In the world of quality such things did not occur, but at bottom it was hardly different, and least of all better.  In doing nothing the aristocrat boldly competed with the proletarian; if the latter lounged on the pavement, the former lay in bed till far on in the day.  Extravagance prevailed here as unbounded as it was devoid of taste.  It was lavished on politics and on the theatre, of course to the corruption of both; the consular office was purchased at an incredible price—­in the summer of 700 the first voting-division alone was paid 10,000,000 sesterces (100,000 pounds)—­ and all the pleasure of the man of culture in the drama was spoilt by the insane luxury of decoration.  Rents in Rome appear to have been on an average four times as high as in the country-towns; a house there was once sold for 15,000,000 sesterces (150,000 pounds).  The house of Marcus Lepidus (consul in 676) which was at the time of the death of Sulla the finest in Rome, did not rank a generation afterwards even as the hundredth on the list of Roman palaces.  We have already mentioned the extravagance practised in the matter of country-houses; we find that 4,000,000 sesterces (40,000 pounds) were paid for such a house, which was valued chiefly for its fishpond; and the thoroughly fashionable grandee now needed at least two villas—­ one in the Sabine or Alban mountains near the capital, and a second in the vicinity of the Campanian baths—­and in addition if possible a garden immediately outside of the gates of Rome.  Still more irrational than these villa-palaces were the palatial sepulchres, several of which still existing at the present day attest what a lofty pile of masonry the rich Roman needed in order that he might die as became his rank.  Fanciers of horses and dogs too were not wanting; 24,000 sesterces (240 pounds) was no uncommon price for a showy horse.  They indulged in furniture of fine wood—­a table of African cypress-wood cost 1,000,000 sesterces (10,000 pounds); in dresses of purple stuffs or transparent gauzes accompanied by an elegant adjustment of their folds before the mirror—­the orator Hortensius is said to have brought an action of damages against a colleague because he ruffled his dress in a crowd; in precious stones and pearls, which first at this period took the place of the far more beautiful and more artistic ornaments of gold—­it was already utter barbarism, when at the triumph of Pompeius over Mithradates the image of the victor appeared wrought wholly of pearls, and when the sofas and the shelves in the dining-hall were silver-mounted and even the kitchen-utensils were made of silver.  In a similar spirit the collectors of this period took out the artistic medallions from the old silver cups, to set them anew in vessels of gold.  Nor was there any lack of luxury also in travelling.  “When the governor travelled,” Cicero tells us as to one of the Sicilian governors, “which of course he did not in winter, but only at the beginning