In this last period, the coarse debauchery of the earlier periods is added to the refined. Swarms of servants, retinues of gladiators who might be even politically dangerous,[232-10] monster banquets, at which Cæsar, for instance, entertained the whole Roman people, colossal palaces such as Nero's _aurea domus_, which constituted a real city; annoying ostentation in dress[232-11] again becomes the order of the day. The more despotic a state becomes, the more is the craving for momentary enjoyment wont to grow; and for the same reason that great plagues diminish frugality and morality.[232-12] [Footnote 232-1: _Meierotto_, Sitten und Lebensart des Römer, II, 1776; _Boettiger_, Sabina, II, 1803; _Friedländer_, Darstellungen aus der Sittengeschichte Roms, Bd. III, 1868; which latter work has been written with the aid of all that modern science can afford.] [Footnote 232-2: _Plin._, H. N., XXXVII, 7; XVIII, 2; _Seneca_, Quaest. Natur., I, 17; Consol. ad. Helviam, 12.] [Footnote 232-3: _Seneca_, Quaest. Natur., III, 18; _Plin._, H. N., IX, 30.] [Footnote 232-4: _Seneca_, De Benef., VII, 9; _Plin._, N. N., VIII, 74.] [Footnote 232-5: _Valer. Max._, IX, 1; _Seneca_, Epist, 122. Thus Hortensius sprinkled his trees with wine. _Macrob._, Sat., III, 13.] [Footnote 232-6: Besides Cleopatra, Caligula especially did this frequently. Compare also _Horat._, Serm., II, 3, 239 ff. Similarly, the luxury of the actor Aesopus, when he placed a dish worth 6,000 _louis d'or_ before his guests, consisting entirely of birds which had been taught to sing or speak. _Pliny_, H. N., X, 72. Compare _Horat._, loc. cit., 345.] [Footnote 232-7: _Sueton._., Caligula, 37. _Hoc est luxuriae propositum, gaudere perversis. Seneca_., Epist., 122. According to the same letter of Seneca, the luxury of Nero's time had its source rather in vanity than in sensuality and gluttony.] [Footnote 232-8: _Martial_, V, 79; _Plin_., H. N. XIII, 5. _Seneca_, De Brev. Vitæ. I, 12.] [Footnote 232-9: _Seneca_, Cons. ad Helviam 10, _Martial_, III, 22.] [Footnote 232-10: Hence, early limited by law. _Sueton._. Caes. 10. Augustus limited the exiles to taking 20 slaves with them: _Dio Cass._ VII, 27. Special value attached to dwarfs, buffoons, hermaphrodites, eunuchs, precisely as among the moderns in the times of the degenerated absolutist courts, the luxury of which is closely allied in many respects to that of declining nations.] [Footnote 232-11: Caligula's wife wore, on ordinary occasions, 40,000,000 sesterces worth of ornaments. _Plin._ H. N. IX, 58.] [Footnote 232-12: _Gibbon_, History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, ch. 27. What a parallel between this later Roman luxury and the literary taste represented for instance by Seneca!