Gellius: NOCTES ATTICAE

I. Inquisitio verborum istorum M. Tullii curiosior, quae sunt in primo Antonianarum libro "multa autem inpendere videntur praeter naturam etiam praeterque fatum"; tractatumque, an idem duo ista significent "fatum" atque "natura", an diversum.I. M. Cicero in primo Antonianarum ita scriptum reliquit: "Hunc igitur ut sequerer properavi, quem praesentes non sunt secuti; non ut proficerem aliquid, neque enim sperabam id nec praestare poteram, sed ut, si quid mihi humanitus accidisset, multa autem inpendere videntur praeter naturam etiam praeterque fatum, huius diei vocem testem reipublicae relinquerem meae perpetuae erga se voluntatis". II. "Praeter naturam" inquit "praeterque fatum". An utrumque idem valere voluerit "fatum" atque "naturam" et duas res kath'henos hypokeimenou posuerit, an vero diviserit separaritque, ut alios casus natura ferre videatur, alios fatum, considerandum equidem puto atque id maxime requirendum, qua ratione dixerit accidere multa humanitus posse praeter fatum, quando sic ratio et ordo et insuperabilis quaedam necessitas fati constituitur, ut omnia intra fatum claudenda sint, nisi illud sane Homeri secutus est:

1. A rather more inquisitive inquiry into those words of M. Tullius which are in the first book of the Antonian speeches, “but many things seem to be impending beyond nature and also beyond fate”; and a treatment whether those two, “fate” and “nature,” signify the same thing or something different.1. M. Cicero in the first of the Antonian speeches left it written thus: “Therefore I hastened to follow this man, whom those present did not follow; not that I might make progress in anything—for I neither hoped that nor could I guarantee it—but that, if anything should befall me humanly, but many things seem to be impending beyond nature and also beyond fate, I might leave to the commonwealth the voice of this day as a witness of my perpetual goodwill toward it.” 2. “Beyond nature,” he says, “and beyond fate as well.” Whether he wished both “fate” and “nature” to have the same force and set down two things kath’ henos hypokeimenou (under one subject), or whether in truth he divided and separated them, so that some chances seem to be borne by nature, others by fate, I for my part think must be considered; and this most of all must be investigated, by what reasoning he said that many things can happen humanly beyond fate, since the reason and order and a certain insuperable necessity of fate are constituted in such a way that all things ought to be enclosed within fate—unless indeed he was following that saying of Homer:

me kai hyper moiran domon Aidos eisaphiketai.

lest he even beyond fate reach the house of Hades.

III. Nihil autem dubium est, quin violentam et inopinatam mortem significaverit, quae quidem potest recte videri accidere praeter naturam. IV. Sed cur id quoque genus mortis extra fatum posuerit, neque operis huius est explorare neque temporis.

3. Nothing, however, is doubtful, that he signified a violent and unexpected death, which indeed can rightly seem to occur contrary to nature. 4. But why he also set that genus of death outside fate is neither the business of this work to explore nor of the time.

V. Illud tamen non praetermittendum est, quod Vergilius quoque id ipsum quod Cicero de fato opinatus est, cum hoc in quarto libro dixit de Elissa, quae mortem per vim potita est: nam quia nec fato merita nec morte peribat, tamquam in faciendo fine vitae, quae violenta sunt non videantur e fato venire. VI. Demosthenis autem, viri prudentia pari atque facundia praediti, verba idem fere significantia de natura atque fato M. Cicero secutus videtur. Ita enim scriptum est in oratione illa egregia, cui titulus est hyper stephanou: Ho men tois goneusi nomizon monon gegenesthai ton tes heimarmenes kai ton automaton thanaton perimenei; ho de kai tei patridi hyper tou me tauten epidein doulevousan apothneiskein boulesetai.

5. Yet this must not be passed over: that Vergil too held this very same thing which Cicero thought about Fate, when he said this in the fourth book about Elissa, who took death by force: for because she was perishing neither by a Fate merited nor by a death, as though in the making of an end of life, things that are violent do not seem to come from Fate. 6. Moreover, Marcus Cicero seems to have followed words of almost the same signification from Demosthenes, a man endowed with equal prudence and eloquence, about nature and Fate. For thus it is written in that outstanding oration, whose title is On the Crown: “He who thinks that he has been born for his parents alone awaits the death that is of destiny and of the accidental; but he will wish also to die for his fatherland, in order not to see it enslaved.”

VII. Quod Cicero "fatum" atque "naturam" videtur dixisse, id multo ante Demosthenes ten pepromenen et ton automaton thanaton appellavit. VIII.

7. What Cicero seems to have called "fate" and "nature," Demosthenes long before called "the destined" and "the death that happens by chance." 8.

Automatos enim thanatos quasi naturalis et fatalis nulla extrinsecus vi coactus venit.

For automatos thanatos, as if natural and fatal, comes compelled by no external force.

II. Super poetarum Pacuvii et Accii conloquio familiari in oppido Tarentino.I. Quibus otium et studium fuit vitas atque aetates doctorum hominum quaerere ac memoriae tradere, de M. Pacuvio et L. Accio tragicis poetis historiam scripserunt huiuscemodi: II. "Cum Pacuvius" inquiunt "grandi iam aetate et morbo corporis diutino adfectus Tarentum ex urbe Roma concessisset, Accius tunc haut parvo iunior proficiscens in Asiam, cum in oppidum venisset, devertit ad Pacuvium comiterque invitatus plusculisque ab eo diebus retentus tragoediam suam, cui Atreus nomen est, desideranti legit. III. Tum Pacuvium dixisse aiunt sonora quidem esse, quae scripsisset, et grandia, sed videri tamen ea sibi duriora paulum et acerbiora.

2. On the familiar colloquy of the poets Pacuvius and Accius in the town of Tarentum.1. Those to whom there was leisure and zeal to inquire into the lives and ages of learned men and to hand them down to memory wrote a history of M. Pacuvius and L. Accius, tragic poets, of this sort: 2. “When Pacuvius,” they say, “now of great age and afflicted by a long-continued disease of body, had withdrawn to Tarentum from the city of Rome, Accius then, being not by a little younger, setting out for Asia, when he had come into the town, turned aside to Pacuvius and, courteously invited and detained by him for rather more days, read to him, as he desired, his tragedy, whose name is Atreus. 3. Then they say Pacuvius remarked that the things he had written were indeed sonorous and grand, but that nevertheless they seemed to him a little harsher and more acerbic.”

IV. "Ita est," inquit Accius "uti dicis; neque id me sane paenitet; meliora enim fore spero, quae deinceps scribam. V. Nam quod in pomis est, itidem" inquit "esse aiunt in ingeniis; quae dura et acerba nascuntur, post fiunt mitia et iucunda; sed quae gignuntur statim vieta et mollia atque in principio sunt uvida, non matura mox fiunt, sed putria. VI. Relinquendum igitur visum est in ingenio, quod dies atque aetas mitificet".

4. "So it is," says Accius, "as you say; nor do I indeed regret that; for I hope that the things which I shall write hereafter will be better. 5. For what is the case in fruits, in like manner," he says, "they say is the case in ingenuities: those that are born hard and acerb afterward become mild and pleasant; but those that are begotten straightaway withered and soft and at the beginning are sappy, do not soon become mature, but rotten. 6. Therefore it seemed that something ought to be left in the ingenuity, for day and age to mitigate."

