5
But as for that splendid statue, concerning which, if the times were better, I could not speak without laughing, “To Lucius. Antonius, patron of the middle of Janus.”Janus was the name of a street near the temple of Janus, especially frequented by bankers and usurers. It was divided into summus, medius and imus. Horace says:— “Haec Janus summus ab imo Edocet Postquam omnis res mea Janum Ad medium fracta est.” Is it so? Is the middle of Janus a client of Lucius Antonius? Who ever was found in that Janus who would have lent Lucius Antonius a thousand sesterces?
6
However, we have been spending too much time in trifles. Let us return to our subject and to the war. Although it was not wholly foreign to the subject for some characters to be thoroughly appreciated by you, in order that you might in silence think over who they were against whom you were to wage war.