Gellius: NOCTES ATTICAE

I. ... iucundiora alia reperiri queunt, ad hoc ut liberis quoque meis partae istiusmodi remissiones essent, quando animus eorum interstitione aliqua negotiorum data laxari indulgerique potuisset.

1. ... other more pleasant things can be found, to this end that there might also be for my children remissions of this kind procured, when, some interstice of business being granted, their spirit could be relaxed and indulged.

II. Vsi autem sumus ordine rerum fortuito, quem antea in excerpendo feceramus. Nam proinde ut librum quemque in manus ceperam seu Graecum seu Latinum vel quid memoratu dignum audieram, ita quae libitum erat, cuius generis cumque erant, indistincte atque promisce annotabam eaque mihi ad subsidium memoriae quasi quoddam litterarum penus recondebam, ut, quando usus venisset aut rei aut verbi, cuius me repens forte oblivio tenuisset, et libri, ex quibus ea sumpseram, non adessent, facile inde nobis inventu atque depromptu foret.

2. We have, moreover, employed a fortuitous order of things which earlier, in excerpting, we had made. For just as whenever I had taken any book into my hands, whether Greek or Latin, or had heard something worthy of remembrance, so I noted down, indiscriminately and promiscuously, whatever it pleased me, of whatever kind they were, and I stored them away for myself, as a kind of storehouse of letters, as an aid to memory, so that, whenever there should come the need either of a matter or of a word, of which a sudden oblivion had perhaps seized me, and the books from which I had taken those things were not at hand, it would be easy for us to find and draw them out from there.

III. Facta igitur est in his quoque commentari is eadem rerum disparilitas, quae fuit in illis annotationibus pristinis, quas breviter et indigeste et incondite ex auditionibus lectionibusque variis feceramus.

3. Therefore, in these commentaries too there arose the same disparity of things as there was in those former annotations, which we had made briefly and indigested and incondite from various hearings and readings.

IV. Sed quoniam longinquis per hiemem noctibus in agro, sicuti dixi, terrae Atticae commentationes hasce ludere ac facere exorsi sumus, idcirco eas inscripsimus noctium esse Atticarum nihil imitati festivitates inscriptionum, quas plerique alii utriusque linguae scriptores in id genus libris fecerunt.

4. But since during the long nights of winter in the countryside, just as I said, in the land of Attica we set about to play at and to make these commentaries, therefore we have entitled them Attic Nights, imitating nothing of the festivitates of inscriptions (titles) which very many other writers of both languages have made in books of that kind.

V. Nam quia variam et miscellam et quasi confusaneam doctrinam conquisiverant, eo titulos quoque ad eam sententiam exquisitissimos indiderunt.

5. For since they had collected a varied and miscellaneous and, as it were, confusanean doctrine, on that account they also inserted most exquisitely chosen titles to that purport.

VI. Namque alii Musarum inscripserunt, alii silvarum, ille peplon, alius Amaltheias keras, alius keria, partim leimonas, quidam lectionis suae, alius antiquarum lectionum atque alius antheron et item alius heurematon.

6. For some inscribed 'of the Muses', others 'of woods', that one 'peplos', another 'Amalthea’s horn', another 'wax-tablets', partly 'meadows', a certain one 'of his own reading', another 'of ancient readings' and another 'flowers' and likewise another 'discoveries'.

VII. Sunt etiam, qui lychnous inscripserint, sunt item, qui stromateis, sunt adeo, qui pandektas et Helikona et problemata et encheiridia et paraxiphidas.

7. There are also those who have entitled lychnous, likewise those who stromateis, indeed there are those who pandektas and Helikona and problemata and encheiridia and paraxiphidas.

VIII. Est qui memoriales titulum fecerit, est qui pragmatika et parerga et didaskalika, est item qui historiae naturalis, est qui pantodapes historias, est praeterea qui pratum, est itidem qui pankarpon est, qui topon scripserit;

8. There is one who has made the title Memorials, there is one who (has made) Pragmatics and Parerga and Didactics, there is likewise one who (has made a) Natural History, there is one who (has made) Pantodapes Histories, there is moreover one who (has made) a Meadow, there is likewise one who (has made the) Pancarpon, one who has written a Topon;

IX. sunt item multi, qui coniectanea, neque item non sunt, qui indices libris suis fecerint aut epistularum moralium aut epistolicarum quaestionum aut confusarum et quaedam alia inscripta nimis lepida multasque prorsum concinnitates redolentia.

9. there are likewise many who have Conjectanea; nor, likewise, are there not those who have made indices for their books—of Moral Letters, or of Epistolical Questions, or of Miscellanies—and certain other titles excessively lepid, positively redolent of many concinnities.

X. Nos vero, ut captus noster est, incuriose et inmeditate ac prope etiam subrustice ex ipso loco ac tempore hibernarum vigiliarum Atticas noctes inscripsimus tantum ceteris omnibus in ipsius quoque inscriptionis laude cedentes, quantum cessimus in cura et elegantia scriptionis.

