meaning very much broader and less special, than that which it had at
the time when it signified only the material fact of existence. The
voluptuaries of old Rome were by no means convinced that life without
license was life. The women of easy virtue, living within the circle
of their friendships, after the fashion best suited to their desires,
understood that verb only after their own interpretation, and the
philologists soon reconciled themselves to the change. In this sense it
was that Varro employed "vivere," when he said: "Young women, make haste
to live, you whom adolescence permits to enjoy, to eat, to love, and to
occupy the chariot of Venus (Veneris tenere bigas)."

But a still better example of the extension in the meaning of this word
is to be found in an inscription on the tomb of a lady of pleasure. This
inscription was composed by a voluptuary of the school of Petronius.

ALIAE. RESTITVTAE. ANIMAE. DVLCISSIMAE.
BELLATOR. AVG. LIB. CONIVGI. CARISSIMAE.
AMICI. DVM. VIVIMVS. VIVAMUS.

In this inscription, it is almost impossible to translate the last three
words. "While we live, let us live," is inadequate, to say the least.
So far did this doctrine go that latterly it was deemed necessary to have
a special goddess as a patron. That goddess, if we may rely upon the
authority of Festus, took her name "Vitula" from the word "Vita" or from
the joyous life over which she was to preside.




CHAPTER 36. "At the corners of the tray we also noted four figures of