Smith, William: A smaller dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities (London, 1871)

IIOSPITIUM.

208

IIOSPITIUM.

that a succession of flowers was obtained all
the year round. The Romans, like the
Greeks, laboured under the disadvantage of a
very limited flora. This disadvantage they
endeavoured to overcome, by arranging the
materials they did possess in such a way as
to produce a striking effect. We have a very
full description of a Romfm garden in a
letter of the younger Pliny, in which he de-
scribes his Tuscan villa. In front of the
porticus there was generally a xystus, or flat
piece of ground, divided into flower-beds of
different shapes by borders of box. There
were also such flower-beds in other parts of
the garden. Sometimes they were raised so
as to form terraces, and their sloping sides
planted with evergreens or creepers. The
most striking features of a Roman garden
were lines of large trees, among which the
plane appears to have been a great favourite,
planted in regular order ; alleys or walks (am-
hulatiunes) formed by closely clipped hedges

: of box, yew, cypress, and other evergreens;
, beds of acanthus, rows of fruit-trees, espe-
i cially of vines, with statues, pyramids, foun-
tains, and summer-houses (diaetae). The
trunks of the trees and the parts of the house
or any other buildings which were visible
from the garden, were often covered with
ivy. In one respect the P^oman taste differed
most materially from that of the present day,
namely, in their fondness for the ars topi-
aria, which consisted in tying, twisting, or
cutting trees and shrubs (especially the box)
into the figures of animals, ships, letters, &c.
I Their principal garden-flowers seem to have
j been violets and roses, and they also had the
crocus, narcissus, lily, gladiolus, iris, poppy,
amaranth, and others. Conservatories and
hot-houses are frequently mentioned by Mar-
tial. Flowers and plants were also kept in
the central place of the peristyle [Domus],
on the roofs and in the windows of houses.
I An ornamental garden was also called virida-

Hortus, Garden. (From a Painting at Herculaneum.)

rium, and the gardener topiarius or viridarius.
The common name for a gardener is villicus
or cultor hortorum.

HOSPMUM ((evil, irpofevi'a), hospitality,
was in Greece, as well as at Rome, of a two-
fold nature, either private or public, in so
far as it was either established between in-
dividuals, or between two states. {Hospitium
privatum and hospitium publicum, fei't'a and
7rpoje>/i'a.) In ancient Greece the stranger,
as such (feVos and hostis), was looked upon
as an enemy; but whenever he appeared
among another tribe or nation without any
sign of hostile intentions, he was considered
not only as one who required aid, but as a
suppliant, and Zeus was the protecting deity
of strangers and suppliants (Zevs feVios). On
his arrival, therefore, the stranger was kindly
received, and provided with every thing ne-
cessary to make him comfortable. It seems
to have been customary for the host, on the
departure of the stranger, to break a die
(ao-rpayaAos) in two, one half of which he
himself retained, while the other half was
given to the stranger ; and when at any
future time they or their descendants met,

they had a means of recognising each other,
and the hospitable connection was renewed.
Hospitality thus not only existed between the
persons who had originally formed it, but
was transferred as an inheritance from father
to son. What has been said hitherto, only
refers to hospitium privatum; but of far'
greater importance was the hospitium publi-
cum (n-pofevia, sometimes simply fepi'a) or
public hospitality, which existed between two
states, or between an individual or a family
on the one hand, and a whole state on the
other. Of the latter kind of public hospitality
many instances are recorded, such as that
between the Peisistratids and Sparta, in
which the people of Athens had no share.
The hospitium publicum among the Greeks
arose undoubtedly from the hospitium priv
turn, and it may have originated in two way
AVhen the Greek tribes were governed b
chieftains or kings, the private hospitalit
existing between the ruling families of tw
tribes may have produced similar relatio
between their subjects, which, after the ab
lition of the kingly power, continued to exi
between the new republics as a kind of poli'