An Unnamed Roman Emperor Comments on the Good Life

We read of a certain Roman emperor who built a magnificent palace. In digging the foundation, the workmen discovered a golden sarcophagus ornamented with three circlets, on which were inscribed, “I have expended; I have given; I have kept; I have possessed; I do possess; I have lost; I am punished. What I formerly expended, I have; what I gave away, I have.”

Gesta Romanorum, Tale xvi. Compiled in the late 13th or early 14th century by an unnamed priest, who had an axe to grind, so may not necessarily be so. Translated in 1824 by C. Swan.