1. 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 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: “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.”
1. Quod in Quinti Claudii Annalibus scriptum est lignum alumine oblitum non ardere. 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. 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. 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.” Atque illi Iulianuslulianus 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.” Percontatus ego sum quid esset illud mirum Quadrigarii. 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.” Verba Quadrigarii ex eo libro haec sunt: “Cum Sulla conatus esset tempore 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, reduxit copias.”
2. 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 and second 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 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.
2. Quod Plato in libris quos De Legibus composuit largiores laetioresque in conviviis invitatiunculas vini non inutiles esse existimavit. Ex insula Creta quispiam aetatem Athenis agens Platonicum sese philosophum dicebat et viderier gestibat. Erat autem nihili homo et nugator atque in Graecae facundiae gloria iactabundus et praeterea vini libidine adusque ludibria ebriosus. 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. 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. Nam et modicis honestisque inter bibendum remissionibus refici integrarique animos ad instauranda sobrietatis officia existumavit reddique eos sensimsensrm 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. 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. 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. 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.
3. 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, 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: “This preposition,” he says, “will be found in no other verb save these two only.” But I have found in the Commentary of Nigidius 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. 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. As in that verse of Homer:First bent them back (au)e/rusan), then slew and flayed the beasts;and:Loud-shouting (au)i/axoi), noisy.
3. 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. LEGIMUS librum M. Ciceronis qui inscriptus est Orator. 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”— cum haec, inquam, ita dixisset, tum postea ibidemilbidem super eadem particula ita scripsit: “Haec,” intuit, “praepositio praeter haec duo verba nullo alio in verbo reperietur.” Invenimus autem in conmentarioConmenctario Nigidiano, verbum “autumoautum” compositumcominositum ex “ab” praepositionepraelositione et verbo “aestumo” dictunque intercise “autumo” quasi “abaestumo,” quod significaret “totum aestumo,” tamquam “abnumeroabumero.” Sed, quod sit cum honore multo dictum P. Nigidii, hominis eruditissimi, audacius hoc argutiusque esse videtur quam verius. “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. Praeterea vir acerrimae in studio litterarum diligentiae M. Tullius non sola esse haec duo verba dixisset, si reperiri posset ullum tertium. 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.
4. 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, in the course of which Strabo subdued the Aesculani. 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. 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 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 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; that he was the first of all to celebrate a triumph over the Parthians, and was honoured when he died with a public funeral.
4. Historia de Ventidio Basso, ignobili homine, quem primum de Parthis triumphasse memoriae traditum est. IN sermonibus nuper fuit seniorum hominum et eruditorum, multos in vetere memoria altissimum dignitatis gradum ascendisse ignobilissimos prius homines et despicatissimos. Nihil adeo de quoquam tantae admirationi fuit, quantae fuerunt quae de Ventidio Basso scripta sunt: 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 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 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. 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.
5. 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 profligatumprofigatum, but adfectum, as for example Marcus Cicero, in the speech which he delivered About the Consular Provinces. His words are as follows: “We see the war nearing its end (adfectum) and, to tell the truth, all but finished.” Also further on: “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: “When indeed, as summer is already well nigh ended (adfecta), it is time for the grapes to ripen in the sun.”
5. Verbum “profligo” a plerisque dici inproprie insciteque. 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. 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 “proflictasproflictaset” “perditas” appellarent, nunc audio aedificia et templa et alia fere multa quae prope absoluta adfectaque sunt “in nrofligato” esse dici ipsaque esse iam “profligata.” Quapropter urbanissime respondisse praetorem, non indoctum virum, barunculo cuidam ex advocatorum turba, Sulpicius Apollinaris in quadam epistula scriptum reliquit. “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.’” Quod significare autem volunt qui “profligatumprofigatum” dicunt, hi qui Latine locuti sunt non “profligatum,” sed “adfectum” dixerunt, sicuti M. Cicero in oratione, quam habuit De Provinciis Consularibus. Eius verba haec sunt: “Bellum adfectum videmus et, vere ut dicam, paene confectum.” Item infra: “Nam ipse Caesar quid est quod in ea provincia commorari velit, nisi ut ea quae per eum adfecta sunt, perfecta reipublicae tradat?” Idem Cicero in Oeconomico: “Cum vero adfecta iam prope aestate uvas a sole mitescere tempus est.”
6. 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: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: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.
6. In libro M. Ciceronis De Gloria secundo manifestum erratum, in ea parte in qua scriptum est super Hectore et Aiace. 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. 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. 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.” 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.
7. 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. 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.” 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:The ninth day before the Kalends of October. “Greeting, my dear Gaius, my dearest little donkey, 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 are playing the man and preparing to succeed to my position.”
7. 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. 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. Propterea, qui rerum verborumque istiusmodi studio tenentur eum aetatis annum appellant κλιμακτηρικόν. 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.”
8. 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... 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: “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?”
8. Locus ex oratione Favoni, veteris oratoris, de cenarum atque luxuriae obprobratione, qua usus est cum legem Liciniam de sumptu minuendo suasit. CUM legeremus orationem veterem Favoni, non indiserti viri, qua oratione … totum, ut meminisse possemus odio esse hercle istiusmodi sumptus atque victus, perdidicimus. 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 saturi fiant, convivium putant inopia sordere, superiorem partem avium atque altilium qui edint, eos palatum parum delicatum habere. Si proportione pergit luxuria crescere, quid relinquitur, nisi ut delibari sibi cenas iubeant, ne edendo defetigentur, quando stratus lectuls auro, argento, purpura amplior aliquot hominibus quam dis inmortalibus adornatur?”
