Pergula pictorum, veri nihil, omnia ficta.[320]
His attitude to philosophy, like his attitude to superstitious terrors, was not unlike that of Horace. We find mention in his fragments of the 'Socratici charti,' of the 'eidola atque atomus Epicuri' of the four στοιχεῖα of Empedocles, of the 'mutatus Polemon,' spoken of in Horace (Sat. ii. 3, 253), of Aristippus, and of Carneades; but his own wisdom was that of the world and not of the schools. In these lines,—
Paenula, si quaeris, canteriu', servu', segestre,
Utilior mihi, quam sapiens;
and—
Nondum etiam, qui haec omnia habebit,
Formosus, dives, liber, rex solu' feretur,
we find an anticipation of the tones in which Horace satirised the professors of Stoicism in his own time. The affectation of Greek manners and tastes is ridiculed in the person of Titus Albutius, in a passage which Cicero describes as written 'with much grace and pungent wit[321].'
Graecum te, Albuci, quam Romanum atque Sabinum,
Municipem Ponti, Tritanni, Centurionum,