He had been drinking heavily the night before, and his small bluish eyes had wide dark circles beneath them, and his breath showed strongly the garlic with which he had seasoned the bread and grapes of his early lunch.

He was evidently very glad to see his Greek visitor, and drove the six large, heavily gemmed rings which he wore on one of his fat fingers, almost into the other's hand when he shook it.
"Well met, Pratinas!" was his salutation.

"Tell me, is that little affair of yours settled?
Have you stopped the mouth of that beastly fellow, Postumus Pyrgensis, who said that I was a base upstart, with no claim to my gentile name, and a bad record as a tax farmer in Spain, and therefore should not be elected tribune[30] ?" [30] The ten tribunes had power to convene the people and Senate, propose laws and "veto" the actions of other magistrates.
"I have stopped him," said Pratinas, with a little cough.

"But it was expensive.

He stuck out for ten thousand sesterces." "Oh, cheaply off," said Calatinus, laughing.