3. [In the first edition of this translation I gave these lines in English on the basis of Dr. Mommsen’s German version, and added in a note that I had not been able to find the original.  Several scholars whom I consulted were not more successful; and Dr. Mommsen was at the time absent from Berlin.  Shortly after the first edition appeared, I received a note from Sir George Cornewall Lewis informing me that I should 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