1... think they have one well suited and well arranged, those who have it in the Sallentine country or among the Bruttii, from where they can hardly hear news three times a year. 133Here is the other, coming down from the Palatine and his house; 133he has, for his amusement, a pleasant estate near the city, and several farms besides, yet none that is not splendid and near at hand. 133His house is crammed with Corinthian and Delian vessels, among them that famous self-cooker which he recently bought at so high a price that passers-by who heard the auctioneer calling out the bids thought a farm was being sold. 133What quantity besides of chased silver, of coverlets, of paintings, of statues, of marble, do you suppose he has?
133As much, of course, as could be heaped up in one house from many splendid households amid the confusion and plunder. 133As for his household of slaves, how large it is and with what varied skills, why should I speak of it? 134I pass over these common trades, cooks, bakers, litter-bearers; 134for the pleasure of mind and ear he keeps so many men that the whole neighbourhood rings with the daily music of voices, strings and pipes, and with banquets at night. 134In such a life, gentlemen, what daily expenses, what extravagances do you suppose occur, and what banquets indeed? 134respectable ones, I suppose, in a house of that kind, if this is to be considered a house rather than a workshop of wickedness and a lodging-house of every outrage.
135And the man himself — you see, gentlemen, how, with his hair arranged and drenched in perfume, he flits about all over the forum with a great throng of men in togas; 135you see how he looks down on everyone, how he thinks no one a man compared with himself, how he thinks himself alone fortunate, alone powerful. 135But if I wished to recount what he does and what he attempts, I fear, gentlemen, that some less experienced person might think I had wished to injure the cause and the victory of the nobility. 135And yet I have every right, if anything on this side displeases me, to find fault with it; 135for I do not fear that anyone will think my mind has been hostile to the cause of the nobility.