On Benefits Chapter 27

Cn. Lentulus augur, divitiarum maximum exemplum, antequam illum libertini pauperem facerent, hic, qui quater milies sestertium suum vidit (proprie dixi ; nihil enim amplius quam vidit), ingenii fuit sterilis, tam pusilli quam animi. Cum esset avarissimus, nummos citius emittebat quam verba : tanta illi inopia erat sermonis. Hic cum omnia incrementa sua divo Augusto deberet, ad quem attulerat paupertatem sub onere nobilitatis laborantem, princeps iam civitatis et pecunia et gratia subinde de Augusto solebat queri dicens a studiis se abductum ; nihil tantum in se congestum esse, quantum perdidisset relicta eloquentia. At illi inter alia hoc quoque divus Augustus praestiterat, quod illum derisu et labore irrito liberaverat ! Non patitur aviditas quemquam esse gratum ; numquam enim improbae spei, quod datur, satis est, et maiora cupimus, quo maiora venerunt, multoque concitatior est avaritia in magnarum opum congestu collocata, ut flammae infinite acrior vis est, quo ex maiore incendio emicuit. Aeque ambitio non patitur quemquam in ea mensura honorum conquiescere, quae quondam eius fuit impudens votum. Nemo agit de tribunatu gratias, sed queritur, quod non est ad praeturam usque perductus ; nec haec grata est, si deest consulatus ; ne hic quidem satiat, si unus est. Ultra se cupiditas porrigit et felicitatem suam non intellegit, quia non, unde venerit, respicit, sed quo tendat.

The augur Cnaeus Lentulus, who, before his freedmen reduced him to poverty, was one of the richest of men, who saw himself in possession of a fortune of four hundred millions--I say advisedly, "saw," for he never did more than see it--was as barren and contemptible in intellect as he was in spirit. Though very avaricious, yet he was so poor a speaker that he found it easier to give men coins than words. This man, who owed all his prosperity to the late Emperor Augustus, to whom he had brought only poverty, encumbered with a noble name, when he had risen to be the chief man in Rome, both in wealth and influence, used sometimes to complain that Augustus had interrupted his legal studies, observing that he had not received anything like what he had lost by giving up the study of eloquence. Yet the truth was that Augustus, besides loading him with other gifts, had set him free from the necessity of making himself ridiculous by labouring at a profession in which he never could succeed. Greed does not permit any one to be grateful; for what is given is never equal to its base desires, and the more we receive the more we covet, for avarice is much more eager when it has to deal with great accumulations of wealth, just as the power of a flame is enormously greater in proportion to the size of the conflagration from which it springs. Ambition in like manner suffers no man to rest satisfied with that measure of public honours, to gain which was once the limit of his wildest hope; no one is thankful for becoming tribune, but grumbles at not being at once promoted to the post of praetor; nor is he grateful for this if the consulship does not follow; and even this does not satisfy him if he be consul but once. His greed ever stretches itself out further, and he does not understand the greatness of his success because he always looks forward to the point at which he aims, and never back towards that from which he started.

L’augure Cn. Lentulus, la plus grande notabilité pécuniaire, avant que les affranchis eussent prouvé qu’à côté d’eux il était pauvre, compta, et c’est le mot, car il ne fit que les compter, jusqu’à quatre cents millions de sesterces . Aussi dépourvu d’esprit que rétréci de cœur, malgré son avarice extrême on lui eût arraché un écu plutôt qu’une parole, tant était grande la stérilité de son entretien. Eh bien, quoiqu’il dût tous les progrès de sa fortune à Auguste, auquel il n’avait apporté qu’une pauvreté pliant sous le faix d’un grand nom, ce Lentulus, devenu le premier de Rome en richesses et en crédit, se plaignait perpétuellement de l’empereur, qui l’avait, disait-il, arraché à ses études, et dont les faveurs accumulées n’égalaient pas ce qu’il perdait en renonçant à l’éloquence. Notez qu’entre autres services, Auguste l’avait sauvé ainsi du ridioule et d’un labeur fort inutile. L’avidité exclut toute reconnaissance ; car aux prétentions déréglées aucun don ne suffit . On convoite d’autant plus qu’on a recueilli davantage ; et la soif d’amasser s’augmente avec les monceaux d’or où elle est assise, pareille à la flamme, toujours plus active à mesure qu’elle s’élance d’un plus vaste foyer. De même l’ambition ne peut nous souffrir tranquilles à tel degré d’honneurs où jadis il était téméraire à nous d’aspirer. Le tribun ne sait nul gré à ceux qui l’ont élu, et se plaint qu’on ne l’ait pas porté à la préture ; la préture même ne le flatte guère, si l’on n’y joint le consulat, qui ne le satisfait pas non plus s’il ne l’a qu’une année. L’ambition se dépasse elle-même : ses propres succès disparaissent à ses yeux, qui ne voient plus le point de départ, mais le but à atteindre. Un fléau plus violent et plus acharné que tout cela, c’est l’envie, qui nous irrite par ses comparaisons