Quintilian, Institutio Oratoria, Harold Edgeworth Butler (Translator), 6.3.93

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[93] But the most agreeable of all jests are those which are good humoured and easily digested. Take another example from Afer. Noting that an ungrateful client avoided him in the forum, he sent his servant ¹ to him to say,

I hope you are obliged to me for not having seen you.

Again when his steward, being unable to account for certain sums of money, kept saying,

I have not eaten it: I live on bread and water,

he replied,

Master sparrow, pay what you owe.

Such jests the Greeks style ὑπὸ τὸ ἦθος² or adapted to character.

Institutio Oratoria. Quintilian. Harold Edgeworth Butler (Translator). Cambridge, Mass.. 1920-1922.

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Funding provided by Tufts University.

Current edition Perseus

Institutio Oratoria (English) (Quintilian. Institutio Oratoria, Volume 1-4. Butler, Harold Edgeworth, translator. Cambridge, Mass; London: Harvard University Press, William Heinemann Ltd., 1920-1922.)

Editions (1)

Institutio Oratoria Perseus (Quintilian. Institutio Oratoria, Volume 1-4. Butler, Harold Edgeworth, editor. Cambridge, Mass; London: Harvard University Press, William Heinemann Ltd., 1920-1922.) — 6.3.93 focus

[93] iucundissima sunt autem ex his omnibus lenia et, ut sic dixerim, boni stomachi: ut Afer idem ingrato litigatori conspectum eius in foro vitanti per nomenclatorem missum ad eum, amas me, inquit, quod te non vidi? et dispensatori, qui, cum reliqua non responderent, dicebat subinde,

non comedi; pane et aqua vivo,

passer , redde quod debes.

quae ὑπὸ τὸ ἦθος vocant.

Notes on the current edition

Institutio Oratoria

1. Lit. the slave employed to name persons to his master.

2. The meaning is dubious and the phrase cannot be paralleled and is probably corrupt.

Quintilian Institutio Oratoria 6.3.93

Harold Edgeworth Butler (Translator)

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