Book 14
6.22
But now the vain arrogance of some men regards everything born outside the pomeriumOriginally, the line within the city wall, marking the limit within which the auspices could be taken; the term pomerium was soon transferred to the strip of land between this line and the actual city wall. Here it means merely the wall of the city. of our city as worthless, except the childless and unwedded; and it is beyond belief with what various kinds of obsequiousness men without children are courted at Rome.This legacy hunting, by paying court to childless men and women, is satirized by Horace (Sat. ii. 5). The art was in vogue as early as Plautus’ time (see Miles, 705 ff.), but became a profession at the end of the Republic (cf. Cic., Paradoxa, v. 39) and under the Empire, followed even by some of the emperors (see Suet., Calig. 38, 2; Nero, 32, 2).
6.23
And since among them, as is natural in the capital of the world, cruel disorders gain such heights that all the healing art is powerless even to mitigate them, it has been provided, as a means of safety, that no one shall visit a friend suffering from such a disease, and by a few who are more cautious another sufficiently effective remedy has been added, namely, that servants sent to inquire after the condition of a man’s acquaintances who have been attacked by that disorder should not be readmitted to their masters’ house until they have purified their persons by a bath. So fearful are they of a contagion seen only by the eyes of others.
