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17.1.p1228
17.1.p1228
That Asinius Gallus and Largius Licinus criticized a saying of Cicero's in the speech which he delivered For Marcus Caelius; and what may be said with truth and propriety in defence of that saying, in reply to those most foolish critics.
17.1.p1229
17.1.p1229
JUST as there have been monsters of men who expressed impious and false opinions about the immortal gods, so there have been some so extravagant and so ignorant that they have dared to say that Marcus Cicero spoke without correctness, propriety, or consideration; among these are Asinius Gallus and Largius Licinus, and the latter's book even bears the outrageous title of The Scourge of Cicero. Now the other things that they have censured are certainly not worth hearing or mentioning; but let us consider the value of this stricture of theirs, in which particularly they are, in their own opinion, very keen critics of language.
17.1.p1230
17.1.p1230
Marcus Cicero in his speech
17.1.p1230
For Marcus Caelius
17.1.p1230
1
17.1.p1230
writes as follows:
17.1.p1230
As to the charge made against his chastity and published by all his accusers, not in the form of actual charges, but of gossip and calumnies, Marcus Caelius will never take that so much to heart, as to repent that he was not born ugly.
17.1.p1230
They think that Cicero has not used the proper word in saying
17.1.p1230
paeniteat,
17.1.p1230
or
17.1.p1230
repent,
17.1.p1230
and they go so far as to add that it is almost absurd;
17.1.p1230
for,
17.1.p1230
they say,
17.1.p1230
we regularly use paenitere when things which we ourselves have done, or which have been done in accordance with our wish and design, later begin to displease us and we change our opinion about them.
17.1.p1230
But that no one correctly says that he
17.1.p1230
repents being born
17.1.p1230
or
17.1.p1230
repents being mortal,
17.1.p1230
or
17.1.p1230
because he feels pain from any chance injury or wound inflicted upon his body
17.1.p1230
; for in such cases there is no design or choice on our part, but such things happen to us against our will by some necessity or force of nature.
17.1.p1230
In the same way,
17.1.p1230
they continue,
17.1.p1230
it was not a matter of choice with Marcus Caelius with what person he was born; yet he says that ' he did not repent this,' as if there were in that circumstance ground for a feeling of repentance.
17.1.p1231
17.1.p1231
This is in fact, as they say, the force of that word, and
17.1.p1231
paenitere
17.1.p1231
is strictly used of none but voluntary acts, although our forefathers used that same word also in a different sense and connected
17.1.p1231
paenitere
17.1.p1231
with the words
17.1.p1231
paene
17.1.p1231
(almost) and
17.1.p1231
paenuria
17.1.p1231
(want). But that is another question, and will be spoken of in another place.
17.1.p1231
1
17.1.p1231
But with regard to the point at issue, giving to
17.1.p1231
paenitere
17.1.p1231
this same meaning which is commonly recognized, what Marcus Cicero said is not only not foolish, but in the highest degree elegant and witty. For since the adversaries and detractors of Marcus Caelius, inasmuch as he was of handsome person, made use of his appearance and figure to throw doubt upon his chastity, therefore Cicero, making sport of such an absurd charge as to impute to him as a fault the good looks which nature had given him, has deliberately adopted that very same false charge of which he is making fun, saying:
17.1.p1231
Marcus Caelius is not sorry for not having been born ugly
17.1.p1231
; so that by the very fact of speaking thus he might reproach his accusers and wittily show that they were doing an absurd thing in making Caelius' handsome person an accusation against him, just as if the person with which he was born depended upon his own volition.
17.2.p1232
17.2.p1232
Certain words from the first book of the Annals of Quintus Claudius, noted in a hasty reading.
17.2.p1233
17.2.p1233
WHENEVER I read the book of an early writer, I tried afterwards, for the purpose of quickening my memory, to recall and review any passages in the book which were worthy of note, in the way either of praise or censure; and I found it an exceedingly helpful exercise for ensuring my recollection of elegant words and phrases, whenever need of them should arise. For example, in the first book of the
17.2.p1233
Annals
17.2.p1233
of Quintus Claudius, which I had read on the preceding two days, I noted these passages:
17.2.p1233
The greater number,
17.2.p1233
says he,
17.2.p1233
1
17.2.p1233
threw away their arms and hid themselves unarmed.
17.2.p1233
The verb
17.2.p1233
inhatebrant,
17.2.p1233
for
17.2.p1233
hid themselves,
17.2.p1233
seemed poetic, but neither improper nor harsh.
17.2.p1233
While these things were going on,
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he says,
17.2.p1233
2
17.2.p1233
the Latins, their spirits raised because of their easy victory, form a plan.
17.2.p1233
Subnixo animo
17.2.p1233
is. significant and carefully chosen expression with the force of
17.2.p1233
raised and elevated in spirit
17.2.p1233
; and it indicates loftiness and confidence of spirit, since we are, as it were, raised and lifted up by that upon which we depend.
17.2.p1234
17.2.p1234
He bids each one,
17.2.p1234
he says,
17.2.p1234
1
17.2.p1234
go to his own house and enjoy his possessions.
17.2.p1234
Frunisci,
17.2.p1234
meaning
17.2.p1234
enjoy,
17.2.p1234
was somewhat rare in the days of Marcus Tullius and became still rarer after that time, and its Latinity was questioned by those who were unacquainted with our early literature. However,
17.2.p1234
fruniscor
17.2.p1234
is not only good Latin, but it is more elegant and pleasing than
17.2.p1234
fruor,
17.2.p1234
from which it is formed in the same way as
17.2.p1234
fatiscor
17.2.p1234
from
17.2.p1234
fateor.
17.2.p1234
Quintus Metellus Numidicus, who is known to have used the Latin tongue with purity and simplicity, in the letter which he sent when in exile
17.2.p1234
To the Domitii,
17.2.p1234
wrote as follows:
17.2.p1234
They indeed were cut off from every right and honour, I lack neither water nor fire and I enjoy (fruiscor) the greatest glory.
17.2.p1234
Novius, in his Atellan farce entitled
17.2.p1234
The Miser,
17.2.p1234
uses this word:
17.2.p1234
2
17.2.p1235
17.2.p1235
And the Romans,
17.2.p1235
says Quadrigarius,
17.2.p1235
1
17.2.p1235
get possession of (copiantur) many arms and a great supply of provisions, and enormous booty.
17.2.p1235
Copiantur
17.2.p1235
is a soldier's word, and you will not readily find it in the pleaders of civil suits; it is formed in the same way as
17.2.p1235
lignantur,
17.2.p1235
or
17.2.p1235
gather wood,
17.2.p1235
pabulantur,
17.2.p1235
or
17.2.p1235
forage,
17.2.p1235
and
17.2.p1235
aquantur,
17.2.p1235
or
17.2.p1235
get water.
17.2.p1236
17.2.p1236
Quadrigarius uses
17.2.p1236
sole occaso
17.2.p1236
for
17.2.p1236
at sunset.
17.2.p1236
1
17.2.p1236
This expression has a flavour of antiquity which is not without charm, if one possesses an ear that is not dull and commonplace; furthermore the phrase occurs in the
17.2.p1236
Twelve Tables
17.2.p1236
in the following passage:
17.2.p1236
2
17.2.p1236
Before midday let them hear the case, with both parties making their pleas in person. After midday, decide the ease in favour of the one who is present. If both are present, let sunset be the limit of the proceedings.
17.2.p1237
17.2.p1237
We,
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says he,
17.2.p1237
1
17.2.p1237
will leave it undecided (in medium).
17.2.p1237
The common people say
17.2.p1237
in medio; for
17.2.p1237
they think that
17.2.p1237
in medium
17.2.p1237
is an error, and if you should say
17.2.p1237
in medium ponere
17.2.p1237
(to make known),
17.2.p1237
2
17.2.p1237
they consider that also a solecism; but if anyone examines these words with some care, that expression will seem to him the more correct and the more expressive; moreover in Greek
17.2.p1237
qei=nai ei)s me/son,
17.2.p1237
is not an error. "After it was announced," he says,
17.2.p1237
3
17.2.p1237
that a battle had been fought against the Gauls (in Gallos), the State was troubled.
17.2.p1237
In Gallos
17.2.p1237
is nester and finer than
17.2.p1237
cum Gallis
17.2.p1237
or
17.2.p1237
contra Gallos;
17.2.p1237
for these are somewhat awkward and out of date.
17.2.p1238
17.2.p1238
At the same time,
17.2.p1238
he says,
17.2.p1238
1
17.2.p1238
he excelled in person, in exploits, in eloquence, in position, in energy, and confidence alike, so that it was easily seen that he possessed from himself and in himself a great equipment (magnum viaticum) for overthrowing the republic.
17.2.p1238
Magnum viaticum
17.2.p1238
is a novel expression for great ability and great resources, and Claudius seems to have followed the Greeks, who transferred
17.2.p1238
e)fo/dion
17.2.p1238
from the meaning of
17.2.p1238
money for a journey
17.2.p1238
to preparation for other things, and often say
17.2.p1238
e)fodi/ason
17.2.p1238
for
17.2.p1238
prepare
17.2.p1238
and
17.2.p1238
make ready.
