Res Gestae

And

But this magnificence and splendour of the assemblies is marred by the rude worthlessness of a few, who do not consider where they were born, but, as if licence were granted to vice, descend to sin and wantonness. For as the lyric poet Simonides tells us,[*](The passage does not occur in the surviving fragments. Plutarch, Demosthenes, 1, attributes the same saying to Euripides, or whoever it was. ) one who is going to live happy and in accord with perfect reason ought above all else to have a glorious fatherland.

Some of these men eagerly strive for statues, thinking that by them they can be made immortal, as if they would gain a greater reward from senseless brazen images than from the consciousness of honourable and virtuous conduct. And they take pains to have them overlaid with gold, a fashion first introduced by Acilius Glabrio,[*](See Livy, xl. 34, 5.) after his skill and his arms had overcome King Antiochus.[*](At Thermopylae in 191 B.C.) But how noble it is, scorning these slight and trivial honours, to aim to tread the long and steep ascent to true glory, as the bard of Ascra expresses it,[*](Hesiod, Works and Days, 289 ff. τῆς δ᾽ ἀρετῆς ἱδρῶτα θεοὶ προπάροιθεν ἔθηκαν | Ἀθάνατοι· μακρὸς δὲ καὶ ὄρθιος οἶμος ἐπ᾽ αὐτὴν, | καὶ τρηχὺς τὸ πρῶτον· ἐπὴν δ᾽ εἰς ἄκρον ἵκηται, | Ῥηιδίη δὴ ἔπειτα πέλει, χαλεπή περ᾽ ἐοῦσα. ) is made clear by Cato the Censor. For when he was asked why he alone among many did not have a

Other men, taking great pride in coaches higher than common and in ostentatious finery of apparel, sweat under heavy cloaks, which they fasten about their necks and bind around their very throats, while the air blows through them because of the excessive lightness of the material; and they lift them up with both hands and wave them with many gestures, especially with their left hands,[*](Probably to display their rings; cf. Pliny, N.H. xxxiii. 9, manus et prorsus sinistrae maximam auctoritatem conciliavere auro. ) in order that the over-long fringes and the tunics embroidered with party-coloured threads in multiform figures of animals may be conspicuous.

Others, though no one questions them, assume a grave expression and greatly exaggerate their wealth, doubling the annual yield of their fields, well cultivated (as they think), of which they assert that they possess a great number from the rising to the setting sun; they are clearly unaware that their forefathers, through whom the greatness of Rome was so far flung, gained renown, not by riches, but by fierce wars, and not differing from the common soldiers in wealth, mode of life, or simplicity of attire, overcame all obstacles by valour.

For that reason the eminent Valerius Publicola was buried by a contribution of money,[*](In 503 B.C.; see Livy, ii. 16, 7.) and through the aid of her husband’s friends[*](Valerius Maximus, iv. 4, 6, says that it was the senate that came to their aid.) the needy wife of

But now-a-days, if as a stranger[*](Ensslin, p. 7 (see Bibliography), refers this to Ammianus; cf. note on 6, 2, above.) of good position you enter for the first time to pay your respects to some man who is well-to-do[*](For bene nummatum, cf. Horace, Epist. i. 6, 38.) and therefore puffed up, at first you will be greeted as if you were an eagerly expected friend, and after being asked many questions and forced to lie, you will wonder, since the man never saw you before, that a great personage should pay such marked attention to your humble self as to make you regret, because of such special kindness, that you did not see Rome ten years earlier.