ly lay to my charge avarice, nor
sordidness, nor impure haunts; if, in fine (to speak in my own praise),
I live undefiled, and innocent, and dear to my friends; my father was
the cause of all this: who though a poor man on a lean farm, was
unwilling to send me to a school under [the pedant] Flavius, where great
boys, sprung from great centurions, having their satchels and tablets
swung over their left arm, used to go with money in their hands the very
day it was due; but had the spirit to bring me a child to Rome, to be
taught those arts which any Roman knight and senator can teach his own
children. So that, if any person had considered my dress, and the slaves
who attended me in so populous a city, he would have concluded that
those expenses were supplied to me out of some hereditary estate. He
himself, of all others the most faithful guardian, was constantly about
every one of my preceptors. Why should I multiply words? He preserved me
chaste (which is the first honor or virtue) not only from every actual
guilt, but likewise from [every] foul imputation, nor was he afraid lest
any should turn it to his reproach, if I should come to follow a
business attended with small profits, in capacity of an auctioneer, or
(what he was himself) a tax-gatherer. Nor [had that been the case]
should I have complained. On this account the more praise is due to him,
and from me a greater degree of gratitude. As long as I am in my senses,
I can never be ashamed of such a father as this, and therefore shall not
apologize [for my birth], in the manner that numbers do, by affirming it
to be no fault of theirs. My language and way of thinking is far
different from such persons. For if nature were to make us from a
certain term of years to go over our past time again, and [suffer us] to
choose other parents, such as every man for ostentation's sake would
wish for himself; I, content with my own, would not assume those that
are honored with the ensigns and seats of state; [for which I should
seem] a madman in the opinion of the mob, but in yours, I hope a man of
sense; because I should be unwilling to sustain a troublesome burden,
being by no means used to it. For I must [then] immediately set about
acquiring a larger fortune, and more people must be complimented; and
this and that companion must be taken along, so that I could neither
take a jaunt into the country, or a journey by myself; more attendants
and more horses must be fed; coaches mus