This is a fault common to all singers, that among their friends they never are inclined to sing when they are asked,[ but] unasked, they never desist. Tigellius, that Sardinian, had this[ fault]. Had Caesar, who could have forced him to compliance, besought him on account of his father 's friendship and his own, he would have had no success; if he himself was disposed, he would chant lo Bacche over and over, from the beginning of an entertainment to the very conclusion of it; one while at the deepest pitch of his voice, at another time with that which answers to the highest string of the tetrachord. There was nothing uniform in that fellow; frequently would he run along, as one flying from an enemy; more frequently[ he walked] as if he bore[ in procession] the sacrifice of Juno: he had often two hundred slaves, often but ten: one while talking of kings and potentates ,every thing that was magnificent; at another--"Let me have a three- legged table, and a cellar of clean salt, and a gown which, though coarse, may be sufficient to keep out the cold." Had you given ten hundred thousand sesterces to this moderate man who was content with such small matters, in five days ' time there would be nothing in his bags. He sat up at nights,[ even] to day- light; he snored out all the day. Never was there anything so inconsistent with itself. Now some person may say to me," What are you? Have you no faults?" Yes, others; but others, and perhaps of a less culpable nature. 