midday
At last she took the stool inlaid with amber and ivory , on which Petronius had been sitting a short time before , and put it carefully at his statue . The unctorium was full of sunlight and the hues which came from the many-colored marbles with which the wall was faced . Eunice stood on the stool , and , finding herself at the level of the statue , cast her arms suddenly around its neck ; then , throwing back her golden hair , and pressing her rosy body to the white marble , she pressed her lips with ecstasy to the cold lips of Petronius . After a refreshment , which was called the morning meal and to which the two friends sat down at an hour when common mortals were already long past their midday prandium , Petronius proposed a light doze . According to him , it was too early for visits yet . `` There are , it is true , '' said he , `` people who begin to visit their acquaintances about sunrise , thinking that custom an old Roman one , but I look on this as barbarous . The afternoon hours are most proper , -- not earlier , however , than that one when the sun passes to the side of Jove 's temple on the Capitol and begins to look slantwise on the Forum .