to receive benefits from slaves, and think only of their position,
forgetting their good deeds? You, the slave of lust, of gluttony,
of a harlot, nay, who are owned as a joint chattel by harlots, can
you call anyone else a slave? Call a man a slave? why, I pray you,
whither are you being hurried by those bearers who carry your
litter? whither are these men with their smart military-looking
cloaks carrying you? is it not to the door of some door-keeper, or
to the gardens of some one who has not even a subordinate office?
and then you, who regard the salute of another man's slave as a
benefit, declare that you cannot receive a benefit from your own
slave. What inconsistency is this? At the same time you despise and
fawn upon slaves, you are haughty and violent at home, while out of
doors you are meek, and as much despised as you despise your
slaves; for none abase themselves lower than those who
unconscionably give themselves airs, nor are anymore prepared to
trample upon others than those who have learned how to offer
insults by having endured them.

XXIX. I felt it my duty to say this, in order to crush the
arrogance of men who are themselves at the mercy of fortune, and to
claim the right of bestowing a benefit for slaves, in order that I
may claim it also for sons. The question arises, whether children
can ever bestow upon their parents greater benefits than those
which they have received from them.

It is granted that many sons become greater and more powerful than
their parents, and also that they are better men. If this be true,
they may give better gifts to their fathers than they have received
from them, seeing that their fortune and their good nature are
alike greater than that of their father. "Whatever a father