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Opulentia tyranni, paupertas
subiectorum.
A wealthy ruler means poor subjects
EMBLEMA CXLVI.
Humani quod splen est corporis, in populi re
Hoc Caesar[1] fiscum dixerat esse suum.
Splene aucto reliqui tabescunt corporis artus.
Fisco aucto arguitur civica pauperies.
It was a saying of Caesar that the imperial treasury has the same relation to the people as the spleen has to the human body: if the spleen is enlarged, all the other members of the body waste away. A swollen treasury is proof of poverty among the citizens.
1. The Emperor Trajan, one of the five ‘Good Emperors’. See Aurelius Victor, Epitome de Caesaribus, 42.21; Erasmus, Apophthegmata, 8.
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