§46habitauit primo in Subura modicis aedibus, post autem pontificatum maximum in Sacra uia domo publica.
At first he lived in the Subura in a modest house, but after his appointment as chief priest, in a public house on the Sacred Way.
munditiarum lautitiarumque studiosissimum multi prodiderunt: uillam in Nemorensi a fundamentis incohatam magnoque sumptu absolutam, quia non tota ad animum ei responderat, totam diruisse, quanquam tenuem adhuc et obaeratum; in expeditionibus tessellata et sectilia pauimenta circumtulisse; §47Britanniam petisse spe margaritarum, quarum amplitudinem conferentem interdum sua manu exegisse pondus; gemmas, toreumata, signa, tabulas operis antiqui semper animosissime comparasse; seruitia rectiora politioraque inmenso pretio, et cuius ipsum etiam puderet, sic ut rationibus uetaret inferri; §48conuiuatum assidue per prouincias duobus tricliniis, uno quo sagati palliatiue, altero quo togati cum inlustrioribus prouinciarum discumberent.
Many have reported that he was extremely fond of neatness and luxury: namely, that he completely demolished a villa at Nemi, which had been begun from the foundations and finished at great expense, because it had not suited his taste in every detail, although he was still of slender means and heavily in debt; that on his expeditions he carried around with him checkered and sectile marble pavements; that he invaded Britain in the hope of finding pearls, whose size he would sometimes compare and test the weight of with his own hand; that he always most eagerly purchased gems, engraved vessels, statues, and paintings of ancient workmanship; and that he bought well-built and highly polished slaves at an immense price, of which he himself was so ashamed that he forbade it to be entered in his accounts; that he feasted constantly in the provinces at two tables, at one of which sat those who wore the military cloak or Greek mantle, and at the other, those in the toga along with the more illustrious men of the provinces.
domesticam disciplinam in paruis ac maioribus rebus diligenter adeo seuereque rexit, ut pistorem alium quam sibi panem conuiuis subicientem compedibus uinxerit, libertum gratissimum ob adulteratam equitis Romani uxorem, quamuis nullo querente, capitali poena adfecerit.
He regulated his domestic discipline with such care and severity in matters both small and great, that he bound in fetters a baker who served the guests with bread different from his own, and punished with death a favorite freedman for committing adultery with the wife of a Roman knight, although no one made a complaint.
§49Pudicitiae eius famam nihil quidem praeter Nicomedis contubernium laesit, graui tamen et perenni obprobrio et ad omnium conuicia exposito.
Nothing indeed injured his reputation for chastity except his intimacy with Nicomedes, but that was a heavy and lasting stain, and exposed him to the insults of all.
omitto Calui Licini notissimos uersus:
Bithynia quicquid
et pedicator Caesaris umquam habuit. praetereo actiones Dolabellae et Curionis patris, in quibus eum Dolabella 'paelicem reginae, spondam interiorem regiae lecticae,' at Curio 'stabulum Nicomedis et Bithynicum fornicem' dicunt. missa etiam facio edicta Bibuli, quibus proscripsit collegam suum Bithynicam reginam, eique antea regem fuisse cordi, nunc esse regnum.
I pass over the very well-known verses of Licinius Calvus: "Whatever Bithynia and Caesar’s sodomite ever possessed." I bypass the speeches of Dolabella and the elder Curio, in which Dolabella calls him "the queen's concubine, the inner frame of the royal litter," and Curio calls him "Nicomedes' brothel and the Bithynian stew." I also pass over the edicts of Bibulus, in which he proscribed his colleague as "the queen of Bithynia," saying that previously he had loved a king, but now a kingdom.
quo tempore, ut Marcus Brutus refert, Octauius etiam quidam ualitudine mentis liberius dicax conuentu maximo, cum Pompeium regem appellasset, ipsum reginam salutauit. sed C. Memmius etiam ad cyathum †et ui Nicomedi stetisse obicit, cum reliquis exoletis, pleno conuiuio, accubantibus nonnullis urbicis negotiatoribus, quorum refert nomina.
At which time, as Marcus Brutus relates, one Octavius, a man whose mental condition made him rather free-spoken, in a very large assembly, after calling Pompey "king," greeted Caesar himself as "queen." But Gaius Memmius also charges him with having stood as a cup-bearer to Nicomedes and having submitted to his lust, along with the rest of the pathics, at a crowded banquet, in the presence of several merchants of the city, whose names he gives.
