The Artist 
would be constrained to closer accuracy in 
their calculations, and the proprietor would 
complete his building for the amount, or a 
little more than the amount, which he ex- 
pected to expend. Those who can afford 
a given sum for any work would cheerfully 
add one-fourth more in the pleasing expec- 
tation of seeing it completed ; but when 
they find themselves burdened with the 
addition of half, or even more than half, 
the expense originally contemplated, they 
lose heart, and are willing to sacrifice what 
has been already laid out.” 
Thus we see that the Romans were a 
good deal like ourselves, and that the 
wonderful legal system of Rome, like the 
modern American system, failed to cover 
all possible contingencies of dispute. How 
far an artist is justified in exceeding the 
estimates agreed upon at the outset of his 
labors is a question still as frequently dis- 
cussed as it was in the time of Augustus. 
Clients still protest that they are robbed 
when they have to spend more than they 
anticipated ; and doubtless artists then 
claimed, as they do to-day, that they 
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