A source-book of ancient history - The Search For Mecca

A Quickly Made Croesus 493
Serapa, clever enough to 3it in the councils of the gods.
Well this man actually mentioned events which had
slipped my own memory: he told me everything as pat as
needle and thread: he seemed able to see my very insides
I ask you, Habinnas, you were there with us, I believe,
when he said: " You used your wealth to get your wife: you
Predictions
and told me everything except what I'd had for dinner the
day before. You'd have thought he'd lived with me always.
fortuneare
unlucky in your friends: no one is ever half as grate- *^^^^''-
ful to you as he ought to be: you own broad acres: you are
nourishing a snake in your bosom." And, well, I really
don't see why I shouldn't tell you, I've still got thirty
years, four months and two days to live, and I shall soon
have a legacy left me. That's what my fortune tells me.
But if I am allowed to extend my estates to Apulia, I
shall have lived long enough and \i'ell enough. Meantime
^\^th the help of ever-watchful Mercury I have built this
residence. As you know, it was once a cottage, and now it
is fit for a god. It's got four dining-halls, twenty bedrooms,
two marble colonnades, a dining-room upstairs, my
own bedroom, this viper's boudoir, an excellent porter's Reference is
lodge, and a suite of spare rooms for guests.
In fact when
Scaurus came he didn't want to put up anywhere else,
though he's got things which I'll show you presently. I
assure you, if you've only a penny you're only valued at
a penny; if you've got something, you'll be thought worth
something. And so your humble servant, who was once a
mere worm, is now a Croesus. Meantime, Stichus, bring
out my winding-sheet in which I am to be buried, and also
the perfume and just a taste from that jar of wine, in
which my bones are to be washed.