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Quisquis es, quidquid tibi nomen est, senex, summum Iovem deosque do
testes—
Whoever you are, whatever your name is, old gentleman, I call Heaven
and God on high to witness—
It was, indeed, the most deadly blight of the age that prominent senators
practised even the basest forms of delation, some with perfect openness,
and many in private. Nor could any distinction be traced between alien
and relative, between friend and stranger, between the events of today
and those of the dim past. Alike in the Forum or at a dinner-party, to
speak of any subject was to be accused: for every man was hastening to
be first in the field and to mark down his victim, occasionally in
self-defence, generally through infection with what seemed a contagious
disease.
sed tamen cum eo cum quiqui, quamquam sumus pauperculi, est domi
quod edimus, ne nos tam contemptim conteras.
But in any case, however, even though we are poor folks, we do have
food of our own, so you needn't treat us as trash to trample on.