When the games, gladiatorial shows, and beast-fights, which lasted for the thirty days devoted to spectacles, were over, for the first five succeeding days every one who chose anointed himself in the gymnasium with saffron ointment out of gold jars: of those there were fifteen, and there were the same number of jars with ointment of cinnamon and spikenard. On the succeeding days ointments of fenugreek, marjoram, and orris were brought in, all of exquisite perfume.
For banqueting there were sometimes a thousand tables laid and sometimes fifteen hundred, all furnished with most costly viands. All the arrangements were made by the king in person. He rode on a sorry pony along the procession, ordering it to advance or halt as the case might be.
Walbank Commentary