I once read a story about the rich Roman "Plinius Bros.", who obviously were the intelligence snobs in their time in Rome and I do not really know how much of this story is reality or fiction, but I really would have liked to be a Plinius in those times sooo much:
They were not only very well educated historians, but they probably also owned something like a first "press and intelligence agency" for informations about foreign countries and sold their informations to entrepreneurs and politicians who wanted to know more about the country they were about to visit and/ or making business there.
They were also famous in Rome of being the buyers of the most intelligent (=> men) and most beautiful AND intelligent (=> women) slaves for the highest prices ever and they were always said to be the friendliest slave owners of Rome.
At least twice, they even released philosophically educated Greek slaves into liberty and even paid them the opening of their own schools for philosophy and rhetoric. The Plinus Bros. were said to be regarded by their slaves not as humans but as mortal gods because they often even partly spoke the languages of their slaves from foreign countries.
One story shows how much the Plinius Bros. were known as sophisticated snobs in Rome because they invented something like "the living oratory walkman". They were fanatics in gathering informations even for themselves at any time and when they visited the giant public baths of Rome, swimming in the public pools, one of their Greek slaves constantly had to walk alongside of the pool next to his swimming master(s), reading in lowered voice for him/ them the latest news from the Eastern part of the Mediterranian Sea - in Greek!
Another one or sometimes two slaves, experienced in close combat and about 2 metres tall, had to watch and to protect the reading intelligent Greek slave against possible Roman "silly or drunk patriots", who did not want to hear foreign languages in their Roman capital city.
It must have been really nice to be a Plinius in those days, or what do you think?