14. 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: “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:Yet I the customs-fee exacted am.That is to say, “yet the customs-fee is exacted from me.”
14. Quod Metellus Numidicus figuram orationis novam ex orationibus Graecis mutuatus est. APUT Q. Metellum Numidicum in libro accusationis In Valerium Messalam tertio nove dictum esse adnotavimus. 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.” “Sese pecunias,” inquit, “maximas exactos esse” pro eo quod est: “pecunias a se esse maximas exactas.” 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, Caeciliusque eadem figura in Hypobolimaeo Aeschino usus videtur:Ego illúd minus nihilo éxigor portórium,id est “nihilominus exigitur de me portorium.”
15. 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:That yesterday he'd looked in from the roof,Had this announced, and straight the veil 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: Methinks you thus must die without the gate, When you shall hold the cross with hands outstretched (dispessis).
15. “Passis velis” et “passis manibus” dixisse veteres non a verbo suo, quod est “patior,” sed ab alieno, quod est “pando.” AB eo quod est “pando” “passum” veteres dixerunt, non “pansum,” et cum “ex” praepositione “expassum,” non “expansum.” Caecilius in Synaristosis: Heri vero prospexisse eum se ex tégulis, Haec nuntiasseniintiasse et flámmeum expassúm domi “Capillo” quoque esse mulier “passo” dicitur, quasi porrecto et expanso, et “passis manibus” et “velis passis” dicimus, quod significat diductis atque distentis. 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 extra pórtam,Dispéssis manibus pátibulum cum habébis.
16. Of the singular death of Milo of Croton. MILO of Croton, a famous athlete, who was first crowned at the sixty-second Olympiad, 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.
16. De novo genere interitus Crotoniensis Milonis. MILO Crotoniensis, athleta inlustris, quem in chronicis scriptum est Olympiade LXII primum coronatum esse, exitum habuit e vita miserandum et mirandum. 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. 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 discidit divellitque; 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.
17. 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.
17. Quam ob causam nobiles pueri Atheniensium tibiis canere desierint, cum patrium istum morem canendi haberent. 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. Ea res cum percrebuisset, omnium tum Atheniensium consensu disciplina tibiis canendi desita est. Scriptum hoc in Commentario Pamphilae nono et vicesimo.
18. 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.
18. Quod pugnapogna belli civilis victoriaque Gai Caesaris, quam vicit in Pharsaliis campis, nuntiata praedictaque est per cuiuspiam sacerdotis vaticinium eodem ipso die in Italia Patavi. Quo C. Caesar et Cn. Pompeius die per civile bellum signis conlatis in Thessalia conflixerunt, res accidit Patavi in transpadana Italia memorari digna. 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. 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.
19. 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: “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.”
19. Verba M. Varronis memoria digna ex Satura, quae inscribitur Περὶ Ἐδεσμάτων. NON paucissimi sunt in quos potest convenire id quod M. Varro dicit in Satura quae inscribitur Περὶ Ἐδεσμάτων. 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.”
20. Certain facts about the birth, life and character of the poet Euripides, and about the end of his life. THEOPOMPUS says 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, but afterwards he engaged in the Eleusinian and Thesean 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 that there is on the island of Salamis a grim and gloomy cavern, 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:Now then I urge and call on all our sexThis 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:The pupil of stout Anaxagoras,Of churlish speech and gloomy, ne'er has learnedTo jest amid the wine; but what he wroteMight 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. 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.
20. Notata quaedam de Euripidis poetae genere, vita, moribus deque eiusdem fine vitae. EURIPIDI poetae matrem Theopompus agrestia olera vendentem victum quaesisse dicit. Patri autem eius nato illo responsum est a Chaldaeis eum puerum, cum adolevisset, victorem in certaminibus fore; id ei puero fatum esse. 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. 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. Philochorus refert in insula Salamine speluncam esse taetram et horridam, quam nos vidimus, in qua Euripides tragoedias scriptitarit. 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. 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 τοῖς λαχάνοις αὐτὸς τραφείς. 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. 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. Sepulchrum autem eius et memoriam Macedones eo dignati sunt honore, ut in gloriae quoque loco praedicarent: οὔποτʼ ἂν 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.
21. 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.
21. Quod a poetis Iovis filii prudentissimi humanissimique, Neptuni autem ferocissimi et inhumanissimi traduntur. PRAESTANTISSIMOS virtute, prudentia, viribus 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.
22. 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.
22. Historia de Sertorio, egregio duce, deque astu eius commenticiisque simulamentis quibus ad barbaros milites continendos conciliandosque sibi utebatur. SERTORIUS, vir acer egregiusque dux, et utendi regendique exercitus peritus fuit. 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: Cerva alba eximiae pulchritudinis et vivacissimae celeritatis a Lusitano ei quodam dono data est. 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 monitumnonitum praedicabat. Id cum dixerat, universi, tamquam si deo, libentes parebant. Ea cerva quodam die, cum incursio esset hostium nuntiata, festinatione ac tumultu consternata in fugam se prorupitproruptit atque in palude proxima delituit et frustra requisita perisse credita est. Neque multis diebus post inventam esse cervam Sertorio nuntiatur. 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; 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. 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.
23. 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, Herodotus fifty-three, Thucydides forty. This is stated in the eleventh book of Pamphila.
