=148. Regular Incomes from Legacies. Professional Legacy Hunters.=--The granting of legacies is in fact so ordinary a part of Roman life that distinguished men like Cicero and Pliny the Younger can almost count on a steady flow of bequests (often from people whom they know but slightly) as part of their income. Gordianus is leaving a mature and proper son to take over his great name, clients, and a good share of his property. His bequests therefore are relatively small, and that fact robs his will of most of its interest. If, however, he had been childless, all Rome would have been agog as soon as people knew that he was dying. Great, if evil, are “the advantages of childlessness.” The rich bachelor is sure of obsequious service from innumerable quarters. The more he coughs and the paler he grows, the more the presents he receives and the more do loudly condoling friends press to his bedside. They reach the very depth of servility, and sometimes they are rewarded. Years ago Horace gave directions to the successful legacy hunter. “If a man hands you his will to read, be sure to refuse and push the wax tablets from you---yet take a side-glance to catch the second line of the first table [below the preamble]. Run your eye quickly along to see whether you are the _sole_ heir or one of many.” If the prospective victim has a “crafty woman, or a freedman looking after the dotard, strike a partnership with them and praise them to him, that they may praise _you_ behind your back.” Then when the testator at last dies lament him loudly, as a “worthy and true friend,” shed as many tears as you can, and don’t grudge a splendid funeral. Thus fortunes can be and often are won, but not invariably. In Trajan’s reign there died a rich Domitius Tullus. He allowed the legacy hunters to fasten upon him; to shower him with all kinds of favors--then he actually left everything to a niece and to grandchildren. All Rome was divided: “Perfidious hypocrite!” some gossips buzzed in the great baths; but others praised him for “cheating the hopes of the rascals.” =149. Public Bequests.=--Gordianus, besides these legacies to friends, also makes some public bequests. This is an age when the rich are expected to justify their good fortune by showering favors upon the community. If the rich testator had lived in a municipal town, he would have been expected in his life time to have provided feasts, public games, new civic buildings, and probably to have repaired the city walls. As it is, he leaves the cost of a good gladiator fight to an Italian town that once elected him patron; increases the endowment for a public library which he had earlier founded at another such town near one of his villas; and institutes a trust fund to provide an annual feast in honor of his “Manes” to be shared in by all the freedmen of his family and by their own descendants.