Book 10
12
The people of Pharsalus also are ridiculed by the comic poets as being enormous eaters; accordingly Mnesimachus, in his Philip, says— A. Has any man of the Pharsalians come, That he may eat up e'en our very tables? B. There's no one come at all. A. So much the better; Perhaps they have all gone somewhere else to eat Some city of Achaīa ready roasted. And that it was a general imputation on all the Thessalians, that they were great eaters, Crates tells us in his Lamia, saying— Great words three cubits long, Cut into huge Thessalian slices thus:— and he by this alludes to the Thessalians as cutting their meat into overgrown pieces. And Philetærus, in his Lampbearers, says also— And a huge piece of pork, enough to break One's arm, cut in the coarse Thessalian fashion. They used to speak also of a Thessalian mouthful, as something enormous. Hermippus says in his Fates— But Jupiter, considering nought of this, Wink'd, and made up a huge Thessalian mouthful. And such great bits of meat Aristophanes, in his Men Frying, calls Capanic, saying— What is all this To the great Lydian and Thessalian banquets? And presently he says— More splendid (καπανικώτερα) far than the Thessalian; meaning big enough to load a wagon. For the Thessalians use the word καπάνη as equivalent to ἀπήνη. Xenarchus, in his Scythians, says— A. They kept to seven Capanæ for the games At Pisa. B. What do you mean? A. In Thessaly They call their carts Capanæ. B. I understand.
