Lucian, Rhetorum praeceptor, Henry Watson Fowler (Translator), Francis George Fowler (Translator), 26

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[26] Ah! our admirable friend seems to have done. If you decide to take his advice, you may regard yourself as practically arrived at your goal. Keep his rules, and your path is clear; you may dominate the courts, triumph in the lecture-room, be smiled on by the fair; your bride shall be not, like your lawgiver and teacher's, an old woman off the comic stage, but lovely dame Rhetoric. Plato told of Zeus sweeping on in his winged car; you shall use the figure as fitly of yourself. And I? why, I lack spirit and courage; I will stand out of your way. I will resign—nay, I have resigned—my high place about our lady's person to you; for I cannot pay my court to her like the new school. Do your walk over, then, hear your name announced, take your plaudits; I ask you only to remember that you owe the victory not to your speed, but to your discovery of the easy down-hill route.¹

Rhetorum praeceptor. Lucian. Henry Watson Fowler (Translator), Francis George Fowler (Translator). Medford, MA, USA. 2023-08-01.

Current edition Perseus

The Rhetorician’s Vade Mecum (English) (The Works of Lucian of Samosata, Vol. 3. Fowler, Henry Watson and Fowler, Francis George, translators. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1905.)

Editions (1)

Ῥητόρων Διδάσκαλος Perseus (Lucian, Vol. 4. Harmon, Austin Morris, editor. London: William Heinemann, Ltd.; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1925 (printing).) — 26 focus

[26] Εἶεν· ὁ μὲν γεννάδας εἰπὼν ταῦτα πεπαύσεται· σὺ δὲ ἢν πεισθῇς τοῖς εἰρημένοις, καὶ δὴ παρεῖναι νόμιζε οἷπερ ἐξ ἀρχῆς ἐπόθεις ἐλθεῖν, καὶ οὐδέν σε κωλύσει ἑπόμενον τοῖς νόμοις ἔν τε τοῖς δικαστηρίοις κρατεῖν καὶ ἐν τοῖς πλήθεσιν εὐδοκιμεῖν καὶ ἐπέραστον εἶναι καὶ γαμεῖν οὐ γραῦν τινα τῶν κωμικῶν, καθάπερ ὁ νομοθέτης καὶ διδάσκαλος, ἀλλὰ καλλίστην γυναῖκα τὴν Ῥητορικήν, ὡς τὸ τοῦ Πλάτωνος ἐκεῖνο πτηνὸν ἅρμα ἐλαύνοντα φέρεσθαι σοὶ μᾶλλον πρέπειν περὶ σεαυτοῦ εἰπεῖν ἢ ἐκείνῳ περὶ τοῦ Διός· ἐγὼ δὲ — ἀγεννὴς γὰρ καὶ δειλός εἰμι — ἐκστήσομαι τῆς ὁδοῦ ὑμῖν καὶ παύσομαι τῇ Ῥητορικῇ ἐπιπολάζων, ἀσύμβολος ὢν πρὸς αὐτὴν τὰ ὑμέτερα· μᾶλλον δὲ ἤδη πέπαυμαι, ὥστε ἀκονιτὶ ἀνακηρύττεσθε καὶ θαυμάζεσθε, μόνον τοῦτο μεμνημένοι, ὅτι μὴ τῷ τάχει ἡμῶν κεκρατήκατε ὠκύτεροι φανέντες, ἀλλὰ τῷ ῥᾴστην καὶ πρανῆ τραπέσθαι τὴν ὁδόν.

Translations (1)

A Professor of Public Speaking Perseus (Lucian, Vol. 4. Harmon, Austin Morris, editor. London: William Heinemann, Ltd.; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1925 (printing).) — 26 focus

[26] Well, the gentleman will end his remarks with that, and then it is up to you. If you heed what he has said, you may consider that even now you are where in the beginning you yearned to be; and nothing can hinder you, as long as you follow his rules, from holding the mastery in the courts, enjoying high favour with the public, being attractive, and marrying, not an old woman out of a comedy, as did your law-giver and tutor, but Rhetoric, fairest of brides. Consequently, Plato’s famous phrase about driving full-tilt in a winged car can be applied by you to yourself with a better grace than by him to Zeus! As for me, I am spiritless and fainthearted, so I will get out of the road for you, and stop trifling with Rhetoric, being unable to recommend myself to her by qualifications like those of yourself and your friend. Indeed, I have stopped already; so get the herald to proclaim an uncontested victory and take your tribute of admiration, remembering only this, that it is not by your speed that you have defeated us, through proving yourself more swift of foot than we, but because you took the road that was easy and downhill.

Notes on the current edition

The Rhetorician’s Vade Mecum

It is apparent from the later half of this piece that the satire is aimed at an individual. He is generally identified with Julius Pollux. This Pollux (1) was contemporary (floruit A.D. 183) with Lucian. (2) Explains by his name the reference to Leda's children (Castor and Pollux) in § 24. (3) Published an Onomasticon, or classified vocabulary; cf. §§ 16, 17. (4) Published a collection of declamations, or school rhetorical exercises on set themes; cf. § 17. (5) Came from Egypt; cf. § 24; Xois and Thmuis were in that country. (6) Is said to have been appointed professor of rhetoric at Athens by Commodus purely on account of his mellifluous voice; cf. § 19.

It is supposed that Lexiphanes (in the dialogue of that name, which has much in common with the present satire) is also Julius Pollux.

Lucian Rhetorum praeceptor 26

Henry Watson Fowler (Translator), Francis George Fowler (Translator)

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