17.2.p1239
17.2.p1239
For Marcus Manlius,
17.2.p1239
said he,
17.2.p1239
1
17.2.p1239
who, as I have shown above, saved the Capitol from the Gauls, and whose service, along with that of Marcus Furius the dictator, the State found especially (cumprime) valiant and irresistible against the Gauls, yielded to no one in race, in strength and in warlike valour.
17.2.p1239
Adprime
17.2.p1239
is more frequent for
17.2.p1239
especially
17.2.p1239
;
17.2.p1239
cumprime
17.2.p1239
is rarer and is derived from the expression
17.2.p1239
cumprimis
17.2.p1239
with the force of
17.2.p1239
inprimis.
17.2.p1239
Quadrigarius says
17.2.p1239
2
17.2.p1239
that
17.2.p1239
he has no need for riches (divitias).
17.2.p1239
We use the ablative
17.2.p1239
divitiis
17.2.p1239
with
17.2.p1239
opus.
17.2.p1239
But this usage of his is not a mistake in grammar, nor is it even what is termed a figure; for it is correct Latin and the early writers quite frequently used that case; moreover, no reason can be given why
17.2.p1239
divis opus esse
17.2.p1239
is more correct than
17.2.p1239
divitias,
17.2.p1239
except by those who look upon the innovations of grammarians as oracular responses.
17.2.p1240
17.2.p1240
For herein especially,
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says he,
17.2.p1240
1
17.2.p1240
lies the injustice of the gods, that the worst men are the least subject to injury, and that they do not allow the best men to remain long (diurnare) with us.
17.2.p1240
His use of
17.2.p1240
diurnare
17.2.p1240
for
17.2.p1240
diu vivere
17.2.p1240
is unusual, but it is justified by the figure by which we use
17.2.p1240
perennare
17.2.p1240
(to last for years). He says:
17.2.p1240
2
17.2.p1240
He conversed (consermonabatur) with them.
17.2.p1240
Semocinari
17.2.p1240
seems somewhat rustic, but is more correct;
17.2.p1240
sermocinari
17.2.p1240
is more common, but is not such pure Latin.
17.2.p1241
17.2.p1241
That he would not do even that,
17.2.p1241
says he,
17.2.p1241
1
17.2.p1241
which he then advised.
17.2.p1241
He has used
17.2.p1241
ne id quoque
17.2.p1241
for
17.2.p1241
ne id quidem;
17.2.p1241
the former is not common now in conversation, but is very frequent in the books of the earlier writers.
17.2.p1242
17.2.p1242
Such is the sanctity (sanctitudo) of the fane,
17.2.p1242
says he,
17.2.p1242
1
17.2.p1242
that no one ever ventured to violate it.
17.2.p1242
Sanctitas
17.2.p1242
and
17.2.p1242
sanctimonia
17.2.p1242
are equally good Latin, but the word
17.2.p1242
sanctitudo
17.2.p1242
somehow has greater dignity, just as Marcus Cato, in his speech
17.2.p1242
Against Lucius Veturius,
17.2.p1242
thought it more forcible to use
17.2.p1242
duritudo
17.2.p1242
than
17.2.p1242
duritia,
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saying,
17.2.p1242
2
17.2.p1242
Who knew his impudence and hardihood (duritudinem).
17.2.p1243
17.2.p1243
Since the Roman people,
17.2.p1243
says Quadrigarius,
17.2.p1243
1
17.2.p1243
had given such a pledge (arrabo) to the Samites.
17.2.p1243
He applied the term
17.2.p1243
arrabo
17.2.p1243
to the six hundred hostages and preferred to use that word rather than
17.2.p1243
pignus,
17.2.p1243
since the force of
17.2.p1243
arrabo
17.2.p1243
in that connection is weightier and more pointed; but nowadays
17.2.p1243
arrabo
17.2.p1243
is beginning to be numbered among vulgar words, and
17.2.p1243
arra
17.2.p1243
seems even more so, although the early writers often used
17.2.p1243
arra,
17.2.p1243
and Laberius
17.2.p1243
2
17.2.p1243
has it several times.
17.2.p1244
17.2.p1244
They have spent most wretched lives (vitas),
17.2.p1244
says Quadrigarius,
17.2.p1244
1
17.2.p1244
and,
17.2.p1244
2
17.2.p1244
This man is worn out by too much leisure (otiis).
17.2.p1244
In both cases elegance is sought by the use of the plural number.
17.2.p1244
Cominius,
17.2.p1244
says he,
17.2.p1244
3
17.2.p1244
came down the same way he had gone up and so deceived the Gauls.
17.2.p1244
He says that Cominius
17.2.p1244
gave words to the Gauls,
17.2.p1244
meaning
17.2.p1244
deceived them,
17.2.p1244
although he had said nothing to anybody; and the Gauls who were besieging the Capitol had seen him neither going up nor coming down. But
17.2.p1244
he gave words
17.2.p1244
is used with the meaning of
17.2.p1244
he escaped the notice of, and circumvented.
17.2.p1245
17.2.p1245
Again he says:
17.2.p1245
1
17.2.p1245
There were valleys and great woods (arboreta).
17.2.p1245
Arboreta
17.2.p1245
is a less familiar word,
17.2.p1245
arbusta
17.2.p1245
2
17.2.p1245
the more usual one.
17.2.p1246
17.2.p1246
They thought,
17.2.p1246
says he,
17.2.p1246
1
17.2.p1246
that those who were without and those that were within the citadel were exchanging communications (commutationes) and plans
17.2.p1246
Commutationes,
17.2.p1246
meaning
17.2.p1246
conferences and communications,
17.2.p1246
is not usual, but, by Heaven! is neither erroneous nor inelegant.
17.2.p1247
17.2.p1247
These few notes on that book, such things as I remembered after reading it, I have now jotted down for my own use.
17.3.p1248
17.3.p1248
The words of Marcus Varro in the twenty fifth book of his Humran Antiquities, in which he has interpreted a line of Homer contrary to the general opinion.
17.3.p1249
17.3.p1249
IT happened in the course of conversations which we carried on about the dates of various inventions for human use, that a young man not without learning observed that the use of
17.3.p1249
spartum
17.3.p1249
or
17.3.p1249
Spanish broom
17.3.p1249
also was for a long time unknown in the land of Greece and that it was imported from Spain many years after the taking of Ilium. One or two half-educated fellows who were present there, of the class that the Greeks call
17.3.p1249
a)gorai=oi,
17.3.p1249
or
17.3.p1249
haunters of the market-place,
17.3.p1249
laughed in derision of this statement, and declared that the man who had made it had read a copy of Homer which happened to lack the following verse:
17.3.p1249
1
17.3.p1250
17.3.p1250
Then the youth, in great vexation, replied:
17.3.p1250
It was not my book that lacked that line, but you who badly lacked a teacher, if you believe that spa/rta in that verse means what we call spartum, or 'a rope of Spanish broom'
17.3.p1250
They only laughed the louder, and would have continued to do so, had he not produced the twenty-fifth book of Varro's
17.3.p1250
Human Antiquities,
17.3.p1250
in which Varro writes as follows of that Homeric word:
17.3.p1250
1
17.3.p1250
I believe that spa/rta in Homer does not mean sparta, or 'Spanish broom,' but rather spa/rtoi, a kind of broom which is said to grow in the Theban territory. In Greece there has only recently been a supply of spartum, imported from Spain. The Liburnians did not make use of that material either, but as a rule fastened their ships together with thongs, See sutiles naves, Plin. N. H. xxiv. 65. while the Greeks made more use of hemp, tow, and other cultivated plants (sativis), from which ropes got their name of sparta.
17.3.p1250
Since Varro says this, I have grave doubts whether the last syllable in the Homeric word ought not to have an acute accent; unless it be because words of this kind, when they pass from their general meaning to the designation of a particular thing, are distinguished by a difference in accent.
17.4.p1251
17.4.p1251
What the poet Menander said to Philemon, by whom he was often undeservedly defeated in contests in comedy; and that Euripides was very often vanquished in tragedy by obscure poets.
17.4.p1252
17.4.p1252
IN contests in comedy Menander was often defeated by Philemon, a writer by no means his equal, owing to intrigue, favour, and partisanship. When Menander once happened to meet his rival, he said: Pray pardon me, Philemon, but really, don't you blush when you defeat me?
17.4.p1253
17.4.p1253
Marcus Varro says
17.4.p1253
1
17.4.p1253
that Euripides also, although he wrote seventy-five tragedies, was victor with only five,
17.4.p1253
2
17.4.p1253
and was often vanquished by some very poor poets.
17.4.p1254
17.4.p1254
Some say that Menander left one hundred and eight comedies, others that the number was a hundred and nine. But we find these words of Apollodorus, a very famous writer, about Menander in his work entitled
17.4.p1254
Chronica:
17.4.p1254
1
17.4.p1254
Cephissia's child, by Diopeithes sired,
17.4.p1254
An hundred plays he left and five besides;
17.4.p1254
At fifty-two he died.
17.4.p1254
Yet Apollodorus also writes in the same book that out of all those hundred and five dramas Menander gained the victory only with eight.
