In his
gregibus omnes aleatores, omnes adulteri, omnes impuri impudicique
versantur. Hi pueri tam lepidi ac delicati non solum amare et amari
neque cantare et saltare, sed etiam sicas vibrare et spargere venena
didicerunt.... Nudi in conviviis saltare didicerunt."--_In
Catilinam_, ii. 10. Compare _In Pisonem_, 10.
The Romans shaved their beards at full maturity, and therefore
"benebarbatos" does not mean grown men, but youths on the edge of
manhood.
[15] Not to be confounded with Lucius Calpurnius Piso, who was Caesar's
father-in-law.
[16] "Injussu populi."
[17] The real opinion of educated Romans on this subject was expressed in
the well-known lines of Lucretius, which were probably written near
this very time:
"Nil igitur mors est, ad nos neque pertinet hilum,
Quandoquidem natura animi mortalis habetur:
Et, velut ante acto nil tempore sensimus aegri,
Ad confligendum venientibus undique Poenis;
Omnia cum belli trepido concussa tumultu,
Horrida, contremuere sub altis aetheris auris;
In dubioque fuit sub utrorum regna cadendum
Omnibus humanis esset, terraque, marique:
Sic, ubi non erimus, cum corporis atque animai
Discidium fuerit, quibus e sumus uniter apti,
Scilicet haud nobis quicquam, qui non erimus tum,
Accidere omnino poterit, sensumque movere:
Non, si terra mari miscebitur, et mare coelo.
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