10. We indeed, to the measure of our capacity, carelessly and unpremeditatedly and almost even subrustically, from the very place and time of the winter night-watches, have inscribed Attic Nights, yielding to all others, even in the praise of the very title itself, just as much as we have yielded in the care and elegance of writing.

XI. Sed ne consilium quidem in excerpendis notandisque rebus idem mihi, quod plerisque illis, fuit. Namque illi omnes et eorum maxime Graeci multa et varia lectitantes, in quas res cumque inciderant, "alba" ut dicitur "linea" sine cura discriminis solam copiam sectati converrebant, quibus in legendis ante animus senio ac taedio languebit, quam unum alterumve reppererit, quod sit aut voluptati legere aut cultui legisse aut usui meminisse.

XI. But not even the plan for excerpting and noting matters was the same for me as for most of those men. For they all, and the Greeks among them especially, reading much and variously, into whatever things they chanced to fall, with a "white" as they say "line," without care for discrimination, pursuing mere copiousness, swept things together; in reading which the mind will grow faint with senescence and tedium before it will have found one or another thing that is either a delight to read, or a cultivation to have read, or a utility to remember.

XII. Ego vero, cum illud Ephesii viri summe nobilis verbum cordi haberem, quod profecto ita est: polymathie noon ou didaskei, ipse quidem volvendis transeundisque multis admodum voluminibus per omnia semper negotiorum intervalla, in quibus furari otium potui, exercitus defessusque sum, sed modica ex his eaque sola accepi, quae aut ingenia prompta expeditaque ad honestae eruditionis cupidinem utiliumque artium contemplationem celeri facilique compendio ducerent aut homines aliis iam vitae negotiis occupatos a turpi certe agrestique rerum atque verborum imperitia vindicarent.

12. I indeed, since I kept at heart that word of the Ephesian man of the highest nobility, which assuredly is thus: “polymathy does not teach understanding,” I myself, by turning over and passing through very many volumes at all times in the intervals of business, in which I could steal leisure, have been exercised and wearied; but I took from these only moderate things, and those alone which would either lead minds prompt and unfettered, by a swift and easy compendium, to a desire for honorable erudition and to the contemplation of useful arts, or would rescue men already occupied with other affairs of life from a base and rustic ignorance of things and of words.

XIII. Quod erunt autem in his commentariis pauca quaedam scrupulosa et anxia vel ex grammatica vel ex dialectica vel etiam ex geometrica, quodque erunt item paucula remotiora super augurio iure et pontificio, non oportet ea defugere quasi aut cognitu non utilia aut perceptu difficilia. Non enim fecimus altos nimis et obscuros in his rebus quaestionum sinus, sed primitias quasdam et quasi libamenta ingenuarum artium dedimus, quae virum civiliter eruditum neque audisse umquam neque attigisse, si non inutile, at quidem certe indecorum est.

13. Because there will be in these commentaries certain few scrupulous and anxious items drawn from grammar, from dialectic, and even from geometry, and because there will likewise be a few rather more remote points concerning augural and pontifical law, one ought not to flee from them as though they were either not useful to know or difficult to apprehend. For we have not made in these matters the recesses of questions too deep and obscure, but have offered certain first-fruits and, as it were, libations of the liberal arts—things which for a man civilly educated never to have heard of nor touched, if not unprofitable, is at least surely indecorous.

XIV. Ab his igitur, si cui forte nonnumquam tempus voluptasque erit lucubratiunculas istas cognoscere, petitum impetratumque volumus, ut in legendo, quae pridem scierint, non aspernentur quasi nota involgataque.

14. From them, therefore, if anyone by chance will now and then have time and pleasure to become acquainted with these little lucubrations, we wish to have requested and obtained this: that, in reading, they not spurn, as if known and commonplace, the things which they have long since known.

XV. Nam ecquid tam remotum in litteris est, quin id tamen complusculi sciant? et satis hoc blandum est non esse haec neque in scholis decantata neque in commentariis protrita.

15. For is anything so remote in letters that nevertheless quite a few know it? and this is sufficiently pleasing: that these things are neither oft-sung in the schools nor worn smooth in the commentaries.

XVI. Quae porro nova sibi ignotaque offenderint, aequum esse puto, ut sine vano obtrectatu considerent, an minutae istae admonitiones et pauxillulae nequaquam tamen sint vel ad alendum studium vescae vel ad oblectandum fovendumque animum frigidae, sed eius seminis generisque sint, ex quo facile adolescant aut ingenia hominum vegetiora aut memoria adminiculatior aut oratio sollertior aut sermo incorruptior aut delectatio in otio atque in ludo liberalior.

16. Whatever things, further, they shall encounter new and unknown to themselves, I think it fair that, without vain detraction, they consider whether these minute admonitions and very small ones are by no means either meager for nourishing zeal or cold for delighting and cherishing the mind, but are of that seed and kind from which there easily grow either the talents of men more vegetate, or a more adminiculate memory, or more skillful oration, or more incorrupt discourse, or a more liberal delight in leisure and in play.

