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Book XV

I

1arg

That it is written in the Annals of Quintus Claudius that wood smeared with alum does not burn.

THE rhetorician Antonius Julianus, besides holding forth on many other occasions, had once declaimed with marvellous charm and felicity. For such scholastic declamations generally show the characteristics of the same man and the same eloquence, but nevertheless are not every day equally happy. We friends of his therefore thronged about him on all sides and were escorting him home, when, as we were on our way up the Cispian Hill, we saw that a block of houses, built high with many stories, had caught fire, and that now all the neighbouring buildings were burning in a mighty conflagration. Then some one of Julianus' companions said:

The income from city property is great, but the dangers are far greater. But if some remedy could be devised to prevent houses in Rome from so constantly catching fire, by Jove! I would sell my country property and buy in the city.

And Julianus replied to him in his usual happy and graceful style:

If you had read the nineteenth book of the Annals of Quintus Claudius, that excellent and faithful writer, you would surely have learned from Archelaus, a praefect of king Mithridates, by what method and by what skill you might prevent fires, so that no wooden building of yours would burn, even though caught and penetrated by the flames.

I inquired what this marvel of Quadrigarius ¹ was. He rejoined:

In that book then I found it recorded, that when Lucius Sulla attacked the Piraeus in the land of Attica, and Archelaus, praefect of king Mithridates, was defending it against him, Sulla was unable to burn a wooden tower constructed for purposes of defence, although it had been surrounded with fire on every side, because Archelaus had smeared it with alum.

The words of Quadrigarius in that book are as follows: ²

When Sulla had exerted himself for a long time, he led out his troops in order to set fire to a single wooden tower which Archelaus had interposed. He came, he drew near, he put wood under it, he beat off the Greeks, he applied fire; though they tried for a considerable time, they were never able to set it on fire, so thoroughly had Archelaus covered all the wood with alum. Sulla and his soldiers were amazed at this, and failing in his attempt, the general led back his troops.

II

2arg

That Plato in the work which he wrote On the Laws expressed the opinion that inducements to drink more abundantly and more merrily at feasts were not without benefit.

A MAN from the island of Crete, who was living in Athens, gave out that he was a Platonic philosopher and desired to pass as one. He was, however, a man of no worth, a trifler, boastful of his command of Grecian eloquence, besides having a passion for wine which fairly made him a laughing stock. At the entertainments which it was the custom of us young men to hold at Athens at the beginning of each week, as soon as we had finished eating and an instructive and pleasant conversation had begun, this fellow, having called for silence that he might be heard, began to speak, and using a cheap and disordered rabble of words after his usual fashion, urged all to drink; and this he declared that he did in accordance with the injunction of Plato, maintaining that Plato in his work On the Laws had written most eloquently in praise of drunkenness, and had decided that it was beneficial to good and strong men. And at the same time, while he was thus speaking, he drenched such wits as he had with frequent and huge beakers, saying that it was a kind of touchwood and tinder to the intellect and the faculties, if mind and body were inflamed with wine.

However, Plato in the first ³ and second ⁴ books of his work On the Laws did not, as that fool thought, praise that shameful intoxication which is wont to undermine and weaken men's minds, although he did not disapprove of that somewhat more generous and cheerful inspiration of wine which is regulated by some temperate arbiters, so to speak, and presidents of banquets. For he thought that by the proper and moderate relaxation of drinking the mind was refreshed and renewed for resuming the duties of sobriety, and that men were gradually rendered happier and became readier to repeat their efforts. At the same time, if there were deep in their hearts any errors of inclination or desire, which a kind of reverential shame concealed, he thought that by the frankness engendered by wine all these were disclosed without great danger and became more amenable to correction and cure.

And in the same place Plato says this also: that exercises of this kind ⁵ for the purpose of resisting the violence of wine, are not to be avoided and shunned, and that no one ever appeared to be altogether selfrestrained and temperate whose life and habits had not been tested amid the very dangers of error and in the midst of the enticements of pleasures. For when all the license and attractions of banquets are unknown, and a man is wholly unfamiliar with them, if haply inclination has led him, or chance has induced him, or necessity has compelled him, to take part in pleasures of that kind, then he is as a rule seduced and taken captive, his mind and soul fail to meet the test, but give way, as if attacked by some strange power. Therefore he thought that we ought to meet the issue and contend hand to hand, as in a kind of battle, with pleasure and indulgence in wine, in order that we may not be safe against them by flight or absence, but that by vigour of spirit, by presence of mind, and by moderate use, we may preserve our temperance and self-restraint, and at the same time by warming and refreshing the mind we may free it of whatever frigid austerity or dull bashfulness it may contain.

III

3arg

What Marcus Cicero thought and wrote about the prefix in the verbs aufugio and aufcro; and whether this same preposition is to be seen in the verb autumo.

I READ a book of Marcus Cicero's entitled The Orator. In that book when Cicero had said that the verbs aifugio and aufero were indeed formed of the preposition ab and the verbs fugio and fero, but that the preposition, in order that the word might be smoother in pronunciation and sound, was changed and altered into the syllable au,⁶ and aufulgio and aufero began to be used for abfugio and abfero; when he had said this, I say, he afterwards in the same work wrote as follows of the same particle: ⁷

This preposition,

he says,

will be found in no other verb save these two only.

But I have found in the Commentary of Nigidius ⁸ that the verb autumo is formed from the preposition ab and the verb aestumo (estimate) and that autumo is a contracted form of abaestumo, signifying totum aestumo, on the analogy of abnumero.⁹ But, be it said with great respect for Publius Nigidius, a most learned man, this seems to be rather bold and clever than true. For autumo does not only mean

I think,

but also

I say,

I am of the opinion,

and

I consider,

with which verbs that preposition has no connection either in the composition of the word or in the expression of its meaning. Besides, Marcus Tullius, a man of unwearied industry in the pursuit of letters, would not have said that these were the only two verbs containing au, if any third example could be found. But the following point is more worthy of examination and investigation, whether the preposition ab is altered and changed into the syllable au for the sake of making the pronunciation smoother, or whether more properly the particle au has its own origin, and just as many other prepositions were taken from the Greeks, so this one also is derived from that source. ¹⁰ As in that verse of Homer: ¹¹

First bent them back ( au)e/rusan), then slew and flayed the beasts;

and: ¹²

Loud-shouting ( au)i/axoi), noisy. ¹³

IV

4arg

The story of Ventidius Bassus, a man of obscure birth, who is reported to have been the first to celebrate a triumph over the Parthians.

IT was lately remarked in the conversation of certain old and learned men that in ancient times many persons of most obscure birth, who were previously held in great contempt, had risen to the highest grade of dignity. Nothing that was said about anyone, however, excited so much wonder as the story recorded of Ventidius Bassus. He was born in Picenum in a humble station, and with his mother was taken prisoner by Pompeius Strabo, father of Pompey the Great, in the Social War, ¹⁴ in the course of which Strabo subdued the Aesculani. ¹⁵ Afterwards, when Pompeius Strabo triumphed, the boy also was carried in his mother's arms amid the rest of the captives before the general's chariot. Later, when he had grown up, he worked hard to gain a livelihood, resorting to the humble calling of a buyer of mules and carriages, which he had contracted with the State to furnish to the magistrates who had been allotted provinces. In that occupation he made the acquaintance of Gaius Caesar and went with him to the Gallic provinces. Then, because he had shown commendable energy in that province, and later during the civil war had executed numerous commissions with promptness and vigour, he not only gained Caesar's friendship, but because of it rose even to the highest rank. Afterwards he was also made tribune of the commons, and then praetor, and at that time he was declared a public enemy by the senate along with Mark Antony. Afterwards, however, when the parties were united, he not only recovered his former rank, but gained first the pontificate and then the consulship. ¹⁶ At this the Roman people, who remembered that Ventidius Bassus had made a living by taking care of mules, were so indignant that these verses ¹⁷ were posted everywhere about the streets of the city:

Assemble, soothsayers and augurs all!

A portent strange has taken place of late;

For he who curried mules is consul now.

Suetonius Tranquillus writes ¹⁸ that this same Bassus was put in charge of the eastern provinces by Mark Antony, and that when the Parthians invaded Syria he routed them in three battles; ¹⁹ that he was the first of all to celebrate a triumph over the Parthians, and was honoured when he died with a public funeral.

V

5arg

That the verb profligo is used by many improperly and ignorantly.

JUST as many other words, through the ignorance and stupidity of those who speak badly what they do not understand, are diverted and turned aside from their proper and usual meaning, so too has the signification of the verb profligo been changed and perverted. For while it is taken over and derived from adfligo, in the sense of

bring to ruin and destruction,

and while all who have been careful in their diction have always used the word to express

waste

and

destroy,

calling things that were cast down and destroyed res profligatae, I now hear that buildings, temples, and many other things that are almost complete and finished are said to be in profligato and the things themselves profligata. Therefore that was a very witty reply, as Sulpicius Apollinaris has recorded in one of his Letters, which a praetor, a man not without learning, made to a simpleton among a crowd of advocates.

For,

said he,

when that impudent prater had made a request in these terms: 'All the business, renowned sir, about which you said that you would take cognizance to-day, because of your diligence and promptness is done ( profligata sunt); one matter only remains, to which I beg you to give attention.' Then the praetor wittily enough replied: 'Whether the affairs of which you say that I have taken cognizance are done ( profligata), I do not know; but this business which has fallen into your hands is undoubtedly done for ( profligatum est), whether I hear it or not.'

But to indicate what those wish to express who use profligatum in the sense of

nearly done,

those who have spoken good Latin used, not profligatum profigatum, but adfectum, as for example Marcus Cicero, in the speech which he delivered About the Consular Provinces. His words are as follows: ²⁰

We see the war nearing its end ( adfectum) and, to tell the truth, all but finished.

Also further on: ²¹

For why should Caesar himself wish to remain longer in that province, except that he may turn over to the State, completed, the tasks which he has nearly finished ( acfecta sunt)?

Cicero also says in the Oeconomicus:²²

When indeed, as summer is already well nigh ended ( adfecta), it is time for the grapes to ripen in the sun.

VI

6arg

An evident mistake in the second book of Cicero On Glory, in the place where he has written about Hector and Ajax.

IN Cicero's second book On Glory there is an evident mistake, of no great importance-a mistake which it does not require a man of learning to detect, but merely one who has read the seventh book of Homer. Therefore I am not so much surprised that Marcus Tullius erred in that matter, as that it was not noticed later and corrected either by Cicero himself or by Tiro, his freedman, a most careful man, who gave great attention to his patron's books. Now, in that book the following passage occurs: ²³

The same poet says that Ajax, when about to engage with Hector in combat, arranges for his burial in case he should chance to be defeated, declaring that he wishes that those who pass his tomb even after many ages should thus speak: ²⁴

Here lies a man of life's light long bereft,

Who slain by Hector's sword fell long ago.

This, one shall say; my glory ne'er shall die.

But the verses to this purport, which Cicero has turned into the Latin tongue, Ajax does not utter in Homer, nor is it Ajax who plans his burial, but Hector speaks the lines and arranges for burial, before he knows whether Ajax will meet him in combat.

VII

7arg

It has been observed of old men, that the sixty-third year of their life is marked as a rule by troubles, by death, or by some disaster; and an example apropos of this observation is taken from a letter from the deified Augustus to his son Gaius. ²⁵

IT has been observed during a long period of human recollection, and found to be true, that for almost all old men the sixty-third year of their age Both were adopted by Augustus, and on the death of the young Marcellus were made principes iuventutis, and thus designated as the successors of Augustus. is attended with danger, and with some disaster involving either serious bodily illness, or loss of life, or mental suffering. Therefore those who are engaged in the study of matters and terms of that kind call that period of life the

climacteric.

