STATILIUS. And not the faintest glimpse of better things! Yet it is true: a mode of life like ours—
CETHEGUS. Enough of that!
LENTULUS. Today because of debt The last of my inheritance was seized.
CETHEGUS. Enough of sorrow and complaint! Come, friends! We'll drown them in a merry drinking bout!
COEPARIUS. Yes, let us drink. Come, come, my merry comrades!
LENTULUS. A moment, friends; I see old Manlius yonder,— Seeking us out, I think, as is his wont.
MANLIUS. [Enters impetuously.] Confound the shabby dogs, the paltry scoundrels! Justice and fairness they no longer know!
LENTULUS. Come, what has happened? Wherefore so embittered?
STATILIUS. Have usurers been plaguing you as well?
MANLIUS. Something quite different. As you all know, I served with honor among Sulla's troops; A bit of meadow land was my reward. And when the war was at an end, I lived Thereon; it furnished me my daily bread. Now is it taken from me! Laws decree— State property shall to the state revert For equal distribution. Theft, I say,— It is rank robbery and nothing else! Their greed is all they seek to satisfy.