302 PLINY'S NATURAL nisToiir. [Book XXXV^ - 



founder of our mimic scenes; his cousin, Manilius Antiochus," 

 the first cultivator of astronomy ; and Staberius Eros, our first 

 grammarian; all three of whom our ancestors saw brought 

 over in the same ship.** 



(18.) But why mention these names, recommended as they are 

 by the literary honours which they acquired? Other instances 

 too, Koine has beheld of persons rising to high positions from 

 the slave-market ;* J Chrysogonus, for example, the freedman 

 tf -Sylla; Ampltion, the ireedman of (1. Cutulus ; the man who 

 was the keeper 6 " of Lucullus ; Demetrius, the freedman of I'om- 

 peius, and Auge, the freed worn an of Demetrius,* 1 or eke of 

 Pompoms himself, as some have supposed; llipparchus, the 

 freedman of M. Antonius; as also, Menus* 3 and Meriec rates, 63 

 freedmen of Sextus Pompeius, and many others as well, whom 

 it. would be supeiiluous to enumerate, and who have enriched 

 themselves at the cost of .Roman blood, and the licence that 

 results from proscription. 



Such is the mark that is set upon those droves of slaves 

 which we see on sale, such the opprobrium thrown upon them 

 by a capricious fortune ! And yet, some of these very men have 

 we beheld in the enjoyment of such power and influence, that 

 the senate itself has decreed them at the command of Agrip- ^ 

 pina, 64 wife of the Emperor Claudius the decorations even of 

 the prtctorship : all but honoured with the fasces and their 

 laurels, in fact, and sent back in slate to the very place from 

 which they originally came, with their feet whitened with the 

 slave-dealer's chalk ! 



57 Supposed by some to have been the Manilius % ,vbo was author of tho 

 jvxrm called " A.stronom ; -a," still in existence. It is more probable, liow- 

 -vtr, tbat be was the father of the poet, or perhaps the grandfather ; as it 

 i* clear from a presage in Suetonius, that Stabcnus Kros taught at Koiuo 

 during the civil wars of Sylla, while the poem must have beeU written, ill 

 part at least, after the death of Augustus. 



** IU ing afterwards manumitted. Sillig thinks that they may have 

 arrived in Rome about n.c. 'JO. 



55> "C-ita-ta." A raised platform of wood on whieh the slaves were 

 exposed for salt*. 



*' " lit ctorem." For an explanation of this allusion, see B. xxviii. c. 14. 



;1 A native of Gadara in Syria, according to Josephus. Seneca speaks of 

 Lim as being more wealthy than his muster. 



" Or Mcnodorus, who deserted Sextus Pompeius and went over to 

 Ottavianus. 



* Who remained faithful to Fompeius, and died in bis cause. 



* He is probably shaking in rettrtuce to her paramour, the freednma 

 Pall.iS. fcxe U. \\\\\\. c. 47. 



