Home | Introduction | Persons | Geogr. | Sources | Events | Mijn blog(Nederlands) |
Religion | Subjects | Images | Queries | Links | Contact | Do not fly Iberia |
Notes Do not display Latin text | Vespasian, Chapter 19: Entertainment[AD 69-79] | Next chapter Return to index Previous chapter |
At the plays with which he [Note 1] dedicated the new stage of the theatre of Marcellus he revived the old musical entertainments. To Apelles, the tragic actor, he gave four hundred thousand sesterces; to Terpnus and Diodorus, the lyre-players, two hundred thousand each; to several a hundred thousand; while those who received least were paid forty thousands and numerous golden crowns were awarded besides. He gave constant dinner-parties, too, usually formally and sumptuously, to help the marketmen. He gave gifts to women on the Kalends of March [The Matronalia, or Feast of Married Women; see Hor. Odes, 3.8, 1], as he did to the men on the Saturnalia. Yet even so he could not be rid of his former ill-repute for covetousness. The Alexandrians persisted in calling him Kybiosactes [Meaning, "dealer in square pieces of salt fish"], the surname of one of their kings who was scandalously stingy. Even at his funeral, Favor, a leading actor of mimes, who wore his mask and, according to the usual custom, imitated the actions and words of the deceased during his lifetime, having asked the procurators in a loud voice how much his funeral procession would cost, and hearing the reply "Ten million sesterces," cried out: "Give me a hundred thousand and fling me into the Tiber!" Note 1: he = Vespasian Event: Vespasian emperor |
coronas aureas dedit. Sed et convivabatur assidue, ac saepius recta et dapsile, ut macellarios adiuvaret. Dabat sicut Saturnalibus viris apophoreta, ita per Kal. Mart. feminis. Et tamen ne sic quidem pristina cupiditatis infamia caruit. Alexandrini Cybiosacten eum vocare perseveraverunt, cognomine unius e regibus suis turpissimarum sordium, Sed et in funere Favor archimimus personam eius ferens imitansque, ut est mos, facta ac dicta vivi, interrogatis palam procuratoribus, quanti funus et pompa constaret, ut audiit, sestertio centiens, exclamavit, centum sibi sestertia darent, ac se vel in Tiberim proicerent. |