1No one at his dinner parties ever heard any entertainment other than a reader, which we at least consider most delightful; 1and never was dinner eaten at his house without some reading, so that his guests were delighted no less in mind than in stomach: for he invited those whose characters did not differ from his own. 2When so great an addition had been made to his money, he changed nothing of his daily style of living, nothing of his habits of life, and he showed such moderation that neither with two million sesterces, which he had received from his father, did he live in too little splendour, nor with ten million did he live more lavishly than he had begun, and he stood at the same level in either fortune.
3He had no pleasure gardens, no costly villa on the outskirts of the city or by the sea, nor any country estate in Italy except those at Arretium and Nomentum, and all the revenue of his money came from his properties in Epirus and in the city. 3From this it can be seen that he was accustomed to measure the use of money not by its quantity but by reason.