III. An vocabula haec "necessitudo" et "necessitas" differenti significatione sint.I. Risu prorsus atque ludo res digna est, cum plerique grammaticorum adseverant "necessitudinem" et "necessitatem" mutare longe differreque, ideo quod necessitas sit vis quaepiam premens et cogens, necessitudo autem dicatur ius quoddam et vinculum religiosae coniunctionis idque unum solitarium significet. II. Sicut autem nihil quicquam interest, "suavitudo" dicas an "suavitas", "sanctitudo" an "sanctitas", "acerbitudo" an "acerbitas", "acritudo" an, quod Accius in Neoptolemo scripsit, "acritas", ita nihil rationis dici potest, qui "necessitudo" et "necessitas" separentur. III.

3. Whether these words "necessitudo" and "necessitas" are of different signification.1. A thing quite worthy of laughter and play it is, when many of the grammarians aver that "necessitudo" and "necessitas" are by no means interchangeable and differ widely, for this reason: that necessitas is some force pressing and compelling, but necessitudo is said to be a certain right and bond of religious conjunction, and that it signifies that one solitary thing. 2. But just as there is no difference at all whether you say "suavitudo" or "suavitas," "sanctitudo" or "sanctitas," "acerbitudo" or "acerbitas," "acritudo" or, as Accius wrote in the Neoptolemus, "acritas," so nothing reasonable can be said for "necessitudo" and "necessitas" being separated. 3.

Itaque in libris veterum vulgo reperias necessitudinem dici pro eo, quod necessum est. IV. Sed necessitas sane pro iure officioque observantiae adfinitatisve infrequens est, quamquam, qui ob hoc ipsum ius adfinitatis familiaritatisve coniuncti sunt, "necessarii" dicuntur. V. Repperi tamen in oratione C. Caesaris, qua Plautiam rogationem suasit, "necessitatem" dictam pro "necessitudine", id est iure adfinitatis.

And so, in the books of the ancients you may commonly find “necessitudo” said for that which is necessary. 4. But “necessitas,” to be sure, is infrequent for the right and duty of observance or of affinity, although those who are joined by this very right of affinity or familiarity are called “necessarii.” 5. I did, however, find in a speech of Gaius Caesar, in which he urged the Plautian bill, “necessitas” used for “necessitudo,” that is, the right of affinity.

Verba haec sunt: "Equidem mihi videor pro nostra necessitate non labore, non opera, non industria defuisse". VI. Hoc ego scripsi de utriusque vocabuli indifferentia admonitus forte verbi istius, cum legerem Sempronii Asellionis, veteris scriptoris, quartum ex historia librum, in quo de P. Africano, Pauli filio, ita scriptum est: "Nam se patrem suum audisse dicere L. Aemilium Paulum nimis bonum imperatorem signis conlatis non decertare, nisi summa ei necessitudo aut summa occasio data esset".

These are the words: "Indeed I seem to myself, for our necessity, not to have been lacking in labor, nor in work, nor in industry." 6. I wrote this about the indifference of the two vocables, perhaps admonished by that very word, when I was reading the fourth book from the history of Sempronius Asellio, an old writer, in which it is written thus about P. Africanus, the son of Paulus: "For he had heard his father say that L. Aemilius Paulus, an exceedingly good general, did not contend with standards joined, unless the highest necessity or the highest occasion had been given to him."

IV. Descripta Alexandri ...I. In plerisque monumentis rerum ab Alexandro gestarum et paulo ante in libro M. Varronis, qui inscriptus est Orestes vel de insania, Olympiadem Philippi uxorem festivissime rescripsisse legimus Alexandro filio. II. Nam cum is ad matrem ita scripsisset: "Rex Alexander Iovis Hammonis filius Olympiadi matri salutem dicit", Olympias ei rescripsit ad hanc sententiam: "Amabo", inquit "mi fili, quiescas neque deferas me neque criminere adversum Iunonem; malum mihi prorsum illa magnum dabit, cum tu me litteris tuis paelicem esse illi confiteris". III. Ea mulieris scitae atque prudentis erga ferocem filium comitas sensim et comiter admonuisse eum visa est deponendam esse opinionem vanam, quam ille ingentibus victoriis et adulantium blandimentis et rebus supra fidem prosperis inbiberat, genitum esse sese de Iove.

4. Descriptions of Alexander ...1. In several monuments of the deeds done by Alexander, and a little before in the book of M. Varro which is entitled Orestes or On Insanity, we read that Olympias, the wife of Philip, wrote back most wittily to her son Alexander. 2. For when he had written thus to his mother: "King Alexander, son of Jove Ammon, sends greeting to his mother Olympias," Olympias wrote back to him to this effect: "Please," she says, "my son, keep quiet, and do not bring me in nor accuse me in a charge against Juno; that lady will give me outright a great hurt, since you confess in your letters that I am her paramour." 3. That courtesy of a knowing and prudent woman toward a fierce son seemed gently and graciously to have admonished him that the vain opinion must be laid aside, which he had imbibed from vast victories and the blandishments of flatterers and successes beyond belief, namely, that he had been begotten from Jove.

V. De Aristotele et Theophrasto et Menedemo philosophis; deque eleganti verecundia Aristotelis successorem diatribae suae eligentis.I. Aristoteles philosophus annos iam fere natus duo et sexaginta corpore aegro adfectoque ac spe vitae tenui fuit. II. Tunc omnis eius sectatorum cohors ad cum accedit orantes obsecrantesque, ut ipse deligeret loci sui et magisterii successorem, quo post summum eius diem proinde ut ipso uterentur ad studia doctrinarum conplenda excolendaque, quibus ab eo inbuti fuissent. III.

5. On Aristotle and Theophrastus and Menedemus, philosophers; and on the elegant modesty of Aristotle as he chose the successor of his school.1. Aristotle the philosopher, now nearly sixty-two years old, was with a sick and afflicted body and with a slender hope of life. 2. Then the whole cohort of his followers came to him, praying and beseeching that he himself choose a successor to his place and teaching office, by whom after his last day they might make use as if of himself for completing and cultivating the studies of doctrines with which they had been imbued by him. 3.

Erant tunc in eius ludo boni multi, sed praecipui duo, Theophrastus et Menedemus. Ingenio hi atque doctrinis ceteros praestabant; alter ex insula Lesbo fuit, Menedemus autem Rhodo. IV. Aristoteles respondit facturum esse quod vellent, cum id sibi foret tempestivum.

At that time there were many good [students] in his school, but two were preeminent, Theophrastus and Menedemus. In ingenuity and doctrines they surpassed the others; one was from the island of Lesbos, but Menedemus from Rhodes. 4. Aristotle replied that he would do what they wished, when that should be seasonable for him.

V. Postea brevi tempore cum idem illi, qui de magistro destinando petierant, praesentes essent, vinum ait, quod tum biberet, non esse id ex valitudine sua, sed insalubre esse atque asperum ac propterea quaeri debere exoticum vel Rhodium aliquod vel Lesbium. VI. Id sibi utrumque ut curarent, petivit usurumque eo dixit, quod sese magis iuvisset. VII.

V. Afterwards, in a short time, when those same men who had petitioned about appointing a master were present, he said that the wine which he was then drinking was not in accordance with his health, but was insalubrious and harsh, and that therefore there ought to be sought an exotic one, either some Rhodian or some Lesbian. VI. He requested that they procure both for him, and said he would use that which had helped him more. VII.