²⁶ Night before last, too, when I was reading a volume of letters of the deified Augustus, written to his grandson Gaius, and was led on by the elegance of the style, which was easy and simple, by Heaven without mannerisms or effort, in one of the letters I ran upon a reference to this very belief about that same year. I give a copy of the letter: ²⁷

The ninth day before the Kalends of October. ²⁸

Greeting, my dear Gaius, my dearest little donkey, ²⁹ whom, so help me! constantly miss whenever you are away from me. But especially on such days as to-day my eyes are eager for my Gaius, and wherever you have been to-day, I hope you have celebrated my sixty-fourth birthday in health and happiness. For, as you see, I have passed the climacteric common to all old men, the sixty-third year. And I pray the gods that whatever time is left to me I may pass with you safe and well, with our country in a flourishing condition, while you ³⁰ are playing the man and preparing to succeed to my position.

VIII

8arg

A passage from a speech of Favonius, an early orator, containing an attack which he made on luxurious entertainments, when he was advocating the Licinian law for lessening extravagance.

WHEN I was reading an old speech of Favonius, a man of no little eloquence, in which ³¹ . . . I learned the whole of it by heart, in order to be able to remember that such extravagant living is truly hateful. These words which I have added are those of Favonius: ³²

The leaders in gluttony and luxury declare that an entertainment is not elegant, unless, when you are eating with the greatest relish, your plate is removed and a better, richer dainty comes from the reserves. This to-day is thought the very flower of a feast among those with whom extravagance and fastidiousness take the place of elegance; who say that the whole of no bird ought to be eaten except a fig-pecker; who think that a dinner is mean and stingy unless so many of the other birds and fatted fowl are provided, that the guests may be satisfied with the rumps and hinder parts; who believe that those who eat the upper parts of such birds and fowl have no refinement of taste. If luxury continues to increase in its present proportion, what remains but that men should bid someone to eat their dinners for them, in order that they may not fatigue themselves by feeding, when the couch is more profusely adorned with gold, silver and purple for a few mortals than for the immortal gods?

³³

IX

9arg

That the poet Caecilius used frons in the masculine gender, not by poetic license, but properly and by analogy.

CORRECTLY and elegantly did Caecilius write this in his Changeling: ³⁴

The worst of foes are these, of aspect gay ( fronte hilaro),

Gloomy of heart, whom we can neither grasp Nor yet let go.

I chanced to quote these lines in a company of well educated young men, when we were speaking of a man of that kind. Thereupon one of a throng of grammarians who stood there with us, a man of no little repute, said:

What license and boldness Caecilius showed here in saying, fronte hilaro and not fronte hilara, and in not shrinking from so dreadful a solecism.

Nay,

said I,

it is rather we who are as bold and free as possible in improperly and ignorantly failing to use frons in the masculine gender, when both the principle of regularity which is called analogy ³⁵ and the authority of earlier writers indicate that we ought to say, not hanc frontem, but hunc frontem. Indeed, Marcus Cato in the first book of his Origins wrote as follows: ³⁶ 'On the following day in open combat, with straight front ( aequo fronte) we fought with the enemy's legions with foot, horse and wings.' Also Cato again says ³⁷ recto fronte in the same book.

But that half-educated grammarian said:

Away with your authorities, which I think you may perhaps have, but give me a reason, which you do not have.

Then I, somewhat irritated by those words of his, as was natural at my time of life:

Listen,

said I,

my dear sir, to a reason that may be false, but which you cannot prove to be false. All words,

said I,

ending in the three letters in which frons ends are of the masculine gender, if they end in the same syllable in the genitive case also, as mons, fons, pons, frons.

³⁸ But he replied with a laugh:

Hear, young scholar, several other similar words which are not of the masculine gender.

Then all begged him at once to name just one. But when the man was screwing up his face, could not open his lips, and changed colour, then I broke in, saying:

Go now and take thirty days to hunt one up; when you have found it, meet us again.

And thus we sent off this worthless fellow to hunt up a word with which to break down the rule which I had made.

X

10arg

About the strange suicides of the maids of Miletus.

PLUTARCH in the first book of his work On the Soul,³⁹ discussing disorders which affect the human mind, has told us that almost all the maidens of the Milesian nation suddenly without any apparent cause conceived a desire to die, and thereupon many of them hanged themselves. When this happened more frequently every day, and no remedy had any effect on their resolve to die, the Milesians passed a decree that all those maidens who committed suicide by hanging should be carried to the grave naked, along with the same rope by which they had destroyed themselves. After that decree the maidens ceased to seek a voluntary death, deterred by the mere shame of so disgraceful a burial.

XI

11arg

The words of a decree of the senate on expelling philosophers from the city of Rome; also the words of the edict of the censors by which those were rebuked and restrained who had begun to establish and practise the art of rhetoric at Rome.

IN the consulship of Gaius Fannius Strabo and Marcus Valerius Messala ⁴⁰ the following decree of the senate was passed regarding Latin speaking philosophers and rhetoricians: ⁴¹

(The praetor Marcus Pomponius laid a proposition before the senate. As the result of a discussion about philosophers and rhetoricians, the senate decreed that Marcus Pomponius, the praetor, should take heed and provide, in whatever way seemed to him in accord with the interests of the State and his oath of office, that they should not remain in Rome.

Then some years ⁴² after that decree of the senate Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus and Lucius Licinius Crassus the censors issued the following edict for restraining the Latin rhetoricians: ⁴³

It has been reported to us that there be men who have introduced a new kind of training, and that our young men frequent their schools; that these men have assumed the title of Latin rhetoricians, and that young men spend whole days with them in idleness. Our forefathers determined what they wished their children to learn and what schools they desired them to attend. These innovations in the customs and principles of our forefathers neither please us nor seem proper. Therefore it seems necessary to make our opinion known, both to those who have such schools and to those who are in the habit of attending them, that they are displeasing to us.

And it was not only in those times, which were somewhat rude and not yet refined by Greek training, that philosophers were driven from the city of Rome, but even in the reign of Domitian ⁴⁴ by a decree of the senate they were driven from the city and forbidden Italy. And it was at that time that the philosopher Epictetus also withdrew from Rome to Nicopolis because of that senatorial decree.

XII

12arg

A highly memorable passage from a speech of Gracchus, regarding his frugality and continence.

WHEN Gaius Gracchus ⁴⁵ returned from Sardinia, he delivered a speech to an assembly of the people in the following words: ⁴⁶

I conducted myself in my province,

said he,

as I thought would be to your advantage, not as I believed would contribute to my own ambitions. There was no tavern at my establishment, nor did slaves of conspicuous beauty wait upon me, and at an entertainment of mine your sons were treated with more modesty than at their general's tent.

Later on he continues as follows:

I so conducted myself in my province that no one could truly say that I received a penny, or more than that, ⁴⁷ by way of present, or that anyone was put to expense on my account. I spent two years in my province; if any courtesan entered my house or anyone's slave was bribed on my account, consider me the lowest and basest of mankind. Since I conducted myself so continently towards their slaves, you may judge from that on what terms I lived with your sons.

Then after an interval he goes on:

Accordingly, fellow citizens, when I left for Rome, I brought back empty from the province the purses which I took there full of money. Others have brought home overflowing with money the jars which they took to their province filled with wine.

XIII

13arg

Of some unusual words, which are used in either voice and are called by the grammarians

common.

UTOR, vereor, hortor and consolor are

common

verbs and can be used either way:

I respect you

and

I am respected by you,

that is,

you respect me

;

I use you

and

I am used by you,

that is,

you use me

;

I exhort you

and

I am exhorted by you,

that is,

you exhort me

;

I console you

and

I am consoled by you,

that is,

you console me.

Testor too and interpretor are used in a reciprocal sense. But all these words are unusual in the second of these meanings, and it is a matter of inquiry whether they are ever so used. Afranius in The Cousins says: ⁴⁸

Lo! there his children hold a sire's life cheap,

Where rather feared than honoured ( vereri) he would be.

Here vereor is used in its less common sense. Novius also in the Wood-dealer uses the word utor with a passive meaning: ⁴⁹

Since a deal of gear is bought which is not used ( utitur).

That is,

which is not to be used.

Marcus Cato in the fifth book of his Origins has this: ⁵⁰

He led forth his army, fed, ready, and encouraged ( cohortatum), and drew it up in order of battle.

We find consolor also used in a different sense from the one which it commonly has, in a letter of Quintus Metellus, which he wrote during his exile to Gnaeus and Lucius Domitius.

But,

he says,

when I realize your feeling towards me, I am very greatly consoled ( consolor), and your loyalty and worth are brought before my eyes.

Marcus Tullius used testata and interpretata in the same manner in the first book of his work On Divination,⁵¹ so that testor and interpreter ought also to be considered to be

common

verbs. Sallust too in a similar way says: ⁵²

The goods of the proscribed having been given away ( dilargitis),

indicating that largior is one of the

common

verbs. Moreover, we see that veritum, like puditum and pigitum, is used impersonally and indefinitely, ⁵³ not only by the earlier writers, but also by Marcus Tullius in the second book of his De Finibus.⁵⁴

First (I will refute),

says he,

the view of Aristippus and of all the Cyrenaic philosophers, to whom it caused no fear ⁵⁵ ( veritum est) to assign the highest good to that pleasure which affects the senses with greatest delight.

Dignor, too, veneror, confiteor and testor are treated as

common

verbs. Thus we find in Virgil: ⁵⁶

Of wedlock high with Venus worthy deemed (dignale),

and ⁵⁷

Revered in prayer ( venerata), shall grant a voyage safe.

Moreover, confessi aeris, meaning a debt of which admission is made, is written in the Twelve Tables in these words: ⁵⁸

For an admitted debt, when the matter has been taken into court, let the respite be thirty days.

Also in those same Tables we find this: ⁵⁹

Whoever shall allow himself to be summoned as a witness or shall act as a balance-holder, ⁶⁰ if he does not give his testimony, let him be regarded as dishonoured and incapable of giving testimony in the future.

XIV

14arg

That Metellus Numidicus borrowed a new form of expression from Greek usage.

IN Quintus Metellus Numidicus, in the third book of his Accusalion of Valerius Messala, I have made note of a novel expression. The words of his speech are as follows: ⁶¹

When he knew that he had incurred so grave an accusation, and that our allies had come to the senate in tears, to make complaint that they had been exacted enormous sums of money ( pecunias maximas exactos esse).

He says

that they had been exacted enormous sums of money,

instead of

that enormous sums of money had been exacted from them.

This seemed to me an imitation of a Greek idiom; for the Greeks say: ei)sepra/cato/ me a)rgu/rion, meaning

he exacted me money.

But if this can be said, so too can

one is exacted money,

and Caecilius seems to have used that form of expression in his Supposititious Aeschinus:⁶²

Yet I the customs-fee exacted am.

That is to say,

yet the customs-fee is exacted from me.

XV

15arg

That the early writers used passis velis and passis manibus, not from the verb patior, to which the participle belongs, but from pando, to which it does not belong.

FROM the verb pando the ancients made passum, not pansum, and with the preposition ex they formed expassum, not expansum. Caecilius in the Fellowbreakfasters says: ⁶³

That yesterday he'd looked in from the roof,

Had this announced, and straight the veil ⁶⁴ was spread ( expassum).

A woman too is said to be capillo passo, or

with disordered hair,

when it is hanging down and loosened, and we say passis manibus and velis passis of hands and sails stretched out and spread. Therefore Plautus in his Braggart Captain, changing an a into an e, as is usual in compound words, uses dispessis for dispassis in these lines: ⁶⁵ Methinks you thus must die without the gate, When you shall hold the cross with hands outstretched ( dispessis).

