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.COENA.
first. Hand's discoveries also have added to our knowledge of the later books, and his edition of the Tlieodosian Code, Bonn, 1837, 4to, is the latest and the best.
The extract or epitome of the first five books in the Breviarium is very scanty ; 262 laws, or fragments of laws, were omitted, which the discoveries of Glossitis and Peyron reduced to 200. More recent discoveries by Carlo Baudi a Vesme at Turin will add to the 6th, 8th, 9th, 10th, and 16th books. The Novellae Constitutions anterior to the time of Justinian are collected in six books in the Jus Civile Antpjustinianeum, Berlin, 1815, and in H an el's more recent edition.
The commission of Theodosius was empowered to arrange the constitutiones according to their subject, and under each subject according to the .order of time; to separate those which contained different matter, and to omit what was not essential or superfluous. The arrangement of the Theodosian code differs in the main from that of the code of Justinian, which treats of jus ecclesi-asticum in the beginning, while that of Theodosius in the first book treats chiefly of offices ; and the second, third, fourth, and beginning of the fifth book treat of jus privatum. The order here observed, as well as in the code which it professed to follow as a model, was the order of the writers on the praetorian edict. The eighth book contains the laws as to gifts, the penalties of celibacy, and that relating to the jus libsrorum. The ninth book begins with crimes. The laws relating to the Christian church are contained in the sixteenth and last book. It is obvious from the circumstances under which the Theodosian and Justinian codes were compiled, and from a comparison of them, that the Justinian code was greatly indebted to the Theodosian. TheTheodosian code was also the basis of the edict of Theodoric king of the Ostrogoths ; it was epitomised, with an interpretation, in the Visigoth Lex Romana [breviarium] ; and the Burgundian Lex Romana, commonly called Papiani Liber Responsorum, was founded upon it. [G. L.] CODICILLUS. [codex.] CODON (KcoSwz/), a bell. [tintinnabulum.] COEMPTIO. [matrimonium.] COENA (SetTW)*'), the principal meal of the Greeks and Romans, corresponding to our dinner, rather than supper. As the meals are not always clearly distinguished, it will be convenient to give a brief account of all of them under the present head.
1. greek.—The materials for an account of the Greek meals, during the classical period of Athens and Sparta, are almost confined to incidental allusions of Plato and the comic writers. Several ancient authors, termed SeiTiWAoyo:, are mentioned by Athenaeus ; but,, unfortunately, their writings only survive in the fragments quoted by him. His great work, the Deipnosophists, is an inexhaustible treasury of this kind of knowledge, but ill arranged, and with little attempt to distinguish the customs of different periods.
The poems of Homer contain a real picture of early manners, in every way worthy of the antiquarian's attention. As they stand apart from all other writings, it will be convenient to exhibit in one view the state of things which they describe. It is not to be expected that the Homeric meals at all agree with the customs of a later period ; indeed it would be a mere waste of time to attempt
303
- COENA.
adapting the one to the other. Athenaeus (i. p. 8) who has entered fully into the subject, remarks on the singular simplicity of the Homeric banquets, in which kings and private men all partake of the same food. It was common even for royal personages to prepare their own meals (//. ix. 206 — 218 ; compare Gen. xxvii. 31), and Ulysses (Od. xy. 322) declares himself no mean proficient in the culinary art —
Tlvp t' €v vririffai) 8*a 5e £vAa Saz/a; Aairpevcral re teal OTrrTJffai Kal
Three names of meals occur in the Iliad and Odyssey — ctpio-TW, Seiirvov, SopTrov. This division of the meals is ascribed, in a fragment of Aeschylus quoted by Athenaeus (i. p. 11), to Palamedes. The word frpiffrov uniformly means the early (fyt* f?o?, Od. xvi. 2) as Sopnov does the late meal ; but Seiirvov, on the other hand, is used for either (II. ii. 381, Od. xvii. 170), apparently without any reference to time. We should be careful, however, how we argue from the unsettled habits of a camp to the regular customs of ordinary life.
From numerous passages in the Iliad and Odyssey it appears to have been usual to sit during mealtimes. In the palace of Telemachus, before eating a servant brings Minerva, who is habited as a stranger, the x*Pyity or lustral water " in a golden pitcher, pouring it over a silver vessel." (Od. i. 136.) Beef, mutton, and goat's flesh were the ordinary meats, usually eaten roasted j yet from the lines (//. xxi. 363)
arid\oio,
we learn that boiled meats were held to be far from unsavoury. Cheese, flour, and occasionally fruits j also formed part of the Homeric meals. Bread* brought on in baskets (II. ix. 217), and salt (&As, to which Homer gives the epithet &e?os), are mentioned: from Od. xvii. 455,, the latter appears, even at this early period, to have been a sign of hospitality ; in Od. xi. 122, it is the mark of a strange people not to know its use.
Each guest appears to have had his own table, and he who was first in rank presided over the rest. Menelaus, at the marriage feast of Hermione, begins the banquet by taking in his hands the side of a roasted ox and placing it before his friends* (Od. iv. 65.) At the same entertainment music and dancing are introduced : — " The divine minstrel hymned to the sound of the lyre, and two tumblers (Kv€t(TTr]rrjpe) began the festive strain, wheeling round in the midst." It was not beneath the notions of those early days to stimulate the heroes to battle (II. xii. 311),
y re, Kpeaffiv re, i5e ir\€iois
and Ajax on his return from the contest with Hector is presented by Agamemnon with the
The names of several articles of the festive board occur in the Iliad and Odyssey. Knives, spits, cups of various shapes and sizes, bottles made of goat-skin, casks, &c., are all mentioned. Many sorts of wine were in use among the heroes ; some of Nestor's is remarked on as being eleven years old. The Maronean wine, so called from Maron, a hero, was especially celebrated, and would bear mingling with twenty times its own quantity of water. It may be observed that wine was seldonij if ever, drunk pure. When Nestor and Machaon
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