Eunt, quaerunt, inveniunt, adferunt. VIII. Tum Aristoteles Rhodium petit, degustat: "firmum" inquit "hercle vinum et iucundum". Petit mox Lesbium.

They go, they seek, they find, they bring. 8. Then Aristotle calls for the Rhodian, tastes: "firm," says he, "by Hercules, and pleasant wine." He soon calls for the Lesbian.

IX. Quo item degustato:"utrumque" inquit "oppido bonum, sed hedion ho Lesbios. X. Id ubi dixit, nemini fuit dubium, quin lepide simul et verecunde successorem illa voce sibi, non vinum delegisset. XI. Is erat e Lesbo Theophrastus, suavitate homo insigni linguae pariter atque vitae.

9. This one likewise having been tasted: "both," he says, "exceedingly good, but the Lesbian is sweeter." 10. When he said this, no one doubted that cleverly and modestly with that word he had designated for himself a successor, not the wine. 11. He was Theophrastus from Lesbos, a man distinguished for suavity, in tongue equally as in life.

XII. Itaque non diu post Aristotele vita defuncto ad Theophrastum omnes concesserunt.

12. And so, not long after, Aristotle having finished his life, all turned over to Theophrastus.

VI. Quid veteres Latini dixerint, quas Graeci prosoidias appellant; item quod vocabulum "barbarismi" non usurpaverint neque Romani antiquiores neque Attici.I. Quas Graeci prosoidias dicunt, eas veteres docti tum "notas vocum", tum "moderamenta", tum "accentiunculas", tum "voculationes" appellabant; II. quod nunc autem "barbare" quem loqui dicimus, id vitium sermonis non barbarum esse, sed "rusticum" et cum eo vitio loquentes "rustice" loqui dictitabant. III. P. Nigidius in commentariis grammaticis: "rusticus fit sermo," inquit "si adspires perperam". IV. Itaque id vocabulum, quod dicitur vulgo "barbarismus", qui ante divi Augusti aetatem pure atque integre locuti sunt, an dixerint, nondum equidem inveni.

6. What the old Latins called what the Greeks call “prosodies”; likewise that the word “barbarism” was not employed either by the earlier Romans or by the Attics.1. What the Greeks call “prosodies,” the learned ancients called now “marks of voices,” now “moderations,” now “little accents,” now “vocalizations”; 2. but what we now say that someone speaks “barbarously,” that fault of speech they said was not “barbarous,” but “rustic,” and that those speaking with that fault speak “rustically.” 3. P. Nigidius in his grammatical commentaries: “speech becomes rustic,” he says, “if you aspirate wrongly.” 4. Therefore, whether those who spoke purely and integrally before the age of the deified Augustus used that word which is commonly called “barbarism,” I for my part have not yet found.

VII. Diversum de natura leonum dixisse Homerum in carminibus et Herodotum in historiis.I. Leaenas inter omnem vitam semel parere eoque uno partu numquam edere plures quam unum Herodotus in tertia historia scriptum reliquit. II. Verba ex eo libro haec sunt: He de de leaina eon ischyron kai thrasytaton hapax en toi bioi tiktei hen; tiktousa gar synekballei toi teknoi tas meteras. III.

7. That Homer in his songs and Herodotus in his histories said different things about the nature of lions.1. That lionesses, throughout their whole life, give birth once, and in that single birth never bring forth more than one—this Herodotus left written in the third history. 2. The words from that book are these: “And the lioness, being strong and most daring, bears once in her life—one; for in giving birth she casts out with the young the wombs of the mothers.” 3.

Homerus autem leones - sic enim feminas quoque virili genere appellat, quod grammatici vocant - pluris gignere atque educare catulos dicit. IV. Versus, quibus hoc aperte demonstrat, hi sunt:

But Homer says that lions - for thus he also appellates the females with the masculine gender, as the grammarians call it - beget and rear more cubs. 4. The verses, by which he clearly demonstrates this, are these:

heistekei hos tis te leon peri hoisi tekessin,
hoi rha te nepi'agonti synantesontai en hylei
andres epakteres.

he stood like some lion around his whelps,
whom, as he leads his little ones, in the woodland
men, hunters, meet.

V. Item alio in loco idem significat:

5. Likewise in another place he signifies the same:

pykna mala stenachon; hos te lis eugeneios,
hoi rha th'hypo skymnous elaphebolos harpasei aner
hyles ek pykines.

groaning very often; like a well‑bearded lion,
from beneath whom a deer‑shooting man snatches the whelps
out of the dense wood.

VI. Ea nos dissensio atque diversitas cum agitaret inclutissimi poetarum et historicorum nobilissimi, placuit libros Aristotelis philosophi inspici, quos de animalibus exquisitissime composuit. In quibus, quod super ista re scriptum inveniemus, cum ipsius Aristotelis verbis in his commentariis scribemus.

6. As that dissension and diversity among the most illustrious of poets and the most noble of historians was agitating us, it pleased us to inspect the books of the philosopher Aristotle, which he composed most exquisitely concerning animals. In them, whatever we shall find written on this matter, we will write in these commentaries with the very words of Aristotle himself.

VIII. Quod Afranius poeta prudenter et lepide Sapientiam filiam esse Vsus et Memoriae dixit.I. Eximie hoc atque verissime Afranius poeta de gignenda conparandaque sapientia opinatus est, quod eam filiam esse Vsus et Memoriae dixit. II. Eo namque argumento demonstrat, qui sapiens rerum esse humanarum velit, non libris solis neque disciplinis rhetoricis dialecticisque opus esse, sed oportere cum versari quoque exercerique in rebus comminus noscendis periclitandisque eaque omnia acta et eventa firmiter meminisse et proinde sapere atque consulere ex his, quae pericula ipsa rerum docuerint, non quae libri tantum aut magistri per quasdam inanitates verborum et imaginum tamquam in mimo aut in somnio deblateraverint. III.

8. That the poet Afranius prudently and neatly said that Wisdom is the daughter of Use and Memory.1. Afranius the poet opined excellently and most truly about the begetting and acquiring of wisdom, when he said that she is the daughter of Use and Memory. 2. For by that argument he demonstrates that he who wishes to be wise in human affairs has need not of books alone nor of the rhetorical and dialectical disciplines, but that it is proper also to be conversant and exercised in matters to be known and tested at close quarters, and to remember firmly all those deeds and events, and accordingly to be wise and to take counsel from those things which the very perils of affairs have taught, not what books only or teachers have blathered through certain inanities of words and images, as in a mime or in a dream. 3.

Versus Afranii sunt in togata, cui Sellae nomen est:

The verses of Afranius are in a togata, which is named Sella:

Vsus me genuit, mater peperit Memoria,
Sophiam vocant me Grai, vos Sapientiam.

Use begot me; my mother, Memory, bore me,
the Greeks call me Sophia, you call me Sapience.

IV. Item versus est in eandem ferme sententiam Pacuvii, quem Macedo philosophus, vir bonus, familiaris meus, scribi debere censebat pro foribus omnium templorum: ego odi homines ignava opera et philosopha sententia. V. Nihil enim fieri posse indignius neque intolerantius dicebat, quam quod homines ignavi ac desides operti barba et pallio mores et emolumenta philosophiae in linguae verborumque artes converterent et vitia facundissime accusarent intercutibus ipsi vitiis madentes.

