The public men performed in the forenoon their civil
and religious acts; took their siestas in the middle of the day;
exercised in the Campus Martius, swimming, wrestling, and fencing, in
the afternoon; enjoyed the delicacies of the table later, listening to
singing and buffoonery the while, and were thus prepared to seek their
beds when the sun went down. At the bath, which came to be the polite
resort of pleasure-seekers, all was holiday; the toga and the foot-
coverings were exchanged for a light Greek dressing-gown, and the time
was whiled away in gossip, idle talk, lounging, many dippings into the
flowing waters, and music. Pleasure became the business of life, and
morality was relaxed to a frightful extent.
When we consider the gay moods of the Roman people we turn probably
first to childhood, and try to imagine how the little ones amused
themselves. We find that the girls had their dolls, some of which have
been dug out of ruins of the ancient buildings, and that the boys
played games similar to those that still hold dominion over the young
English or American school-boy at play. In their quieter moods they
played with huckle-bones taken from sheep, goats, or antelopes, or
imitated in stone, metal, ivory, or glass.
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