LH6 Pliny's natural histoet. [Book XXXIII. 



find that Lucius Scipio, in his triumphal procession, exhibited 

 one thousand four hundred pounds' weight of chased silver, 

 with golden vessels, the weight of which amounted to one 

 thousand five hundred pounds. This" took place in the year 

 from the foundation of the City, 565. But that which in- 

 flicted a still more severe blow upon the Roman morals, was 

 the legacy of Asia,^^ which King Attalus^^ left to the state at 

 his decease, a legacy which was even more disadvantageous 

 than the victory of Scipio,*^" in its results. For, upon this 

 occasion, all scruple was entirely removed, by the eagerness 

 which existed at Rome, for making purchases at the auction 

 of the king's efi'ects. This took place in the year of the City, 

 622, the people having learned, during the fifty-seven years 

 that had intervened, not only to admire, but to covet even, 

 the opulence of foreign nations. The tastes of the Roman 

 people had received, too, an immense impulse from the con- 

 quest of Achaia,®^ which, during this interval, in the year of 

 the City, 608, that nothing might be wanting, had introduced 

 both statues and pictures. The same epoch, too, that saw the 

 birth of luxury, witnessed the downfall of Carthage ; so that, 

 by a fatal coincidence, the Roman people, at the same mo- 

 ment, both acquired a taste for vice and obtained a license 

 for gratifying it. 



Some, too, of the ancients sought to recommend themselves 

 by this love of excess ; for Caius Marius, after his victory over 

 the Cirabri, drank from a cantharus,^^ it is said, in imitation 

 of Father Liber ;^^ Marius, that ploughman^* of Arpinum, a 

 general who had risen from the ranks !^^ 



CHAP. 54. (12.) STATUES OF SILVER. 



It is generally believed, but erroneously, that silver was 



5'' This passage is rejected by Sillig as a needless interpolation. 

 ss Asia Minor, ^^ King of Pergamus. 



60 Over King Antiochus. 



61 He alludes to the destruction of Corinth, by L. Mummius Achaicus. 



62 A drinking cup with handles, sacred to Bacchus. See B. xxxiv. c. 25. 



63 Bacchus. 



6* In allusion to the plebeian origin of C. Marius, who was born at the 

 village of Cereatae, near Arpinum. It is more than probable that the 

 story that be had worked as a common peasant for wages, was an invention 

 of the faction of Sylla. 



^ " Ille arator Arpinas, et manipularis imperator." 