XVII. Quae autem parum plana videbuntur aut minus plena instructaque, petimus, inquam, ut ea non docendi magis quam admonendi gratia scripta existiment et quasi demonstratione vestigiorum contenti persequantur ea post, si libebit, vel libris repertis vel magistris.

17. But as for those things which will seem insufficiently plain or less full and furnished, we ask, I say, that they consider them written not so much for teaching as for admonition, and, content with a kind of demonstration of the vestiges, let them pursue them afterward, if it please, either by books found or by teachers.

XVIII. Quae vero putaverint reprehendenda, his, si audebunt, succenseant, unde ea nos accepimus; sed enim, quae aliter apud alium scripta legerint, ne iam statim temere obstrepant, sed et rationes rerum et auctoritates hominum pensitent, quos illi quosque nos secuti sumus.

18. But as for the things which they will have thought are to be reprehended, let them, if they dare, be angry with those from whom we received them; but indeed, when they will have read things written otherwise in another, let them not immediately and rashly raise an outcry, but let them weigh both the reasons of the matters and the authorities of the men, whom both they and we have followed.

XIX. Erit autem id longe optimum, ut qui in lectitando, percontando, scribendo, commentando numquam voluptates, numquam labores ceperunt, nullas hoc genus vigilias vigilarunt neque ullis inter eiusdem Musae aemulos certationibus disceptationibusque elimati sunt, sed intemperiarum negotiorumque pleni sunt, abeant a noctibus his procul atque alia sibi oblectamenta quaerant. Vetus adagium est: nil cum fidibus graculost, nihil cum amaracino sui.

19. But this will be far the best: that those who, in reading, inquiring, writing, and commenting, have never taken either pleasures or labors, have kept no vigils of this kind, and have not been polished in any contests and disputations among rivals of the same Muse, but are full of intemperances and affairs, should go far away from these nights and seek other amusements for themselves. An old adage is: the jackdaw has nothing to do with the lyre-strings, the pig nothing to do with marjoram.

XX. Atque etiam, quo sit quorundam male doctorum hominum scaevitas et invidentia irritatior, mutuabor ex Aristophanae choro anapaesta pauca et quam ille homo festivissimus fabulae suae spectandae legem dedit, eandem ego commentariis his legendis dabo, ut ea ne attingat neve adeat profestum et profanum volgus a ludo musico diversum.

20. And further, in order that the perversity and envy of certain ill-instructed men may be the more irritated, I will borrow a few anapaests from the chorus of Aristophanes; and the rule which that most delightful man laid down for the viewing of his play, I will give the same for the reading of these commentaries, namely, that the secular and profane vulgar, alien from the musical art, neither touch them nor approach them.

XXI. Versus legis datae hi sunt: euphemein chre kaxistasthai tois hemeteroisi choroisin, hostis apeiros toionde logon e gnomei me katharevei e gennaion orgia Mouson met'eiden met'echoreusen, toutois audo, kauthis apaudo, kauthis to triton mal'apaudo existasthai mystaisi chorois; hymeis d'anegeirete molpen kai pannychidas tas hemeteras, hai teide prepousin heortei.

21. The verses of the law that was given are these: one must speak auspiciously and take a seat in our choruses, whoever is inexperienced in such discourse, or is not clean in mind, or has neither seen nor danced the noble orgia of the Muses; to such I say, and again I say, and a third time I say most emphatically, to stand apart from the mystic choruses; but you, rouse up the song and our all-night revels, which are fitting for this festival.

XXII. Volumina commentariorum ad hunc diem viginti iam facta sunt.

22. To this day, twenty volumes of commentaries have now been made.

XXIII. Quantum autem vitae mihi deinceps deum voluntate erit quantumque a tuenda re familiari procurandoque cultu liberorum meorum dabitur otium, ea omnia subsiciva et subsecundaria tempora ad colligendas huiusce modi memoriarum delectatiunculas conferam.

23. However much of life henceforth shall be mine by the will of the gods, and however much leisure shall be granted from tending the family affair and procuring the culture of my children, all those spare and secondary times I will devote to collecting little delectations of memories of this kind.

XXIV. Progredietur ergo numerus librorum diis bene iuvantibus cum ipsius vitae, quantuli quomque fuerint, progressibus, neque longiora mihi dari spatia vivendi volo, quam dum ero ad hanc quoque facultatem scribendi commentandique idoneus.

24. Therefore the number of the books will progress, the gods kindly aiding, with the progresses of life itself, however small they may be; nor do I wish longer spans of living to be granted to me than while I shall be fit also for this faculty of writing and commenting.

XXV. Capita rerum, quae cuique commentario insunt, exposuimus hic universa, ut iam statim declaretur, quid quo in libro quaeri invenirique possit.

25. The headings of the matters, which are contained in each commentary, we have here set forth in full, so that it may at once be made clear what in which book can be sought and found.