VI. 13 And when in the Circus Flaminius3
(I will not say the consul had been conducted into the assembly by a tribune of
the people, but) the archpirate had been brought in by another robber, he came
first a man of what exceeding dignity, full of wine, sleep, and debauchery! with hair dripping with ointments, with carefully arranged
locks, with heavy eyes, moist cheeks, a husky and drunken voice; and he, a
grave authority, said that he was greatly displeased at citizens having been
executed without having been formally condemned. Where is it that this great
authority has lain hid so long out of our sight? Why has the extraordinary
virtue of this ringletted dunce been wasted so long in scenes of debauchery and
gluttony? For that other man, Caesoninus Calventius, from his youth up has been
habituated to the forum, though, except his assumed and crafty melancholy,
there was no single thing to recommend him,—no knowledge of the law, no skill
in speaking, no knowledge of military affairs or of men, no liberality. And if,
while passing him, you noticed how ungentlemanlike, and rough, and sulky he
looked, though you might think him a barbarian and a boor, still you would not
suppose him to be lascivious and profligate. 14 You would think it made no
difference whether you were standing in the forum with this man, or with a
barbarian from Aethiopia; there he was, in that sense, without flavour, a mute,
slow, uncivilized piece of goods. You would be apt to suppose him a Cappadocian
just escaped out of a lot of slaves for sale. Then, again, how lustful was he
at home,—how impure, how intemperate. He was not like a front-door, open for
the reception of legitimate pleasures, but when he began to devote himself to
literature, and, beastly rather a postern for all sorts of secret
gratification. And glutton that he was, to learn philosophy with the Greeks,
then he became an Epicurean, not because he was really much devoted to that
sect such as it is, but because he was caught by that one expression about
pleasure. And he has masters, none of those foolish fellows who go on for whole
days discussing duty and virtue,—who exhort men to labour, to industry, to
encounter dangers for the sake of their country, but men who argue that no hour
ought to be unoccupied by pleasure; that in every part of the body there ought
always to be some joy and delight to be perceived. 15 He uses his masters as a sort of superintendents of his lusts; they
seek out and scent out all sorts of pleasures; they are the seasoners and
furnishers of his banquets they appraise and value the different pleasures,
they give a formal decision and judgment as to how much indulgence ought to be
allowed to each separate pleasure. He, becoming accomplished in all these arts,
despised this most prudent city to such a degree that he thought that all his
lusts and all his atrocities could be concealed, if he only thrust his ill-omened
face into the forum.
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