JUVENAL, SATIRE I
rampant? When did the maw of Avarice gape wider? When was gambling so reckless? Men come not now with purses to the hazard of the gaming table, but with a treasure-chest beside them. What battles will you there see waged with a steward for armour-bearer! Is it a simple form of madness to lose a hundred thousand sesterces, and not have a shirt to give to a shivering slave? Which of our grandfathers built such numbers of villas, or dined by himself off seven courses? Look now at the meagre dole set down upon the threshold for a toga-clad mob to scramble for! The patron first peers into your face, fearing that you may be claiming under someone else's name; once recognised, you will get your share. He then bids the crier call up the Trojan-blooded nobles— for they too besiege the door as well as we: "The Praetor first," says he, "and after him the Tribune." "But I was here first," says a freedman who stops the way; "why should I be afraid, or hesitate to keep my place? Though born on the Euphrates—a fact which the little windows in my ears would testify though I myself denied it—yet I am the owner of five shops which bring me in four hundred thousand sesterces.[1] What better thing does the Broad Purple[2] bestow if a Corvinus[3] herds sheep for daily wage in the Laurentian country, while I possess more property than either a Pallas or a Licinus?"[4] So let the Tribunes await their turn; let money carry the day; let the sacred office[5] give way to one who came but yesterday with whitened[6] feet into
- ↑ The fortune required of a knight (the census equestris) was 400,000 sesterces.
- ↑ The broad purple stripe (latus clavus) on the tunic of senators.
- ↑ One of an ancient Roman family.
- ↑ Pallas and Licinus were wealthy freedmen.
- ↑ The persons of the Tribunes of the Plebs were sacrosanct.
- ↑ Slaves imported for sale had white chalk-marks on their feet.
