Gesticulating, his voice rising into a senile scream, he upbraided me for folly, extravagance, unthrift and prodigality.

He declared that such indulgence would ruin me, would debauch him and his fellows and would, by its evil example, infect, corrupt and deprave the whole countryside.

He railed at me.

He vowed that, whatever the rest might do, he would use all his powers of persuasion to urge them to stick to their farms till harvest was over and he swore that he himself would, under no circumstances, leave his till the last ear of grain, the last root, the last fruit, was garnered, stored and safe for the winter.
I let him shriek himself hoarse and talk himself mute; then I spoke calmly and sternly: "I am master here and master of all of you.

The loyalty due from a free tenant is, in Sabinum, as mandatory a bond as the obedience legally due from a slave.