[27] Mommsen.
[28] 'Inventore minor.'—Horace.
[29] Another passage, ascribed to Ennius, descriptive of the greed of a parasite, occupies the ground common to Roman comedy and to Roman satire:—
Quippe sine cura laetus lautus cum advenis
Insertis malis, expedito bracchio
Alacer, celsus, lupino expectans impetu,
Mox cum alterius obligurias bona,
Quid censes domino esse animi? pro divum fidem!
Ille tristis cibum dum servat, tu ridens voras.
[30] The meaning of the passage amounts to no more than this, that the man who tries to 'sell' another, and fails, is himself 'sold.'