XVI

16arg

Of the singular death of Milo of Croton. ⁶⁶

MILO of Croton, a famous athlete, who was first crowned at the sixty-second Olympiad, ⁶⁷ as the chronicles record, ended his life in a strange and lamentable manner. When he was already advanced in age and had given up the athletic art, he chanced to be journeying alone in a wooded part of Italy. Near the road he saw an oak tree, the middle of which gaped with wide cracks. Then wishing, I suppose, to try whether he still had any strength left, he put his fingers into the hollows of the tree and tried to rend apart and split the oak. And in fact he did tear asunder and divide the middle part; but when the oak was thus split into two parts, and he relaxed his hold as if he had accomplished his attempt, the tree returned to its natural position when the pressure ceased, and catching and holding his hands as it came together and united, it kept the man there, to be torn to pieces by wild beasts.

XVII

17arg

Why young men of noble rank at Athens gave up playing the pipes, although it was one of their native customs.

ALCIBIADES the Athenian in his boyhood was being trained in the liberal arts and sciences at the home of his uncle, Pericles; and Pericles had ordered Antigenides, a player on the pipes, to be sent for, to teach the boy to play on that instrument, which was then considered a great accomplishment. But when the pipes were handed to him and he had put them to his lips and blown, disgusted at the ugly distortion of his face, he threw them away and broke them in two. When this matter was noised abroad, by the universal consent of the Athenians of that time the art of playing the pipes was given up. This story is told in the twenty-ninth book of the Commentary of Pamphila. ⁶⁸

XVIII

18arg

That the battle which Gaius Caesar fought on the plains of Pharsalus during the civil war was announced on the very same day at Patavium in Italy, and his victory foretold, by the divination of a seer.

ON the day that Gaius Caesar and Gnaeus Pompeius engaged in battle in Thessaly during the civil war, an event occurred at Patavium in Transpadane Italy, which is deserving of record. A priest called Cornelius, a man of good birth, honoured for scrupulousness in his office and revered for the purity of his life, was suddenly seized by a prophetic inspiration and said that he saw a most furious battle taking place afar off; then he shouted out, just as if he were personally taking part in the engagement, that some were giving way, others pressing on; that he saw before him carnage, flight, flying weapons, a renewal of the engagement, an attack, groans and wounds; and later he suddenly exclaimed that Caesar was victorious.

At the time the prophecy of the priest Cornelius seemed unimportant and without meaning. Afterwards, however, it caused great surprise, since not only the time of the battle which was fought in Thessaly, and its predicted outcome, were verified, but all the shifting fortunes of the day and the very conflict of the two armies were represented by the gestures and words of the seer. ⁶⁹

XIX

19arg

Memorable words of Marcus Varro, from the satire entitled Peri\ )Edesma/twn.

THERE are not a few to whom that may apply which is said by Marcus Varro in his satire entitled Peri\ )Edesma/twn. or On Eatables. His words are these: ⁷⁰

If you had given to philosophy a twelfth part of the effort which you spent in making your baker give you good bread, you would long since have become a good man. As it is, those who know him are willing to buy him at a hundred thousand sesterces, while no one who knows you would take you at a hundred.

XX

20arg

Certain facts about the birth, life and character of the poet Euripides, and about the end of his life.

THEOPOMPUS says ⁷¹ that the mother of the poet Euripides made a living by selling country produce. Furthermore, when Euripides was born, his father was assured by the astrologers that the boy, when he grew up, would be victor in the games; for that was his destiny. His father, understanding this to mean that he ought to be an athlete, exercised and strengthened his son's body and took him to Olympia to contend among the wrestlers. And at first he was not admitted to the contest because of his time of life, ⁷² but afterwards he engaged in the Eleusinian ⁷³ and Thesean ⁷⁴ contests and won crowns. Later, turning from attention to bodily exercise to the desire of training his mind, he was a pupil of the natural philosopher Anaxagoras and the rhetorician Prodicus, and, in moral philosophy, of Socrates. At the age of eighteen he attempted to write a tragedy. Philochorus relates ⁷⁵ that there is on the island of Salamis a grim and gloomy cavern, ⁷⁶ which I myself have seen, in which Euripides wrote tragedies. He is said to have had an exceeding antipathy towards almost all women, either because he had a natural disinclination to their society, or because he had had two wives at the same time (since that was permitted by a decree passed by the Athenians) and they had made wedlock hateful to him. Aristophanes also notices his antipathy to women in the first edition of the Thesmophoriazousae in these verses: ⁷⁷

Now then I urge and call on all our sex

This man to punish for his many crimes.

For on us, women, he brings bitter woes,

Himself brought up 'mid bitter garden plants.

But Alexander the Aetolian composed the following lines about Euripides: ⁷⁸

The pupil of stout Anaxagoras,

Of churlish speech and gloomy, ne'er has learned

To jest amid the wine; but what he wrote

Might honey and the Sirens well have known.

When Euripides was in Macedonia at the court of Archelaus, and had become an intimate friend of the king, returning home one night from a dinner with the monarch he was torn by dogs, which were set upon him by a rival of his, and death resulted from his wounds. ⁷⁹ The Macedonians treated his tomb and his memory with such honour that they used to proclaim:

Never, Euripides, shall thy monument perish,

also by way of self-glorification, because the distinguished poet had met his death and been buried in their land. Therefore when envoys, sent to them by the Athenians, begged that they should allow his bones to be moved to Athens, his native land, the Macedonians unanimously persisted in refusing.

XXI

21arg

That by the poets the sons of Jupiter are represented as most wise and refined, but those of Neptune as very haughty and rude.

THE poets have called the sons of Jupiter most excellent in worth, wisdom and strength, for example Aeacus, Minos and Sarpedon; the sons of Neptune, the Cyclops, Cercyon, Sciron, and the Laestrygonians, they said, were most haughty and cruel, and strangers to all refinement, as being sprung from the sea.

XXII

22arg

A story of the distinguished leader Sertorius; of his cunning, and of the clever devices which he used to control and conciliate his barbarian soldiers.

SERTORIUS, a brave man and a distinguished general, was skilled in using and commanding an army. In times of great difficulty he would lie to his soldiers, if a lie was advantageous, he would read forged letters for genuine ones, feign dreams, and resort to fictitious omens, if such devices helped him to keep up the spirits of his soldiers. the following story about Sertorius is particularly well known: A white hind of remarkable beauty, agility and swiftness was given him as a present by a man of Lusitania. He tried to convince everyone that the animal had been given him by the gods, and that inspired by the divine power of Diana, it talked with him, and showed and indicated what it was expedient to do; and if any command which he felt obliged to give his soldiers seemed unusually difficult, he declared that he had been advised by the hind. When he said that, all willingly rendered obedience, as if to a god. One day, when an advance of the enemy had been reported, the hind, alarmed by the hurry and confusion, took to flight and hid in a neighbouring marsh, and after being sought for in vain was believed to have perished. Not many days later, word was brought to Sertorius that the hind had been found. Then he bade the one who had brought the news to keep silence, threatening him with punishment in case he revealed the matter to anyone; and he ordered him suddenly on the following day to let the animal into the place where lie himself was with his friends. Then, next day, having called in his friends, he said that he had dreamed that the lost hind had returned to him, and after its usual manner had told him what ought to be done. Thereupoli he signed to the slave to do what he had ordered; the hind was let loose and burst into Sertorius' room, amid shouts of amazement.

This credulity of the barbarians was very helpful to Sertorius in important matters. It is recorded that of those tribes which acted with Sertorius, although he was defeated in many battles, not one ever deserted him, although that race of men is most inconstant.

XXIII

23arg

Of the age of the famous historians, Hellanicus, Herodotus and Thucydides.

HELLANICUS, Herodotus, and Thucydides, writers of history, enjoyed great glory at almost the same time, and did not differ very greatly in age. For Hellanicus seems to have been sixty-five years old at the beginning of the Peloponnesian war, ⁸⁰ Herodotus fifty-three, Thucydides forty. This is stated in the eleventh book of Pamphila. ⁸¹

XXIV

24arg

Vulcacius Sedigitus' canon of the Latin writers of comedy, from the book which he wrote On Poets.

SEDIGITUS, in the book which he wrote On Poets, shows in the following verses of his ⁸² what he thought of those who wrote comedies, which one he thinks surpasses all the rest, and then what rank and honour he gives to each of them:

This question many doubtfully dispute,

Which comic poet they'd award the palm.

This doubt my judgment shall for you resolve;

If any differ from me, senseless he.

First place I give Caecilius Statius.

Plautus holds second rank without a peer;

Then Naevius third, for passion and for fire.

If fourth there be, be he Licinius.

I place Atilius next, after Licinius.

These let Terentius follow, sixth in rank.

Turpilius seventh, Trabea eighth place holds.

Ninth palm I gladly give to Luscius,

To Ennius tenth, as bard of long ago. ⁸³

XXV

25arg

Of certain new words which I had met in the Miimiambics of Gnaeus Matius.

GNAEUS MATIUS, a learned man, in his Mimiambics properly and fitly coined the word recentatur for the idea expressed by the Greek a)nai eou=tai, that is

it is born again and is again made new.

The lines in which the word occurs are these: ⁸⁴

E'en now doth Phoebus gleam, again is born ( recentatur)

The common light to joys of mortal men.

Matius too, in the same Mimiarmbics, says edulcare, meaning

to sweeten,

in these lines: ⁸⁵

And therefore it is fit to sweeten ( edulcare) life,

And bitter cares with wisdom to control.

XXVI

26arg

In what words the philosopher Aristotle defined a syllogism; and an interpretation of his definition in Latin terms.

ARISTOTLE defines a syllogism in these lines: ⁸⁶

A sentence in which, granted certain premises, something else than these premises necessarily follows as the result of these premises.

The following interpretation of this definition seemed to me fairly good:

A syllogism is a sentence in which, certain things being granted and accepted, something else than that which was granted is necessarily established through what was granted.

XXVII

27arg

The meaning of comitia calata, curiata, centsriata, and tribulta, and of concilium, and other related matters of the same kind.

IN the first book of the work of Laelius Felix addressed To Quintus Mucius it is said ⁸⁷ that Labeo wrote ⁸⁸ that the comitia calata, or

convoked assembly,

was held on behalf of the college of pontiffs for the purpose of installing the king ⁸⁹ or the flames. Of these assemblies some were those

of the curies

, others those

of the centuries

; the former were called together ( calari being used in the sense of

convoke

) by the curiate lictor, the latter by a horn blower.

In that same assembly, which we have said was called calata, or

convoked,

wills were customarily made and sacrifices annulled. For we learn that there were three kinds of wills: one which was made in the

convoked assembly

before the collected people, a second on the battle-field, ⁹⁰ when the men were called into line for the purpose of fighting, a third the symbolic sale of a householder's property by means of the coin and balance. ⁹¹

In the same book of Laelius Felix this is written:

One who orders a part of the people to assemble, but not all the people, ought to announce a council rather than an assembly. Moreover, tribunes do not summon the patricians, nor may they refer any question to them. Therefore bills which are passed on the initiative of the tribunes of the commons are properly called plebiscita, or 'decrees of the commons,' rather than 'laws.' In former times the patricians were not bound by such decrees until the dictator Quintus Hortensius passed a law, providing that all the Quirites should be bound by whatever enactment the commons should pass.

⁹² It is also written in the same book:

When voting is done according to families of men, ⁹³ the assembly is called 'curiate'; when it is according to property and age, ' centuriate'; when according to regions and localities, 'tribal.' Further it impious for the assembly of the centuries to be held within the pomerium, because the army must be summoned outside of the city, and it is not lawful for it to be summoned within the city. Therefore it was customary for the assembly of the centuries to be held in the field of Mars, and the army to be summoned there for purposes of defence while the people were busy casting their votes.

XXVIII

28arg

That Cornelius Nepos was in error when he wrote that Cicero defended Sextus Roscius at the age of twenty-three.

