Sed quis ante te laudem istam pecuniae praetulit? quotus quisque principum ne id quidem in patrimoniis nostris suum duxit, quod esset de suo? Nonne ut regum ita Caesarum munera illitos cibis hamos, opertos praeda laqueos aemulabantur, cum privatis facultatibus velut hausta et implicita retro secum quidquid attigerant referrent?
Yet who before you chose this distinction in preference to additional wealth? How many emperors refused (like you) to consider as theirs even that portion of our patrimony which originally came from them? Is it not true to say that the gifts of emperors like those of kings used to resemble baited hooks or hidden snares, so that once entangled with private fortunes they drew out with them whatever they touched?
final_alignments\Pliny_Younger_Panegyricus.json