17.5.p1255
17.5.p1255
That it is by no mears true, as some meticulous artists in rhetoric affirm, that Marcus Cicero, in his book On Friendship, made use of a faulty argument and postulated the disputed for the admitted; with a careful discussion and examination of this whole question.
17.5.p1256
17.5.p1256
MARCUS CICERO, in the dialogue entitled
17.5.p1256
Laelius,
17.5.p1256
or
17.5.p1256
On Friendship,
17.5.p1256
wishes to teach us that friendship ought not to be cultivated in the hope and expectation of advantage, profit, or gain, but that it should be sought and cherished because in itself it is rich in virtue and honour, even though no aid and no advantage can be gained from it. This thought he has expressed in the following words, put into the mouth of Gaius Laelius, a wise man and a very
17.5.p1256
dear friend of Publius Africanus
17.5.p1256
1
17.5.p1256
well, then, does Africanus need my help? No more do I need his. But I love him because of a certain admiration for his virtues; he in turn has affection for me perhaps because of some opinion which he has formed of my character; and intimacy has increased our attachment. But although many great advantages have resulted, yet the motives for our friendship did not arise from the hope of those advantages. For just as we are kindly and generous, not in order to compel a return—for we do not put favours out at interest, but we are naturally inclined to generosity —just so we think that friendship is to be desired, not because we are led by hope of gain, but because all its fruit is in the affection itself.
17.5.p1257
17.5.p1257
When it chanced that these words were read in a company of cultured men, a sophistical rhetorician, skilled in both tongues, a man of some note among those clever and meticulous teachers known as texnikoi,/ or connoisseurs, who was at the same time not without ability in disputation, expressed the opinion that Marcus Tullius had used an argument which was neither sound nor clear, but one which was of the same uncertainty as the question at issue itself; and he described that fault by Greek words, saying that Cicero had postulated a)ufisbhtou/menon a)nti\ o(mologoume/nou, that is, what was disputed rather than what was admitted.
17.5.p1258
17.5.p1258
For,
17.5.p1258
said he,
17.5.p1258
he took benefci, 'the kindly,' and liberales, 'the generous,' to confirm what he said about friendship, although that very question is commonly asked and ought to be asked, with what thought and purpose one who acts liberally and kindly is kind and generous. Whether it is because he hopes for a return of the favour, and tries to arouse in the one to whom he is kind a like feeling towards himself, as almost all seem to do; or because he is by nature kindly, and kindness and generosity gratify him for their own sakes without any thought of a return of the favour, which is as a rule the rarest of all.
17.5.p1258
Furthermore, he thought that arguments ought to be either convincing, or clear and not open to controversy, and he said that the term
17.5.p1258
apodixis,
17.5.p1258
1
17.5.p1258
or
17.5.p1258
demonstration,
17.5.p1258
was properly used only when things that are doubtful or obscure are made plain through things about which there is no doubt. And in order that he might show that the kind and generous ought not to be taken as an argument or example for the question about friendship, he said:
17.5.p1258
By the same comparison and the same appearance of reason, friendship in its turn may be taken as an argument, if one should declare that men ought to be kindly and generous, not from the hope of a return, but from the desire and love of honourable conduct. For he will be able to argue in a very similar manner as follows: ' Now just as we do not embrace friendship through hope of advantage, so we ought not to be generous and kindly with the desire of having the favour returned.' He will indeed,
17.5.p1258
said he,
17.5.p1258
be able to say this, but friendship cannot furnish an argument for generosity, nor generosity for friendship, since in the case of each there is equally an open question.
17.5.p1259
17.5.p1259
It seemed to some that this artist in rhetoric argued cleverly and learnedly, but that as a matter of fact he was ignorant of the true meaning of terms. For Cicero calls a man
17.5.p1259
kind and generous
17.5.p1259
in the
17.5.p1259
sense that the philosophers believe those words ought to be used: not of one who, as Cicero himself expresses it, puts favours out at interest, but of one who shows kindness without having any secret reason which redounds to his own advantage. Therefore he has used an argument which is not obscure or doubtful, but trustworthy and clear, since if anyone is truly kind and generous, it is not asked with what motive he acts kindly or generously. For he must be called by very different names if, when he does such things, he does them for his own advantage rather than for that of another. Possibly the criticism made by this sophist might have some justification, if Cicero had said:
17.5.p1259
1
17.5.p1259
For as we do some kind and generous action, not in order to compel a return.
17.5.p1259
For it might seem that anyone who was not kindly might happen to do a kind action, if it was done because of some accidental circumstance and not through a fixed habit of constant kindliness. But since Cicero spoke of
17.5.p1259
kindly and generous people,
17.5.p1259
and meant no other sort than that which we have mentioned before, it is
17.5.p1259
with unwashed feet,
17.5.p1259
2
17.5.p1259
as the proverb says, and unwashed words that our critic assails the argument of that most learned man.
17.6.p1260
17.6.p1260
That what Verrius Flaccus wrote about servus recepticius, in his second book On the Obscurities of Marcus Cato, is false.
17.6.p1261
17.6.p1261
MARCUS CATO, when recommending the Voconian law,
17.6.p1261
1
17.6.p1261
spoke as follows:
17.6.p1261
2
17.6.p1261
In the beginning the woman brought you a great dowry; then she holds back a large sum of money, which she does not entrust to the control of her husband, but lends it to her husband. Later, becoming angry with him, she orders a servus recepticius, or ' slave of her own,' to hound him and demand the money.
17.6.p1262
17.6.p1262
The question was asked what was meant by
17.6.p1262
servus recepticius.
17.6.p1262
At once the books of Verrius Flaccus
17.6.p1262
On the Obscurities of Cato
17.6.p1262
were asked for and produced. In the second book was found the statement
17.6.p1262
1
17.6.p1262
that
17.6.p1262
servus recepticius
17.6.p1262
was the name applied to a slave that was worthless and of no value, who, after being sold, was returned because of some fault and taken back.
17.6.p1262
Therefore,
17.6.p1262
says Flaccus, "a slave of that kind was bidden to hound her husband and demand the money, in order that the man's vexation might be greater, and the insult put upon him still more bitter, for the very reason that a worthless slave dunned him for the payment of money."
17.6.p1263
17.6.p1263
But with the indulgence and pardon of those, if such there be, who are influenced by the authority of Verrius Flaccus, this must be said. That
17.6.p1263
recepticius servus
17.6.p1263
in the case of which Cato is speaking is something very different from what Verrius wrote. And this is easy for anyone to understand; for the situation is undoubtedly this: when the woman
17.6.p1263
gave the dowry to her husband, what she retained of her property and did not give over to her husband she was said to
17.6.p1263
hold back
17.6.p1263
(
17.6.p1263
recipere
17.6.p1263
), just as now also at sales those things are said to be
17.6.p1263
held back
17.6.p1263
which are set aside and not sold. This word Plautus also used in the
17.6.p1263
Trinumnus
17.6.p1263
in this line:
17.6.p1263
1
17.6.p1263
But when he sold the house, this little place
17.6.p1263
Behind it he held back (recepit).
17.6.p1263
That is, when he sold the house, he did not sell a small part which was behind the house, but held it back. Cato himself too, wishing to describe the woman as rich, says:
17.6.p1263
The woman brings a great dowry and holds back a large sum of money
17.6.p1263
; that is, she gives a great dowry and retains possession of a large sum of money. From that property then which she kept for herself after giving her dowry, she lent money to her husband. When she happened to be vexed with her husband and determined to demand the money back, she appoints to demand it from him a
17.6.p1263
seruves recepticius,
17.6.p1263
that is, a slave of her very own, whom she had held back with the rest of the money and had not given as part of her dowry, but had retained; for it was not right for the woman to give such an order to a slave of her husband, but only to one of her very own.
17.6.p1264
17.6.p1264
I forbear to say more in defence of this view of mine; for the opinion of Verrius and mine are before you, each by itself; anyone therefore may adopt whichever of the two seems to him the truer.
17.7.p1265
17.7.p1265
These words from the Atinian law, the claim on whatever shall be stolen shall be everlasting, seemed to Publius Nigidius and Quintus Scaevola to have reference not less to a past theft than to a future one.
17.7.p1266
17.7.p1266
THE words of the ancient Atinian law
17.7.p1266
1
17.7.p1266
are as follows:
17.7.p1266
2
17.7.p1266
Whatever shall have been stolen, let the right to claim the thing be everlasting.
17.7.p1266
Who would suppose that in these words the law referred to anything else than to future time? But Quintus Scaevola says
17.7.p1266
3
17.7.p1266
that his father
17.7.p1266
4
17.7.p1266
and Brutus
17.7.p1266
5
17.7.p1266
and Manilius,
17.7.p1266
6
17.7.p1266
exceedingly learned men, inquired and were in doubt whether the law was valid in cases of future theft only or also in those already committed in the past; since
17.7.p1266
subruptum erit
17.7.p1266
seems to indicate both times, past as well as future.
17.7.p1267
17.7.p1267
Therefore Publius Nigidius, the most learned man of the Roman State, discussed this uncertainty of theirs in the twenty-third book of his
17.7.p1267
Grammatical Notes.
