Book 23
6.76
Most of them are extravagantly given to venery, and are hardly contented with a multitude of concubines;Cf. Hdt. i. 135. they are free from immoral relations with boys.So also Curt. x. 1, 26, but according to Hdt. (l.c.), they acquired this vice from the Greeks. Each man according to his means contracts many or few marriages, whence their affection, divided as it is among various objects, grows cold.Cf. Sallust, Jug. 80, 6-7, on the Numidians. They avoid as they would the plague splendid and luxurious banquets, and especially, excessive drinking.Xenophon and Athenaeus do not agree with this.
6.77
Except for the kings’ tables, they have no fixed hours for meal-times, but every man’s belly is, as it were, his sundial;Cf. the parasite in the comedy Boeotia; Gell. iii. 3, 6. when this gives the call, they eat whatever is at hand, and no one, after he is satisfied, loads himself with superfluous food.Cf. Hdt. i. 133.
6.78
They are immensely moderate and cautious, so much so that they sometimes march through an enemy’s gardens and vineyards without coveting or touching anything, through fear of poison or magic arts.
6.79
Besides this, one seldom sees a Persian stop to pass water or step aside in response to a call of nature;Cf. Hdt. i. 133; Xenophon, Cyrop. viii. 8, 11. so scrupulously do they avoid these and other unseemly actions.
