Book 31
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The dissoluteness of the young men in Rome had Cato on the growth of luxury. grown to such a height, and broke out in such extravagances, that there were many instances of men purchasing a jar of Pontic salt-fish for three hundred drachmae.About £12. In reference to which Marcus Porcius Cato once said to the people in indignation, that no better proof could be shown of the degeneracy of the state than that good-looking slavesIn his Censorship (B. C. 184) Cato imposed a tax on slaves under twenty sold for more than ten sestertia (about £70.) Livy, 39, 44. should fetch more than a farm, and a jar of salt-fish more than a carter. . . .
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The Rhodians, though in other respects maintaining The Rhodians accept money to pay their school masters, B. C. 162. the dignity of their state, made in my opinion a slight lapse at this period. They had received two hundred and eighty thousand medimni of corn from Eumenes, that its value might be invested and the interest devoted to pay the fees of the tutors and schoolmasters of their sons. One might accept this from friends in a case of financial embarrassment, as one might in private life, rather than allow children to remain uneducated for want of means; but where means are abundant a man would rather do anything than allow the schoolmaster’s fee to be supplied by a joint contribution from his friends. And in proportion as a state should hold higher notions than an individual, so ought governments to be more jealous of their dignity than private men, and above all a Rhodian government, considering the wealth of the country and its high pretensions. . . .
