This was a risky decision, since Vienna, despite its reputation as a festival of scientific and cultural confections, allowed for such brazen pursuit of pleasure that one of its favorite sons, the playwright Franz Grillparzer, called it “the Capua of the mind.” It was in the wealthy Italian town of Capua that Hannibal’s troops had abandoned themselves to reckless overindulgence, rendering them unfit for further warmongering and eventually bringing an end to the Second Punic War.
