egenerated from the thoroughness of method that characterized the Roman Empire.
iii. INNS AND ENTERTAINMENT.—Inns, taverns, and places of refreshment certainly existed in numbers along the great roads. Little is known about them, and the little that is known gives no favourable picture of them. Aristides complains of their half-ruinous condition, with leaky ceilings and general discomfort and disagreeable conduct on the part of the owners, on the road from Nea- polis to Dyrrachium. His account suggests that he found the inns on this road poorer than those to which he was accustomed in Asia. To judge from all that is mentioned,—though one must not press too closely the complaint of travellers,—in the less civilized countries they were, as a rule, dirty, ill kept, and badly managed by churlish and ignorant hosts.* Hence wealthier travellers carried their own equipment, and the hospitality of private houses was much sought after.
On the other hand, in the Eastern provinces inns seem to have been much spe and. far more numerous: competition raised the standard of equipment (as Plutarch says, de vit. Pud. 8, p. 532), and the art of innkeeping was very ancient in the province of Asia.+ Epictetus, who origin- ated from Hierapolis in the Lycus valley, speaks of the traveller being tempted to linger jong ina splendid hotel.t The Panhormus which is men- tioned near the summit of the road above the narrow pass of the Cilician Gates, must have been at least a large establishment, though probably more of the nature of a khan (in which only room, but no furniture, § was supplied) than of a hotel ; but at least there can be no doubt that food was supplied, whereas in modern khans nothing but coffee can be procured by the traveller. The present reason for this defect, viz. want of capital or of trading instinct, did not exist in Roman times; but it is mentioned in earlier Greek times,
* Sidonius Apoll. Epist. viii. 11. 3; Pliny, Hist. Nat. ix. 154, xvi. 158; Script. Hist. Aug. Hadr, 16; Plutarch, de San. Pree. 16, p. 130; Dioscor. de Ven. ii. pref., ed. Sprengel, ii. p. 5. All are quoted by Friedlander. See above, p. 384. ;
+ On its antiquity, the writer’s Cities and Bish. of Phrygia, ii. p. 416n., may be consulted.
{ Diss. ii. 23. 36.
§ Not much furnishing, of course, is needed, or would be comfortable, in warm countries.
when the land was poorer (Plutarch, Apophth. Lacon. var. 44).
The fact that Aristides, travelling in Asia be- tween Smyrna and Pergamus,* went to an inn before going to a friend’s house, which Friedliinder rightly notes, may serve as an indication of the superior character of inns in that province, though it must be remembered that he was travelling by night (Or. 27, p. 347ff.). His discontent with the inns in Macedonia on the Egnatian Way shows probably that he was used to better accommoda- tion in Asia (see above, § viii.).
Imperial officials, judges, soldiers on the march, and even municipal magistrates,} had the right to free quarters in the towns through which they passed. They were billeted on residents (though physicians and teachers of grammar, philosophy, and rhetoric were exempted by Vespasian). The behaviour of many of those who enjoyed the right of free quarters was rude and oppressive; and Plutarch (Cat. 12), in describing the modest and courteous behaviour of the younger Cato in this respect, shows by contrast what was done by others. Towns might avoid the burden by erect- ing a public house of entertainment, t as is stated in the inscription published by Waddington, Jnscr. de la Syrie, No. 2524, on which see the remarks of Domaszewski in Mittheil. des Instit. Rom. 1902, p. 333. Such oppressive conduct was frequent, in spite of all attempts to repress it.§ Trajan wrote about it to Pliny (Zpist. 77). Provincial governors were charged by the general imandata of the Em- peror to prevent it.j
Inng, taverns, or houses of better class for the entertainment of high officials (pretoria) were often erected by municipalities: see CIT iii. 6123. Friedliinder, p. 41, quotes Man in Bull. d. Instit. 1882, p. 116 (but it may be a private hospitiwm or inn).
In one respect, however, the ancient inns were almost universally bad. They were little removed in character from houses of ill-fame ; and such are sure (like their owners) to degenerate in general character. The profession of innkeepers was dis- honourable, and their infamous character is often noted in Roman laws.
The story of the birth of St. Theodore of Sykea bears witness to an equally depraved condition of things in the 6th cent. after Christ; and in the Middle Ages the pilgrims to Jerusalem saw no improvement, and found that a decent stranger, if his ship were lying in harbour, would be wise to return to it at night rather than stay in an inn. In ancient writers allusion is often made to the way in which hosts and hostesses tried to in- duce travellers to enter their inns, also to their cheating and shamelessness. Finally, hostesses were often said to practise witchcraft.
The bad character of the inns imparts new meaning and stronger emphasis to the repeated and emphatic references made in early Christian literature to the duty of hospitality.** It was not necessary to recommend this virtue because it was neglected in the society of that period, as, ¢.9., purity and various other virtues are urgently pressed on the attention of the early Christians,