His own private habits
and the habits of his household were models of frugality. He made an
effort, in which Augustus afterward imitated him, to check the luxury
which was eating into the Roman character. He forbade the idle young
patricians to be carried about by slaves in litters. The markets of the
world had been ransacked to provide dainties for these gentlemen. He
appointed inspectors to survey the dealers' stalls, and occasionally
prohibited dishes were carried off from the dinner table under the eyes of
the disappointed guests,[4] Enemies enough Caesar made by these
measures; but it could not be said of him that he allowed indulgences to
himself which he interdicted to others. His domestic economy was strict
and simple, the accounts being kept to a sesterce. His frugality was
hospitable. He had two tables always, one for his civilian friends,
another for his officers, who dined in uniform. The food was plain, but
the best of its kind; and he was not to be played with in such matters. An
unlucky baker who supplied his guests with bread of worse quality than he
furnished for himself was put in chains. Against moral offences he was
still more severe. He, the supposed example of licentiousness with women,
executed his favorite freedman for adultery with a Roman lady. A senator
had married a woman two days after her divorce from her first husband;
Caesar pronounced the marriage void.
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