Lynchburg daily Virginian. [volume] (Lynchburg [Va.]) 1852-1861, 1854-05-27

SEED reyoeare gradum--
Hoe opus, bic labor est"
AN EASTERN NIRGINfAN.
How a Roman Emperor lived

In his Iuh8nllGenCe Homogeneous was truly
Oriental. lie had beds and touches of solid sill
yer. He adorned others of his beds with gold
His chariots gttered with gems. They were
drawn sometimes by elephants, sometimes by
stays, and sometimes by beautiful naked women.
His drinking and cooking vessels were of silver.
He was also guilty Of the luxury which, at IA later
period.st. Chyrsotom charges as lsn against the
Christian ladies of Constantnople-of using yes
sells of the most precious material for the of
most gnoble purposes. He had cups artificial
ly perfumed for drinking and others on which
lacyous designs scuIptured; iniquity
not confined 10 ancient and heatheru times At
table he reclned on couches stuffed with the fur
of hares or the down of patridges. He wore coaks
heavy with gems, and used to say lie bur
dened with IA load of pleasure. lie had gems in
his shoes, sculptnred with designs by the finest
artist He worea diadem of precious stones that
he might resemble beautiful woman. He is
said to have been the first Roman who wore robes
of entire silk. lie never, it is said, wore ring
for more than one day, or twiceput on the same
shoes.
In his more refined and elegant Injuries he was
the rival of the ancient Demetrus Poliorcetes.-
lie had beds and couches of roses, and walked
amongst lilies, yiolets hyacinths and marcissuses
When he wished to add the piquant flavor of cru
city to his enioyments, he would stHe courtier
to denth in a bed of flowers. He swan i'll water
perfumed with saffron and precious unguents
and wine and aromatics were poured into his fish
ponds and his baths.
In eati' and drinking he appears not so much
as glutto ,but as the chief of ali royal epcures
the equal in gastronomie science of the renowned
Apidius. He joined with all who studied the
pleasure of the palate in admiration of the dish
which the Romans made of the teats of n newly
narrowed pig; the most celebrated of ancient lux
uries. After the example of Apicius he INDUCED
III dishes made of the tender parts of the heel of
the camel. and of coombs torn from the heads of
living cocks. This delicacy Cassaubon in his
commentary on the passage in the Augustan his
toran in which it is referred 10, tells us, at this
! day-that is his day, two hundred years ago
! passionately sought after by men of learned pal
ates. Like Nitellius he seems to have had his
! appetite whetted by the eXpensiveness of the
! dishes which he procured; and like him he took
pleasure in sacrificing the rare and most beau
! titu birds, for the sake of eating their heads Of
their brains or their tongues At one entertain
ment he displayed on his table the heads of six
hundred ostriches whose brains as well as those
of the tamingo and thrush, amongst his ia
vorite rcpasts. He also INDUCED in the tongues
of peacocks and nightngales, believing that they
had medical virtue in ayertng epilepsy. lie also
made dishes of the entrals and sometimes of the
boards of the mule, of the eggs of patridges, and
the heads of pheasants, peacocks, and parrots
! We wonder at the destruction of creatures so
HuinlD8O,
and the pheasant for the particle of deoa ate ca
ting to be got from them: but epcurism and glut-
tony consume and destroy all other tastes.
The Able Dubois, in his curious work on In
dia, notices with regret that tie prospect of the
immense influence over the minds of the IIindoos
which they would have acquired if they would on
! ly have consented to abstain from one single ar
tiee of food-the flesh of the COW; the represen-
tatiye earth of the goddess Bhavant would not
restrain the English from horritying the heather
! by eating that one article, even in the unsavoiy
condition in which it is found in India. \ devout
Danish missionary, of the Morayian sect, is still
more severe ON the same subject. He tells us
that when an English child is shown any pretty
bird or fish, Its first question about it is: ais it
good for eatlng!"
We presume that Ileliogabalus knew the rich
merits of the goose's liver, though he may have
been Ignorant of that terrible cruelty which Chris
tan cooks, IN modern times guilty of practs-
ing to please Christian palates in the preparation
OF the celebrated fat yer but it is recorded of
HIM that while he put grapes into his horses man
gers and tattened his lions on parrots and pleas
ants, he fed his dogs with the liyers of geese.
The genius of lleliogabalus shone particularly
bright in the cooking of fish In this department
he Is said to have invented new modes unknown
to Aplclus; but with refined hatred of things
common and cheap, he would never taste fish at
all when near the sea, but always took delight in
| thelii Wnen lar removed from water, Just he
took fancy to have snow brought to him in mid
summer. He offered rewards for the discovery
of new dishes of exquisite flavor, and he had a
| humorous way of stimulating the invention of
| those around HIM III this science. When cour-
tier, after exertng his best skill to please him,
! produced a dish which he did not relish he made
| the ingenious artist himself continue to eat of
that dish and nothing else, till sharpencd by dis
! gust, enabled him to find out something superior
fer his master
Like Nero and Caligula IIeliogabalus had his
jocularities-g generally practical ones sometimes
merely absurd sometimes characteristically cru.
ell. His most harmless entertainments in this
way consisted of the suppers which he would give
one night to eight men all of them blind of one
eye, sometimes to eight bald, sometimes to eight
afflicted with govt, then to eight deaf men, eight
black men, eight tall, and eight fat men, He kent
lions and lcopards, which lay at the table with
him, in order to brighten his friends. He would
! get a company filled with drink and after locking
them up for the night would let loose amongst
| them lions, lcopards, and bears, with their claws
pared, to terrify them; and many, it is said, died
of the fright.
AT other times when day light would break in
on the company who had been drinking the night
before, they would find themselves in the arms of
ugly black old women. At other times he made
sham entertainments, like the Barmacide's feast
in the Eastern tale setting his guests down TO
dishes made of wax, ivory, stone, painted after
nature. He collected serpents together, and LET
them loose to bite his visitors. He would tie his
courtiers to wheel, and have them whirled round
| in water calling Them in ausio1 to the mvtho-
| logical fable, his lxonite friends
! Fearing violent death from the vengeance of
! the people. Heliogabalus had made preparations