The Man of Petty Ambition is the kind who, when he gets an invitation to dinner, is eager to sit next to the host. He takes his son to Delphi to have his hair cut. He goes to the trouble of acquiring an Aethiopian attendant. When he pays back a mina of silver he pays it back in new coin. He is apt to buy a little ladder for his domestic jackdaw and make a little bronze shield for it to carry when it hops onto the ladder. When he has sacrificed an ox he nails up the skull opposite the entrance to his house and fastens long ribbons around it, so that his visitors can see that he has sacrificed an ox. After parading with the cavalry he gives his slave the rest of his equipment to take home, then throws back his cloak and strolls through the marketplace in his spurs. On the death of his Maltese dog he builds a funeral monument and sets up a little slab with the inscription ‘** from Malta’. He dedicates a bronze finger in the sanctuary of Asclepius and does not let a day pass without polishing, garlanding and oiling it. And you can be sure that he will arrange with the executive committee of the Council that he should be the one to make the public report on the conduct of religious business, and will step forward wearing a smart white cloak, with a crown on his head, and say ‘Men of Athens, my colleagues and I celebrated the Milk-Feast with sacrifices to the Mother of the Gods. The sacrifices were propitious. We beg you to accept your blessings.’ After making this report he goes home and tells his wife that he had an extremely successful day.

XXX: The Shabby Profiteer

[Shabby profiteering is desire for shabby profit.]