redit to his own
historian, Flavius Vopiscus. He used to make ambassadors, that came to
him from foreign powers, drunk, in order, by that means, to discover
their secret instructions.

Maximin[6], the father, drank very often a pot containing two gallons.
One might very well, therefore, have given him this epitaph:--

Hic jacet amphora vini.

Trajan and Nerva, those excellent princes, took sometimes a pleasure in
getting drunk.

Galerius Maximinus, who, according to Aurelius Victor, was a prince of
sweet temper, and loved men of probity and letters, had a very great
passion for wine, and frequently got drunk. Having once given orders
when he was in this condition, which he repented of when sober, he
solemnly forbad any one to obey such orders that he should give when he
should get drunk for the future.

[[Footnote a: Claudian, _De Quarto Consulatu Honorii Augusti_
(VIII) 300.]]

[Footnote 1: Esprit de Pat. p. 22.]

[[Footnote 1a: Ovid, _Metamosphoses_ XV.323.]]

[Footnote 2: Plautus.] [[_Pseudolus_ 1286-87.]]

[[Footnote 2a: Plautus, _Amphitryon_ 1007; _Amphitryon_ 999.]]

[Footnote 3: Ant. Lect. lib. iii.]

[Footnote 4: Juvenal, satire x. v. 220.] [[i.e. 219-221.]]

[Footnote 5: AElian, chap. 6.]

[Footnote 6: J. Capitolin.]

CHAP. XIII.

OF PHILOSOPHERS THAT USED TO GET DRUNK.

Though the example and authority of Philosophers prove nothing, yet one
must not imagine with Boileau,

"---------------- Que sans Aristote,
La raison ne voit goute, et le bon sens redote."

That reason, void of Aristotle's rule,
Insipid grows, good sense a doating fool.

It is, however, very true, that we shall find ourselves wonderfully
disposed to get fuddled, when we consider that those of antiquity,
for whom we have most respect and veneration, have made no manner of
difficulty to get drunk sometimes, and have praised drunkenness not only
by their actions but discourse. This I am going plainly to make appear.
I begin with the Seven Sages of Greece, who were acknowledged as such by
all antiquity. These philosophers did not look upon drunkenness as a
thing incompatible with virtue, of which they made strict profession.
History tells us, that they drank largely at the entertainment Periander
the Tyrant, or king of Corinth, gave them.

Solon, that famous, yet so rigid, legislator of the Athenians, composed
a song in the praise of wine, in which he introduc