CORNELIUS NEPOS was a careful student of records and one of Marcus Cicero's most intimate friends. Yet in the first book of his Life of Cicero he seems to have erred in writing ⁹⁴ that Cicero made his first plea in a public trial at the age of twenty-three years, defending Sextus Roscius, who was charged with murder. For if we count the years from Quintus Caepio and Quintus Serranus, in whose consulship Cicero was born on the third day before the Nones of January, ⁹⁵ to Marcus Tullius and Gnaeus Dolabella, in whose consulate he pleaded a private case In Defence of Quinctius before Aquilius Gallus as judge, the result is twenty-six years. And there is no doubt that he defended Sextus Roscius on a charge of murder the year after he spoke In Defence of Quinctius; that is, at the age of twenty-seven, in the consulship of Lucius Sulla Felix and Metellus Pius, the former for a second time.

Asconius Pedianus has noted ⁹⁶ that Fenestella also made a mistake in regard to this matter, in writing ⁹⁷ that he pleaded for Sextus Roscius in the twenty-sixth year of his age. But the mistake of Nepos is greater than that of Fenestella, unless anyone is inclined to believe that Nepos, led by a feeling of friendship and regard, suppressed four years in order to increase our admiration of Cicero, by making it appear that he delivered his brilliant speech In Defence of Roscius when he was a very young man.

This also has been noted and recorded by the admirers of both orators, that Demosthenes and Cicero delivered their first brilliant speeches in the courts at the same age, the former Against Androtion and Against Timocrates at the age of twenty-seven, the latter when a year younger In Defence of Quinctius and at twenty-seven In Defence of Sextus Roscius. Also, the number of years which they lived did not differ very greatly; Cicero died at sixty-three, Demosthenes at sixty. ⁹⁸

XXIX

29arg

A new form of expression used by Lucius Piso, the writer of annals.

THE two following modes of saying

my name is Julius

are common and familiar: mihi nomen est Iulius and mihi nomen est Iulio. I have actually found a third, and new, form in Piso, in the second book of his Annals. His words are these: ⁹⁹

They feared his colleague, Lucius Tarquinius, because he had the Tarquinian name; and he begged him to leave Rome of his own free will.

¹⁰⁰

Because,

says he,

he had the Tarquinian name

; this is as if I should say mihi nomen est Iulium, or

I have the Julian name.

XXX

30arg

Whether the word petorritum, applied to a vehicle, is Greek or Gallic.

THOSE who approach the study of letters late in life, after they are worn out and exhausted by some other occupation, particularly if they are garrulous and of only moderate keenness, make themselves exceedingly ridiculous and silly by displaying their would-be knowledge. To this class that man surely belongs, who lately talked fine-spun nonsense about petorrita, or

four-wheeled wagons.

For when the question was asked, what form of vehicle the petorritum was, and from what language the word came, he falsely described a form of vehicle very unlike the real one; he also declared that the name was Greek and interpreted it as meaning

flying wheels,

¹⁰¹ maintaining that pelorritum was formed by the change of a single letter from pelorrotum, and that this form was actually used by Valerius Probus.

When I had got together many copies of the Commentaries of Probus, I did not find that spelling in them, and I do not believe that Probus used it anywhere else. For petorritum is not a hybrid word derived in part from the Greek, but the entire word belongs to the people across the Alps; for it is a Gallic word. It is found in the fourteenth book of Marcus Varro's Divine Antiquities, where Varro, speaking of petorritum, says ¹⁰² that it is a Gallic term. ¹⁰³ He also says that lancea, or

lance,

is not a Latin, but a Spanish word.

XXXI

31arg

A message sent by the Rhodians about the celebrated picture of Ialysus to Demetrius, leader of the enemy, at the time when they were besieged by him.

THE island of Rhodes, of ancient fame, and the fairest and richest town in it were besieged and assaulted by Demetrius, a famous general of his time, who was surnamed Poliorkhth/s, or

the taker of cities,

from his skill and training in conducting sieges and the cleverness of the engines which he devised for the capture of towns. On that occasion he was preparing in the course of the siege to attack, pillage and burn a public building without the walls of the town, which had only a weak garrison.

In this building was that famous picture of Ialysus, ¹⁰⁴ the work of Protogenes, ¹⁰⁵ the distinguished painter; and incited by anger against them, Demetrius begrudged the Rhodians the beauty and fame of that work of art. The Rhodians sent envoys to Demetrius with this message:

What on earth is your reason for wishing to set fire to that building and destroy our painting? For if you overcome all of us and take this whole town, through your victory you will gain possession also of that painting, uninjured and entire; but if you are unable to overcome us by your siege, we beg you to take thought lest it bring shame upon you, because you could not conquer the Rhodians in war, to have waged war with the dead Protogenes.

Upon hearing this message from the envoys, Demetrius abandoned the siege and spared both the picture and the city.

Noctes Atticae. Aulus Gellius. John C. Rolfe (Translator). Cambridge, Mass.. 1927.

Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.

Funding provided by Tufts University.

Current edition Perseus

Attic Nights (English) (Gellius, Aulus. The Attic Nights of Aulus Gellius. Rolfe, John C., translator. Cambridge, Mass.; London: Harvard University Press; William Heinemann, 1927 (printing).)

Editions (1)

Noctes Atticae Perseus (Gellius, Aulus. The Attic Nights of Aulus Gellius. Rolfe, John C., editor. Cambridge, Mass.; London: Harvard University Press; William Heinemann, 1927 (printing).) — 15.1 focus

I

Argument

Quod in Quinti Claudii Annalibus scriptum est lignum alumine oblitum non ardere.

[1] DECLAMAVERAT Antonius Iulianus rhetor, praeterquam semper alias, tum vero nimium quantum delectabiliter et feliciter. Sunt enim ferme scholasticae istae declamationes eiusdem hominis eiusdemque facundiae, non eiusdem tamen cotidie felicitatis.

[2] Nos ergo familiares eius circumfusi undique eum prosequebamur domum, cum inde subeuntes montem Cispium conspicimus insulam quandam occupatam igni multis arduisque tabulatis editam et propinqua iam omnia flagrare vasto incendio.

[3] Tum quispiam ibi ex comitibus Iuliani: Magni, inquit, reditus urbanorum praediorum, sed pericula sunt longe maxima. Si quid autem posset remedii fore, ut ne tam adsidue domus Romae arderent, venum hercle dedissem res rusticas et urbicas emissem.

[4] Atque illi Iulianus lulianus laeta, ut mos eius fuit, inter fabulandum venustate: Si Annalem, inquit, undevicensimum Q. Claudi legisses, optumi et sincerissimi scriptoris, docuisset te profecto Archelaus, regis Mitridati praefectus, qua medella quaque sollertia ignem defenderes, ut ne ulla tua aedificatio e ligno correpta atque insinuata flammis arderet.

[5] Percontatus ego sum quid esset illud mirum Quadrigarii.

[6] Repetit: In eo igitur libro scriptum inveni, cum obpugnaret L. Sulla in terra Attica Piraeum et contra Archelaus regis Mitridati praefectus ex eo oppido propugnaret, turrim ligneam defendendi gratia structam, cum ex omni latere circumplexa igni foret, ardere non quisse, quod alumine ab Archelao oblita fuisset.

[7] Verba Quadrigarii ex eo libro haec sunt: Cum Sulla conatus ¹ esset tempore ² magno, eduxit copias, ut Archelai turrim unam quam ille interposuit ligneam incenderet. Venit, accessit, ligna subdidit, submovit Graecos, ignem admovit; satis sunt diu conati, numquam quiverunt incendere, ita Archelaus omnem materiam obleverat alumine, quod Sulla atque milites mirabantur, et postquam non succendit, ³ reduxit copias.

II

Argument

Quod Plato in libris quos De Legibus composuit largiores laetioresque in conviviis invitatiunculas vini non inutiles esse existimavit.

[1] Ex insula Creta quispiam aetatem Athenis agens Platonicum sese philosophum dicebat et viderier gestibat.

[2] Erat autem nihili homo et nugator atque in Graecae facundiae gloria iactabundus et praeterea vini libidine adusque ludibria ebriosus.

[3] Is in conviviis iuvenum, quae agitare Athenis hebdomadibus lunae sollemne nobis fuit, simulatque modus epulis factus et utiles delectabilesque sermones coeperant, tum, silentio ad audiendum petito, loqui coeptabat atque id genus vili et incondita verborum caterva hortabatur omnes ad bibendum, idque se facere ex decreto Platonico praedicabat, tamquam Plato in libris quos De Legibus composuit laudes ebrietatis copiosissime scripsisset utilemque esse eam bonis ac fortibus viris censuisset; ac simul inter eiusmodi orationem crebris et ingentibus poculis ingenium omne ingurgitabat, fomitem esse quendam dicens et ignitabulum ingenii virtutisque, si mens et corpus hominis vino flagraret.

[4] Sed enim Plato in primo et secundo De Legibus non, ut ille nebulo opinabatur, ebrietatem istam turpissimam quae labefacere et inminuere hominum mentes solet laudavit, sed hanc largiorem paulo iucundioremque vini invitationem, quae fieret sub quibusdam quasi arbitris et magistris conviviorum sobriis, non inprobavit.

[5] Nam et modicis honestisque inter bibendum remissionibus refici integrarique animos ad instauranda sobrietatis officia existumavit reddique eos sensim sensrm laetiores atque ad intentiones rursum capiendas fieri habiliores, et simul, si qui penitus in his adfectionum cupiditatumque errores inessent, quos aliquis pudor reverens concelaret, ea omnia sine gravi periculo, libertate per vinum data detegi et ad corrigendum medendumque fieri oportuniora.

[6] Atque hoc etiam Plato ibidem dicit, non defugiendas esse neque respuendas huiuscemodi exercitationes adversum propulsandam vini violentiam neque ullum umquam continentem prorsum ac temperantem satis fideliter visum esse, cuius vita victusque non inter ipsa errorum pericula et in mediis voluptatum inlecebris explorata sit.

[7] Nam cui libentiae gratiaeque omnes conviviorum incognitae sint quique illarum omnino expers sit, si eum forte ad participandas eiusmodi voluptates aut voluntas tulerit aut casus induxerit aut necessitas compulerit, deleniri plerumque et capi, neque mentem animumque eius consistere, sed vi quadam nova ictum labascere.

[8] Congrediendum igitur censuit et, tamquam in acie quadam, cum voluptariis rebus cumque ista vini licentia comminus decernendum, ut adversum eas non fuga simus tuti nec absentia, sed vigore animi et constanti praesentia moderatoque usu temperantiam continentiamque tueamur et calefacto simul refotoque animo, si quid in eo vel frigidae tristitiae vel torpentis verecundiae fuerit, deluamus.

III

Argument

Quid M. Cicero de particula ista senserit scripseritque quae praeposita est verbis aufugio et aufero; et an in verbo autumo eadem istaec praepositio esse videri debeat.

[1] LEGIMUS librum M. Ciceronis qui inscriptus est Orator.

[2] In eo libro Cicero, cuin dixisset verba haec aufugio et aufero composita quidem esse ex praepositione ab et ex verbis fugio et fero, sed eam praepositionem, quo fieret vox pronuntiatu audituque lenior, versam mutatamque esse in au syllabam coeptumque esse dici aufugio et aufero pro abfugio et abfero—

[3] cum haec, inquam, ita dixisset, tum postea ibidem ilbidem super eadem particula ita scripsit: Haec,⁴ intuit, praepositio praeter haec duo verba nullo alio in verbo reperietur.

[4] Invenimus autem in conmentario Conmenctario Nigidiano, verbum autumo autum compositum cominositum ex ab praepositione praelositione et verbo aestumo dictunque intercise autumo quasi abaestumo, quod significaret totum aestumo, tamquam abnumero abumero.

