tunity of victory without toil? Silver is less valuable than gold, gold than virtue. “O citizens, citizens, money is to be sought first; virtue after riches:” this the highest Janus[1] from the lowest inculcates; young men and old repeat these maxims, having their bags and account-books hung on the left arm. You have soul, have breeding, have eloquence and honor: yet if six or seven thousand sesterces be wanting to complete your four hundred thousand, you shall be a plebeian.[2] But boys at play[3] cry, “You shall be king, if you will do right.” Let this be a [man’s] brazen wall, to be conscious of no ill, to turn pale with no guilt. Tell me, pray is the Roscian law best, or the boy’s song which offers the kingdom to them that do right, sung by the manly Curii and Camilli? Does he advise you best, who says, “Make a fortune; a fortune, if you can, honestly; if not, a fortune by any means”—that you may view from a nearer bench the tear-moving poems of Puppius; or he, who still animates and enables you to stand free and upright, a match for haughty fortune?
If now perchance the Roman people should ask me, why I do not enjoy the same sentiments with them, as [I do the same] porticoes, nor pursue or fly from whatever they admire or dislike; I will reply, as the cautious fox once answered the sick lion: “Because the foot-marks all looking toward you,
- ↑ The Latins sometimes gave the name of "Janus" to those grand arcades which crossed their streets, like triumphal arches, and under which they walked. They had many of this kind in the different streets of Rome, but we are expressly told by Livy, that there were three in the forum. "Forum porticibus tabernisque claudendum, et Janus tres faciendos locavere." Here the bankers, merchants, and usurers had their shops. San.
- ↑ Plebs eris. Horace here speaks according to the law of Roscius Otho, by which a Roman knight was to be possessed of four hundred thousand sesterces (about 3,125l. of our money), and a senator, of eight hundred thousand. Augustus afterward raised the sum to twelve hundred thousand. A sesterce is here computed at one penny, half-penny, farthing, half-farthing of our money. Ed. Dubl.
- ↑ We can not justly say what this game was. Torrentius, with much probability, conjectures that it was the Urania of the Greeks, in which a ball was thrown into the air, and the boy who struck it oftenest, before it fell to the ground, was called king of the game. Ed. Dubl.
Greece. "Coronari Olympia" may be considered as a Greek phrase, or we may understand inter or ad. "Vincere Olympia" is found in Ennius, and "qui Pythia, Isthmia, Nemea, Olympia vicit," in Festus. Torr.
