d find them taken from Florus (or Floridus) in Wernsdorf, Poetae
Lat. Min. vol. iii. p. 487. They were accordingly given in the
revised edition of 1868 from the Latin text Baehrens (Poet. Lat. Min.
vol. iv. p. 347) follows Lucian Muller in reading -offucia-. --TR.]

4. A sort of -parabasis- in the -Curculio- of Plautus describes what
went on in the market-place of the capital, with little humour
perhaps, but with life-like distinctness.

-Conmonstrabo, quo in quemque hominem facile inveniatis loco,
Ne nimio opere sumat operam, si quis conventum velit
Vel vitiosum vel sine vitio, vel probum vel inprobum.
Qui perjurum convenire volt hominem, ito in comitium;
Qui mendacem et gloriosum, apud Cloacinae sacrum.
[Ditis damnosos maritos sub basilica quaerito.
Ibidem erunt scorta exoleta quique stipulari solent.]
Symbolarum conlatores apud forum piscarium.
In foro infumo boni homines atque dites ambulant;
In medio propter canalem ibi ostentatores meri.
Confidentes garrulique et malevoli supra lacum,
Qui alteri de nihilo audacter dicunt contumeliam
Et qui ipsi sat habent quod in se possit vere dicier.
Sub veteribus ibi sunt, qui dant quique accipiunt faenore.
Pone aedem Castoris ibi sunt, subito quibus credas male.
In Tusco vico ibi sunt homines, qui ipsi sese venditant.
In Velabro vel pistorem vel lanium vel haruspicem
Vel qui ipsi vorsant, vel qui aliis, ut vorsentur, praebeant.
Ditis damnosos maritos apud Leucadiam Oppiam.-

The verses in brackets are a subsequent addition, inserted after the
building of the first Roman bazaar (570). The business of the baker
(-pistor-, literally miller) embraced at this time the sale of
delicacies and the providing accommodation for revellers (Festus, Ep.
v. alicariae, p. 7, Mull.; Plautus, Capt. 160; Poen. i. a, 54; Trin.
407). The same was the case with the butchers. Leucadia Oppia may
have kept a house of bad fame.

5. II. IX. The Roman National Festival

6. III. XIII. Religious Economy

CHAPTER XIV

Literature and Art

The influences which stimulated the growth of Roman literature were
of a character altogether peculiar and hardly paralleled in any other
nation. To estimate them correctly, it is necessary in the first
place that we should glance at the instruction of the people and
its recreations during this period.

Knowledge of Languages

Language lies at the root of all mental culture; and this was
especially the case in Rome. In a community where so much