[5] Sed, quod sit cum honore multo dictum P. Nigidii, hominis eruditissimi, audacius hoc argutiusque esse videtur quam verius.

[6] Autumo enim non id solum significat, aestumo, sed et dico et opinor et censeo, cum quibus verbis praepositio ista neque cohaerentia vocis neque significatione sententiae convenit.

[7] Praeterea vir acerrimae in studio litterarum diligentiae M. Tullius non sola esse haec duo verba dixisset, si reperiri posset ullum tertium.

[8] Sed illud magis inspici quaerique dignum est, versane sit et mutata ab praepositio in au syllabam propter lenitatem vocis, an potius au particula sua sit propria origine et proinde ut pleraeque aliae praepositiones a Graecis, ita haec quoque inde accepta sit; sicuti est in illo versu Homeri:

Αὐέρυσαν μὲν πρῶτα καὶ ἔσφαξαν καὶ ἔδειραν,

et:

Ἄβρομοι, αὐίαχοι.

IV

Argument

Historia de Ventidio Basso, ignobili homine, quem primum de Parthis triumphasse memoriae traditum est.

[1] IN sermonibus nuper fuit seniorum hominum et eruditorum, multos in vetere memoria altissimum dignitatis gradum ascendisse ignobilissimos prius homines et despicatissimos.

[2] Nihil adeo de quoquam tantae admirationi fuit, quantae fuerunt quae de Ventidio Basso scripta sunt:

[3] eum Picentem fuisse genere et loco humili; et matrem eius a Pompeio Strabone, Pompei Magni patre, bello sociali, quo Asculanos subegit, captam cum ipso esse; mox triumphante Pompeio Strabone eum quoque puerum inter ceteros ante currum imperatoris sinu matris vectum esse; post, cum adolevisset, victum sibi aegre quaesisse eumque sordide invenisse comparandis ⁵ mulis et vehiculis, quae magistratibus qui sortiti provincias forent praebenda publice conduxisset. In isto quaestu notum esse coepisse C. Caesari et cum eo profectum esse in Gallias. Tum, quia in ea provincia satis naviter versatus esset et deinceps civili bello mandata sibi pleraque inpigre et strenue fecisset, non modo in amicitiam Caesaris, sed ex ea in amplissimum quoque ordinem pervenisse; mox tribunum quoque plebi ac deinde praetorem creatum atque in eo tempore iudicatum esse a senatu hostem cum M. Antonio; post vero coniunctis partibus ⁶ non pristinam tantum dignitatem reciperasse, sed pontificatum ac deinde consulatum quoque adeptum esse, eamque rem tam intoleranter tulisse populum Romanum, qui Ventidium Bassum meminerat curandis mulis victitasse, ut vulgo per vias urbis versiculi proscriberentur:

Concúrrite omnes aúgures, harúspices!

Porténtum inusitátum conflatúm est recens;

Nam múlas qui fricábat, consul fáctus est.

[4] Eundem Bassum Suetonius Tranquillus praepositum esse a M. Antonio provinciis orientalibus Parthosque in Syriam introrumpentis tribus ab eo proelis fusos scribit, eumque primum omnium de Parthis triumphasse et morte obita publico funere sepultum esse.

V

Argument

Verbum profligo a plerisque dici inproprie insciteque.

[1] SICUT alia verba pleraque, ignoratione et inscitia improbe dicentium quae non intellegant, deflexa ac depravata sunt a ratione recta et consuetudine, ita huius quoque verbi, quod est profligo, significatio versa et corrupta est.

[2] Nam cum ab adfligendo et ad perniciem interitumque deducendo inclinatum id tractumque sit, semperque eo verbo qui diligenter locuti sunt ita usi sint, ut profligare dicerent prodigere et deperdere profligatasque res quasi proflictas proflictaset perditas appellarent, nunc audio aedificia et templa et alia fere multa quae prope absoluta adfectaque sunt in nrofligato esse dici ipsaque esse iam profligata.

[3] Quapropter urbanissime respondisse praetorem, non indoctum virum, barunculo ⁷ cuidam ex advocatorum turba, Sulpicius Apollinaris in quadam epistula scriptum reliquit.

[4] Nam cum ille, inquit, rabula audaculus ita postulasset verbaque ita fecisset: Omnia, vir clarissime, negotia de quibus te cogniturum esse hodie dixisti diligentia et velocitate tua profligata sunt, unum id solum relictum est, de quo, rogo, audias, tum praetor satis ridicule: An illa negotia de quibus iam cognovisse me dicis profligata sint equidem nescio; hoc autem negotium quod in te incidit, procul dubio, sive id audiam sive non audiam, profligatum est.

[5] Quod significare autem volunt qui profligatum profigatum dicunt, hi qui Latine locuti sunt non profligatum, sed adfectum dixerunt, sicuti M. Cicero in oratione, quam habuit De Provinciis Consularibus.

[6] Eius verba haec sunt: Bellum adfectum videmus et, vere ut dicam, paene confectum.

[7] Item infra: Nam ipse Caesar quid est quod ⁸ in ea ⁹ provincia commorari velit, nisi ut ea quae per eum adfecta sunt, perfecta reipublicae tradat?

[8] Idem Cicero in Oeconomico: Cum vero adfecta iam prope aestate uvas a sole mitescere tempus est.

VI

Argument

In libro M. Ciceronis De Gloria secundo manifestum erratum, in ea parte in qua scriptum est super Hectore et Aiace.

[1] IN libro M. Tulli, qui est secundus De Gloria, manifestus error est non magnae rei, quem errorem esse possit cognoscere non aliquis eruditorum, sed qui tantum legerit Ὁμήρου τὸ Ηʹ.

[2] Quamobrem non tam id mirabamur errasse in ea re M. Tullium, quam non esse animadversum hoc postea correctumque vel ab ipso vel a Tirone, liberto eius, diligentissimo homine et librorum patroni sui studiosissimo.

[3] Ita enim scriptum in eo libro est: Apud eundem poetam Aiax cum Hectore congrediens depugnandi causa agit ut sepeliatur, si sit forte victus, declaratque se velle ut suum tumulum multis etiam post saeculis praetereuntes sic loquantur:

Hic situs est vitae iampridem lumina linquens,

Qui quondam Hectoreo perculsus concidit ense.

Fabitur haec aliquis, mea semper gloria vivet.

[4] Huius autem sententiae versus, quos Cicero in linguam Latinam vertit, non Aiax apud Homerum dicit neque Aiax agit ut sepeliatur, sed Hector dicit et Hector de sepultura agit, priusquam sciat an Aiax secum depugnandi causa congressurus sit.

VII

Argument

Observatum esse in senibus quod annum fere aetatis tertium et sexagesimum agant aut laboribus aut interitu aut clade aliqua insignitum; atque inibi super eadem observatione exemplum adpositum epistulae divi Augusti ad Gaium filium.

[1] OBSERVATUM in multa hominum memoria expertumque est, senioribus plerisque omnibus sexagesimum tertium vitae annum cum periculo et clade aliqua venire aut corporis morbique gravioris aut vitae interitus aut animi aegritudinis.

[2] Propterea, qui rerum verborumque istiusmodi studio tenentur eum aetatis annum appellant κλιμακτηρικόν.

[3] Nocte quoque ista proxima superiore, cum librum Epistularum divi Augusti, quas ad Gaium nepotem suum scripsit, legeremus duceremurque elegantia orationis neque morosa neque anxia, sed facili hercle et simplici, id ipsum in quadam epistula super eodem anno scriptum offendimus; eiusque epistula exemplum hoc est:

IX. Kal. Octobris.

Ave, mi Gai, meus asellus iucundissimus, quem semper medius fidius desidero, cum a me abes. Set praecipue diebus talibus, qualis est hodiernus, oculi mei requirunt meum Gaium, quem, ubicumque hoc die fuisti, spero laetum et bene valentem celebrasse quartum et sexagesimum natalem meum. Nam, ut vides, κλιμακτῆρα communem seniorum omnium tertium et sexagesimum annum evasimus. Deos autem oro ut mihi quantumcumque superest temporis, id salvis nobis traducere liceat in statu reipublicae felicissimo, ἀνδραγαθούντων ὑμῶν καὶ διαδεχομένων stationem meam.

VIII

Argument

Locus ex oratione Favoni, veteris oratoris, de cenarum atque luxuriae obprobratione, qua usus est cum legem Liciniam de sumptu minuendo suasit.

[1] CUM legeremus orationem veterem Favoni, non indiserti viri, qua oratione totum, ut meminisse possemus odio esse hercle istiusmodi sumptus atque victus, perdidicimus.

[2] Verba haec, quae adposuimus, Favoni sunt: Praefecti popinae atque luxuriae negant cenam lautam esse, nisi cum lubentissime edis, tum auferatur et alia esca melior atque amplior succenturietur. Is nunc flos cenae habetur inter istos quibus sumptus et fastidium pro facetiis procedit, qui negant ullam avem praeter ficedulam totam comesse oportere; ceterarum avium atque altilium nisi tantum adponatur, ut a cluniculis inferiore parte ¹⁰ saturi fiant, convivium putant inopia sordere, superiorem partem avium atque altilium qui edint, eos palatum parum delicatum ¹¹ habere. Si proportione pergit luxuria crescere, quid relinquitur, nisi ut delibari sibi cenas iubeant, ne edendo defetigentur, quando stratus lectuls ¹² auro, argento, purpura amplior aliquot hominibus quam dis inmortalibus adornatur?

IX

Argument

Quod Caecilius poeta frontem genere virili non poetice, sed cum probatione et cum analogia appellavit.

[1] VERE ac diserte Caecilius hoc in Subditivo scripsit:

Nam hi súnt inimici péssumi, fronte hílaro, corde Trísti,

Quos néque ut adprendas néque uti dimittás scias.

[2] Hos ego versus, cum de quodam istiusmodi homine sermones essent, in circulo forte iuvenum eruditiorum dixi.

[3] Tum de grammaticorum granlnaticorum volgo quispiam nobiscum ibi adsistens non sane ignobilis, Quanta, inquit, licentia audaciaque Caecilius hic fuit, cum fronte hilaro, non fronte hilara dixit et tam inmanem soloecismum nihil veritus est!

[4] Immo, inquam, potius nos et quam audaces et quam licentes sumus, qui frontem fiontem inprobe indocteque non virili genere dicimus, cum et ratio proportionis,¹³ quae analogia appellatur, et veterum auctoritates non hanc, sed hunc frontem debere dici suadeant. Quippe M. Cato in primo Originum ita scripsit:

[5] Postridie signis conlatis, aequo fronte, peditatu, equitibus atque alis cum hostium legionibus pugnavimus. Recto quoque fronte idem Cato in libro eodem dicit.

[6] At ille semidoctus grammaticus: Missas, inquit, auctoritates facias, quas quidem ut habeas posse fieri puto, sed rationem dic, quam non habes.

[7] Atque ego his eius verbis, ut tum ferebat aetas, inritatior, Audi, inquam, mi magister, rationem falsam quidem, sed quam redarguere falsam esse tu non queas.

[8] Omnia, inquam, vocabula tribus litteris finita quibus frons finitur, generis masculini sunt, si in genetivo quoque casu eadem syllaba finiantur, ut mons, fons, pons, frons.

[9] At ille contra renidens: Audi, inquit, discipule, plura alia consimilia, quae non sint generis masculini.

[10] Petebant ibi omnes ut vel unum statim diceret. Sed cum homo voltum intorqueret et non hisceret et colores mutaret mnutaret, tum ego intercessi et Vade, inquam, nunc et habeto ad requirendum triginta dies; postquam inveneris, repetes nos.

[11] Atque ita hominem nulli rei ad indagandum vocabulum, quo rescinderet finitionem fictam, dimisimus.