4. Likewise there is a verse to nearly the same purport by Pacuvius, which Macedo the philosopher, a good man, my acquaintance, judged ought to be written before the doors of all temples: I hate men with idle works and a philosophic opinion. 5. For he said that nothing could be done more unworthy nor more intolerable than that lazy and slothful men, covered with beard and cloak, should convert the morals and emoluments of philosophy into the arts of the tongue and of words, and most eloquently accuse vices, while they themselves, up to the armpits, are dripping with vices.

IX. Quid Tullius Tiro in commentariis scripserit de "suculis" et "hyadibus" quae sunt stellarum vocabula.I. Tullius Tiro M. Ciceronis alumnus et libertus adiutorque in litteris studiorum eius fuit. II. Is libros compluris de usu atque ratione linguae Latinae, item de variis atque promiscis quaestionibus composuit. III.

9. What Tullius Tiro wrote in his commentaries about the “suculae” and the “Hyades,” which are star-names.1. Tullius Tiro, the alumnus and freedman of M. Cicero, was a helper in his literary studies. 2. He composed several books on the use and rationale of the Latin language, likewise on various and miscellaneous questions. 3.

In his esse praecipui videntur, quos Graeco titulo pandektas inscripsit, tamquam omne rerum atque doctrinarum genus continentis. IV. Ibi de his stellis, quae appellantur "suculae", hoc scriptum est: "Adeo" inquit "veteres Romani litteras Graecas nesciverunt et rudes Graecae linguae fuerunt, ut stellas, quae in capite tauri sunt, propterea,"suculas" appellarint, quod eas Graeci hyadas vocant, tamquam id verbum Latinum Graeci verbi interpretamentum sit, quia Graece hyes, "sues" Latine dicantur. Sed hyades" inquit "ouk apo ton hyon, ita ut nostri opici putaverunt, sed ab eo, quod est hyein appellantur; nam et cum oriuntur et cum occidunt, tempestates pluvias largosque imbres cient.

Among these, those seem to be chief which he inscribed with the Greek title “Pandects,” as though they contained every kind of matters and teachings. 4. There, about those stars which are called “suculae,” this is written: “So much,” he says, “did the ancient Romans not know Greek letters and were rude in the Greek language, that the stars which are in the head of the bull they therefore called ‘suculae,’ because the Greeks call them Hyades, as though that Latin word were an interpretament of the Greek word, since in Greek hyes are called ‘sues’ in Latin. But ‘Hyades,’” he says, “ouk apo ton hyon, not as our Opici supposed, but from that which is hyein they are named; for both when they rise and when they set, they stir up rainy weather and copious showers.”

Pluere autem Graeca lingua hyein dicitur". V. Haec quidem Tiro in pandectis. Sed enim veteres nostri non usque eo rupices et agrestes fuerunt, ut stellas hyadas idcirco "suculas" nominarent, quod hyes Latine "sues" dicantur; sed ut, quod Graeci hyper nos "super" dicimus, quod illi hyptios, nos "supinus", quod illi hyphorbos, nos "subulcus", quod item illi hypnos, nos primo "sypnus", deinde per "y" Graecae Latinaeque "o" litterae cognationem "somnus": sic, quod ab illis hyades, a nobis primo "syades", deinde "suculae" appellatae. VI. Stellae autem istae non in capite tauri sunt, ut Tiro dicit - nullum enim videtur praeter eas stellas tauri caput -, set eae ita circulo, qui Zodiacus dicitur, sitae locataeque sunt, ut ex earum positu species quaedam et simulacrum esse videatur tauri capitis, sicuti ceterae partes et reliqua imago tauri conformata et quasi depicta est locis regionibusque earum stellarum, quas Graeci pleiadas, nos "vergilias" vocamus.

"But to rain is called hyein in the Greek language." V. These things, indeed, Tiro in the Pandects. But in fact our ancients were not to that degree rough and rustic as to name the stars Hyades "piglets" on the ground that hyes in Latin are called "swine"; but just as what the Greeks say hyper we say "super", what they hyptios, we "supine", what they hyphorbos, we "swineherd" (subulcus), what likewise they hypnos, we at first "sypnus", then, through the kinship of the Greek "y" and the Latin letter "o", "somnus": so too, what by them are hyades, by us were at first called "syades", then "sucklings" ("suculae"). VI. But those stars are not in the head of the Bull, as Tiro says—for no head of the Bull seems to be apart from those stars—, but they are so set and placed in the circle which is called the Zodiac, that from their position there appears to be a certain aspect and simulacrum of the Bull’s head, just as the other parts and the remaining image of the Bull have been shaped and as it were painted by the places and regions of those stars which the Greeks call the Pleiades, and we the "Vergiliae".

X. Quid "sororis" etymon esse dixerit Labeo Antistius et quid "fratris" P. Nigidius.I. Labeo Antistius iuris quidem civilis disciplinam principali studio exercuit et consulentibus de iure publice responsitavit; set ceterarum quoque bonarum artium non expers fuit et in grammaticam sese atque dialecticam litterasque antiquiores altioresque penetraverat Latinarumque vocum origines rationesque percalluerat eaque praecipue scientia ad enodandos plerosque iuris laqueos utebatur. II. Sunt adeo libri post mortem eius editi, qui posteriores inscribuntur, quorum librorum tres continui, tricesimus octavus et tricesimus nonus et quadragesimus, pleni sunt id genus rerum ad enarrandam et inlustrandam linguam Latinam conducentium. III.

10. What Labeo Antistius said the etymon of "sororis" is, and what P. Nigidius [said of] "fratris".I. Labeo Antistius indeed practiced the discipline of civil law with primary zeal and gave public responses to those consulting about law; but he was not unversed in the other good arts as well, and he had penetrated into grammar and dialectic and into the more ancient and loftier letters, and he had thoroughly mastered the origins and reasons of Latin words, and he used that knowledge especially for untying most of the snares of the law. II. There are, moreover, books published after his death, which are entitled the Later Ones, of which books three continuous volumes, the thirty-eighth and the thirty-ninth and the fortieth, are full of matters of that kind conducive to expounding and illustrating the Latin language. III.

Praeterea in libris, quos ad Praetoris edictum scripsit, multa posuit pariter lepide atque argute reperta. Sicuti hoc est, quod in quarto ad edictum libro scriptum legimus: "Soror" inquit "appellata est, quod quasi seorsum nascitur separaturque ab ea domo, in qua nata est, et in aliam familiam transgreditur". IV. "Fratris" autem vocabulum P. Nigidius, homo inpense doctus, non minus arguto subtilique etymoi interpretatur: "Frater" inquit "est dictus quasi "fere alter".

Moreover, in the books which he wrote to the Praetor’s Edict, he set down many things found equally wittily and keenly. Such as this, which we read written in the fourth book to the Edict: "Sister," he says, "was so appellated, because, as it were, she is born seorsum and is separated from that house in which she was born, and passes over into another family". 4. "As for 'fratris'," however, Publius Nigidius, a man exceedingly learned, interprets the vocable with an etymon no less shrewd and subtle: "Frater," he says, "is said as if 'almost another'."

XI. Quem M. Varro aptum iustumque esse numerum convivarum existimarit; ac de mensis secundis et de bellariis.I. Lepidissimus liber est M. Varronis ex satiris Menippeis, qui inscribitur: nescis, quid vesper serus vehat, in quo disserit de apto convivarum numero deque ipsius convivii habitu cultuque. II. Dicit autem convivarum numerum incipere oportere a Gratiarum numero et progredi ad Musarum, ut, cum paucissimi convivae sunt, non pauciores sint quam tres, cum plurimi, non plures quam novem. III.