17.7.p1267
1
17.7.p1267
And he himself too has the same opinion, that the indication of the time is indefinite, but he speaks very concisely and obscurely, so that you may see that he is rather making notes to aid his own memory than trying to instruct his readers.
17.7.p1267
2
17.7.p1267
However, his meaning seems to be that
17.7.p1267
est
17.7.p1267
and
17.7.p1267
erit
17.7.p1267
are independent words; when they are used alone, they have and retain their own tense, but when they are joined with a past participle, they lose the force of their own tense, and are transferred to the past. For when I say
17.7.p1267
in campo est,
17.7.p1267
or
17.7.p1267
he is in the field,
17.7.p1267
and
17.7.p1267
in comitio est,
17.7.p1267
or
17.7.p1267
he is in the comitium,
17.7.p1267
I refer to the present time; also when I
17.7.p1267
say
17.7.p1267
in campo erit
17.7.p1267
(he will be in the field), or
17.7.p1267
in comitio erit
17.7.p1267
(he will be in the comitium), I indicate future time: but when I say
17.7.p1267
factum est, scriptum est
17.7.p1267
or
17.7.p1267
subruptum est,
17.7.p1267
although the verb
17.7.p1267
est
17.7.p1267
is in the present tense, it is nevertheless united with the past and ceases to be present.
17.7.p1268
17.7.p1268
Similarly then, he says, with regard also to the wording of the law; if you divide and separate these two words subruptum and erit, so that you understand subruptum erit as you would certamen erit, that is, 'there will be a contest,' or sacrificium erit (there will be a sacrifice), then the law will seem to have reference to an act completed in future time; but if you understand the two words to be united and mingled, so that subruptum erit is not two words, but one, and is a single form of the passive inflection, then that word indicates past time no less than future.
17.8.p1269
17.8.p1269
In conversation at the table of the philosopher Taurus questions of this kind were proposed and discussed: why oil congeals often and readily, wine seldom, vinegar hardly ever, and that the waters of rivers and springs freeze, while the sea does not.
17.8.p1270
17.8.p1270
THE philosopher Taurus at Athens usually entertained us at dinner at the time of day when evening had already come on; for there that is the time for dining.
17.8.p1270
1
17.8.p1270
The entire basis and foundation of the meal usually consisted of one pot of Egyptian beans, to which were added gourds cut in small pieces.
17.8.p1271
17.8.p1271
One day when this dish had been brought and placed upon the table, and we were ready and awaiting the meal, Taurus ordered a slave-boy to pour some oil into the pot. The slave was a boy of Attic birth, at most eight years old, overflowing with the merry wit characteristic of his race and his time of life. He brought an empty Samian flask, from oversight, as he said, supposing there was oil in it, turned it up and, as he usually did, passed it with his hand over all parts of the pot; but no oil came out. The boy, in anger, looked savagely at the flask, shook it violently, and again turned it over the pot; and when we were all quietly and furtively laughing at his actions, he said in Greek, and excellent Attic Greek at that: Don't laugh; there's oil in it; but don't you know how cold it was this morning; it's congealed. You rascal, said Taurus with a laugh, run and fetch some oil.
17.8.p1272
17.8.p1272
But when the boy had gone out to buy oil, Taurus, not at all put out by the delay, said:
17.8.p1272
The pot needs oil, and, as I see, is intolerably hot; let us withhold our hands and meanwhile, since the slave has just told us that oil is in the habit of congealing, let us consider why oil congeals often and readily, but wine rarely.
17.8.p1272
And he looked at me and bade me give my opinion. Then I replied that I inferred that wine congealed less quickly because it had in it certain seeds of heat and was naturally more fiery, and that was why Homer called
17.8.p1272
1
17.8.p1272
it
17.8.p1272
ai)/qoy,
17.8.p1272
2
17.8.p1272
and not, as some supposed, on account of its colour.
17.8.p1273
17.8.p1273
It is indeed, says Taurus, as you say. For it is well known that wine, when we drink it, warms the body. But oil is equally calorific and has no less power of warming the body. Besides, if those things which are warmer are frozen with greater difficulty, it follows that those which are colder freeze more readily. But vinegar is the most cooling of all things and yet it never freezes. Is the reason then for the quicker freezing of oil to be found in its lightness? For those things seem to congeal more readily which are lighter and smoother.
17.8.p1274
17.8.p1274
Taurus says besides that it is also worth inquiring why the waters of rivers and streams freeze, while all the sea is incapable of freezing.
17.8.p1274
Although Herodotus,
17.8.p1274
said he,
17.8.p1274
the writer of history, contrary to the opinion of almost all who have investigated these matters, writes iv. 28 (ii., p. 226, L.C.L.). that the Bosphoric sea, which is called Cimmerian, The Cimmerian Bosphorus, the present Strait of Yenikale, connecting the Palus Maeotis (Sea of Azov) with the Pontus Euxinus or Black Sea. and all that part of the sea which is termed Scythian, Herodotus does not use the term Scythian Sea, but says the sea, referring to the Palus Maeotis and the Euxine. See the map, Herod., L.C.L., vol. ii. is bound fast by the cold and brought to a standstill.
17.8.p1274
While Taurus was thus speaking, the boy had returned, the pot had cooled off, and the time had come to eat and hold our peace.
17.9.p1275
17.9.p1275
Of the cypher letters which are found in the epistles of Gains Caesar, and of other secret forms of writing taken from ancient history; and what the Laconian skuta/lh is.
17.9.p1276
17.9.p1276
THERE are volumes of letters of Gaius Caesar addressed to Gaius Oppius and Cornelius Balbus,
17.9.p1276
who had charge of his affairs in his absence. In certain parts of these letters
17.9.p1276
1
17.9.p1276
there are found individual characters which are not connected to form syllables, but apparently are written at random; for no word can be formed from those letters. But a secret agreement had been made between the correspondents about a change in the position of the letters, so that, in writing, one name and position was given to one letter and another to another, but in reading its own place and force was restored to each of them.
17.9.p1276
2
17.9.p1276
But which letter was written for which was, as I have already said, agreed upon by those who devised this secret code. There is in fact a commentary of the grammarian Probus,
17.9.p1276
On the Secret meaning of the Letters appearing in the Epistles of Gains Caesar,
17.9.p1276
which is a very careful piece of work.
17.9.p1277
17.9.p1277
But the ancient Lacedaemonians, when they wanted to conceal and disguise the public dispatches sent to their generals, in order that, in case they were intercepted by the enemy, their plans might not be known, used to send letters written in the following manner. There were two thin, cylindrical wands of the same thickness and length, smoothed and prepared so as to be exactly alike. One of these was given to the general when he went to war, the other the magistrates kept at home under their control and seal. When the need of more secret communication arose, they bound about the staff a thong of moderate thickness, but long enough for the purpose, in a simple spiral, in such a way that the edges of the thong which was twined around the stick met and were joined throughout. Then they wrote the dispatch on that thong across
17.9.p1277
the connected edges of the joints, with the lines running from the top to the bottom. When the letter had been written in this way, the thong was unrolled from the wand and sent to the general, who was familiar with the device. But the unrolling of the thong made the letters imperfect and broken, and their parts and strokes
17.9.p1277
1
17.9.p1277
were divided and separated. Therefore, if the thong fell into the hands of the enemy, nothing at all could be made out from the writing; but when the one to whom the letter was sent had received it, he wound it around the corresponding staff, which he had, from the top to the bottom, just as he knew that it ought to be done, and thus the letters, united by encircling a similar staff, came together again, rendering the dispatch entire and undamaged, and easy to read. This kind of letter the Lacedaemonians called
17.9.p1277
skuta/lh.
17.9.p1277
I also read this in an ancient history of Carthage, that a certain famous man of that country —whether it was Hasdrubal or another I do not recall—disguised a letter written about secret matters in the following way: he took new tablets, not yet provided with wax, and cut the letters into the wood. Afterwards he covered the tablet with wax in the usual way and sent it, apparently without writing, to one to whom he had previously told his plan. The recipient then scraped off the wax, found the letters safe and sound inscribed upon the wood, and read them.
17.9.p1278
17.9.p1278
There is also in the records of Grecian history another profound and difficult method of concealment, devised by a barbarian's cunning. He was called Histiaeus and was born in the land of Asia in no mean station. At that time king Darius held sway in Asia. This Histiaeus, being in Persia with Darius, wished to send a confidential message to a certain Aristagoras in a secret manner. He devised this remarkable method of concealing a letter. He shaved all the hair from the head of a slave of his who had long suffered from weak eyes, as if for the purpose of treatment. Then he tattooed the forms of the letters on his smooth head. When in this way he had written what he wished, he kept the man at home for a time, until his hair grew out. When this happened, he ordered him to go to Aristagoras, adding: When you come to him, say that I told him to shave your head, as I did a little while ago. The slave, as he was bidden, came to Aristagoras and delivered his master's order. Aristagoras, thinking that the command must have some reason, did as he was directed. And thus the letter reached its destination.
17.10.p1279
17.10.p1279
What Favorinus thought of the verses of Virgil in which he imitated the poet Pindar in his description of an eruption of Mount Aetna; his comparison and evaluation of the verses of the two poets on the same theme.
