to take away life be to grant it; then, when Pompeius was set free
and returning thanks to him, he stretched out his left foot to be
kissed. Those who excuse this action, and say that it was not done
through arrogance, say that he wished to show him a gilded, nay a
golden slipper studded with pearls. "Well," say they, "what
disgrace can there be in a man of consular rank kissing gold and
pearls, and what part of Caesar's whole body was it less pollution
to kiss?" So, then, that man, the object of whose life was to
change a free state into a Persian despotism, was not satisfied
when a senator, an aged man, a man who had filled the highest
offices in the state, prostrated himself before him in the presence
of all the nobles, just as the vanquished prostrate themselves
before their conqueror! He discovered a place below his knees down
to which he might thrust liberty. What is this but trampling upon
the commonwealth, and that, too, with the left foot, though you may
say that this point does not signify? It was not a sufficiently
foul and frantic outrage for the emperor to sit at the trial of a
consular for his life wearing slippers, he must needs push his
shoes into a senator's face.

XIII. O pride, the silliest fault of great good fortune! how
pleasant it is to take nothing from thee! how dost thou turn all
benefits into outrages! how dost thou delight in all excess! how
ill all things become thee! The higher thou risest the lower thou
art, and provest that the good things by which thou art so puffed
up profit thee not; thou spoilest all that thou givest. It is worth
while to inquire why it is that pride thus swaggers and changes the
form and appearance of her countenance, so that she prefers a mask
to her own face. It is pleasant to receive gifts when they are
conferred in a kindly and gentle manner, when a superior in giving