Is anyone preferred before you at an entertainment, or in courtesies, or
in confidential intercourse? If these things are good, you ought to
rejoice that he has them; and if they are evil, do not be grieved that
you have them not. And remember that you cannot be permitted to rival
others in externals without using the same means to obtain them. For how
can he who will not haunt the door of any man, will not attend him, will
not praise him, have an equal share with him who does these things? You
are unjust, then, and unreasonable if you are unwilling to pay the price
for which these things are sold, and would have them for nothing. For how
much are lettuces sold? An obulus, for instance. If another, then, paying
an obulus, takes the lettuces, and you, not paying it, go without them,
do not imagine that he has gained any advantage over you. For as he has
the lettuces, so you have the obulus which you did not give. So, in the
present case, you have not been invited to such a person’s entertainment
because you have not paid him the price for which a supper is sold. It is
sold for praise; it is sold for attendance. Give him, then, the value if
it be for your advantage. But if you would at the same time not pay the
one, and yet receive the other, you are unreasonable and foolish. Have
you nothing, then, in place of the supper? Yes, indeed, you have—not to
praise him whom you do not like to praise; not to bear the insolence of
his lackeys.