They seem as if they knew nothing of the rest of Rome, as if they despised all other existence.' 'By Pollux! you amaze me.' 'Even those who bathe only thrice a day contrive to consume their lives in this occupation.

They take their exercise in the tennis-court or the porticoes, to prepare them for the first bath; they lounge into the theatre, to refresh themselves after it.

They take their prandium under the trees, and think over their second bath.

By the time it is prepared, the prandium is digested.

From the second bath they stroll into one of the peristyles, to hear some new poet recite: or into the library, to sleep over an old one.