Laudator Temporis Acti

Plautus, Persa 123-126 (tr. Wolfgang de Melo, with his note):

A hanger-on jolly well ought to be a poor Cynic;¹⁷
he should have a flask, a scraper, a bowl, flat shoes, a cloak,
and a wallet, and in it a little support
to sustain his own life only.

¹⁷ The Cynic school of philosophy, founded by Diogenes of Sinope, aimed at freeing man from unnecessary desires. Cynics were often proverbially poor, like the hangers-on of comedy; but unlike hangers-on the Cynics tried to be self-sufficient.

cynicum esse egentem oportet parasitum probe:
ampullam, strigilem, scaphium, soccos, pallium,
marsuppium habeat, inibi paullum praesidi        125
qui familiarem suam uitam oblectet modo.

Sustain doesn't seem quite right for oblectet (Oxford Latin Dictionary: "To delight, amuse, divert, entertain") in line 126. Cf. Paul Nixon's translation:

It jolly well behooves a parasite to be a poverty-stricken cynic—
let him have a flask, strigil, cup, sandals, cloak,
and a purse garrisoned with next to nothing
for the sole delectation of his very own household.

Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, "De Plauti Persa," De Tribus Carminibus Latinis Commentatio (Göttingen: Dieterich, 1894), pp. 13-26 (at 16), gives Greek equivalents for the Cynic's possessions (ampullam ... marsuppium):

ληκύθιον στλεγγίδα ποτήριον ἐμβάδας τριβώνιον πήραν

Ausonius, Epigrams 49 (my translation):

Satchel, barley-meal, cloak, staff, cup — this was the scanty kit of the Cynic. But he thought it was excessive. For seeing a rustic drinking with cupped hands, he said, "Why, cup, do I carry you, a superfluous thing?"

pera, polenta, tribon, baculus, scyphus, arta supellex
    ista fuit Cynici, set putat hanc nimiam.
namque cavis manibus cernens potare bubulcum
    'cur, scyphe, te', dixit, 'gesto supervacuum?'

See Friedrich Leo, "Diogenes bei Plautus," Hermes 41.3 (1906) 441-446, and Donatella Izzo, "Krates bei Plautus? Persa, 118-28," Annali Online di Ferrara - Lettere IX 1 (2014) 85-99.

Related posts:

• Self-Sufficiency
  
• Omnia Mea Mecum Porto
  
• Use Your Memory