Then asking the servant that
had the charge of these things, what pictures those were in the
middle? The Iliads and the Odysses, said he, and on the left-hand two
spectacles of sword-playing. We could not bestow much time on it, for
by this time we were coming to the dining-room, in the entry of which
sate his steward, taking every one's account: But what I most admir'd,
were those bundles of rods, with their axes, that were fastned to the
sides of the door, and stood, as it were, on the brazen prow of a
ship, on which was written,
TO CAIUS POMPEIUS TRIMALCHIO OF PR?†TORIAN DIGNITY; CINNAMUS THE
STEWARD.
Under the same title also, hung a lamp of two lights from the roof of
the room, and two tablets on either side of the door; of which one, if
I well remember, had this inscription,
THE THIRD AND SECOND OF THE KALENDS OF JANUARY, OUR PATRON CAIUS EATS
ABROAD.
On the other was represented the course of the moon, and the seven
stars; and what days were lucky, what unlucky, with an emboss'd studd
to distinguish the one from the other.
Full of this sensuality we were now entring the room, where one of his
boys, set there for that purpose, call'd aloud to us, "ADVANCE
ORDERLY." Nor is it to be doubted, but we were somewhat concern'd for
fear of breaking the orders of the place. But while we were footing
it accordingly, a servant stript off his livery, fell at our feet, and
besought us to save him a whipping; for he said his fault was no great
matter, but that some cloaths of the stewards had been stolen from him
in the bath, and all of them not worth eighteen-pence.
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