X

Argument

De voluntario et admirando interitu virginum Milesiarum.

[1] PLUTARCHUS in librorum quos Περὶ Ψυχῆς inscripsit primo, cum de morbis dissereret in animos hominum incidentibus, virgines ¹⁴ dixit Milesii nominis fere quot tum in ea civitate erant repente sine ulla evidenti causa voluntatem cepisse obeundae mortis ac deinde plurimas vitam suspendio amisisse.

[2] Id cum accideret in dies crebrius neque animis earum mori perseverantium medicina adhiberi quiret, decrevisse Milesios ut virgines quae corporibus suspensis demortuae forent, ut hae omnes nudae, cum eodem laqueo quo essent praevinctae efferrentur. Post id decretum virgines voluntariam mortem non petisse pudore solo deterritas tam inhonesti funeris.

XI

Argument

Verba senatusconsulti de exigendis urbe Roma philosophis; item verba edicti censorum, quo inprobati et coerciti sunt qui disciplinam rhetoricam rhetorical instituere et exercere Romae coeperant.

[1] C. FANNIO STRABONE, M. Valerio Messala coss. senatusconsultum de philosophis et de rhetoribus Latinis ¹⁵ factum est: M. Pomponius praetor senatum consuluit. Quod verba facta sunt de philosophis philosophies et de rhetoribus, de ea re ita censuerunt, ut M. Pomponius praetor animadverteret curaretque, uti ei ¹⁶ e republica fideque sua videretur, uti Romae ne essent.

[2] Aliquot deinde annis post id senatusconsultum Cn. Domitius Ahenobarbus et L. Licinius Crassus censores de coercendis coereendis rhetoribus Latinis ita edixerunt: Renuntiatum est nobis esse homines, qui novum genus disciplinae instituerunt, ad quos iuventus in ludum conveniat; eos sibi nomen inposuisse Latinos rhetoras; ibi homines adulescentulos dies totos desidere. Maiores nostri quae liberos suos discere et quos in ludos itare vellent instituerunt. Haec nova, quae praeter consuetudinem ac morem maiorum fiunt, neque placent neque recta videntur. Quapropter et his qui eos ludos habent, et his qui eo venire consuerunt, visum est faciundum, ut ostenderemus nostram sententiam, nobis non placere.

[3] Neque illis solum temporibus, nimis rudibus necdum Graeca disciplina expolitis, philosophi ex urbe Roma pulsi sunt,

[4] verum etiam Domitiano imperante senatusconsulto eiecti atque urbe et Italia interdicti sunt.

[5] Qua tempestate Epictetus quoque philosophus propter id senatusconsultum Nicopolim Roma decessit.

XII

Argument

Locus ex oratione Gracchi de parsimonia ac de pudicitia sua memoratissimus.

[1] C. GRACCHUS cum ex Sardinia rediit, orationem ad populum in contione habuit.

[2] Ea verba haec sunt: Versatus sum, inquit, in provincia, quomodo ex usu vestro existimabam esse, non quomodo ambitioni meae conducere arbitrabar. Nulla apud me fuit popina, neque pueri eximia facie stabant, et in convivio liberi vestri modestius erant quam apud principia.

[3] Post deinde haec dicit: Ita versatus sum in provincia, uti nemo posset vere dicere assem aut eo plus in muneribus me accepisse, aut mea opera quemquam sumptum fecisse. Biennium fui in provincia; si ulla meretrix domum meam introivit aut cuiusquam servulus propter me sollicitatus est, omnium nationum postremissimum nequissimumque existimatote. Cum a servis eorum tam caste me habuerim, inde poteritis considerare quomodo me putetis cum liberis vestris vixisse.

[4] Atque ibi ex intervallo: Itaque, inquit, Quirites, cum Romam profectus sum, zonas quas plenas argenti extuli, eas ex provincia inanes retuli. Alii vini amphoras quas plenas tulerunt, eas argento repletas domum reportaverunt.

XIII

Argument

De verbis inopinatis, quae utroque versum dicuntur et a grammaticis communia vocantur.

[1] UTOR et vereor et consolor communia verba sunt ac dici utroque versus possunt: vereor te et vereor abs te, id est tu me vereris; utor te et utor abs te, id est tu me uteris; ¹⁷ hortor te et hortor abs te, id est tu me hortaris; consolor te et consolor abs te, id est tu me consolaris; testor quoque et interpretor significatione reciproca dicuntur.

[2] Sunt autem verba haec omnia ex altera parte inusitata, et an dicta sint in eam quoque partem quaeri solet.

[3] Afranius in Consobrinis:

Em istó parentum est vita vilis líberis,

Ubi málunt metui, quám vereri se áb suis.

Hic vereri ex ea parte dictum est quae est non usitatior.

[4] Novius in Lignaria verbum quod est utitur ex contraria parte dicit:

Quía supellex múlta quae non útitur, emitúr tamen,

id est quae usui non est.

[5] M. Cato in quinta Origine: Exercitum, inquit, suum pransum, paratum, cohortatum eduxit foras atque instruxit.

[6] Consolor quoque in partem alteram, praeterquam dici solitum est, scriptum invenimus in epistula Q. Metelli, quam, cum in exilio esset, ad Cn. et ad L. Domitios dedit. At cum animum, inquit, vestrum erga me video, vehementer consolor et fides virtusque vestra mihi ante oculos versatur.

[7] Testata itidem et interpretata eadem ratione dixit M. Tullius in primo libro De Divinatione, ut testor interpretorque verba communia videri debeant.

[8] Sallustius quoque eodem modo: dilargitis proscriptorum bonis dicit, tamquam verbum largior sit ex verbis communibus.

[9] Veritum autem, sicut puditum et pigitum, non personaliter per infinitum modum dictum esse, non a vetustioribus tantum videmus, sed a M. quoque Tullio in secundo De Finibus. Primum, inquit, Aristippi Cyrenaicorumque omnium, quos non est veritum in ea voluptate quae maxima dulcedine sensum moveret summum bonum ponere.

[10] Dignor quoque et veneror et confiteor et testor habita sunt in verbis communibus. Sic illa in Vergilio dicta sunt:

Coniugio, Anchisa, Veneris dignate superbo,

et:

cursusque dabit venerata secundos.

[11] Confessi autem aeris, de quo facta confession est, in XII. Tabulis scriptum est his verbis: Aeris confessi rebusque iure ¹⁸ iudicatis XXX. dies iusti sunto. Item ex isdem tabulis id quoque est. Qui se si erit testarier libri pensve fuerit, ni testimonium fariatur, inprobus intestabilisque esto.

XIV

Argument

Quod Metellus Numidicus figuram orationis novam ex orationibus Graecis mutuatus est.

[1] APUT Q. Metellum Numidicum in libro accusationis In Valerium Messalam tertio nove dictum esse adnotavimus.

[2] Verba ex oratione eius haec sunt: Cum sese sciret in tantum crimen venisse atque socios ad senatum questum flentes venisse, sese pecunias maximas exactos esse.

[3] Sese ¹⁹ pecunias, inquit, maximas ²⁰ exactos esse pro eo quod est: pecunias a se esse ²¹ maximas exactas.

[4] Id nobis videbatur Graeca figura dictum; Graeci enim dicunt: εἰσεπράξατό με ἀργύριον, id significat exegit me pecuniam. Quod si id dici potest, etiam exactus esse aliqui pecuniam dici potest,

[5] Caeciliusque eadem figura in Hypobolimaeo Aeschino usus videtur:

Ego illúd minus nihilo éxigor portórium,

id est nihilominus exigitur de me portorium.

XV

Argument

Passis velis et passis manibus dixisse veteres non a verbo suo, quod est patior, sed ab alieno, quod est pando.

[1] AB eo quod est pando passum veteres dixerunt, non pansum, et cum ex praepositione expassum, non expansum.

[2] Caecilius in Synaristosis: Heri vero prospexisse eum se ex tégulis, Haec nuntiasse niintiasse et flámmeum expassúm domi Capillo quoque esse mulier passo dicitur,

[3] quasi porrecto et expanso, et passis manibus et velis passis dicimus, quod significat diductis atque distentis.

[4] Itaque Plautus in Milite Glorioso, a littera in e mutata per compositi vocabuli morem, dispessis dicit pro eo, quod est dispassis:

Credo égo istoc exempló tibi esse pereundum ²² extra pórtam,

Dispéssis manibus pátibulum cum habébis.

XVI

Argument

De novo genere interitus Crotoniensis Milonis.

[1] MILO Crotoniensis, athleta inlustris, quem in chronicis scriptum est Olympiade LXII ²³ primum coronatum esse, exitum habuit e vita miserandum et mirandum.

[2] Cum iam natu grandis artem athleticam desisset iterque faceret forte solus in locis Italiae silvestribus, quercum vidit proxime viam patulis in parte media rimis hiantem.

[3] Tum experiri, credo, etiam tunc volens an ullae sibi reliquae vires adessent, inmissis in cavernas arboris digitis, diducere et rescindere quercum conatus est. Ac mediam quidem partem ²⁴ discidit divellitque;

[4] quercus autem in duas diducta partis, cum ille, quasi perfecto quod erat conixus, manus laxasset, cessante vi rediit in naturam manibusque eius retentis inclusisque stricta denuo et cohaesa, dilacerandum hominem feris praebuit.

XVII

Argument

Quam ob causam nobiles pueri Atheniensium tibiis canere desierint, cum patrium istum morem canendi haberent.

[1] ALCIBIADES Atheniensis, cum apud avunculum Periclen puer artibus ac disciplinis liberalibus erudiretur et arcessi Pericles Antigenidam tibicinem iussisset, ut eum canere tibiis, quod honestissimum tum videbatur, doceret, traditas sibi tibias, cum ad os adhibuisset inflassetque, pudefactus oris deformitate abiecit infregitque.

[2] Ea res cum percrebuisset, omnium tum Atheniensium consensu disciplina tibiis canendi desita est.

[3] Scriptum hoc in Commentario Pamphilae nono et vicesimo.

XVIII

Argument

Quod pugna pogna belli civilis victoriaque Gai Caesaris, quam vicit in Pharsaliis campis, nuntiata praedictaque est per cuiuspiam sacerdotis ²⁵ vaticinium eodem ipso die in Italia Patavi.

[1] Quo C. Caesar et Cn. Pompeius die per civile bellum signis conlatis in Thessalia conflixerunt, res accidit Patavi in transpadana Italia memorari digna.

[2] Cornelius quidam sacerdos, et nobilis et sacerdotii religionibus venerandus et castitate vitae sanctus, repente mota mente conspicere se procul dixit pugnam acerrimam pugnari, ac deinde alios cedere, alios urgere, caedem, fugam, tela volantia, instaurationem pugnae, inpressionem, gemitus, vulnera, proinde ut si ipse in proelio versaretur, coram videre sese vociferatus est ac postea subito exclamavit Caesarem vicisse.

[3] Ea Cornelii sacerdotis ariolatio levis tum quidem visa est et vecors. Magnae mox admirationi fuit, quod non modo pugnae dies quae in Thessalia pugnata est, neque proelii exitus qui erat praedictus, idem fuit, sed omnes quoque pugnandi reciprocae vices et ipsa exercituum duorum conflictatio vaticinantis motu atque verbis repraesentata est.

XIX

Argument

Verba M. Varronis memoria digna ex Satura, quae inscribitur Περὶ Ἐδεσμάτων.

[1] NON paucissimi sunt in quos potest convenire id quod M. Varro dicit in Satura quae inscribitur Περὶ Ἐδεσμάτων.

[2] Verba haec sunt: Si, quantum operae sumpsisti ut tuus pistor bonum faceret panem, eius duodecimam philosophiae dedisses, ipse bonus iampridem esses factus. Nunc ilium qui norunt volunt emere milibus centum, te qui novit nemo centussis.

