Book 31
23
Demetrius expecting the arrival of the commissioner who was to be sent to him. . . .
24
The dissoluteness of the young men in Rome had Cato on the growth of luxury. grown to such a height, and broke out in such extravagances, that there were many instances of men purchasing a jar of Pontic salt-fish for three hundred drachmae.About £12. In reference to which Marcus Porcius Cato once said to the people in indignation, that no better proof could be shown of the degeneracy of the state than that good-looking slavesIn his Censorship (B. C. 184) Cato imposed a tax on slaves under twenty sold for more than ten sestertia (about £70.) Livy, 39, 44. should fetch more than a farm, and a jar of salt-fish more than a carter. . . .