11. Which number of guests M. Varro judged apt and just; and about second courses and sweetmeats.1. A most delightful book of M. Varro’s from the Menippean Satires is that which is entitled: you do not know what the late evening will bring, in which he discourses about the apt number of dinner‑guests and about the very banquet’s habit and culture. 2. He says, moreover, that the number of guests ought to begin from the number of the Graces and proceed to that of the Muses, so that, when the guests are very few, they be no fewer than three; when they are very many, no more than nine. 3.

"Nam multos" inquit "esse non convenit, quod turba plerumque est turbulenta et Romae quidem stat, sedet Athenis, nusquam autem cubat. Ipsum deinde convivium constat" inquit "ex rebus quattuor et tum denique omnibus suis numeris absolutum est, si belli homunculi conlecti sunt, si electus locus, si tempus lectum, si apparatus non neglectus. Nec loquaces autem" inquit "convivas nec mutos legere oportet, quia eloquentia in foro et aput subsellia, silentium vero non in convivio, set in cubiculo esse debet". IV. Sermones igitur id temporis habendos censet non super rebus anxiis aut tortuosis, sed iucundos atque invitabiles et cum quadam inlecebra et voluptate utiles, ex quibus ingenium nostrum venustius fiat et amoenius.

"For many," he says, "it is not fitting that there be many, because a crowd is for the most part turbulent, and in Rome indeed it stands, it sits in Athens, but nowhere does it recline. Then the banquet itself," he says, "consists of four things, and only then is it at last complete with all its numbers, if nice little fellows are gathered, if the place is chosen, if the time is selected, if the apparatus is not neglected. Nor," he says, "ought one to choose guests who are loquacious or who are mute, because eloquence belongs in the forum and at the benches, but silence not at the banquet, rather in the bedchamber." 4. Therefore he judges that the conversations to be held at that time should not be about anxious or tortuous matters, but pleasant and inviting and, with a certain enticement and delight, profitable, from which our wit becomes more charming and more agreeable.

V. "Quod profecto" inquit "eveniet, si de id genus rebus ad communem vitae usum pertinentibus confabulemur, de quibus in foro atque in negotiis agendis loqui non est otium. Dominum autem" inquit "convivii esse oportet non tam lautum quam sine sordibus", et "In convivio legi non omnia debent, sed ea potissimum, quae simul sint biophele et delectent". VI. Neque non de secundis quoque mensis, cuiusmodi esse eas oporteat, praecipit. His enim verbis utitur: "Bellaria" inquit "ea maxime sunt mellita, quae mellita non sunt; pemmasin enim cum pepsei societas infida". VII.

5. "Which indeed," he says, "will come about, if we chat about matters of that sort that pertain to the common use of life, about which there is no leisure to speak in the forum and in the conduct of business. Moreover, the master of the banquet ought to be not so much lavish as without sordidness," and "At a banquet not everything ought to be read, but rather those which are at once biophele (life‑profitable) and give delight." 6. Nor does he fail also to give directions about the second tables (desserts), of what sort they ought to be. For he uses these words: "Desserts," he says, "are most honey‑sweet which are not honeyed; for for the pemmata alliance with pepsis (digestion) is untrustworthy." 7.

Quod Varro hoc in loco dixit "bellaria", ne quis forte in ista voce haereat, significat id vocabulum omne mensae secundae genus. Nam quae pemmata Graeci aut tragemata dixerunt, ea veteres nostri "bellaria" appellaverunt. Vina quoque dulciora est invenire in comoediis antiquioribus hoc nomine appellata dictaque esse ea "Liberi bellaria".

As to Varro having said in this place “bellaria,” lest anyone perhaps stick at that word, that vocable signifies the whole genus of the second table (the dessert course). For what the Greeks called pemmata or tragemata, our ancients appellated “bellaria.” Sweeter wines too are found in more ancient comedies to have been called by this name, and these were said to be “the bellaria of Liber.”

XII. Tribunos plebis prensionem habere, vocationem non habere.I. In quadam epistula Atei Capitonis scriptum legimus Labeonem Antistium legum atque morum populi Romani iurisque civilis doctum adprime fuisse. II. "Sed agitabat" inquit "hominem libertas quaedam nimia atque vecors usque eo, ut divo Augusto iam principe et rempublicam obtinente ratum tamen pensumque nihil haberet, nisi quod iussum sanctumque esse in Romanis antiquitatibus legisset", III. ac deinde narrat, quid idem Labeo per viatorem a tribunis plebi vocatus responderit: IV. "cum a muliere" inquit "quadam tribuni plebis adversum eum aditi in Gellianum ad eum misissent, ut veniret et mulieri responderet, iussit eum, qui missus erat, redire et tribunis dicere ius eos non habere neque se neque alium quemquam vocandi, quoniam moribus maiorum tribuni plebis prensionem haberent, vocationem non haberent; posse igitur eos venire et prendi se iubere, sed vocandi absentem ius non habere". V. Cum hoc in ea Capitonis epistula legissemus, id ipsum postea in M. Varronis rerum humanarum uno et vicesimo libro enarratius scriptum invenimus, verbaque ipsa super ea re Varronis adscripsimus: VI. "In magistratu" inquit "habent alii vocationem, alii prensionem, alii neutrum: vocationem, ut consules et ceteri, qui habent imperium; prensionem, tribuni plebis et alii, qui habent viatorem; neque vocationem neque prensionem, ut quaestores et ceteri, qui neque lictorem habent neque viatorem.

12. The tribunes of the plebs have apprehension, do not have summons.1. In a certain letter of Ateius Capito we read written that Antistius Labeo had been supremely learned in the laws and customs of the Roman people and in civil law. 2. "But a certain excessive and senseless liberty agitated the man," he says, "to such a point that, with the deified Augustus already as princeps and holding the commonwealth, nevertheless he held nothing as ratified and authoritative, except what he had read in the Roman antiquities to have been ordered and hallowed,"
3. and then he relates what that same Labeo replied when summoned by a viator by the tribunes of the plebs:
4. "when, upon a certain woman approaching the tribunes of the plebs against him, they had sent to him at the Gellianum so that he should come and answer the woman, he ordered the one who had been sent to return and to tell the tribunes that they did not have the right of summoning either himself or anyone else, since by the customs of the ancestors the tribunes of the plebs had apprehension, they did not have summons; therefore they could come and order him to be seized, but they did not have the right of summoning an absent person."
5. When we had read this in that letter of Capito, afterward we found this same point written more fully in the twenty-first book of M. Varro’s Human Affairs, and we have appended Varro’s very words on that matter:
6. "In magistracy," he says, "some have summons, others apprehension, others neither: summons, as the consuls and the rest who have imperium have; apprehension, the tribunes of the plebs and the others who have a viator; neither summons nor apprehension, as the quaestors and the others who have neither a lictor nor a viator.

Qui vocationem habent, idem prendere, tenere, abducere possunt, et haec omnia, sive adsunt, quos vocant, sive acciri iusserunt. Tribuni plebis vocationem habent nullam, neque minus multi imperiti, proinde atque haberent, ea sunt usi; nam quidam non modo privatum, sed etiam consulem in rostra vocari iusserunt. Ego triumvirum vocatus a P. Porcio tribuno plebis non ivi auctoribus principibus et vetus ius tenui.