17.10.p1280
17.10.p1280
I REMEMBER that the philosopher Favorinus, when he had gone during the hot season to the villa of a friend of his at Antium, and I had come from Rome to see him, discoursed in about the following manner about the poets Pindar and Virgil.
17.10.p1280
The friends and intimates of Publius Vergilius,
17.10.p1280
said he,
17.10.p1280
in the accounts which they have left us of his talents and his character, say that he used to declare that he produced verses after the manner and fashion of a bear. For he said that as that beast brought forth her young formless and misshapen, and afterwards by licking the young cub gave it form and shape, just so the fresh products of his mind were rude in form and imperfect, but afterwards by working over them and polishing them he gave them a definite form and expression. Cf. Suet. Vita Verg. 22 (ii. p. 470, L.C.L.). That this was honestly and truly said by that man of fine taste,
17.10.p1280
said he, "is shown by the result. For the parts that he left perfected and polished, to which his judgment and approval had applied the final hand, enjoy the highest praise for poetical beauty; but those parts which he postponed, with the intention of revising them later, but was unable to finish because he was overtaken by death, are in no way worthy of the fame and taste of the most elegant of poets. It was for that reason, when he was laid low by disease and saw that death was near, that he begged and earnestly besought his best friends to burn the
17.10.p1280
Aeneid,
17.10.p1280
which he had not yet sufficiently revised.
17.10.p1281
17.10.p1281
Now among the passages,
17.10.p1281
said Favorinus,
17.10.p1281
which particularly seem to have needed revision and correction is the one which was composed about Mount Aetna. For wishing to rival the poem which the earlier poet Pindar composed about the nature and eruption of that mountain, he has heaped up such words and expressions that in this passage at least he is more extravagant and bombastic even than Pindar himself, who was thought to have too rich and luxuriant a style. And in order that you yourselves,
17.10.p1281
said he, "may be judges of what I say, I will repeat Pindar's poem about Mount Aetna, so far as I can remember it:
17.10.p1281
1
17.10.p1281
Mount Aetna, from whose inmost caves burst forth
17.10.p1281
The purest fount of unapproachable fire.
17.10.p1281
By day her rivers roll a lurid stream
17.10.p1281
Of smoke, while 'mid the gloom of night red flame,
17.10.p1281
On sweeping, whirleth rocks with crashing din
17.10.p1281
Far down to the deep sea. And high aloft
17.10.p1281
That monster The monster was the giant Typhoeus, or Typhon, who was struck by Zeus' thunder-bolt and buried under Aetna. flingeth fearful founts of fire,
17.10.p1281
A marvel to behold or e'en to hear
17.10.p1281
From close at hand.
17.10.p1281
Now hear the verses of Virgil, which I may more truly say that he began than finished:
17.10.p1281
3
17.10.p1281
There lies a port, safe from the winds' approach,
17.10.p1281
Spacious itself, but Aetna close at hand
17.10.p1281
Thunders with crashes dire, and now hurls forth
17.10.p1281
Skyward a dusky cloud with eddies black
17.10.p1281
And glowing ash, and uplifts balls of flame
17.10.p1281
And licks the stars; now spews forth rocks,
17.10.p1281
The mountain's entrails torn, hurls molten crags
17.10.p1281
Groaning to heaven, and seethes from depths profound.
17.10.p1281
Now in the first place,
17.10.p1281
said Favorinus,
17.10.p1281
Pindar has more closely followed the truth and has given a realistic description of what actually happened there, and what he saw with his own eyes; namely, that Aetna in the daytime sends forth smoke and at night fire; but Virgil, labouring to find grand and sonorous words, confuses the two periods of time and makes no distinction between them. Then the Greek has vividly pictured the streams of fire belched from the depths and the flowing rivers of smoke, and the rushing of lurid and spiral volumes of flame into the waters of the sea, like so many fiery serpents; but our poet, attempting to render r(o/on kapnou= ai)/qwna, 'a lurid stream of smoke,' has clumsily and diffusely piled up the words atram nubem turbine piceo et favilla fomented, 'a dusky cloud smoking with eddies black and glowing ash,' and what Pindar called krounoi/, or 'founts,' he has harshly and inaccurately rendered by 'balls of flame.' Likewise when he says sidearm lamb it, 'it licks the stars,' this also,
17.10.p1281
he says,
17.10.p1281
is a useless and foolish elaboration. And this too is inexplicable and almost incomprehensible, when he speaks of a 'black cloud smoking with eddies black and glowing ash.' For things which glow,
17.10.p1281
said Favorinus,
17.10.p1281
do not usually smoke nor are they black; unless candenti ('glowing') is used vulgarly and inaccurately for hot ashes, instead of those which are fiery and gleaming. For candens, of course, is connected with candor, or 'whiteness,' not with calor ('heat'). But when he says saxa et scopulos eructari et erigi, 'that rocks and crags are spewed forth and whirled skyward,' and that these same crags at once liquefieri et gemere atque glomerari ad auras, 'are molten and groan and are whirled to heaven,' this,
17.10.p1281
he said,
17.10.p1281
is what Pindar never wrote and what was never spoken by anyone; and it is the most monstrous of all monstrous descriptions.
17.10.p1281
4
17.11.p1282
17.11.p1282
That Plutarch in his Symposiacs defended the opinion of Plato about the structure and nature of the stomach, and of the tube which is called traxei=a, against the physician Erasistratus, urging the authority of the ancient physician Hippocrates.
17.11.p1283
17.11.p1283
BOTH Plutarch
17.11.p1283
1
17.11.p1283
and certain other learned men have written that Plato was criticized by the famous physician Erasistratus,
17.11.p1283
2
17.11.p1283
because he said
17.11.p1283
3
17.11.p1283
that drink went to the lungs and having sufficiently moistened them, flowed through them, since they are somewhat porous, and from there passed into the bladder. They declared that the originator of that error was Alcaeus, who wrote
17.11.p1283
4
17.11.p1283
in his poems:
17.11.p1283
Wet now the lungs with wine; the dog-star shines,
17.11.p1283
but that Erasistratus himself declared
17.11.p1283
5
17.11.p1283
that there were two little canals, so to speak, or pipes, and that they extended downward from the throat; that through one of these all food and drink passed and went into the stomach, and from there were carried into the belly, which the Greeks call
17.11.p1283
h( ka/tw koili/a.
17.11.p1283
That there it is reduced and digested and then the drier excrement passes into the bowels, which the Greeks call
17.11.p1283
ko/lon,
17.11.p1283
6
17.11.p1283
and the moisture through the kidneys into the bladder. But through the other tube, which the Greeks call the
17.11.p1283
traxei=a a)rthri/a,
17.11.p1283
or
17.11.p1283
rough windpipe,
17.11.p1283
the breath passes from the lips into the lungs, and from there goes back into the mouth and nostrils, and along this same road a passage for the voice also is made; and lest drink
17.11.p1283
or drier food, which ought to pass into the stomach, should fall from the mouth and slip into that tube through which the breath goes back and forth, and by such an accident the path of the breath should be cut off, there has been placed at these two openings by a kind of helpful device of nature, a sort of movable valve which is called the
17.11.p1283
epiglottis,
17.11.p1283
which alternately shuts and opens. This epiglottis, while we are eating and drinking, covers and protects
17.11.p1283
the rough windpipe,
17.11.p1283
in order that no particle of food or drink may fall into that path, so to speak, of the rising and falling breath; and on that account no moisture passes into the lungs, since the opening of the windpipe itself is well protected.
17.11.p1284
17.11.p1284
These are the views of the physician Erasistratus, as opposed to Plato. But Plutarch, in his
17.11.p1284
Symposiacs,
17.11.p1284
1
17.11.p1284
says that the originator of Plato's opinion was Hippocrates, and that the same opinion was held by Philistion of Locris
17.11.p1284
2
17.11.p1284
and Dioxippus the pupil of Hippocrates, famous physicians of the olden time; also that the epiglottis, of which Erasistratus spoke, was not placed where it is to prevent anything that we drank from flowing into the windpipe; for fluid seems necessary and serviceable for refreshing and moistening the lungs; but it was placed there as a kind of controller and arbiter, to exclude or admit whatever was necessary for the health of the body; to keep away all foods from the windpipe and turn them to the stomach, but to divide what is drunk between the stomach and the lungs. And that part which ought to be admitted into the lungs through the windpipe the epiglottis does not let through rapidly and all at once, but when it has been checked and held back, as it were by a kind
17.11.p1284
of dam, it allows it to pass gradually and little by little, and turns aside all the remainder into the other tube leading to the stomach.
17.12.p1285
17.12.p1285
Of ignoble subjects, called by the Greeks a)/docoi, or unexpected, argued by Favorinus for the sake of practice.
17.12.p1286
17.12.p1286
NOT only the sophists of old, but the philosophers as well, took up ignoble subjects,
17.12.p1286
1
17.12.p1286
or if you prefer, unexpected ones,
17.12.p1286
a)/docoi u(poqe/seis,
17.12.p1286
as the Greeks call them; and our friend Favorinus took a great deal of pleasure in descending to such subjects,
17.12.p1286
2
17.12.p1286
either thinking them suitable for stimulating his thoughts or exercising his cleverness or overcoming difficulties by practice. For example, when he attempted to praise Thersites and pronounced a eulogy upon the quartan ague,
17.12.p1286
3
17.12.p1286
he said many clever and ingenious things on both topics, which he has left written in his works.
