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Showing posts from February, 2023
Ancient-cart Problems
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Long before Insta-cart and associated problems, there were Ancient-cart problems. Around 55 BC, Cicero sent a friend to buy statues one might see at a gymnasium (athletes) and some paintings. Cicero gets a bill indicating that his friend overspent the budget. On what? Further investigation reveals, well. . . Here are excerpts from a letter: “But, my dear Gallus, everything would have been easy, if you had bought the things I wanted, and only up to the price that I wished. . . I fully understand that you have displayed zeal and affection in purchasing (because you thought them worthy of me) things which pleased yourself. . . for there is absolutely none of those purchases that I care to have. But you, being unacquainted with my habits, have bought four or five of your selection at a price at which I do not value any statues in the world. . . . To begin with, I should never have considered the Muses worth all that money . . . But Bacchæ! What place is there in my house for them? But yo