- Discussion questions usable for a reading group from week one
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