17.12.p1287
17.12.p1287
But in his eulogy of fever he even produced Plato as a witness, declaring that the philosopher wrote
17.12.p1287
1
17.12.p1287
that one who after suffering from quartan ague got well and recovered his full strength, would afterwards enjoy surer and more constant health. And in that same eulogy he made this quip, which, of a truth, is not ungraceful:
17.12.p1287
The following lines,
17.12.p1287
he says,
17.12.p1287
have met with the approval of many generations of men:
17.12.p1287
2
17.12.p1287
Sometimes a day is like a stepmother,
17.12.p1287
And sometimes like a mother.
17.12.p1287
The meaning of the verses is that a man cannot fare well every day, but fares well on one day and ill on another. Since it is true,
17.12.p1287
he says,
17.12.p1287
that in human affairs things are in turn, now good, now bad, how much more fortunate is this fever which has an interval of two days, Owing to the Roman method of inclusive reckoning, the quartan ague, occurring on every fourth day, had an interval of two days; see Class Phil. viii. 1 ff. since it has only one stepmother, but two mothers!
17.13.p1288
17.13.p1288
How many and what varieties of meaning the particle quin has, and that it is often obscure in the earlier literature.
17.13.p1289
17.13.p1289
THE particle
17.13.p1289
quin,
17.13.p1289
which the grammarians call a conjunction, seems to connect sentences in various ways and with divers meanings. For it seems to have one meaning when we say, as if chiding or questioning or exhorting,
17.13.p1289
quin venis?
17.13.p1289
Why don't you come?
17.13.p1289
quin legis?
17.13.p1289
Why don't you read?
17.13.p1289
or
17.13.p1289
quin fugis?
17.13.p1289
Why don't you flee?
17.13.p1289
; but it has a different meaning when we affirm, for example, that
17.13.p1289
there is no doubt but that (quin) Marcus Tullius is the most eloquent of all men,
17.13.p1289
and still a third, when we add something which seems contradictory to a former statement:
17.13.p1289
Isocrates did not plead causes, not but that he thought it useful and honourable so to do.
17.13.p1289
In the last of these sentences the meaning is not very different from that which is found in the third book of Marcus Cato's
17.13.p1289
Origins:
17.13.p1289
1
17.13.p1289
these I describe last, not but that they are good and valiant peoples.
17.13.p1289
2
17.13.p1289
Also in the second book of the
17.13.p1289
Origins
17.13.p1289
Marcus Cato has used this particle in a very similar manner:
17.13.p1289
3
17.13.p1289
He did not consider it enough to have slandered him privately, without openly defaming his character.
17.13.p1290
17.13.p1290
I have noted, besides, that Quadrigarius in the eighth book of his
17.13.p1290
Annals
17.13.p1290
has used that particle in a very obscure manner. I quote his exact words:
17.13.p1290
1
17.13.p1290
He came to Rome; he barely succeeds in having a triumph voted.
17.13.p1290
2
17.13.p1290
Also in the sixth book of the same writer's
17.13.p1290
Annals
17.13.p1290
are these words:
17.13.p1290
3
17.13.p1290
It lacked little but that (quin) they should leave their camp and yield to the enemy.
17.13.p1290
Now I am quite well aware that someone may say off-hand that there is no difficulty in these words; for
17.13.p1290
quin
17.13.p1290
in both passages is used for
17.13.p1290
ut,
17.13.p1290
and the meaning is perfectly plain if you say:
17.13.p1290
He came to Rome; he with difficulty brought it about that a triumph should be voted
17.13.p1290
;
17.13.p1290
4
17.13.p1290
and also in the other passage,
17.13.p1290
It almost happened that they left their camp and yielded to the enemy.
17.13.p1290
Let those who are so ready find refuge in changing words which they do not understand, but let them do so with more modesty, when the occasion permits.
17.13.p1291
17.13.p1291
Only one who has learned that this particle of which we are speaking is a compound and formed of two parts, and that it does not merely have the function of a connective but has a definite meaning of its own,
17.13.p1291
1
17.13.p1291
will ever understand its variations in meaning. But because an explanation of these would require a long dissertation, he who has leisure may find it in the
17.13.p1291
Commentaries
17.13.p1291
of Publius Nigidius which he entitled
17.13.p1291
Grammatical.
17.13.p1291
2
17.14.p1292
17.14.p1292
Neat sayings selected from the Mimes of Publilius.
17.14.p1293
17.14.p1293
PUBLILIUS wrote mimes. He was thought worthy of being rated about equal to Laberius. But the scurrility and the arrogance of Laberius so offended Gaius Caesar, that he declared that he was better pleased with the mimes of Publilius than with those of Laberius. Many sayings of this Publilius are current, which are neat and well adapted to the use of ordinary conversation. Among these are the following, consisting of a single line each, which I have indeed taken pleasure in quoting:
17.14.p1293
1
17.15.p1294
17.15.p1294
That Carneades the Academic purged his stomach with hellebore when about to write against the dogmas of Zeno the Stoic; and of the nature and curative powers of white and black hellebore.
17.15.p1295
17.15.p1295
WHEN Carneades, the Academic philosopher, was about to write against the books of the Stoic Zeno, he cleansed the upper part of his body with white hellebore, in order that none of the corrupt humours of his stomach might rise to the abode of his mind and weaken the power and vigour of his intellect; with such care and such preparation did this man of surpassing talent set about refuting what Zeno had written. When I had read of this in Grecian history, I inquired what was meant by the term white hellebore.
17.15.p1296
17.15.p1296
Then I learned that there are two kinds of hellebore distinguished by a difference in colour, white and black; but that those colours are distinguished neither in the seed of the hellebore nor in its plant, but in the root; further, that with white hellebore the stomach and upper belly
17.15.p1296
1
17.15.p1296
are purged by vomiting; by the black the so-called lower belly is loosened,
17.15.p1296
2
17.15.p1296
and the effect of both is to remove the noxious humours in which the causes of diseases are situated. But that there is danger lest, when every avenue of the body is opened, along with the causes of disease the juices on which the principle of life depends should also pass away, and the man should perish from exhaustion because of the destruction of the entire foundation of natural nourishment.
17.15.p1297
17.15.p1297
But Plinius Secundus, in his work
17.15.p1297
On Natural History,
17.15.p1297
wrote
17.15.p1297
1
17.15.p1297
that hellebore could be taken with the greatest safety in the island of Anticyra.
17.15.p1297
2
17.15.p1297
That for this reason Livius Drusus, the former tribune of the commons, when he was suffering from the so-called
17.15.p1297
election
17.15.p1297
disease,
17.15.p1297
3
17.15.p1297
sailed to Anticyra, drank hellebore in that island, and was thus cured of the ailment.
17.15.p1298
17.15.p1298
I have read besides that the Gauls, when hunting, dip their arrows in hellebore, because the wild animals that are struck and killed by arrows thus treated become tenderer for eating; but because of the contagion of the hellebore they are said to cut out a large piece of flesh around the wounds made by the arrows.
17.16.p1299
17.16.p1299
That Pontic ducks have a power which is able to expel poisons; and also of the skill of Mithridates in preparing antidotes.
17.16.p1300
17.16.p1300
IT is said that the ducks of Pontus commonly live by eating poisons. It was also written by Lenaeus,
17.16.p1300
1
17.16.p1300
the freedman of Pompey the Great, that Mithridates, the famous king of Pontus, was skilled in medicine and in antidotes of that kind, and that he was accustomed to mix the blood of these ducks with drugs that have the power of expelling poisons, and that the blood was the very most powerful agency
17.16.p1300
in their preparation; furthermore, that the king himself by the constant use of such remedies guarded against hidden plots at banquets; nay more, that lie often voluntarily and wittingly, to show his immunity, drank a swift and rapid poison, which yet did him no harm. Therefore, at a later time, when he had been defeated in battle, and after fleeing to the remotest bounds of his kingdom had resolved to take his own life, having vainly tried the most violent poisons for the purpose of hastening his death, he fell upon his own sword. the most celebrated antidote of this king is the one which is called
17.16.p1300
Mithridatian.
17.17.p1301
17.17.p1301
That Mithridates, king of Pontus, spoke the languages of twenty-five nations; and that Quintus Ennius said that he had three hearts, because he was proficient in three tongues, Greek, Oscan, and Latin.
17.17.p1302
17.17.p1302
QUINTUS ENNIUS used to say that he had three hearts, because he knew how to speak Greek, Oscan, and Latin. But Mithridates, the celebrated king of Pontus and Bithynia, who was overcome in war by Gnaeus Pompeius,
17.17.p1302
1
17.17.p1302
was proficient in the languages of the twenty-five races which he held under his sway. He never spoke to the men of all those nations through an interpreter, but whenever it was necessary for him to address any one of them, he used his language and speech with as much skill as if he were his fellow-countryman.
17.18.p1303
17.18.p1303
The statement of Marcus Vairo that Gaius Sallustius, the writer of history, was taken in adultery by Annius Milo and was let go only after he had been beaten with thongs and had paid a sum of money.
