§14.83ponitur: inde autem cum se matura levavit §14.84progenies, stimulante fame festinat ad illam §14.85quam primum praedam rupto gustaverat ovo. §14.86Aedificator erat Cretonius et modo curvo §14.87litore Caietae, summa nunc Tiburis arce, §14.88nunc Praenestinis in montibus alta parabat §14.89culmina villarum graecis longeque petitis §14.90marmoribus vincens Fortunae atque Herculis aedem, §14.91ut spado vincebat Capitolia nostra Posides. §14.92dum sic ergo habitat Cretonius, inminuit rem, §14.93fregit opes, nec parva tamen mensura relictae §14.94partis erat: totam hanc turbavit filius amens, §14.95dum meliore novas attollit marmore villas. §14.96Quidam sortiti metuentem sabbata patrem §14.97nil praeter nubes et caeli numen adorant, §14.98nec distare putant humana carne suillam, §14.99qua pater abstinuit, mox et praeputia ponunt; §14.100Romanas autem soliti contemnere leges §14.101Iudaicum ediscunt et servant ac metuunt ius, §14.102tradidit arcano quodcumque volumine Moyses, §14.103non monstrare vias eadem nisi sacra colenti, §14.104quaesitum ad fontem solos deducere verpos. §14.105sed pater in causa, cui septima quaeque fuit lux §14.106ignava et partem vitae non attigit ullam. §14.107Sponte tamen iuvenes imitantur cetera, solam §14.108inviti quoque avaritiam exercere iubentur. §14.109fallit enim vitium specie virtutis et umbra, §14.110cum sit triste habitu vultuque et veste severum, §14.111nec dubie tamquam frugi laudetur avarus, §14.112tamquam parcus homo et rerum tutela suarum §14.113certa magis quam si fortunas servet easdem §14.114Hesperidum serpens aut Ponticus.
is placed; from there, however, when the mature offspring has raised itself, urged by hunger, it hastens to that prey which it had first tasted when the egg was broken. Cretonius was a builder, and now on the curved shore of Caieta, now on the highest citadel of Tibur, now on the Praenestine mountains, he was preparing the high roofs of villas, with Greek and far-fetched marbles, surpassing the temple of Fortune and of Hercules, just as the eunuch Posides surpassed our Capitolia. While Cretonius thus inhabited, therefore, he diminished his estate and broke his wealth; yet no small measure of the left-over part remained: all this his mad son threw into confusion, while he raised up new villas with better marble. Some, having obtained a father who fears the sabbath, worship nothing except the clouds and the divinity of heaven, nor do they think that swine's flesh, from which their father abstained, differs from human flesh, and soon they also lay aside their foreskins; accustomed, moreover, to despise the Roman laws, they learn and keep and fear the Jewish law, whatever Moses handed down in his secret volume: not to show the way except to one worshiping the same sacred things, to lead only the circumcised to the sought-for fountain. But the father is the cause, to whom every seventh day was idle and did not touch any part of life. Of their own accord, however, the youth imitate the other things; only avarice are they commanded to practice even against their will. For the vice deceives under the appearance and shadow of virtue, since it is gloomy in demeanor, and severe in face and dress, and without doubt the avaricious man is praised as if he were frugal, as a sparing man and a surer guardian of his own things than if the serpent of the Hesperides or of Pontus should guard those same fortunes.
