XVIII.
SOME MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE
How did these people live?--The first Roman house--The vestibule and
the dark room--The dining-room and the parlor--Rooms for pictures and
books--Cooking taken out of the atrium--How the houses were heated and
lighted--Life in a villa--The extravagance of the pleasure villa--When
a man and a woman had agreed to marry--How the bride dressed and what
the groom did--The wife's position and work--The _stola_ and the
_toga_--Foot-gear from _soccus_ to _cothurnus_--Breakfast, luncheon,
and dinner--The formal dinner--How the Romans travelled, and how they
sought office--The law and its penalties.
XIX.
THE ROMAN READING AND WRITING
Grecian influence on Roman mental culture--Textbooks--Cato and Varro on
education--Dictation and copy-books--The early writers--Fabius Pictor--
Plautus--Terence--Atellan plays--Cicero's works--Varro's works--C?sar
and Catullus--Lucretius--Ovid and Tibullus--Sallust--Livy--Horace--
Cornelius Nepos--Virgil and his works--Life at the villa of M?cenas.
XX.
THE ROMAN REPUBLICANS SERIOUS AND GAY
The will of the gods sought for--The first temples--Festivals in the
first month--Vinalia and Saturnalia--Fires of Vulcan and Vesta--
Matronly and family services--No mythology at first--Colleges of
priests needed--An incursion of Greek philosophers--Games of childhood
--Checkers and other games of chance--The people cry for games--Games
in the circus--The amphitheatre invented--Men and beasts fight--Funeral
ceremonies--Charon paid--The mourning procession--Inurning the ashes
--The columbarium--The Roman May-day--Change from rustic simplicity to
urban orgies.
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