APOPHORE´TA
APOPHORE´TA
1. (
ἀποφόρητα), presents which were given
to friends at the end of an entertainment, to take home with them. (Petron.
56; Ambros.
Exhort. Virg. 1.) Although the name is Greek, the
custom is Roman, for Athenaeus expressly tells us that when Cleopatra
presented to Antony and his staff the gold and silver dinner service which
they had been using at a banquet in Cilicia, she was imitating a Roman usage
(
Athen. 4.148 a; vi. p. 229 c); and the
other instances on record of
apophoreta belong
to Roman society, and to the times of the Empire. The 14th Book of Martial
consists of an introductory epigram and 222 distichs, each describing and
designed to accompany one of these presents, which range from nuts to works
of art and slaves. The first epigram speaks of the Saturnalia as the special
time for their distribution. So Vespasian used to present them to men on the
Saturnalia, to women on the Matronalia. (Suet.
Vesp. 19;
Aug. 75.) They were also given at weddings (
Juv. 6.203, Schol.). Caligula gave 2,000,000
sesterces to the circus charioteer Eutychus
in
apophoretis (Suet.
Calig. 55). Symmachus
(
Ep. 2.81, 5.56, 9.119, Migne) uses
apophoreta and
apophoreticum for
presents made on other occasions.
2. (
ἀποφορήτη), mentioned by Isidore
(
Orig. 20.4) as a kind of plate
a
Graecis a ferendo poma vel aliquid nominata, est enim plana. .
[
J.H.F]