9. 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: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 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: '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 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.” 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.
9. Quod Caecilius poeta “frontem” genere virili non poetice, sed cum probatione et cum analogia appellavit. 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. Hos ego versus, cum de quodam istiusmodi homine sermones essent, in circulo forte iuvenum eruditiorum dixi. Tum de grammaticorumgranlnaticorum 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!” “Immo,” inquam, “potius nos et quam audaces et quam licentes sumus, qui ‘frontemfiontem’ inprobe indocteque non virili genere dicimus, cum et ratio proportionis, quae ‘analogia’ appellatur, et veterum auctoritates non ‘hanc,’ sed ‘hunc frontem’ debere dici suadeant. Quippe M. Cato in primo Originum ita scripsit:” “‘Postridie signis conlatis, aequo fronte, peditatu, equitibus atque alis cum hostium legionibus pugnavimus.’ ‘Recto’ quoque ‘fronte’ idem Cato in libro eodem dicit.” At ille semidoctus grammaticus: “Missas,” inquit, “auctoritates facias, quas quidem ut habeas posse fieri puto, sed rationem dic, quam non habes.” 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.” “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.’” At ille contra renidens: “Audi,” inquit, “discipule, plura alia consimilia, quae non sint generis masculini.” Petebant ibi omnes ut vel unum statim diceret. Sed cum homo voltum intorqueret et non hisceret et colores mutaretmnutaret, tum ego intercessi et “Vade,” inquam, “nunc et habeto ad requirendum triginta dies; postquam inveneris, repetes nos.” Atque ita hominem nulli rei ad indagandum vocabulum, quo rescinderet finitionem fictam, dimisimus.
10. About the strange suicides of the maids of Miletus. PLUTARCH in the first book of his work On the Soul, 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.
10. De voluntario et admirando interitu virginum Milesiarum. PLUTARCHUS in librorum quos Περὶ Ψυχῆς inscripsit primo, cum de morbis dissereret in animos hominum incidentibus, virgines 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. 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.
11. 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 the following decree of the senate was passed regarding Latin speaking philosophers and rhetoricians: “(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 after that decree of the senate Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus and Lucius Licinius Crassus the censors issued the following edict for restraining the Latin rhetoricians: “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 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.
11. Verba senatusconsulti de exigendis urbe Roma philosophis; item verba edicti censorum, quo inprobati et coerciti sunt qui disciplinam rhetoricamrhetorical instituere et exercere Romae coeperant. C. FANNIO STRABONE, M. Valerio Messala coss. senatusconsultum de philosophis et de rhetoribus Latinis factum est: “M. Pomponius praetor senatum consuluit. Quod verba facta sunt de philosophisphilosophies et de rhetoribus, de ea re ita censuerunt, ut M. Pomponius praetor animadverteret curaretque, uti ei e republica fideque sua videretur, uti Romae ne essent.” Aliquot deinde annis post id senatusconsultum Cn. Domitius Ahenobarbus et L. Licinius Crassus censores de coercendiscoereendis 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.” Neque illis solum temporibus, nimis rudibus necdum Graeca disciplina expolitis, philosophi ex urbe Roma pulsi sunt, verum etiam Domitiano imperante senatusconsulto eiecti atque urbe et Italia interdicti sunt. Qua tempestate Epictetus quoque philosophus propter id senatusconsultum Nicopolim Roma decessit.
12. A highly memorable passage from a speech of Gracchus, regarding his frugality and continence. WHEN Gaius Gracchus returned from Sardinia, he delivered a speech to an assembly of the people in the following words: “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, 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.”
12. Locus ex oratione Gracchi de parsimonia ac de pudicitia sua memoratissimus. C. GRACCHUS cum ex Sardinia rediit, orationem ad populum in contione habuit. 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.” 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.” 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.”
13. 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: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: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: “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, so that testor and interpreter ought also to be considered to be “common” verbs. Sallust too in a similar way says: “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, not only by the earlier writers, but also by Marcus Tullius in the second book of his De Finibus. “First (I will refute),” says he, “the view of Aristippus and of all the Cyrenaic philosophers, to whom it caused no fear (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:Of wedlock high with Venus worthy deemed (dignale),andRevered 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: “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: “Whoever shall allow himself to be summoned as a witness or shall act as a balance-holder, if he does not give his testimony, let him be regarded as dishonoured and incapable of giving testimony in the future.”
13. De verbis inopinatis, quae utroque versum dicuntur et a grammaticis “communia” vocantur. “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”; “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. Sunt autem verba haec omnia ex altera parte inusitata, et an dicta sint in eam quoque partem quaeri solet. 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. 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.” M. Cato in quinta Origine: “Exercitum,” inquit, “suum pransum, paratum, cohortatum eduxit foras atque instruxit.” “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.” “Testata” itidem et “interpretata” eadem ratione dixit M. Tullius in primo libro De Divinatione, ut “testor” “interpretor”que verba communia videri debeant. Sallustius quoque eodem modo: “dilargitis proscriptorum bonis” dicit, tamquam verbum “largior” sit ex verbis communibus. “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.” “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. “Confessi” autem “aeris,” de quo facta confession est, in XII. Tabulis scriptum est his verbis: “Aeris confessi rebusque iure 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.”