Book 4
37
And Posidonius continuing, and relating the riches of Lyernius the father of Bityis, who was subdued by the Romans, says that he, aiming at becoming a leader of the populace, used to drive in a chariot over the plains, and scatter gold and silver among the myriads of Celts who followed him; and that he enclosed a fenced space of twelve furlongs in length every way, square, in which he erected wine-presses, and filled them with expensive liquors; and that he prepared so vast a quantity of eatables that for very many days any one who chose was at liberty to go and enjoy what was there prepared, being waited on without interruption or cessation. And once, when he had issued beforehand invitations to a banquet, some poet from some barbarian tribe came too late and met him on the way, and sung a hymn in which he extolled his magnificence, and bewailed his own misfortune in having come too late: and Lyernius was pleased with his ode, and called for a bag of gold, and threw it to him as he was running by the side of his chariot; and that he picked it up, and then went on singing, saying that his very footprints upon the earth over which he drove produced benefits to men. These now are the accounts of the Celtæ given by Posidonius in the third and in the twentieth books of his History.
38
But in the fifth book, speaking of the Parthians, he says —But a friend who is invited does not share the same table, but sitting on the ground while the king reclines near on a lofty couch, eats whatever is thrown to him from the king, like a dog. And very often he is torn away from his feast on the ground for some trifling cause, and is scourged with rods and knotted whips; and when he is all covered with blood he falls down on his face on the floor, and adores the man who has punished him as his benefactor.
