Tacitus, Annals, 15.20­-23, 33­-45. Latin Text, Study Aids with Vocabulary, and Commentary, 2013a

omnibus libidinum inlecebris repletas et regias etiam adtrectamus gazas –,
eo plus horreo, ne illae magis res nos ceperint quam nos illas. infesta, mihi
credite, signa ab Syracusis inlata sunt huic urbi. iam nimis multos audio
Corinthi et Athenarum ornamenta laudantes mirantesque et antefixa fictilia
deorum Romanorum ridentes. ego hos malo propitios deos et ita spero
futuros, si in suis manere sedibus patiemur. patrum nostrorum memoria per
legatum Cineam Pyrrhus non virorum modo sed etiam mulierum animos
donis temptavit. nondum lex Oppia ad coercendam luxuriam muliebrem
lata erat; tamen nulla accepit. quam causam fuisse censetis? eadem fuit
quae maioribus nostris nihil de hac re lege sanciundi: nulla erat luxuria
quae coerceretur. sicut ante morbos necesse est cognitos esse quam remedia
eorum, sic cupiditates prius natae sunt quam leges quae iis modum facerent. quid
legem Liciniam excitavit de quingentis iugeribus nisi ingens cupido agros
continuandi? quid legem Cinciam de donis et muneribus nisi quia vectigalis
iam et stipendiaria plebs esse senatui coeperat? itaque minime mirum est
nec Oppiam nec aliam ullam tum legem desideratam esse quae modum
sumptibus mulierum faceret, cum aurum et purpuram data et oblata ultro
non accipiebant. ...’
[‘You have often heard me complaining of the extravagance of the women
and often of the men, both private citizens and magistrates even, and
lamenting that the state is suffering from those two opposing evils, avarice
and luxury, which have been the destruction of every great empire. The
better and happier becomes the fortune of our commonwealth day by day
and the greater the empire grows – and already we have crossed into Greece
and Asia, places filled with all the allurements of vice, and we are handling
the treasures of kings – the more I fear that these things will capture us rather
than we them. Tokens of danger, believe me, were those statues which were
brought to this city from Syracuse. Altogether too many people do I hear
praising the baubles of Corinth and Athens and laughing at the mouldings
worked in clay of our Roman gods. I refer that these gods be propitious
to us, and I trust that they will be if we allow them to remain in their own
dwellings. In the memory of our forefathers Pyrrhus, through his agent
Cineas, tried to corrupt with gifts the minds of our men and women as well.
Not yet had the Oppian law been passed to curb female extravagance, yet
not one woman took his gifts. What do you think was the reason? The same
thing which caused our ancestors to pass no law on the subject: there was
no extravagance to be restrained. As it is necessary that diseases be known before
their cures, so passions are born before the laws which keep them within bounds.
What provoked the Licinian law about the five hundred iugera except the
uncontrolled desire of joining field to field? What brought about the Cincian
law except that the plebeians had already begun to be vassals and tributaries
to the senate? And so it is not strange that no Oppian or any other law was
needed to limit female extravagance at the time when they spurned gifts of
gold and purple voluntarily offered to them. ...’]