17.18.p1304
17.18.p1304
MARCUS VARRO, a man of great trustworthiness and authority in his writings and in his life, in the work which he entitled
17.18.p1304
Pius, or On Peace,
17.18.p1304
1
17.18.p1304
says that Gaius Sallustius, the author of those austere and dignified works, whom we see in his history writing and acting, like a censor, was taken in adultery by Annius Milo, soundly beaten with thongs, and allowed to escape only after paying a sum of money.
17.18.p1304
2
17.19.p1305
17.19.p1305
What Epictetus the philosophers used to say to worthless and vile men, who zealously followed the pursuit of philosophy; and the two words whose remembrance he enjoyed as by far the most salutary in all respects.
17.19.p1306
17.19.p1306
I HEARD Favorinus say that the philosopher Epictetus declared
17.19.p1306
1
17.19.p1306
that very many of those who professed to be philosophers were of the kind
17.19.p1306
a)/neu tou= pra/ttein, me/xri tou= le/gein,
17.19.p1306
which means
17.19.p1306
without deeds, limited to words
17.19.p1306
; that is, they preached but did not practise. But that is still more severe which Arrian, in his work
17.19.p1306
On the Dissertations of Epictetus,
17.19.p1306
2
17.19.p1306
has written that this philosopher used to say.
17.19.p1306
For,
17.19.p1306
says Arrian,
17.19.p1306
when he perceived that a man without shame, persistent in wickedness, of abandoned character, reckless, boastful, and cultivating everything else except his soul—when he saw such a man taking up also the study and pursuit of philosophy, attacking natural history, practising logic and balancing and investigating many problems of that kind, he used to invoke the help That is, he used some phrase equivalent to pro deum atque hominum fidem (Heaven help us!). of gods and men, and usually amid his exclamations chided the man in these terms: 'O man, where are you storing these things? Consider whether the vessel be clean. For if you take them into your self-conceit, they are lost; if they are spoiled, they become urine or vinegar or something worse, if possible.'
17.19.p1306
Nothing surely could be weightier, nothing truer than these words, in which the greatest of philosophers declared that the learning and precepts of philosophy, flowing into a base and degenerate man, as if into a soiled and filthy vessel, are turned, altered, spoiled, and as he himself more cynically expresses it, become urine or, if possible, something worse than urine. Moreover, that same Epictetus, as we also heard from Favorinus, used to say that there were two faults which were by far the worst and most disgusting of all, lack of endurance and lack of self-restraint, when we cannot put up with or bear the wrongs which we ought to endure, or cannot restrain ourselves from actions or pleasures from which we ought to refrain.
17.19.p1306
Therefore,
17.19.p1306
said he,
17.19.p1306
if anyone would take these two words to heart and use them for his own guidance and regulation, he will be almost without sin and will lead a very peaceful life. These two words,
17.19.p1306
he said,
17.19.p1306
are a)ne/xou (bear) and a)pe/xou (forbear).
17.19.p1306
4
17.20.p1307
17.20.p1307
A passage taken from the Symposium of Plato, skilful. harmonious and fitting in its rhythm and structure, which for the sake of practice I have turned into the Latin tongue.
17.20.p1308
17.20.p1308
THE
17.20.p1308
Symposium
17.20.p1308
of Plato was being read before the philosopher Taurus. Those words of Pausanias in which, taking his turn among the banqueters, lie eulogizes love, I admired so much that I even resolved to commit them to memory. And tile words, if I remember rightly, are as follows
17.20.p1308
1
17.20.p1308
"Every action is of this nature: in and of itself, when done, it is neither good nor bad; for example, what we are now doing, drinking, or singing, or arguing. Not one of these things is in itself good, but it may become so by the way in which it is done. Well and rightly done, it becomes a good action; wrongly done, it becomes shameful. It is the same with love; for not all love is honourable or worthy of raise, but only that which leads us to love worthily." When these words had been read, thereupon Taurus said to me:
17.20.p1308
Ho! you young rhetorician
17.20.p1308
— for so he used to call me in the beginning, when I was first admitted to his class, supposing that I had come to Athens only to work up eloquence
17.20.p1308
2
17.20.p1308
—
17.20.p1308
do you see this syllogism, full of meaning, brilliant, well rounded and constructed in brief and smooth numbers with a kind of symmetrical turn? Can you quote us so aptand so melodiously formed a passage from the works of your rhetoricians? But yet I advise you to look upon this rhythm as an incidental feature; for one must penetrate to the inmost depths of Plato's mind and feel the weight and dignity of his subject matter, not be diverted to the charm of his diction or the grace of his expression.
17.20.p1309
17.20.p1309
This admonition of Taurus as to Plato's style not only did not deter me, but even encouraged me to try to equal the elegance of the Greek in a Latin rendering; and just as there are small and insignificant animals which through wantonness imitate everything which they have seen or heard, just so I had the assurance, not indeed to rival those qualities which I admired in Plato's style, but to give a shadowy outline of them, such as the following, which I patterned on those very words of his: Every act, in general, he says, is of this nature; it is in itself neither base nor honourable; as, for example, the things which we ourselves are now doing, drinking, singing, arguing. For none of these things is honourable in itself, but it becomes so by the manner in which it is done; if it is done rightly and honourably, it is then honourable; but if it is not rightly done, then it is shameful. It is the same with love; thus not every kind of love is honourable, not every kind is deserving of praise, but only that which leads us to love honourably.
17.21.p1310
17.21.p1310
The times after the foundling of Rome and before the second war with Carthage at which distinguished Greeks and Romans flourished.
17.21.p1310
1
17.21.p1311
17.21.p1311
I WISHED to have a kind of survey of ancient times, and also of the famous men who were born in those days, lest I might in conversation chance to make some careless remark about the date and life of celebrated men, as that ignorant sophist did who lately, in a public lecture, said that Carneades the philosopher
17.21.p1311
1
17.21.p1311
was presented with a sum of money by king Alexander, son of Philip, and that Panaetius the Stoic was intimate with the elder Africanus.
17.21.p1311
2
17.21.p1311
In order, I say, to guard against such errors in dates and periods of time, I made notes from the books known as
17.21.p1311
Chroicles
17.21.p1311
3
17.21.p1311
of the times when those Greeks and Romans flourished who were famous and conspicuous either for talent or for political power, between the founding of Rome and the second Punic war.
17.21.p1311
4
17.21.p1311
And these excerpts of mine, made in various and sundry places, I have now put hastily together. For it was not my endeavour with keen and subtle care to compile a catalogue of the eminent men of both nations who lived at the same time, but merely to strew these
17.21.p1311
Nights
17.21.p1311
of mine
17.21.p1311
lightly here and there with a few of these flowers of history.
17.21.p1311
5
17.21.p1311
Moreover, it seemed sufficient in this survey to speak of the dates of a few men, from which it would not be difficult to infer the periods also of many more whom I did not name.
17.21.p1312
17.21.p1312
I shall begin, then, with the illustrious Solon; for, as regards Homer and Hesiod, it is agreed by almost all writers, either that they lived at approximately the same period, or that Homer was somewhat the earlier; yet that both lived before the founding of Rome, when the Silvii were ruling in Alba, more than a hundred and sixty years after the Trojan war, as Cassius has written
17.21.p1312
1
17.21.p1312
about Homer and Hesiod in the first book of his
17.21.p1312
Annals,
17.21.p1312
but about a hundred and sixty years before the founding of Rome, as Cornelius Nepos says of Homer in the first book of his
17.21.p1312
Chronicles.
17.21.p1312
2
17.21.p1312
Well then, we are told that Solon, one of the famous sages,
17.21.p1312
3
17.21.p1312
drew up laws for the Athenians when Tarquinius Priscus was king at Rome,
17.21.p1312
4
17.21.p1312
in the thirtythird year of his reign.
17.21.p1312
5
17.21.p1312
Afterwards, when Servius Tullius was king,
17.21.p1312
6
17.21.p1312
Pisistratus was tyrant at Athens, Solon having previously gone into voluntary exile, since he had not been believed when he predicted that tyranny. Still later, Pythagoras of Samos came to Italy, when the son of Tarquinius was king, he who was surnamed the Proud,
17.21.p1312
7
17.21.p1312
and at that same time
17.21.p1312
Hipparchus, son of Pisistratus and brother of the tyrant Hippias, was slain at Athens by Harmodius and Aristog, iton.
17.21.p1312
8
17.21.p1312
And Cornelius Nepos adds
17.21.p1312
9
17.21.p1312
that when Tullus Hostilius was king at Rome
17.21.p1312
10
17.21.p1312
Archilochus was already illustrious and famous for his poems.
17.21.p1312
11
17.21.p1313
17.21.p1313
Then, in the two hundred and sixtieth year after the founding (of Rome, or not much later, it is recorded that the Persians were vanquished by the Athenians in the famous battle of Marathon under the lead of Militiades,
17.21.p1313
1
17.21.p1313
who after that victory was condemned by the Athenians and died in the public prison. At that time Aesthylus. the tragic poet, flourished at Athens.
