there are many exceptional[4] dishes in the shape of game supplied
from the hunting field. Or, as a substitute for these, rich men will
occasionally garnish the feast with wheaten loaves. So that from
beginning to end, till the mess breaks up, the common board is never
stinted for viands, nor yet extravagantly furnished.

[3] See Plut. "Lycurg." 12 (Clough, i. 97).

[4] {paraloga}, i.e. unexpected dishes, technically named {epaikla}
(hors d'oeuvres), as we learn from Athenaeus, iv. 140, 141.

So also in the matter of drink. Whilst putting a stop to all
unnecessary potations, detrimental alike to a firm brain and a steady
gait,[5] he left them free to quench thirst when nature dictated[6]; a
method which would at once add to the pleasure whilst it diminished
the danger of drinking. And indeed one may fairly ask how, on such a
system of common meals, it would be possible for any one to ruin
either himself or his family either through gluttony or wine-bibbing.

[5] Or, "apt to render brain and body alike unsteady."

[6] See "Agesilaus"; also "Mem." and "Cyrop."

This too must be borne in mind, that in other states equals in age,[7]
for the most part, associate together, and such an atmosphere is
little conducive to modesty.[8] Whereas in Sparta Lycurgus was careful
so to blend the ages[9] that the younger men must benefit largely by
the experience of the elder--an education in itself, and the more so
since by custom of the country conversation at the common meal has
reference to the honourable acts which this man or that man may have