The feast passed by degrees into a drunken revel and a dissolute orgy.

The Syrian damsels, who appeared at first in the bacchic dance, mingled now with the guests.

The music changed into a disordered and wild outburst of citharas, lutes, Armenian cymbals, Egyptian sistra, trumpets, and horns.

As some of the guests wished to talk, they shouted at the musicians to disappear.

The air, filled with the odor of flowers and the perfume of oils with which beautiful boys had sprinkled the feet of the guests during the feast, permeated with saffron and the exhalations of people, became stifling; lamps burned with a dim flame; the wreaths dropped sidewise on the heads of guests; faces grew pale and were covered with sweat.