4
It would be reasonable enough, at least, if they said that someone else was the noble author, and you were a jackdaw strutting in borrowed plumes; or, if it is yours, that you were another Salaethus who made a most severe law against adultery at Croton and was admired for it, but shortly afterwards was himself caught seducing his brother’s wife. It would be said that you were exactly that Salaethus—no, he was much more restrained than you; love caught him, as he said in his defence, and he jumped readily and bravely into the fire, although the people of Croton now pitied him and granted him exile if he preferred. But your case is much more shocking; you gave a precise description in your essay of the slavishness of a life of that sort and added your condemnation of the thousand unpleasant things a man suffered and did once he fell into a rich man’s power and put himself in chains, yet in extreme old age you chose such an ignoble service when you were almost over the threshold into death, and furthermore you all but plumed yourself on entering that service. At any rate the more distinguished a person everyone thinks you, the more ridiculous you will seem if your present life contradicts your essay.
