Sunday, May 19, 2013

Persian Style

Herodotus, Book I, Ch. 132, sections 3 and 4:
Moreover, it is their custom to deliberate about the gravest matters when they are drunk; and what they approve in their deliberations is proposed to them the next day, when they are sober, by the master of the house where they deliberate; and if, being sober, they still approve it, they act on it, but if not, they drop it. And if they have deliberated about a matter when sober, they decide upon it when they are drunk.
Was  the master of the house then not allowed to drink, or did he take notes, or was he chosen for having a harder head? Or, if he was as drunk as the rest, how often did they deliberate sober (and I imagine seriously hung over) on something never actually discussed the night before?

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