Those who have the power of summons can likewise apprehend, detain, and lead away, and do all these things whether those whom they summon are present, or they have ordered them to be summoned. The tribunes of the plebs have no summons, and yet many unskilled men have used it as though they had it; for certain persons have ordered not only a private citizen, but even the consul to be called to the Rostra. I, having been summoned as a triumvir by P. Porcius, tribune of the plebs, did not go, on the advice of the leading men, and I held to the ancient right.

Item tribunus cum essem, vocari neminem iussi nec vocatum a conlega parere invitum". VII. Huius ego iuris, quod M. Varro tradit, Labeonem arbitror vana tunc fiducia, cum privatus esset, vocatum a tribunis non isse. VIII.

Likewise, when I was a tribune, I ordered no one to be summoned, nor did I compel someone summoned by a colleague to obey against his will". 7. On the authority of this law which M. Varro hands down, I judge that Labeo, through vain confidence at that time, since he was a private citizen, did not go when summoned by the tribunes. 8.

Quae, malum, autem ratio fuit vocantibus nolle obsequi, quos confiteare ius habere prendendi? Nam qui iure prendi potest, etiam in vincula duci potest. IX. Sed quaerentibus nobis, quam ob causam tribuni, qui haberent summam coercendi potestatem, ius vocandi non habuerint ..., quod tribuni plebis antiquitus creati videntur non iuri dicundo nec causis querelisque de absentibus noscendis, sed intercessionibus faciendis, quibus usus praesens fuisset, ut iniuria, quae coram fieret, arceretur; ac propterea ius abnoctandi ademptum, quoniam, ut vim fieri vetarent, adsiduitate eorum et praesentium oculis opus erat.

What, the devil, moreover, was the reason for being unwilling to comply with those summoning, whom you confess have the right of apprehending? For he who can by right be apprehended can also be led in bonds. 9. But as we were inquiring for what cause the tribunes, who had the highest power of coercion, did not have the right of summoning ..., it is because the tribunes of the plebs, created from antiquity, seem to have been established not for pronouncing law nor for getting to know cases and complaints concerning absentees, but for making intercessions, whose use would have been present, so that an injury, which was being done face-to-face, might be warded off; and for that reason the right of spending the night away was removed, since, in order to forbid force from being done, there was need of their assiduity and the eyes of those present.

XIII. Quod in libris humanarum M. Varronis scriptum est aediles et quaestores populi Romani in ius a privato ad praetorem vocari posse.I. Cum ex angulis secretisque librorum ac magistrorum in medium iam hominum et in lucem fori prodissem, quaesitum esse memini in plerisque Romae stationibus ius publice docentium aut respondentium, an quaestor populi Romani ad praetorem in ius vocari posset. II. Id autem non ex otiosa quaestione agitabatur, sed usus forte natae rei ita erat, ut vocandus esset in ius quaestor. III.

13. That in the books of Human Things of M. Varro it is written that the aediles and quaestors of the Roman people can be summoned into court by a private person before the praetor.1. When from the corners and secret places of books and teachers I had now come forth into the midst of men and into the light of the forum, I remember that in several stations at Rome of those publicly teaching or responding on law the question was raised, whether a quaestor of the Roman people could be summoned into court before the praetor. 2. But this was not being agitated from an idle question, but the need of a matter that had arisen by chance was such that the quaestor had to be summoned into court. 3.

Non pauci igitur existimabant ius vocationis in eum praetori non esse, quoniam magistratus populi Romani procul dubio esset et neque vocari neque, si venire nollet, capi atque prendi salva ipsius magistratus maiestate posset. IV. Sed ego, qui tum adsiduus in libris M. Varronis fui, cum hoc quaeri dubitarique animadvertissem, protuli unum et vicesimum rerum humanarum in quo ita scriptum fuit: "Qui potestatem neque vocationis populi viritim habent neque prensionis, eos magistratus a privato in ius quoque vocari est potestas. M. Laevinus aedilis curulis a privato ad praetorem in ius est eductus; nunc stipati servis publicis non modo prendi non possunt, sed etiam ultro submovent populum". V. Hoc Varro in ea libri parte de aedilibus, supra autem in eodem libro quaestores neque vocationem habere neque prensionem dicit.

Not a few, therefore, thought that the right of summons against him did not belong to the praetor, since he was without doubt a magistrate of the Roman people, and he could neither be summoned nor, if he were unwilling to come, could he be seized and taken, with the majesty of his magistracy kept safe. 4. But I, who at that time was assiduous in the books of M. Varro, when I noticed that this was being asked and doubted, produced the twenty-first of the Human Affairs, in which it was written thus: "Those who have neither the power of summoning the people man-by-man nor of seizing, those magistrates can also be called into court by a private individual. M. Laevinus, a curule aedile, was led into court to the praetor by a private person; now, surrounded by public slaves, they not only cannot be seized, but even of their own accord drive back the populace." 5. Varro says this in that part of the book about the aediles, but above in the same book he says that the quaestors have neither summons nor seizure.

VI. Vtraque igitur libri parte recitata in Varronis omnes sententiam concesserunt, quaestorque in ius ad praetorem vocatus est.

6. Accordingly, with both parts of the book recited, all conceded to Varro’s opinion, and the quaestor was called into court before the praetor.

XIV. Quid sit "pomerium".I. "Pomerium" quid esset, augures populi Romani, qui libros de auspiciis scripserunt, istiusmodi sententia definierunt: "Pomerium est locus intra agrum effatum per totius urbis circuitum pone muros regionibus certeis determinatus, qui facit finem urbani auspicii". II. Antiquissimum autem pomerium, quod a Romulo institutum est, Palati montis radicibus terminabatur. Sed id pomerium pro incrementis reipublicae aliquotiens prolatum est et multos editosque collis circumplexum est. III.

14. What "pomerium" is.1. What the "pomerium" was, the augurs of the Roman people, who wrote books on auspices, defined by a sentiment of this sort: "The pomerium is the place within the declared field throughout the whole circuit of the entire city, behind the walls, determined by fixed regions, which makes the boundary of the urban auspice." 2. The most ancient pomerium, which was instituted by Romulus, was bounded at the roots of the Palatine hill. But that pomerium, in proportion to the increments of the commonwealth, was several times extended and encompassed many and lofty hills. 3.

Habeat autem ius proferendi pomerii, qui populum Romanum agro de hostibus capto auxerat. IV. Propterea quaesitum est ac nunc etiam in quaestione est, quam ob causam ex septem urbis montibus, cum ceteri sex intra pomerium sint, Aventinus Solum, quae pars non longinqua nec infrequens est, extra pomerium sit, neque id Servius Tullius rex neque Sulla, qui proferundi pomerii titulum quaesivit, neque postea divus Iulius, cum pomerium proferret, intra effatos urbis fines incluserint. V. Huius rei Messala aliquot causas videri scripsit, sed praeter eas omnis ipse unam probat, quod in eo monte Remus urbis condendae gratia auspicaverit avesque inritas habuerit superatusque in auspicio a Romulo sit: VI. "Idcirco" inquit "omnes, qui pomerium protulerunt, montem istum excluserunt quasi avibus obscenis ominosum". VII.

