10.
For the sake of luxury and pleasure we have often seen, not only ordinary
Roman citizens, but youths of high birth, and even some senators, men born
in the highest rank wearing little caps, not in their country seats or their
suburban villas,
[27]
but at Naples, in a
much-frequented town. We have even seen Lucius Sulla, that great commander,
in a cloak. And you can now see the statue of Lucius Scipio, who conducted
the war in Asia, and defeated Antiochus standing in the Capitol, not only
with a cloak, but also with Greek slippers. And yet these men not only were
not liable to be tried for wearing them, but they were not even talked
about; and, at all events, the excuse of necessity will be a more valid
defence for Publius Rutilius Rufus; for when he had been caught at Mitylene
by Mithridates, he avoided the cruelty with which the king treated all who
wore the Roman gown, by changing his apparel. Therefore, that Rutilius, who
was a pattern to our citizens of virtue, and of the ancient dignity, and of
prudence, and a man of consular rank, put on slippers and a cloak. Nor did
any one think of reproaching the man with having done so, but all imputed it
to the necessity of the time. And shall that garment bring an accusation
upon Postumus, which afforded him a hope that he might at some time or other
recover his fortune?
[28]
For when he came to Alexandria to
Auletes,1 O
judges, this one means of saving his money was proposed to Postumus by the
king—namely, that he should undertake the management, and, as it
were, the stewardship of the royal revenues. And he could not do that unless
he became the steward. For he uses that title which had been given to the
office by the king. The business seemed an odious one to Postumus, but he
had actually no power of declining it. The name itself, too, annoying; but
the business had that name or old among those people, it was not now newly
imposed by the king. He detested also that dress, but without it he could
neither have the title nor fill his office. Therefore, I say, that he was
compelled by force to act as he did,—by force
which, as our great poet says “
Breaks and subdues the loftiest dignity.
” [29] He should have died, you will say; for that is the alternative. And so he would have done, if, while his affairs were in such a state of embarrassment, he could have died without the greatest disgrace.
” [29] He should have died, you will say; for that is the alternative. And so he would have done, if, while his affairs were in such a state of embarrassment, he could have died without the greatest disgrace.
