Ægina was particularly famous for the manufacture of
sockets only for lamp-stands, as Tarentum was for that of the
branches;[1] the most complete articles were, therefore, produced
by the union of the two. There are persons, too, who
are not ashamed to give for one a sum equal to the salary of
a military tribune,[2] although, as its name indicates, its only
use is to hold a lighted candle. On the sale of one of these
lamp-stands, Theon the public crier announced, that the purchaser
must also take, as part of the lot, one Clesippus, a
fuller, who was hump-backed, and in other respects, of a
hideous aspect. The purchase was made by a female named[3]
Gegania, for fifty thousand sesterces. Upon her exhibiting
these purchases at an entertainment which she gave, the
slave, for the amusement of her guests, was brought in naked.
Conceiving an infamous passion for him, she first admitted
him to her bed, and finally left him all her estate. Having
thus become excessively rich, he adored the lamp-stand as
much as any divinity, and the story became a sort of pendant
to the celebrity of the Corinthian lamp-stands. Still, however,
good morals were vindicated in the end, for he erected a
splendid monument to her memory, and so kept alive the eternal
remembrance of the misconduct of Gegania. But although
it is well known that there are no lamp-stands in existence
made of the Corinthian metal, yet this name is very generally
attached to them, because, in consequence of the victory of
1. candelabra, superficics,
and scapi.—B.
2.
3.
4.