But let him have the right of extending the pomerium who has increased the Roman people by land taken from enemies. 4. Therefore it has been asked, and even now is in question, for what cause out of the seven hills of the city, since the other six are within the pomerium, the Aventine alone, which is a quarter neither far-off nor unfrequented, is outside the pomerium; nor did Servius Tullius the king, nor Sulla, who sought the title of extending the pomerium, nor afterward the deified Julius, when he extended the pomerium, include it within the proclaimed confines of the city. 5. Messala wrote that several causes seem to account for this matter, but besides all those he himself approves one: because on that hill Remus, for the sake of founding the city, took the auspices and had the birds unfavorable, and was overcome in the auspice by Romulus: 6. "Therefore," he says, "all who extended the pomerium excluded that hill as ominous because of ill-omened birds." 7.

Sed de Aventino monte praetermittendum non putavi, quod non pridem ego in Elydis, grammatici veteris, commentario offendi, in quo scriptum erat Aventinum antea, sicuti diximus, extra pomerium exclusum, post auctore divo Claudio receptum et intra pomerii fines observatum.

But about the Aventine hill I did not think it should be passed over, because not long ago I encountered in the commentary of Elydis, an ancient grammarian, in which it was written that the Aventine formerly, just as we have said, had been excluded outside the pomerium, but afterwards, by the authority of the deified Claudius, was taken back and observed within the bounds of the pomerium.

XV. Verba ex libro Messalae auguris, quibus docet, qui sint minores magistratus et consulem praetoremque conlegas esse; et quaedam alia de auspiciis.I. In edicto consulum, quo edicunt, quis dies comitiis centuriatis futurus sit, scribitur ex vetere forma perpetua: "ne quis magistratus minor de caelo servasse velit". II. Quaeri igitur solet, qui sint magistratus minores. III. Super hac re meis verbis nil opus fuit, quoniam liber M. Messalae auguris de auspiciis primus, cum hoc scriberemus, forte adfuit.

15. Words from the book of Messalla the augur, in which he teaches who the lesser magistrates are and that the consul and the praetor are colleagues; and certain other things about the auspices.1. In the edict of the consuls, by which they proclaim what day the centuriate assemblies will be, it is written according to an old and perpetual formula: "let no lesser magistrate wish to have observed the sky." 2. Therefore it is commonly asked who the lesser magistrates are. 3. On this matter there was no need of my own words, since the first book of M. Messalla the augur On the Auspices happened to be at hand when we were writing this.

IV. Propterea ex eo libro verba ipsius Messalae subscripsimus. "Patriciorum auspicia in duas sunt divisa potestates. Maxima sunt consulum, praetorum, censorum.

4. For that reason from that book we have subjoined the words of Messala himself. "The auspices of the patricians are divided into two powers. The greatest are those of the consuls, praetors, censors."

Neque tamen eorum omnium inter se eadem aut eiusdem potestatis, ideo quod conlegae non sunt censores consulum aut praetorum, praetores consulum sunt. Ideo neque consules aut praetores censoribus neque censores consulibus aut praetoribus turbant aut retinent auspicia; at censores inter se, rursus praetores consulesque inter se et vitiant et obtinent. Praetor, etsi conlega consulis est, neque praetorem neque consulem iure rogare potest, ut quidem nos a superioribus accepimus aut ante haec tempora servatum est et ut in commentario tertio decimo C. Tuditani patet, quia imperium minus praetor, maius habet consul, et a minore imperio maius aut maior a minore conlega rogari iure non potest.

Nor, however, are the auspices of all of them among themselves either the same or of the same potestas, for the reason that the censors are not colleagues of the consuls or of the praetors, while the praetors are colleagues of the consuls. Therefore neither do the consuls or praetors either confound or withhold the auspices of the censors, nor do the censors those of the consuls or praetors; but the censors among themselves, and in turn the praetors and the consuls among themselves, both vitiate and maintain them. The praetor, although he is a colleague of the consul, can by right put the question to neither a praetor nor a consul, as indeed we have received from our predecessors and as was observed before these times, and as is evident in C. Tuditanus’s 13th commentary, because the praetor has the lesser imperium, the consul the greater, and from a lesser imperium the greater, or the greater by the lesser colleague, cannot by right be “asked.”

Nos his temporibus praetore praetores creante veterum auctoritatem sumus secuti neque his comitiis in auspicio fuimus. Censores aeque non eodem rogantur auspicio atque consules et praetores. Reliquorum magistratuum minora sunt auspicia.

We in these times, with a praetor creating praetors, have followed the authority of the ancients, nor at these comitia were we in charge of the auspices. The censors likewise are not elected under the same auspice as the consuls and praetors. The auspices of the remaining magistracies are lesser.

Ideo illi "minores", hi "maiores" magistratus appellantur. Minoribus creatis magistratibus tributis comitiis magistratus, sed iustus curiata datur lege; maiores centuriatis comitiis fiunt". V. Ex his omnibus verbis Messalae manifestum fit, et qui sint magistratus minores et quamobrem minores appellentur. VI. Sed et conlegam esse praetorem consuli docet, quod eodem auspicio creantur.

Therefore those are called "lesser," these "greater" magistrates. The lesser magistrates are created in the tribal comitia as magistrates, but a lawful magistracy is given by the curiate law; the greater are made by the centuriate comitia". 5. From all these words of Messalla it becomes manifest both which magistrates are lesser and for what reason they are called lesser. 6. But he also shows that the praetor is a colleague to the consul, because they are created under the same auspice.

VII. Maiora autem dicuntur auspicia habere, quia eorum auspicia magis rata sunt quam aliorum.

7. They are said to have greater auspices, because their auspices are more ratified than those of others.

XVI. Item verba eiusdem Messalae disserentis aliud esse ad populum loqui, aliud cum populo agere; et qui magistratus a quibus avocent comitiatum.I. Idem Messala in eodem libro de minoribus magistratibus ita scripsit: "Consul ab omnibus magistratibus et comitiatum et contionem avocare potest. Praetor et comitiatum et contionem usquequaque avocare potest nisi a consule. Minores magistratus nusquam nec comitiatum nec contionem avocare possunt.

16. Likewise the words of that same Messala, arguing that it is one thing to speak to the people, another to transact with the people; and from which magistrates the holding of the comitia is called away, and by which.1. The same Messala in the same book on the lesser magistrates wrote thus: “The consul can call away both the holding of the comitia and a contio from all magistrates. The praetor can call away both the holding of the comitia and a contio everywhere, except from the consul. The lesser magistrates nowhere can call away either the holding of the comitia or a contio.”

Ea re, qui eorum primus vocat ad comitiatum, is recte agit, quia bifariam cum populo agi non potest nec avocare alius alii potest. Set si contionem habere volunt, uti ne cum populo agant, quamvis multi magistratus simul contionem habere possunt". II. Ex his verbis Messalae manifestum est aliud esse "cum populo agere", aliud "contionem habere". III. Nam "cum populo agere" est rogare quid populum, quod suffragiis suis aut iubeat aut vetet, "contionem" autem "habere" est verba facere ad populum sine ulla rogatione.

1. For that reason, the one of them who first summons to the comitial assembly acts rightly, because one cannot transact with the people in a twofold way, nor can one call another away. But if they wish to hold a public meeting, so that they may not transact with the people, however many magistrates can at the same time hold a public meeting. 2. From these words of Messala it is manifest that "cum populo agere" is one thing, "contionem habere" another. 3. For "cum populo agere" is to ask the people something which by their suffrages they either bid or forbid, but "contionem habere" is to speak to the people without any rogation.

