^78 pliny's natural HISTOET. [Book XXIX. 



emperor, and for inquisitions to be made at our party- walls^^ 

 even: persons who are to sit in judgment on our monetary 

 matters are sent for to Gades*^ and the very Pi lars of Hercules; 

 while a question of exile is never entertained without a panel 

 of forty-five men selected for the purpose.*^ But when it is 

 the iudge's own life that is at stake, who are the persons that 

 are to hold council upon it, but those who the very next moment 

 are about to take it ! , .,, j ♦ ^^ 



And vet so it is, that we only meet with our deserts, no 

 one of us feeling the least anxiety to know what is necessary 

 for his own welfare. We walk^^ with the feet of other people 

 we see with the eyes of other people, trusting to the memory of 

 others we salute one another, and it is by the aid of others that 

 we live. The most precious objects of existence, and the chiet 

 supports^' of life, are entirely lost to us and we have nothing 

 left but our pleasures to call our own. I will not leave Cato 

 exposed to the hatred of a profession so ambitious as this nor 

 yet that senate which judged as he did, but at the same time 

 I will pursue my object without wresting to my purpose the 

 crimes practised by its adepts, as some might naturally expect. 

 . For what profession has there been more fruitful m poisonings 

 or from which there have emanated more frauds upon wills . 

 And then, too, what adulteries have been committed m the 

 very houses of our princes even! the intrigue ot Eademus, 

 for example, with Livia, the wife of Drusus Caesar and that of 

 Yalens with the royal lady previously mentioned. Let u. 

 notlmpute these evils, I say, to the art, but to the men who 

 practise it; for Cato, I verily believe, as little apprehended 



43 i^ Inquisitio per parietes." The reading is doubtful, but he not im- 



^^ni^iS^^^^^^^^ Balbus here, a native of 



^t^iElSi'virisltt^^^ alludes to the three tablets do- 



ters as to the names of the persons addressed. 



47 He alludes to the resources of medicine f„,H,rP for tliis 



48 A nhvsician at Rome, who was afterwards pu to the torture for tins 

 crime S was the daughter of Drusus Nero, the brother of Tibenus. 



43 Messalina, mentioned in c. 5 of this Book. 