23. De aetatibus historicorum nobilium, Hellanici, Herodoti, Thucydidis. HELLANICUS, Herodotus, Thucydides, historiae scriptores, in isdem fere temporibus laude ingenti floruerunt et non nimis longe distantibus fuerunt aetatibus. 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.
24. 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 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.
24. Quid Vulcacius Sedigitus, in libro quem De Poetis scripsit, de comicis Latinis iudicarit. 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 ÉEnniumnnium.
25. 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: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:And therefore it is fit to sweeten (edulcare) life,And bitter cares with wisdom to control.
25. De verbis quibusdam novis, quae in Gnaei Mati Mimiambis offenderamus. CN. MATIUS, vir eruditus, in mimiambisMimianibis 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 recentaturCommune lumen hominibus voluptatis. Idem Matius in isdem Mimiambis edulcare dicit, quod est “dulcius reddere,” in his versibus:Quapropter edulcare convenit vitamCurasque acerbas sensibus gubernare.
26. 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: “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.”
26. Quibus verbis Aristoteles philosophus definierit syllogismum; eiusque definitionis interpretamentum verbis Latinis factum. ARISTOTELES, quid “syllogismus” esset, his versibus definivit: Λόγος, ἐν τεθέντων τινῶν, ἕτερόν τι τῶν κειμένων ἐξ ἀνάγκης συμβαίνει διὰ τῶν κειμένων. 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.”
27. 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 that Labeo wrote that the comitia calata, or “convoked assembly,” was held on behalf of the college of pontiffs for the purpose of installing the king 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, 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. 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.” It is also written in the same book: “When voting is done according to families of men, 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.”
27. Quid sint “comitia calata,” quid “curiata,” quid “centuriata,” quid “tributatributea,” quid “concilium”; atque inibi quaedam eiusdemmodi. 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. Eorum autem alia esse “curiata,” alia “centuriata”; “curiata” per lictorem curiatum “calari,” id est “convocari,” “centuriata” per cornicinem. 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. In eodem Laeli Felicis libro haec scripta sunt: “Is qui non 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 acceptaaccept sunt, quibus rogationibus ante patricii non tenebantur, donec Q. Hortensius dictator legem tulit, ut eo iure quod plebs statuisset omnes Quirites tenerentur.” 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.”
28. 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 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, 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 that Fenestella also made a mistake in regard to this matter, in writing 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.
28. Quod erravit Cornelius Nepos, cum scripsit Ciceronem tres et viginti annos natum causam pro Sexto Roscio dixisse. CORNELIUS NEPOS et rerum memoriae non indiligens et M. Ciceronis ut qui maxime amicus familiaris fuit. 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. 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. In qua re etiam Fenestellam errasse Pedianus Asconius animadvertit, quod eum scripserit sexto vicesimo aetatis anno pro Sex. Roscio dixisse. 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. Illud adeo ab utriusque oratoris studiosis animadversum et scriptum est, quod Demosthenes et Cicero pari aetate inlustrissimas primas orationes in causis dixerunt, alter Κατὰ Ἀνδροτίωνος et Κατὰ Τιμοκράτους septem et viginti annos natus, alter anno minor Pro P. Quinctio septimoque et vicesimo Pro Sex. Roscio. Vixerunt quoque non nimis numerumnunerum annorum diversum; alter tres et sexaginta annos, Demosthenes sexaginta.
29. 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: “They feared his colleague, Lucius Tarquinius, because he had the Tarquinian name; and he begged him to leave Rome of his own free will.” “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.”
29. Quali figura orationis et quam nova L. Piso annalium scriptor usus sit. DUAE istae in loquendo figurae notae satis usitataeque sunt: “mihi nomen est Iulius” et “mihi nomen est Iulio”; 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.”
30. 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,” 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 that it is a Gallic term. He also says that lancea, or “lance,” is not a Latin, but a Spanish word.
30. Vehiculum quod “petorritum” appellatur, cuiatis linguae vocabulum sit, Graecae an Gallicae. 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. Quod genus profecto ille homo est, qui de “petorritis” nuper argutissimas nugas dixit. Nam cum quaereretur, “petorritum” quali forma vehiculum cuiatisque linguae vocabulum esset, et faciem vehiculi ementitus est longe alienam falsamque et vocabulum Graecum esse dixit atque adsignificare volucres rotas interpretatus est, commutataque una littera “petorritum” esse dictum volebat quasi “petorrotum”; scriptum etiam hoc esse a Valerio Probo contendit. 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, sed totum Transalpibus; nam est vox Gallica. 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.
31. 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, the work of Protogenes, 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.
31. Quae verba legaverint Rodii ad hostium ducem Demetrium, cum ab eo obsiderentur, super illa incluta Ialysi imagine. 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. Tum ibi in obsidione aedes quasdam publice factas, quae extra urbis muros cum parvo praesidio erant, adgredi et vastare atque absumere igni parabat. In eis aedibus erat memoratissima illa imago Ialysi, Protogenis manu facta, inlustris pictoris, cuius operis pulchritudinem praestantiamque ira percitus Rodiis invidebat. 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.” Hoc ubi ex legatis audivit, obpugnatione desita et imagini et civitati pepercit.