’Tis less than fifteen days since you received from Callicles forty minae for this house; is it not as I say, Stasimus?STASIMUSWhen I consider, I think I remember that it was so.LESBONICUSWhat has been done with it?STASIMUSIt has been eaten and drunk up—spent away in unguents, washed away in bathsWashed away in baths: This will probably refer, not to the money paid for mere bathing at the public baths, which was a quadrans, the smallest Roman coin, but to the expense of erecting private baths, which generally formed a portion of the luxuries of a Roman house. The public baths, however, may have possibly been the scene of much profligacy, and have afforded to the reckless and dissipated ample opportunities for squandering their money. That this may have been the fact, is rendered the more likely when we consider the equivocal signification of the word bagnio.. The fishmonger and the baker have carried it off: butchers, too, and cooks, green-grocers, perfumers, and poulterers; ’twas quickly consumed. I’ faith! that money was made away with not less speedilythan if you were to throw a poppy among the ants.LESBONICUSBy my troth, less has been spent on those items than six minae?STASIMUSBesides, what have you given to your mistresses?LESBONICUSThat I am including as well in it.STASIMUSBesides, what have I pilfered of it?LESBONICUSAye, that item is a very heavy one.STASIMUSThat cannot so appear to you, if you make all due deductionsMake all due deductions: Si sumas. Literally, if you subtract.,unless you think that your money is everlasting.(Aside.) Too late and unwisely,—a caution that should have been used before,—after he has devoured his substance, he reckons up the account too late.LESBONICUSThe account, however, of this money is by no means clear.STASIMUSI’ faith, the account is very clear: the money’s goneThe money’s gone: Instead of a Latin word, the Greek οἴχεται is introduced, which means is gone, or has vanished. Greek terms were current at Rome, just as French words and sentences are imported into our language; indeed, the fashions of Rome were very generally set by the Greeks..Did you not receive forty minae from Callicles, and did he not receive from you the house in possession? LESBONICUSVery good.PHILTO(aside.)Troth, I think our neighbour has sold his houseHas sold his house: He feels satisfied now that Lysiteles has been correctly informed, and that Lesbonicus really is in difficulties.. When his father shall come from abroad, his place is in the beggar’s gateThe beggar’s gate: He probably alludes to the Porta Trigemina at Rome, which was upon the road to Ostia. It received its name from the three twin-born brothers, the Horatii, who passed beneath it when going to fight the Curiatii. This, being one of the largest and most frequented roads in Rome, was especially the resort of mendicants; among whom, in the opinion of Philto, the father of Lesbonicus will have to take his place. Some Commentators would read ponte instead of portâ, and they think that the allusion is to the Sublician bridge at Rome, where we learn from Seneca and Juvenal that the beggars used to sit and ask alms., unless, perchance, he should creep into his son’s stomachHis son’s stomach: He satirically alludes to the reckless conduct of Lesbonicus, who has spent everything to satisfy his love for eating, drinking, and debauchery..STASIMUSThere were a thousand Olympic drachmaeOlympic drachmae: As already mentioned, the drachma was about ninepence three-farthings in value. As one hundred made a mina, one fourth of the price received for the house would go to satisfy the banker’s claim. paid to the bankerTo the banker: The Trapezitae were the same as the Argentarii at Rome, who were bankers and money-changers on their own account, while the Mensarii transacted business on behalf of the state. Their shops, or offices, were situate around the Forum, and were public property. Their principal business was the exchange of Roman for foreign coin, and the keeping of sums of money for other persons, which were deposited with or without interest, according to agreement. They acted as agents for the sale of estates, and a part of their duty was to test the genuineness of coin, and, in later times, to circulate it from the mint among the people. Lending money at a profit was also part of their business. It is supposed that among the Romans there was a higher and a lower class of argentarii. The more respectable of them probably held the position of the banker of modern times; while those who did business on a paltry scale, or degraded themselves by usury, were not held in any esteem. Their shops, being public property, were built under the inspection of the Censors, and by them were let to the argentarii. Trapezitae, as they are here called, was properly the Greek name for these persons, who were so styled from the τραπεσα, or table, at which they sat. All will remember the tables of the money-changers mentioned in the New Testament. The mensarii were employed to lend out the public money to borrowers at interest., which you were owing upon account. LESBONICUSThose, I suppose, that I was security forI was security for: Spondeo,I promise, was a term used on many occasions among the Romans, derived from the Greek σπενδόμαι, pour out a libation; the usual mode of ratifying a treaty. Among others, it was pronounced by a person when he became security that another should repay money, as Lesbonicus, to his misfortune, had done in the present instance.?STASIMUSSay, ratherSay, rather: Stasimus will not allow his master to mince the matter in the slightest degree. Don’t say I was security for it, but I paid it down., Those that I paid down—for that young man whom you used to sayYou used to say: He probably alludes to some former occasion, on which his master, having been duped into the belief, was telling him of the extraordinary wealth of his new acquaintance. was so rich.LESBONICUSIt was so done.STASIMUSYes, just to be squandered away.LESBONICUSThat was done as well.But I saw him in a pitiable state, and I did have pity on him.STASIMUSYou have pity on others, and you have neither pity nor shame for yourself.PHILTO(aside.)’Tis time to accost him.LESBONICUSIs this Philto that is coming here? Troth, ’tis he himself.STASIMUSI’ faith, I could wish he was my slave, together with his savingsWith his savings: Peculium was the property amassed by a slave out of his savings, which he was permitted to keep as his own. According to the strictness of the law, the peculium was the property of the master. Sometimes it was agreed that the slave should purchase his freedom with his peculium when it amounted to a certain sum..