
IN AVAROS.
On the avaricious
Emblema 84.
Septitius populos inter ditissimus omnes,
Arva senex nullus quo magis ampla tenet:
Defraudans geniumque suum, mensasque paratas,
Nil praeter betas, duraque rapa vorat.
Cui similem dicam hunc, inopem quem copia reddit?
Anne asino? sic est: instar hic eius habet.
Nanque asinus dorso pretiosa obsonia gestat,
Seque rubo, aut duro [=dura]
carice pauper alit.[1]
Septitius is the richest man on earth; no old man has wider estates than he. Mean to himself and his dinner table, he chews nothing but beets and stringy turnips. To what shall I liken a man whose very wealth makes him a beggar? Shall it be an ass? That’s it - he is just like an ass. An ass carries a load of rich delicacies on his back, but, poor creature, feeds itself on brambles and tough grass
1. Cf. Anthologia graeca 11.397, concerning a miser called Artemidorus.
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Related Emblems

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Iconclass Keywords
Relating to the image:
- ass, donkey [46C13142(+739):31A244] Search | Browse Iconclass
- ass, donkey (+ animals eating and drinking) [46C13142(+745)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- bread, loaf (+ foodstuffs in other container, e.g.: barrel, can, cask, tin, etc.) [41C621(+5)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- container of textile material: bag, sack [41A777] Search | Browse Iconclass
- farm or solitary house in landscape [25I3] Search | Browse Iconclass
- fish; still life of fishes [41C68] Search | Browse Iconclass
- groups of trees [25G11] Search | Browse Iconclass
- money-chest, treasure-chest, money-box (+ variant) [46A1632(+0)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- pack-animal [46C133] Search | Browse Iconclass
- plants and herbs: thistle (+ flowers, blossom, blossoming) [25G4(THISTLE)(+32)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- plucked fowl [41C26131] Search | Browse Iconclass
- rural housing, e.g. country-house, villa, cottage [41A16] Search | Browse Iconclass
- sausage [41C693] Search | Browse Iconclass
- village - II - ideal landscapes [25II2] Search | Browse Iconclass
- wine ~ alcoholic drinks (+ foodstuffs in other container, e.g.: barrel, can, cask, tin, etc.) [41C711(+5)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- wooden container: barrel, cask [41A775] Search | Browse Iconclass
Relating to the text:
- (non-fruit) products of plants or trees (with NAME) [25G22(TURNIP)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Greed, Covetousness, Cupidity; 'Cupiditą' (Ripa) (+ emblematical representation of concept) [55CC11(+4)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- male persons from classical history (with NAME) representations to which the NAME of a person from classical history may be attached [98B(SEPTITIUS)3] Search | Browse Iconclass
- root, tuber [25G(+24)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Wealth, Opulence; 'Opulenza', 'Richezza' (Ripa) [55B1] Search | Browse Iconclass
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