merely means that I prefer spending my treasures on myself to saving them
for my successor, whose title will probably have been acquired by cutting
my throat."

"I know," said Plotinus, "that the expenses of administering an empire must
necessarily be prodigious. I am aware that the principal generals are only
kept to their allegiance by enormous bribes. I well understand that the
Empress must have pearls, and that the Roman populace must have panthers;
and that, since Egypt has revolted, the hippopotamus is worth his weight in
gold. I am further aware that the proposed colossal statue of your Majesty
in the same metal, including a staircase, with room in the head for a
child, like another Pallas in the brain of Zeus, must alone involve very
considerable outlay. But I am encouraged by your Majesty's wise and
statesmanlike measure of debasing the currency; since, money having become
devoid of value, there can be no difficulty in devoting any amount of it to
any purpose required."

"Plotinus," said Gallienus, "in this age the devil is taking the hindmost,
and we are the hindmost. There are tidings to-day of a new earthquake in
Bithynia, and three days' darkness, also of outbreaks of pestilence, and
incursions of the barbarians, too numerous as well as too disagreeable to
mention. At this moment some revolted legion is probably forcing the purple
upon some reluctant general; and the Persian king, a great equestrian, is
doubtless mounting his horse by the aid of my father's back. If I had been
an old Roman, I should by this time have avenged my father, but I am a man
of my age. Take the money for thy city, and see that it yields me some
amusement at any rate. I assume, of course, that thou wilt exercise severe
economy, and that cresses and spring water will be the diet of thy
philosophers. Farewell, I go to Gaul to encounter Postumus. Willingly would
I leave him in peace in Gaul if he would leave me in peace in Italy; but I