He wasa light eater (for I would not omit even this detail) and as a rule ate of plain food. He particularly liked coarse bread, small fishes, handmade moist cheese, and green figs of the second crop; and he would eat even before dinner, wherever and whenever he felt hungry. I quote word for word from some of his letters: “I ate a little bread and some dates in my carriage.” And again: “As I was on my homeward way from the Regia’ in my litter, 1 devoured an ounce of bread and a few berries from a cluster of hard-fleshed grapes.” ® Once more: « Not even a Jew, my dear Tiberius, fasts so scrupulously on his sabbaths as I have to-day; for it was not until after the first hour of the night that I ate two mouthfuls of bread in the bath before I began to be anointed.” Because of this irregularity he sometimes ate alone either before a dinner party began or after it was over, touching nothing while it was in progress.