XX

Argument

Notata quaedam de Euripidis poetae genere, vita, moribus deque eiusdem fine vitae.

[1] EURIPIDI poetae matrem Theopompus agrestia olera vendentem victum quaesisse dicit.

[2] Patri autem eius nato illo responsum est a Chaldaeis eum puerum, cum adolevisset, victorem in certaminibus fore; id ei puero fatum esse.

[3] Pater interpretatus athletam debere esse, roborato exercitatoque filii sui corpore, Olympiam certaturum eum inter athletas pueros deduxit. Ac primo quidem in certamen per ambiguam aetatem receptus non est, post Eleusino et Theseo certamine pugnavit et coronatus est.

[4] Mox a corporis cura ad excolendi animi studium transgressus, auditor fuit physici Anaxagorae et Prodici rhetoris, in morali autem philosophia Socratis. Tragoediam scribere natus annos duodeviginti adortus est.

[5] Philochorus refert in insula Salamine speluncam esse taetram et horridam, quam nos vidimus, in qua Euripides tragoedias scriptitarit.

[6] Mulieres fere omnes in maiorem modum exosus fuisse dicitur, sive quod natura abhorruit a mulierum coetu sive quod duas simul uxores habuerat, cum id decreto ab Atheniensibus facto ius esset, quarum matrimonii pertaedebat.

[7] Eius odii in mulieres Aristophanes quoque meminit ἐν ταῖς τροτέραις Θεσμοφοριαζούσαις in his versibus:

Νῦν οὖν ἁπάσαισιν παραινῶ καὶ λέγω,

Τοῦτον κολάσαι τὸν ἄνδρα πολλῶν οὕνεκα.

Ἄγρια γὰρ ἡμᾶς, ὦ γυναῖκες, δρᾷ κακά,

Ἅτʼ ἐν ἀγρίοισι τοῖς²⁶ λαχάνοις αὐτὸς τραφείς.

[8] Alexander autem Aetolus hos de Euripide versus composuit:

Ὁ δʼ Ἀναξαγόρου τρόφιμος χαιοῦ στριφνὸς μὲν ἔμοιγε προσειπεῖν,

Καὶ μισογέλως, καὶ τωθάζειν οὐδὲ παρʼ οἶνον μεμαθηκώς,

Ἀλλʼ ὅ τι γράψαι, τοῦτʼ ἄν μέλιτος καὶ Σειρήνων ἐτετεύχει.

[9] Is cum in Macedonia apud Archelaum regem esset utereturque eo rex familiariter, rediens nocte ab eius cena, canibus a quodam aemulo inmissis dilaceratus est et ex his vulneribus mors secuta est.

[10] Sepulchrum autem eius et memoriam Macedones eo dignati sunt honore, ut in gloriae quoque loco praedicarent: οὔποτʼ ἂν²⁷ σὸν μνῆμα, Εὐρίπιδες, ὄλοιτό που, quod egregius poeta morte obita sepultus in eorum terra foret. Quamobrem cum legati ad eos ab Atheniensibus missi petissent ut ossa Athenas in terram illius patriam permitterent transferri, maximo consensu Macedones in ea re deneganda perstiterunt.

XXI

Argument

Quod a poetis Iovis filii prudentissimi humanissimique, Neptuni autem ferocissimi et inhumanissimi traduntur.

[1] PRAESTANTISSIMOS virtute, prudentia, viribus ²⁸ Iovis filios poetae appellaverunt, ut Aeacum et Minoa et Sarpedona; ferocissimos et inmanes et alienos ab omni humanitate, tamquam e mari genitos, Neptuni filios dixerunt, Cyclopa et Cercyona et Scirona et Laestrygonas.

XXII

Argument

Historia de Sertorio, egregio duce, deque astu eius commenticiisque simulamentis quibus ad barbaros milites continendos conciliandosque sibi utebatur.

[1] SERTORIUS, vir acer egregiusque dux, et utendi ²⁹ regendique exercitus peritus fuit.

[2] Is in temporibus difficillimis et mentiebatur ad milites, si mendaciumn prodesset, et litteras compositas pro veris legebat et somnium simulabat et falsas religiones conferebat, si quid istae res eum apud militum animos adiuvabant. Illud adeo Sertori nobile est:

[3]

[4] 3.4 Cerva alba eximiae pulchritudinis et vivacissimae celeritatis a Lusitano ei quodam dono data est.

[5] Hanc sibi oblatam divinitus et instinctam Dianae numine conloqui secum monereque et docere quae utilia factu essent, persuadere omnibus institit ac, si quid durius videbatur quod imperandum militibus foret, a cerva sese monitum nonitum praedicabat. Id cum dixerat, universi, tamquam si deo, libentes parebant.

[6] Ea cerva quodam die, cum incursio esset hostium nuntiata, festinatione ac tumultu consternata in fugam se prorupit proruptit atque in palude proxima delituit et frustra ³⁰ requisita perisse credita est.

[7] Neque multis diebus post inventam esse cervam Sertorio nuntiatur.

[8] Tum qui nuntiaverat iussit tacere, ac ne cui palam diceret interminatus est, praecepitque ut eam postero die repente in eum locum in quo ipse cum amicis esset inmitteret. Admissis deinde amicis postridie, visum sibi esse ait in quiete cervam quae perisset ad se reverti et, ut prius consuerat, quod opus esset facto praedicere;

[9] tum servo quod imperaverat significat, cerva emissa in cubiculum Sertorii introrupit, clamor factus et orta admiratio est.

Eaque hominum barbarorum credulitas Sertorio in magnis rebus magno usui fuit.

[10] Memoria prodita est, ex his nationibus quae cum Sertorio faciebant, cum multis proeliis superatus esset, neminem umquam ab eo descivisse, quamquam id genus hominum esset mobilissimum.

XXIII

Argument

De aetatibus historicorum nobilium, Hellanici, Herodoti, Thucydidis.

[1] HELLANICUS, Herodotus, Thucydides, historiae scriptores, in isdem fere temporibus laude ingenti floruerunt et non nimis longe distantibus fuerunt aetatibus.

[2] Nam Hellanicus initio belli Peloponnesiaci fuisse quinque et sexaginta annos natus videtur, Herodotus tres et quinquaginta, Thucydides quadraginta. Scriptum est hoc in libro undecimo Pamphilae.

XXIV

Argument

Quid Vulcacius Sedigitus, in libro quem De Poetis scripsit, de comicis Latinis iudicarit.

[1] SEDIGITUS in libro quem scripsit De Poetis, quid de his sentiat qui comoedias fecerunt, et quem ex omnibus praestare ceteris putet, ac deinceps quo quemque in loco et honore ponat, his versibus suis demonstrate:

Multós incertos cértare hanc rem vidimus,

Palmám poetae cómico cui déferant.

Eum méo iudicio errórem dissolvám tibi,

Ut, cóntra si quis séntiat, nihil séntiat.

Caecílio palmam Státio do mimico.

Plautús secundus facile exuperat céteros.

Dein Naévius, qui férvet, pretio in tértiost.

Si erit, quod quarto détur, dabitur Licinio.

Post insequi Licinium facio Atilium.

In séxto consequétur hos Teréntius,

Turpílius septimúm, Trabea octavum óptinet,

Nonó loco esse fácile facio Lúscium.

Decimum áddo causa antiquitatis É Ennium nnium.

XXV

Argument

De verbis quibusdam novis, quae in Gnaei Mati Mimiambis offenderamus.

[1] CN. MATIUS, vir eruditus, in mimiambis Mimianibis suis non absurde neque absone finxit recentatur pro eo, quod Graeci dicunt ἀνανεοῦται, id est denuo nascitur atque iterum fit recens. Versus, in quibus hoc verbum est, hi sunt:

Iam iam albicascit Phoebus et recentatur

Commune lumen hominibus ³¹ voluptatis. ³²

[2] Idem Matius in isdem Mimiambis edulcare dicit, quod est dulcius reddere, in his versibus:

Quapropter edulcare convenit vitam

Curasque acerbas sensibus gubernare.

XXVI

Argument

Quibus verbis Aristoteles philosophus definierit syllogismum; eiusque definitionis interpretamentum verbis Latinis factum.

[1] ARISTOTELES, quid syllogismus esset, his versibus definivit: Λόγος, ἐν τεθέντων τινῶν, ἕτερόν τι τῶν κειμένων ἐξ ἀνάγκης συμβαίνει διὰ τῶν κειμένων.

[2] definitionis non videbatur habere incommode interpretatio facta hoc modo: Syllogismus est oratio, in qua, consensis quibusdam et concessis, aliud quid quam quae concessa sunt, per ea quae concessa sunt, necessario conficitur.

XXVII

Argument

Quid sint comitia calata, quid curiata, quid centuriata, quid tributa tributea, quid concilium; atque inibi quaedam eiusdemmodi.

[1] IN libro Laelii Felicis Ad Q. Mucium primo scriptum est Labeonem scribere calata comitia esse quae pro conlegio pontificum habentur, aut regis aut flaminum inaugurandorum causa.

[2] Eorum autem alia esse curiata, alia centuriata; curiata per lictorem curiatum calari, id est convocari, centuriata per cornicinem.

[3] Isdem comitiis, quae calata appellari diximus, et sacrorum detestatio et testamenta fieri solebant. Tria enim genera testamentorum fuisse accepimus: unum, quod calatis comitiis in populi contione fieret, alterum in procinctu, cum viri ad proelium faciendum in aciem vocabantur, tertium per familiae emancipationem, cui aes et libra adhiberetur.

[4] In eodem Laeli Felicis libro haec scripta sunt: Is qui non ³³ universum populum, sed partem aliquam adesse iubet, non comitia, sed concilium edicere debet. Tribuni autem neque advocant patricios neque ad eos referre ulla de re possunt. Ita ne leges quidem proprie, sed plebisscita appellantur quae tribunis plebis ferentibus accepta accept sunt, quibus rogationibus ante patricii non tenebantur, donec Q. Hortensius dictator legem tulit, ut eo iure quod plebs statuisset omnes Quirites tenerentur.

[5] Item n eodem libro hoc scriptum est: Cum ex generibus hominum suffragium feratur, curiata comitia esse, cum ex censu et aetate centuriata, cum ex regionibus et locis, tributa; centuriata autem comitia intra pomerium fieri nefas esse, quia exercitum extra urbem imperari oporteat, intra urbem imperari ius non sit. Propterea centuriata in campo Martio haberi exercitumque imperari praesidii causa solitum, quoniam populus esset in suffragiis ferendis occupatus.

XXVIII

Argument

Quod erravit Cornelius Nepos, cum scripsit Ciceronem tres et viginti annos natum causam pro Sexto Roscio dixisse.

[1] CORNELIUS NEPOS et rerum memoriae non indiligens et M. Ciceronis ut qui maxime amicus familiaris fuit.

[2] Atque is tamen, in primo librorum quos de vita illius composuit, errasse videtur, cum eum scripsit tres et viginti annos natum primum causam iudicii publici egisse Sextumque Roscium parricidii reum defendisse.

[3] Dinumeratis quippe annis a Q. Caepione et Q. Serrano, quibus consulibus ante diem tertium Nonas Ianuar. M. Cicero natus est, ad M. Tullium et Cn. Dolabellam quibus consulibus causam privatam Pro Quinctio apud Aquilium Gallum iudicem dixit, sex et viginti anni reperiuntur. Neque dubium est quin post annum quam Pro Quinctio dixerat, Sex. Roscium reum parricidii defenderit, annos iam septem atque viginti natus, L. Sulla Felice II. Q. Metello Pio consulibus.

[4] In qua re etiam Fenestellam errasse Pedianus Asconius animadvertit, quod eum scripserit sexto vicesimo aetatis anno pro Sex. Roscio dixisse.