adde quod hunc de §14.115quo loquor egregium populus putat adquirendi §14.116artificem; quippe his crescunt patrimonia fabris, §14.117sed crescunt quocumque modo, maioraque fiunt §14.118incude adsidua semperque ardente camino. §14.119Et pater ergo animi felices credit avaros; §14.120qui miratur opes, qui nulla exempla beati; §14.121pauperis esse putat, iuvenes hortatur ut illa §14.122ire via pergant et eidem incumbere sectae, §14.123sunt quaedam vitiorum elementa, his protinus illos §14.124inbuit et cogit minimas ediscere sordes; §14.125mox adquirendi docet insatiabile votum. §14.126servorum ventres modio castigat iniquo §14.127ipse quoque esuriens, neque enim omnia sustinet umquam §14.128mucida caerulei panis consumere frusta, §14.129hesternum solitus medio servare minutal §14.130Septembri nec non differre in tempora cenae §14.131alterius conchem aestivam cum parte lacerti §14.132signatam vel dimidio putrique siluro, §14.133filaque sectivi numerata includere porri. §14.134invitatus ad haec aliquis de ponte negabit. §14.135sed quo divitias haec per tormenta coactas, §14.136cum furor haut dubius, cum sit manifesta phrenesis, §14.137ut locuples moriaris, egentis vivere fato? §14.138interea pleno cum turget sacculus ore, §14.139crescit amor nummi quantum ipsa pecunia crevit, §14.140et minus hanc optat qui non habet, ergo paratur
Add that the people think this man, of whom I speak, an excellent craftsman of acquiring; indeed, patrimonies grow by these smiths, but they grow by whatever means, and become larger with the constant anvil and the ever-burning furnace. And the father, therefore, believes the avaricious to be happy in mind; he who admires wealth, who thinks there are no examples of a happy poor man, exhorts the youth to proceed to go by that way and to apply themselves to the same sect. There are certain elements of vices; with these he immediately imbues them and compels them to learn the smallest meannesses; soon he teaches the insatiable desire of acquiring. He chastises the bellies of his slaves with an unfair measure, himself also hungering, for he never endures to consume all the moldy crusts of blue bread, accustomed to preserve yesterday's mincemeat in the middle of September, and also to defer to the time of another dinner the summer beans with a part of a lacertus-fish, sealed, or half of a rotten catfish, and to shut in the counted threads of cut leek. Anyone from the bridge, invited to these, will refuse. But to what purpose are riches gathered through these torments, since it is a certain madness, since it is a manifest frenzy, to live with the fate of a needy man so that you may die rich? Meanwhile, when the purse swells with full mouth, the love of money grows as much as the money itself has grown, and he who does not have it desires it less.
§14.141altera villa tibi, cum rus non sufficit unum, §14.142et proferre libet fines maiorque videtur §14.143et melior vicina seges, mercaris et hanc et §14.144arbusta et densa montem qui canet oliva §14.145quorum si pretio dominus non vincitur ullo, §14.146nocte boves macri lassoque famelica collo §14.147iumenta ad virides huius mittentur aristas, §14.148nec prius inde domum quam tota novalia saevos §14.149in ventres abeant, ut credas falcibus actum. §14.150dicere vix possis quam multi talia plorent §14.151et quot venales iniuria fecerit agros §14.152Sed qui sermones, quam foedae bucina famae! §14.153quid nocet haec?
inquit, ‘tunicam mihi malo lupini
Therefore, another villa is prepared for you, when one estate does not suffice, and it pleases you to extend your borders, and the neighboring crop seems larger and better; you buy both this and the orchards and the mountain that is white with dense olive trees. If the owner is not overcome by any price of these, by night your lean oxen and hungry beasts with tired necks will be sent into his green cornfields, nor will they go back home from there before all the crops go down into their cruel bellies, so that you would believe it was done by sickles. You could hardly say how many bewail such things and how many fields injury has made for sale. "But what talk, how foul a trumpet of rumor!" "What does this harm?" he says.
§14.154quam si me toto laudet vicinia pago §14.155exigui ruris paucissima farra secantem. ’ §14.156scilicet et morbis et debilitate carebis, §14.157et luctum et curam effugies, et tempora vitae §14.158longa tibi posthac fato meliore dabuntur, §14.159si tantum culti solus possederis agri §14.160quantum sub Tatio populus Romanus arabat. §14.161mox etiam fractis aetate ac Punica passis §14.162proelia vel Pyrrhum inmanem gladiosque Molossos §14.163tandem pro multis vix iugera bina dabantur §14.164vulneribus; merces haec sanguinis atque laboris §14.165nullis visa umquam meritis minor, aut ingratae
"I prefer a lupine pod than if the neighborhood in the whole village should praise me reaping a very small harvest of a tiny field." To be sure, you will be free from diseases and weakness, and you will escape grief and care, and long times of life will be given to you hereafter with a better fate, if you alone possess as much cultivated land as the Roman people used to plow under Tatius. Soon, even to those broken by age and having suffered the Punic wars or the dread Pyrrhus and the Molossian swords, at last, in return for many wounds, scarcely two iugera were given; this reward of blood and labor was never seen as less than any merits, or of an ungrateful country.