17.21.p1313
2
17.21.p1313
In Rome, at about the same time, the commons, as the result of a secession, for the first time elected their own tribunes and aediles;
17.21.p1313
3
17.21.p1313
and not much later Gnaeus Marcius Coriolanus, harassed and exasperated by the tribunes of the commons, turned traitor to the republic and joined the Volscians, who were then our enemies,
17.21.p1313
4
17.21.p1313
and lade war upon the Roman people. Then a few years later, King Xerxes was beaten and put to flight by the Athenians and a good part of Greece, under the lead of Themistocles, in the sea-fight at Salamis.
17.21.p1313
5
17.21.p1313
About three
17.21.p1313
6
17.21.p1313
years afterwards, in the consulship of Menenius Agrippa and Marcus Horatius Pulvillus, during the war with Veii, the patrician Fabii, three hundred and six in number, along with their dependents,
17.21.p1313
7
17.21.p1313
were all ambushed at the river Cremera and slain.
17.21.p1314
17.21.p1314
At about that time Empedocles of Agrigentum was eminent in the domain of natural philosophy.
17.21.p1314
1
17.21.p1314
But at Rome at that epoch it is stated that a board of ten was appointed
17.21.p1314
2
17.21.p1314
to codify laws, and that at first they compiled ten tables, to which afterwards two more were added.
17.21.p1315
17.21.p1315
Then the great Peloponnesian war began in Greece, which Thucydides has handed down to memory, about three hundred and twenty-three years after the founding of Rome.
17.21.p1315
1
17.21.p1315
At that time Olus Postumius Tubertus was dictator at Rome, and executed his own son, because he had fought against the enemy contrary to his father's order. The people of Fidenae and the Aequians were then at war with the Roman people.
17.21.p1315
2
17.21.p1315
During that period Sophocles, and later Euripides, were famous and renowned as tragic poets, Hippocrates as a physician, and as a philosopher, Democritus; Socrates the Athenian was younger than these,
17.21.p1315
3
17.21.p1315
but was in part their contemporary.
17.21.p1316
17.21.p1316
Somewhat later, when the military tribunes with consular authority were in power
17.21.p1316
1
17.21.p1316
at Rome, about the three hundred and forty-seventh year after the founding of the city, the notorious thirty tyrants were imposed upon the Athenians by the Lacedaemonians, and in Sicily the elder Dionysius was tyrant.
17.21.p1316
2
17.21.p1316
A few years later, at Athens, Socrates was condemned to death and executed in prison by means of poison. At about the same time, at Rome,
17.21.p1316
Marcus Furius Camillus was dictator and took Veii. Not long afterwards came the war with the Senones, when the Gauls captured Rome with the exception of the Capitol.
17.21.p1316
3
17.21.p1317
17.21.p1317
Not long after these events the astronomer Eudoxus was famed in the land of Greece, the Lacedaemonians were defeated by the Athenians at Corinth under the lead of Phormio,
17.21.p1317
1
17.21.p1317
and at Rome Marcus Manlius, who during the siege of the Capitol had repulsed the Gauls as they were climbing up its steep cliffs, was convicted of having formed the design of making himself king. Marcus Varro says
17.21.p1317
2
17.21.p1317
that he was condemned to death and hurled from the Tarpeian rock; but Cornelius Nepos has written
17.21.p1317
3
17.21.p1317
that he was scourged to death. In the very same year, which was the seventh after the recovery of the city, it is recorded that the philosopher Aristotle was born.
17.21.p1317
4
17.21.p1318
17.21.p1318
Next, some years after the war with the Senones, the Thebans defeated the Lacedaemonians at Leuctra
17.21.p1318
1
17.21.p1318
under the lead of Epaminondas, and a little later in the city of Rome the law of Licinius Stolo provided for the elections of consuls also from the plebeians,
17.21.p1318
2
17.21.p1318
whereas before that time it was not lawful for a consul to be chosen except from the patrician
17.21.p1318
familiisfamilies
17.21.p1318
.
17.21.p1319
17.21.p1319
Then, about the four hundredth year after the founding of the city, Philip, son of Amyntas and father of Alexander, became king of Macedonia. At that time Alexander was born,
17.21.p1319
1
17.21.p1319
and a few years later the philosopher Plato went to the court of the younger Dionysius, tyrant of Sicily; then some little time afterwards Philip defeated the Athenians in the great battle at Chaeronea.
17.21.p1319
2
17.21.p1319
At that time the
17.21.p1319
orator Demosthenes sought safety in flight from the battlefield, and when he was bitterly taunted with his flight he jestingly replied in the well-known verse:
17.21.p1319
3
17.21.p1319
The man who runs away will fight again.
17.21.p1319
Later Philip fell victim to a conspiracy; but Alexander, who succeeded him,
17.21.p1319
4
17.21.p1319
crossed over into Asia and the Orient, to subdue the Persians. But another Alexander, surnamed Molossus, came into Italy intending to make war on the Roman people —for already the fame of Roman valour and success was beginning to be conspicuous among foreign nations—but he died before beginning the war. We have learned that on his way to Italy that Molossus said that he was going against the Romans as a nation of men, but the Macedonian was going against the Persians as one of women. Later, the Macedonian Alexander, having subdued the greater part of the east, died
17.21.p1319
5
17.21.p1319
after a reign of eleven years. Not long after this the philosopher Aristotle ended his life,
17.21.p1319
6
17.21.p1319
and a little later, Demosthenes;
17.21.p1319
7
17.21.p1319
at about that same time the Roman people engaged in a dangerous and protracted war with the Samites and the consuls Tiberius Veturius and Spurius Postumius were surrounded by the Samites in a perilous position near Caudium and being sent under the yoke were allowed to depart only when they had made a shameful treaty;
17.21.p1319
8
17.21.p1319
and when for that reason the consuls by vote of the people were surrendered to the Samites through the fetial priests, they were not accepted.
17.21.p1320
17.21.p1320
Then, about four hundred and seventy years after the founding of the city, war was begun with king
17.21.p1320
Pyrrhus.
17.21.p1320
1
17.21.p1320
At that time Epicurus the Athenian and Zeno of Citium were famed as philosophers, and at the same time the censors at Rome, Gains Fabricius Luscinus and Quintus Aemilius Papus, expelled from the senate Publius Cornelius Rufinus, who had twice been consul and dictator; and they recorded as the reason for that censure the fact that they had learned of his using ten pounds' weight of silverware at a dinner.
17.21.p1321
17.21.p1321
Then, in about the four hundred and ninetieth year after the founding of Rome, when the consuls were Appius Claudius, surnamed Caudex, brother of the celebrated Appius the Blind, and Marcus Fluvius Flaccus, the first war with the Carthaginians broke out,
17.21.p1321
1
17.21.p1321
and not long afterwards Callimachus, the poet of Cyrene, was famous at the court of king Ptolemy at Alexandria. A little more than twenty years later, when peace had been made with the Carthaginians and the consuls were C. Claudius Centho, son of Appius the Blind, and Marcus Sempronius Tuditanus, the poet Lucius Livius was the very first to put plays upon the stage at Rome,
17.21.p1321
2
17.21.p1321
more than a hundred and sixty years after the death of Sophocles and Euripides and about fifty-two years after the death of Menander. The consuls Claudius and Tuditanus were followed by Quintus Valerius and Gaius Mamilius, in whose year the poet Quintus Ennius was born,
17.21.p1321
3
17.21.p1321
as Marcus Varro has written in the first book of his work
17.21.p1321
On Poets;
17.21.p1321
4
17.21.p1321
and he adds that at the age of sixty-seven Ennius had written the twelfth
17.21.p1321
Book of the Annals,
17.21.p1321
and that Ennius himself says so in that same book.
17.21.p1322
17.21.p1322
Five hundred and nineteen years after the
17.21.p1322
founding of Rome, Spurius Carvilius Ruga, at the advice of his friends, was the first Roman to divorce his wife, on the ground that she was barren and that he had taken oath before the censors that he married for the purpose of having children.
17.21.p1322
1
17.21.p1322
In that same year the poet Naevius exhibited plays to the people,
17.21.p1322
2
17.21.p1322
and Marcus Varro says
17.21.p1322
3
17.21.p1322
in the first book of his work
17.21.p1322
On Poets
17.21.p1322
that Naevius served in the first Punic war and that the poet himself makes that statement in the poem which he wrote on that same war. But Porcius Licinius says
17.21.p1322
4
17.21.p1322
in the following verses that Rome was later in taking up the poetic art:
17.21.p1323
17.21.p1323
Then, about fifteen years later, war was begun with the Carthaginians,
17.21.p1323
1
17.21.p1323
and not very long after that Marcus Cato was famous as a political orator and Plautus as a dramatic poet; and at that same time Diogenes the Stoic, Carneades the Academic, and Critolaus the Peripatetic were sent by the Athenians as envoys to the senate of the Roman people on public business. Not very long after this came Quintus Ennius, and then Caecilius and Terence,
17.21.p1323
2
17.21.p1323
and afterwards Pacuvius
17.21.p1323
3
17.21.p1323
and when
17.21.p1323
Pacuvius was already an old man, Accius and then Lucilius, who was still more famous through his criticisms of the poems of his predecessors.
17.21.p1324
17.21.p1324
But I have gone too far, since the limit that I set for these little notes was the second Punic war.