o contemned the countless trees of his rich orchards as to
be content with one staff, exchanged his elegant villas for one small
wallet, which, when he had fully appreciated its utility, he even
praised in song by diverting from their original meaning certain lines
of Homer in which he extols the island of Crete. I will quote the
first lines, that you may not think this a mere invention of mine
designed to meet the needs of my own case:

_There is a town named Wallet in the midst
Of smoke that's dark as wine._

The lines which follow are so wonderful, that had you read them you
would envy me my wallet even more than you envy me my marriage with
Pudentilla. You reproach philosophers for their staff and wallet. You
might as well reproach cavalry for their trappings, infantry for their
shields, standard-bearers for their banners, triumphant generals for
their chariots drawn by four white horses and their cloaks embroidered
with palm-leaves. The staff and wallet are not, it is true, carried by
the Platonic philosophers, but are the badges of the Cynic school. To
Diogenes and Antisthenes they were what the crown is to the king, the
cloak of purple to the general, the cowl to the priest, the trumpet to
the augur. Indeed the Cynic Diogenes, when he disputed with Alexander
the Great, as to which of the two was the true king, boasted of his
staff as the true sceptre. The unconquered Hercules himself, since you
despise my instances as drawn from mere mendicancy, Hercules that
roamed the whole world, exterminated monsters, and conquered races,
god though he was, had but a skin for raiment and a staff for company
in the days when he wandered through the earth. And yet but a brief
while afterwards he was admitted to heaven as a reward for his virtue.

23. But if you despise these examples and challenge me, not to plead
my case, but to enter into a discussion of the amount of my fortune,
to put an end to your ignorance on this point, if it exists, I
acknowledge that my father left my brother and myself a little under
2,000,000 sesterces--a sum on which my lengthy travels, continual
studies, and frequent generosity have made considerable inroads. For I
have often assisted my friends and have shown substantial gratitude to
many of my instructors, on more than one occasion going so far as to
provide dowries for their daughters. Nay, I should not have hesitated
to expend every farthing of my patrimony, if so I might acquire,