Cicero uero non contentus in quibusdam epistulis scripsisse a satellitibus eum in cubiculum regium eductum in aureo lecto ueste purpurea decubuisse floremque aetatis a Venere orti in Bithynia contaminatum, quondam etiam in senatu defendenti ei Ny sae causam, filiae Nicomedis, beneficiaque regis in se commemoranti: 'remoue,' inquit, 'istaec, oro te, quando notum est, et quid ille tibi et quid illi tute dederis. '
Gallico denique triumpho milites eius inter cetera carmina, qualia currum prosequentes ioculariter canunt, etiam illud uulgatissimum pronuntiauerunt:
Gallias Caesar subegit, Nicomedes Caesarem:
ecce Caesar nunc triumphat qui subegit Gallias,
Nicomedes non triumphat qui subegit Caesarem. §50pronum et sumptuosum in libidines fuisse constans opinio est, plurimasque et illustres feminas corrupisse, in quibus Postumiam Serui Sulpici, Lolliam Auli Gabini, Tertullam Marci Crassi, etiam Cn. Pompei Muciam.
Indeed Cicero, not content with having written in certain letters that Caesar, led by attendants into the royal bedchamber, lay on a golden couch draped in purple, and that the flower of his youth, derived from Venus, was defiled in Bithynia, on one occasion, when Caesar was defending the cause of Nysa, daughter of Nicomedes, in the senate, and recounting the king’s favors toward him, remarked: "Remove those matters, I pray you, since it is well known both what he gave to you, and what you yourself gave to him." Finally, in his Gallic triumph, his soldiers, among other verses such as they sing in jest while following the chariot, chanted also this most celebrated one: "Caesar subdued the Gauls, Nicomedes subdued Caesar; Behold, Caesar now triumphs, who subdued the Gauls, Nicomedes does not triumph, who subdued Caesar." The general opinion is that he was prone to lust and extravagant in it, and that he seduced very many illustrious women, among whom were Postumia, wife of Servius Sulpicius, Lollia, wife of Aulus Gabinius, Tertulla, wife of Marcus Crassus, and also Mucia, wife of Gnaeus Pompey.
nam certe Pompeio et a Curionibus patre et filio et a multis exprobratum est, quod cuius causa post tres liberos exegisset uxorem et quem gemens Aegisthum appellare consuesset, eius postea filiam potentiae cupiditate in matrimonium recepisset.
For indeed Pompey was reproached both by the elder and younger Curio and by many others, because he had afterwards married, out of desire for power, the daughter of a man on whose account he had divorced his wife after three children, and whom he had been accustomed to call "Aegisthus" with a sigh.
sed ante alias dilexit Marci Bruti matrem Seruiliam, cui et proximo suo consulatu sexagiens sestertium margaritam mercatus est et bello ciuili super alias donationes amplissima praedia ex auctionibus hastae minimo addixit; cum quidem plerisque uilitatem mirantibus facetissime Cicero: 'quo melius,' inquit, 'emptum sciatis, tertia deducta'; existimabatur enim Seruilia etiam filiam suam Tertiam Caesari conciliare.
But above all others he loved Servilia, the mother of Marcus Brutus, for whom both in his first consulship he bought a pearl for six million sesterces, and in the civil war, besides other gifts, knocked down to her very extensive estates at public auction for a trivial sum; when, indeed, as many were wondering at the low price, Cicero remarked most wittily: "That you may know it is a better bargain, the third (Tertia) was deducted"; for Servilia was believed to be prostituting her own daughter Tertia also to Caesar.
§51ne prouincialibus quidem matrimoniis abstinuisse uel hoc disticho apparet iactato aeque a militibus per Gallicum triumphum:
urbani, seruate uxores: moechum caluom adducimus.
That he did not abstain from marriages in the provinces either, is apparent even from this distich, which was likewise bandied about by the soldiers during the Gallic triumph: "Citizens, keep watch over your wives: we are bringing back the bald adulterer.
aurum in Gallia effutuisti, hic sumpsisti mutuum.
You have squandered your gold on whores in Gaul, here you have borrowed it."