Let's see if virtue can still be called virtue when people treat it with such disrespect. When virtue abandons its rightful place, it loses its very name. But to stay on topic, let me show you many men who are drowning in pleasures — men who have been given every gift by Fortune, yet you'd have to admit they are wicked. Look at Nomentanus and Apicius. They devour all the so-called delicacies from sea and land. They parade the entire animal kingdom across their dinner tables. Watch them lying on beds of roses, gloating over their feasts. They delight their ears with music, their eyes with shows, their tongues with exotic flavors. Their whole bodies are pampered with soft and soothing treatments. Even their noses aren't left idle — the very rooms where they worship luxury are perfumed with every scent. You'd say these men live surrounded by pleasures. Yet they're miserable, because they take pleasure in things that aren't truly good.
We shall, however, see whether virtue still remains virtue among those who treat her with such contempt, for if she leaves her proper station she can no longer keep her proper name: in the meanwhile, to keep to the point, I will show you many men beset by pleasures, men upon whom Fortune has showered all her gifts, whom you must needs admit to be bad men. Look at Nomentanus and Apicius, who digest all the good things, as they call them, of the sea and land, and review upon their tables the whole animal kingdom. Look at them as they lie on beds of roses gloating over their banquet, delighting their ears with music, their eyes with exhibitions, their palates with flavours: their whole bodies are titillated with soft and soothing applications, and lest even their nostrils should be idle, the very place in which, they solemnize the rites of luxury is scented with various perfumes. You will say that these men live in the midst of pleasures. Yet they are ill at ease, because they take pleasure in what is not good.