Commentaria in Esther
5. Which was planted with a royal care and the hand of man.—For Cicero, in the book On Old Age, testifies that Cyrus king of the Persians tilled fields and gardens with his own hand. For he says: “When Lysander admired the height of the trees, and the rows set in quincunx, and the soil tilled and clean, and the sweetness of the odours breathed from the flowers, he said that he marvelled not only at the diligence but also at the skill of the man by whom those things had been measured out and laid down; and Cyrus replied to him: I myself measured them; the rows are mine, the plan is mine, and many of these trees were planted by my own hand.”
6. And there hung on every side pavilions.—Verse 6, Of sky colour (so it must be read, not “wax” or “golden”), and white, and hyacinth.—By pavilions understand tapestries and hangings stretched on poles and trees in the garden, both for ornament and to shelter the guests from sun, rain and wind. These were “of sky colour,” that is, white, as the Hebrew, Pagninus and Vatablus have it. For the air, being transparent and bright with light, appears white.
And white (carbasina), in Hebrew carpas, that is, green. Hence many think that we should read here carpasina (the letter b being changed into the kindred p, as often happens), as the Septuagint has it, that is, green. For this colour wonderfully refreshes the eyes. So the Hebrews, Serarius, Sanchez, Pagninus, Vatablus, Marinus and others. Some, from the likeness of the word, suspect that carbasinum is scarlet, which in the vernacular they call carmosinum. For the Hebrew carpas is found only in this place, and so its genuine meaning is unknown. But the former explanation, that the carpasine colour is green, is favoured by the fact that the Arabs still call garden celery (parsley), which is supremely green, Carfs, which is the same as the Hebrew Carpas, as Matthiolus writes from Abu-Ezra in his Dioscorides, book II, chapter lxix. Hence also parsley (petroselinum) is so named, as if the celery of rocks: for it grows better among rocks, according to Pliny, book XX, chapter xii. The carpasine colour, then, is one thing, namely green; the carbasine properly so called is another; for this is white, so called from carbasus, which is a linen of wonderful fineness, and therefore whitish, according to Pliny, book XIX, chapter i. There is also the herb carphos, which by another name is called buceras from the likeness to the horns of an ox, of which Pliny, book XXIV, chapter xix, which is likewise green.
Of ivory.—In Hebrew, of silver. So also the Septuagint and the Chaldee.
Beds also of gold and silver.—Note that the ancients first used seats and sat at table (as we now sit), as is plain from Genesis xliii, verse 33, and from Philo in the book On the Life of Joseph, and Athenaeus, book the first. Hence in Homer’s Odyssey the guests are everywhere said to sit at table. Afterwards, however, the Jews, Persians, Greeks, Romans, and almost all nations used reclining at dinner and at the midday meal; so that they dined more softly, not so much sitting as lying on couches, and after taking food rested in them or even dozed: for a body wearied with labour is better refreshed and rests more by lying than by sitting. The form of reclining was this. The guests reclined with the upper part of the body leaning on the left elbow, the lower part stretched out at length and lying on the couch, the head slightly raised, the back moderately supported by cushions. On each couch three or four reclined in this fashion, that the feet of him who reclined in the highest place were stretched out beside the one in the second place, and the feet of the second beside the one reclining third, and so on. Again, the head of him who reclined second was turned toward the navel or breast of the first; and the rest reclined likewise in turn. Hence we understand how St. John at Christ’s last supper lay on his breast, as in his bosom; and how holy Magdalen, standing behind Christ as he reclined at table, could wash his feet. Hence, finally, it is clear what a triclinium means, namely the place of refection, in which commonly three couches stood around the table. Hence likewise these table couches were called thori, stibadia, thoralia, accubitalia, which are found everywhere in Cicero, Pliny, Athenaeus, Seneca, Virgil and others. See Ciaconius, Fulgentius, Ursinus and others on the Triclinium.
Upon the pavement.—Therefore on the pavement, on the ground, the Persians dined and supped, after the manner of the Orientals, just as Judith did, chapter xii, verse 19, as is plain from the Greek: for no mention is made here of any other table.
Parian.—That is, white marble from the island of Paros; which is more excellent and precious than the rest.
Painting.—Rising up woven and inlaid from a variety of stones, in a work like mosaic. These stones are called in Hebrew dar and socharet; what they were is unknown.
7. And they that were invited drank in golden cups, and the meats were brought in diverse vessels one after another.—The ancient Persians under Cyrus and before Cyrus were quite frugal in food and drink; and, as Xenophon says, book I of the Cyropaedia, they had “for food bread, for relish cress, for drink the water of the river.” Hence Cicero, Tusculan Disputations I: “The diet of the Persians,” he says, “is set out by Xenophon, who says they used nothing with their bread but cress.” Hence they came out hardy and strong for labours and wars, by which they obtained the kingdom and monarchy, which they lost when gluttony and luxury grew strong. On the temperance of the ancient Persians and the luxury of their descendants, see Xenophon, book VIII;
Certainly in the Saturnalia Macrobius says that the table of the ancients was sacred, and that the ancients first made mention of the deity, then offered prayers for the guests, and after the prayer used the dishes with modesty. Serinus in Stobaeus says that the kings of the Persians disputed of modesty before food and of temperance before drink. Indeed Augustus, too, gave banquets with only three courses, as Suetonius attests in his Life, chapter xiv, when the guests began to dine, before he reclined, and remained after he had gone. He gave dinner with three courses; or, when most lavish, with six, not at excessive expense, yet with the greatest courtesy. For he also drew the silent, or those speaking in low voices, into the common conversation, and interposed either entertainments and actors, or even street shows from the circus, and very frequently aretalogists, that is, gentle speakers. Servius, on book I of the Aeneid, says that the ancients used only two courses.
Add: the ancients mixed wise and serious conversation at table, as is plain from Athenaeus on the Banquets of the Wise; they were therefore sober, and took care lest, drunk, they should say something foolish. Hence M. Varro fixes the number of guests by this law: “Not fewer than the Graces, nor more numerous than the Muses,” says Macrobius, book I of the Saturnalia, chapter iv. Now the Graces are three, the Muses nine. The same Macrobius, book VII: “So,” he says, “one must philosophise at table that the bowls of liquor born for gladness (wine) be tempered by the admixture not only of the Nymphs but also of the Muses, etc.; since words cheer a feast no less than the sweetness of wine.”