[5] Longior autem Nepotis quam Fenestellae error est, nisi quis vult in animum inducere Nepotem, studio amoris et amicitiae adductum, amplificandae admirationis gratia quadriennium suppressisse, ut M. Cicero orationem florentissimam dixisse Pro Roscio admodum adulescens videretur.

[6] Illud adeo ab utriusque oratoris studiosis animadversum et scriptum est, quod Demosthenes et Cicero pari aetate inlustrissimas primas ³⁴ orationes in causis ³⁵ dixerunt, alter Κατὰ Ἀνδροτίωνος et Κατὰ Τιμοκράτους septem et viginti annos natus, alter anno minor Pro P. Quinctio septimoque et vicesimo Pro Sex. Roscio.

[7] Vixerunt quoque non nimis numerum nunerum annorum diversum; alter tres et sexaginta annos, Demosthenes sexaginta.

XXIX

Argument

Quali figura orationis et quam nova L. Piso annalium scriptor usus sit.

[1] DUAE istae in loquendo figurae notae satis usitataeque sunt: mihi nomen est Iulius et mihi nomen est Iulio;

[2] tertiam figuram novam hercle repperi apud Pisonem in secundo Annalium. Verba Pisonis haec sunt: L. Tarquinium, collegam suum quia Tarquinio nomine esset, metuere; eumque orat uti sua voluntate Roma concedat. Quia Tarquinio, inquit, nomine esset; hoc proinde est, tamquam si ego dicam: mihi nomen est Iulium.

XXX

Argument

Vehiculum quod petorritum appellatur, cuiatis linguae vocabulum sit, Graecae an Gallicae.

[1] Qui ab alio genere vitae detriti iam et retorridi ad litterarum disciplinas serius adeunt, si forte idem sunt garruli natura et subargutuli, oppido quam fiunt in litterarum ostentatione inepti et frivoli.

[2] Quod genus profecto ille homo est, qui de petorritis nuper argutissimas nugas dixit.

[3] Nam cum quaereretur, petorritum quali forma vehiculum cuiatisque linguae vocabulum esset, et faciem vehiculi ementitus est longe alienam falsamque et vocabulum Graecum ³⁶ esse dixit atque adsignificare volucres rotas interpretatus est, commutataque una littera petorritum esse dictum volebat quasi petorrotum;

[4] scriptum etiam hoc esse a Valerio Probo contendit.

[5] Ego, cum Probi multos admodum Commentationum libros adquisierim, neque scriptum in his inveni nec usquam alioqui Probum scripsisse credo; petorritum enim est non ex Graecia dimidiatum,

[6] sed totum Transalpibus; ³⁷ nam est vox Gallica.

[7] Id scriptum est in libro M. Varronis quarto decimo Rerum Divinarum, quo in loco Varro, cum de petorrito dixisset, esse id verbum Gallicum, lanceam quoque dixit non Latinum, set Hispanicum verbum esse.

XXXI

Argument

Quae verba legaverint Rodii ad hostium ducem Demetrium, cum ab eo obsiderentur, super illa incluta Ialysi imagine.

[1] RODUM insulam celebritatis antiquissimae oppidumque in ea pulcherrimum ornatissimumque obsidebat obpugnabatque Demetrius, dux aetatis suae inclutus, cui a peritia disciplinaque faciendi obsidii machinarumque sollertia ad capienda oppida repertarum cognomentum Πολιορκητής fuit.

[2] Tum ibi in obsidione aedes quasdam publice factas, quae extra urbis muros cum parvo praesidio erant, adgredi et vastare atque absumere igni parabat.

[3] In eis aedibus erat memoratissima illa imago Ialysi, Protogenis manu facta, inlustris pictoris, cuius operis pulchritudinem praestantiamque ira percitus Rodiis invidebat.

[4] Mittunt Rodii ad Demetrium legatos cum his verbis: Quae, malum, inquiunt, ratiost ut tu imaginem istam velis incendio aedium facto disperdere? Nam si nos omnes superaveris et oppidum hoc totum ceperis, imagine quoque illa integra et incolumi per victoriam potieris; sin vero nos vincere obsidendo nequiveris, petimus consideres ne turpe tibi sit, quia non potueris bello Rodios vincere, bellum cum Protogene mortuo gessisse.

[5] Hoc ubi ex legatis audivit, obpugnatione desita et imagini et civitati pepercit.

Notes on the current edition

Attic Nights

1. That is, Quintus Claudius Quadrigarius; see § 4.

2. Frag. 81, Peter 2.

3. 9, p. 637, A; 14, p. 647, E.

4. 9, p. 666, A; 12, p. 671, B.

5. That is, in the moderate use of wine, explained by adversum . . . violentiam.

6. Au is probably a different preposition from ab; see Archiv. f. lat. Lex. u. Gr., x, p. 480, and xiii, pp. 7 f.

7. § 158.

8. Frag. 51, Swoboda.

9. The derivation of autumo is uncertain; some take the original meaning to be

divining

and connect it with avis; see T.L.L. s.v. Walde rejects that derivation in favour of the one from autem; cf. Fay, Class. Quart. i. (1907) p. 25. Here the original meaning is assumed to be

repeat, assert,

and in fact autumo and itero are sometimes synonymous. The development of the meanings of autuino was doubtless influenced by aestumo, which has the same suffix.

10. See note 1, p. 66; it is not

taken from the Greeks.

11. Iliad i. 459.

12. Iliad xiii. 41

13. Or, in silence, noiseless; see L. and S. s.v.

14. 90–89 B.C. War was waged by the Italian allies against Rome. After a bitter contest, in which 300,000 men are said to have perished, the Romans were victorious, but by the lex Plautia Papiria granted nearly all the demands of the allies, including the franchise.

15. Aesculum was the capital of the Picenates, one of the seven peoples who made up the allies.

16. 43 B.C.

17. p. 331, 7, Bährens; cf. Virg. Catal. x., believed by some to refer to Ventidius Bassus, but probably wrongly. See Virgil, L.C.L., ii., p. 499, n. 2.

18. Frag. 210, Reiff.

19. 39 and 38 B.C.

20. § 19.

21. § 9.

22. Frag. 21, p. 978, Orelli 2.

23. II., frag. 1, p. 989, Orelli 2.

24. Iliad vii. 89.

25. Gaius and Lucius Caesar were sons of Agrippa and Julia, and grandsons of Augustus (see Gaium nepotem, § 3).

26. Cf. iii. 10. 9.

27. p. 155, 18, Wichert.

28. Sept. 23.

29. A term of affection. The asellus is an attractive little beast, whatever the reputation of the asinus. The ocellus of Beroaldus and Damsté's autclus ( =avicellus,

birdlet

; the usual form is avicula, as in ii. 29. 2) are needless changes, particularly in view of Augustus' humorous tendencies; Weiss cites vi. 16. 5, where asellus has a different, but hardly more complimentary, meaning.

30. The plural refers to Gaius and his brother Lucius; see note.

31. The sense of the lacuna seems to be given in the chapter heading.

32. O.R.F., p. 207, Meyer 2.

33. The reference is probably to the lectisternium, when the images of the gods were placed upon couches and food was set before them by the vii viri epulones.

34. ii. 79, Ribbeck 3.

35. On analogy see ii. 25.

36. Frag. 99, Peter 2.

37. Frag. 100, Peter 2.

38. Nouns of the third declension ending in s preceded By a consonant are regularly feminine. The four exceptions are mons, fons, dens, and pons; frons is usually feminine.

39. vii. p. 20, Bern.

40. 161 B.C.

41. Fontes Iuris Rom., p. 157; cf. Suetonius, De Rhet. 1 (ii. p. 434, L.C.L.).

42. 92 B.C.

43. F.I.R., p. 215; Suetonius ii, p. 434 f. L.C.L.

44. A.D. 89.

45. The celebrated tribune of 123 and 122 B.C. He was famous as an orator; cf. i. 11. 10 ff.

46. O.R.F., p. 231, Meyer 2.

47. One is reminded of the story of the politician who declared that he had never received a penny in bribes, but that it was as well to say nothing about thousand dollar bills.

48. ii. 33, Ribbeck 3.

49. v. 43, Ribbeck 3.

50. Frag. 101, Peter 2.

51. § 87 and § 53

52. Hist. i. 49, Maur.

53. That is, without having a particular person or thing as its subject.

54. § 39.

55. i.e. who did not scruple.

56. Aen. iii. 475.

57. Aen. iii. 460.

58. iii. 1.

59. viii. 22.

60. That is, in a symbolic sale, when the purchaser touched a balance with a coin. See note on v. 19. 3 (vol. i., p. 436).

61. O.R.F., p. 276, Mever 2.

62. v. 92, Ribbeck 3.

63. v. 197, Ribbeck 3.

64. The flame-coloured (yellow) bridal veil.

65. 359 Cf. iv. 17. 8; a became e before two consonants, i before a single one, except r.

66. The same story is told by Strabo, vi. 1. 12 (iii, p. 45, L.C.L.).

67. 32 B.C.

68. F.H.G. iii. 521. 9.

69. Cf. Plutarch, Caesar, 47.

70. Fr. 404, Bücheler.

71. F.H. G. i. 294.

72. He was too old for the boys' races.

73. Athletic games in connection with the Eleusinian mysteries.

74. A festival held at Athens in the autumn in the month Pyanepsion, in honour of Theseus.

75. F.H. G. i. 412.

76. These words are probably not part of the quotation.

77. 453 ff.

78. Anal. Alex. p. 247, Meineke.

79. He died in 406 B.C.; according to another version of the story it was a band of women who tore him to pieces. Both tales are of doubtful authenticity; the one told by Gellius appears also in Athenaeus xiii. 597, but is denied in verses preserved in Suidas, s.v. u(pai/meke.

80. In 413 B.C.

81. F.H.G. iii. 521. 7; cf. xv. 17. 3, above.

82. Frag. 1, Bährens.

83. The principle on which the ranking was done is a disputed question—the amount of originality, that of pa/qos, and personal feeling have been suggested. Vulcacius lived about 130 B.C. He is cited by Suetonius, v. Ter. ii, iv, v ( L.C.L. ii, pp. 456, 458, 462).

84. Frag. 9, Bährens.

85. Frag. 10, Bährens.

86. Topic. i. 1, p. 100. 25.

87. Frag. I ff., i. p. 70, Bremer.

88. Frag. 22, Huschke; inc. 187, Bremer.

89. That is, the rex sacrorum; see note on x. 15. 21.

90. See Mommsen, Staatsr. iii, p. 307, n. 2.

91. See note on xv. 13. 11.

92. In 287 B.C.

93. The comitia curiata were organized on the basis of the thirty curiae of the three original Roman tribes. These curiae included the patrician gentes, which, before the time of the military assembly ( comitia centuriata) attributed to Servius Tullius, alone had the full rights of citizenship.

94. Frag. 1, Peter 2.

95. January 3, 106 B.C.

96. p. xv, Kiessling and Schöll.

97. Frag. 17, Peter 2.

98. In 322 B.C.

99. Frag. 19, Peter 2.

100. Cf. Livy, ii. 2. 3.

101. Making a hybrid word, from pe/tomai,

fly,

and rota. See crit. note 1.

102. Frag. 108, Agahd.

103. Gellius is right; petorrita, like several other words connected with horses and carriages, is borrowed from the Gallic. In Celtic, as also in Oscan and Umbrian, Latin qu is represented by p; hence petor or petora = quattuor.

104. Grandson of Helios, the Sungod, and brother of Lindus and Cameirus, with whom he possessed the island of Rhodes. The city of Ialysus on that island was named from him as its founder.

105. A famous painter of Caunus in Caria, a contemporary of Apelles, flourished about 332 B.C. See Pliny, N. H. xxxv. 101 ff.