=195. Life in Rome Expensive. Premiums upon Extravagance and Pretence.=--With every deduction from such charges Rome is undoubtedly an extremely expensive city to dwell in, probably the most expensive in the whole Empire, and in all but very limited circles the pressure for wealth is inconceivable. A typical man-of-affairs is represented as boasting to his cronies, “Coranus owes me 100,000 sesterces ($4,000); Mancinus 200,000; Titius 300,000; Albinus 600,000; Salinus a million; Soranus another million; from the rent of my insulæ I get three million ($120,000); from the flocks on my pasture lands 600,000.” On any night at half the triclinia, the mighty equites and senators can be heard talking about investments, real estate transactions, government contracts, and foreign trade prospects, far more vigorously than concerning either the wisdom of the Emperor’s policy in building the wall across Britain, or the philosopher’s doctrine of the immortality of the soul. The very life of the city puts a premium in fact on getting and spending. A youth inheriting a modest fortune in the provinces comes to Rome. In a few months his patrimony has drifted away on fish-mongers, bakers, luxurious baths, ointments, and garlands, not to mention fine clothes, gamesters, and dancing girls. In many circles an outlay of 40,000 sesterces ($1600) is “a mere pinch of poppy seed for an ant-hill.” You must at least _seem_ rich or you amount to nothing. Half the young men of fashion are therefore, good authorities aver, up to their ears in debt; but anybody with a little ready money can put on a bold countenance to make an impression. Many is the apparent aristocrat who is swung along in a fine litter, his violet robes trailing, and with a long train apparently of clients and slaves following him, who has actually hired litter and attendants, nay, the gown which he wears from a ready contractor--in order perhaps to carry his part in some business conference at the Forum. And if you are to plead a case as advocate but are unluckily a poor man, nevertheless be sure to hire a fine toga and a couple of handsome rings to wear through the morning, or the jurors will assume you are a nobody and promptly vote against you. =196. Rome a City of Investors and Buyers of Luxuries.=--Everybody declaims against this scramble for wealth and yet joins in it. Even Martial and Juvenal, it is peevishly averred, would have held back their jibes if their financial hopes had prospered. Be it said also that this struggle in Rome is probably not much more sordid than it can become in other capitals in other ages. The standards of business honesty are relatively high. Most bargains are faithfully kept. A great credit system has been built up--itself a witness to the fact that most traders are honorable.