origin of the custom of appointing an _arbiter bibendi_. -- ET IS SERMO
etc.: 'and the kind of talk in which following the fashion of our fathers
we engage, beginning at the upper table, as the cup goes round'. The cup
circulated from left to right, not, as with us, from right to left. The
guests at a Roman dinner reclined on three couches, placed at three tables;
two of the couches (_lecti_) were parallel, and the third was at right
angles to the other two. The _lectus_ at which the cup began to circulate
was _summus_, the next _medius_, the last _imus_. For a _summo_ cf. _da
(sc. bibere) a summo_ in Plaut. Asin. 5, 2, 41. See Becker's Gallus, p. 471
_et seq_. -- SICUT ... EST: 'as we find'; so Off. 1, 32 _ut in fabulis
est_, and often. -- IN SYMPOSIO: 2, 26. -- MINUTA: see n. on 52. --
RORANTIA: here with an active sense, 'besprinkling', representing
επιψεκαζειν in Xenophon; often however not different in sense from
_'roscida'_. -- REFRIGERATIO ... HIBERNUS: cf. closely 57 _ubi et seq_.
Note the changes of expression in passing from _refrigeratio_ to _sol_
(_apricatio_ would have more exactly corresponded with _refrigeratio_) and
from _aestate_ to _hibernus_ (for _hieme_). -- IN SABINIS: 'when with the
Sabines', who were celebrated for their simplicity of life. Cato had an
estate in the Sabine district. -- CONVIVIUM VICINORUM COMPLEO: 'I make up
(_i.e._ to the proper number) a company of my neighbors'. -- QUOD ...
PRODUCIMUS: 'and we continue our companionship to as late an hour as we
can, with changing talk'. The phrases _multa nocte_ or _de nocte_ 'late in
the night', _multo die_ 'late in the day', are common; cf. also Att. 13, 9,
1 _multus sermo ad multum diem_; Rep. 6, 10 _sermonem in multam noctem
produximus_.

47. AT: so in 21, where see n. -- QUASI TITILLATIO: the _quasi_, as often
in Cicero's writings, marks a translation from the Greek. Here the
Epicurean word γαργαλισμος is referred to; it is often in Cic. represented
by _titillatio_; cf. N.D. 1, 113; Fin. 1, 39; Tusc. 3, 47. -- BENE: _sc.