XVII. "Humanitatem" non significare id, quod volgus putat, sed eo vocabulo, qui sinceriter locuti sunt, magis proprie esse usos.I. Qui verba Latina fecerunt quique his probe usi sunt, "humanitatem" non id esse voluerunt, quod volgus existimat quodque a Graecis philanthropia dicitur et significat dexteritatem quandam benivolentiamque erga omnis homines promiscam, sed "humanitatem" appellaverunt id propemodum, quod Graeci paideian vocant, nos eruditionem institutionemque in bonas artis dicimus. Quas qui sinceriter cupiunt adpetuntque, hi sunt vel maxime humanissimi. Huius enim scientiae cura et disciplina ex universis animantibus uni homini datast idcircoque "humanitas" appellata est.

17. "Humanitas" does not signify that which the common crowd thinks, but those who spoke sincerely have used that word more properly.1. Those who fashioned Latin words and who used them properly did not wish “humanitas” to be what the crowd supposes and what the Greeks call philanthropia, which signifies a certain adroitness and benevolence toward all human beings indiscriminately; rather, they called “humanitas” approximately what the Greeks call paideia, which we call erudition and training in the good arts. Those who sincerely desire and seek these are, above all, the most “humane.” For the care and discipline of this knowledge has been given, out of all living creatures, to the human alone, and for that reason it has been called “humanitas.”

II. Sic igitur eo verbo veteres esse usos et cumprimis M. Varronem Marcumque Tullium omnes ferme libri declarant. Quamobrem satis habui unum interim exemplum promere. III.

2. Thus therefore nearly all the books declare that the ancients used that word, and especially M. Varro and Marcus Tullius. Wherefore I have thought it enough for the moment to bring forward one example. 3.

Itaque verba posui Varronis e libro rerum humanarum primo, cuius principium hoc est: "Praxiteles, qui propter artificium egregium nemini est paulum modo humaniori ignotus". IV. "Humaniori" inquit non ita, ut vulgo dicitur, facili et tractabili et benivolo, tametsi rudis litterarum sit - hoc enim cum sententia nequaquam convenit -, sed eruditiori doctiorique, qui Praxitelem, quid fuerit, et ex libris et ex historia cognoverit.

Therefore I have set down Varro’s words from the first book of Human Affairs, the beginning of which is this: "Praxiteles, who on account of his outstanding craftsmanship is unknown to no one who is even a little more cultivated." 4. He says "more cultivated" not, as it is said vulgarly, "affable and tractable and benevolent, even if unlettered"—for this by no means agrees with the meaning—but "more erudite and more learned," one who has come to know Praxiteles—what he was—both from books and from history.

XVIII. Quid aput M. Catonem significent verba haec "inter os atque offam".I. Oratio est M. Catonis Censorii de aedilibus vitio creatis. Ex ea oratione verba haec sunt: "Nunc ita aiunt in segetibus, in herbis bona frumenta esse. Nolite ibi nimiam spem habere.

18. What the words “between the mouth and the morsel” signify with M. Cato.1. There is an oration of M. Cato the Censor about aediles elected with a fault. From that oration these are the words: “Now they say thus: in the standing crops, in the blades, there is good grain. Do not have excessive hope there.”

Saepe audivi inter os atque offam multa intervenire posse; verumvero inter offam atque herbam ibi vero longum intervallum est". II. Erucius Clarus, qui praefectus urbi et bis consul fuit, vir morum et litterarum veterum studiosissimus, ad Sulpicium Apollinarem scripsit, hominem memoriae nostrae doctissimum, quaerere sese et petere, uti sibi rescriberet, quaenam esset eorum verborum sententia. III. Tum Apollinaris nobis praesentibus - nam id temporis ego adulescens Romae sectabar eum discendi gratia - rescripsit Claro ut viro erudito brevissime vetus esse proverbium "inter os et offam" idem significans, quod Graecus ille paroimiodes versus:

"I have often heard that between the mouth and the morsel many things can intervene; but in very truth between the morsel and the green crop there indeed is a long interval." 2. Erucius Clarus, who was prefect of the city and twice consul, a man most devoted to the manners and letters of the ancients, wrote to Sulpicius Apollinaris, a man of our own memory most learned, that he was inquiring and asking that he write back to him what the meaning of those words was. 3. Then Apollinaris, with us present — for at that time I, a young man, in Rome attended him for the sake of learning — wrote back to Clarus, as to a learned man, most briefly, that "between mouth and morsel" was an old proverb meaning the same as that Greek proverbial verse:

polla metaxy pelei kylikos kai cheileos arkou.

Many things intervene between the cup and the lip.

XIX. ...I. Versus est notae vetustatis senarius: sophoi tyrannoi ton sophon xynousiai. II. Eum versum Plato in Theaeteto Euripidi esse dicit. Quod quidem nos admodum miramur; nam scriptum eum legimus in tragoedia Sophocli, quae inscripta est Aias Lokros; prior autem natus fuit Sophocles quam Euripides.

19. ...1. There is a senarius of well-known antiquity: sophoi tyrannoi ton sophon xynousiai. 2. Plato in the Theaetetus says that that verse is by Euripides. Which indeed we greatly marvel at; for we read it written in a tragedy of Sophocles, which is entitled Aias Lokros; and Sophocles, moreover, was born earlier than Euripides.

III. Sed etiam ille versus non minus notus: geron geronta paidagogeso s'ego, et in tragoedia Sophocli scriptus est, cui titulus est Phiotides, et in Bacchis Euripidi. IV. Id quoque animadvertimus aput Aeschylum en toi pyrphoroi Promethei et aput Euripidem in tragoedia quae inscripta est Ino, eundem esse versum absque paucis syllabis.

3. But also that verse no less well-known: geron geronta paidagogeso s'ego, is written both in a tragedy of Sophocles, whose title is Phiotides, and in the Bacchae of Euripides. 4. We have also observed with Aeschylus en toi pyrphoroi Promethei and with Euripides in the tragedy which is entitled Ino, that it is the same verse, save for a few syllables.

Aeschylus sic:

Aeschylus thus:

sigon th'hopou dei kai legon ta kairia,

keeping silence where it is necessary and speaking what is opportune,

Euripides ita:

Euripides thus:

sigan th'hopou dei kai legein hin'asphales.

to be silent where it is necessary and to speak securely.

Fuit autem Aeschylus non brevi antiquior.

However, Aeschylus was older by no brief span.

XX. De genere atque nominibus familiae Porciae.I. Cum in domus Tiberianae bibliotheca sederemus ego et Apollinaris Sulpicius et quidam alii mihi aut illi familiares, prolatus forte liber est ita inscriptus: M. Catonis Nepotis. II. Tum quaeri coeptum est, quisnam is fuisset M. Cato Nepos. III.

20. On the lineage and the names of the Porcian family.1. While we were sitting in the library of the Tiberian house, Apollinaris Sulpicius and I and certain others familiar to me or to him, a book happened by chance to be brought out, inscribed thus: Of M. Cato the Grandson. 2. Then it began to be inquired who that M. Cato the Grandson had been. 3.

Atque ibi adulescens quispiam, quod ex eius sermonibus coniectare potui, non abhorrens a litteris: "hic" inquit "est M. Cato, non cognomento Nepos, sed M. Catonis Censorii ex filio nepos, qui pater fuit M. Catonis, praetorii viri, qui bello civili Vticae necem sibi gladio manu sua conscivit, de cuius vita liber est M. Ciceronis, qui inscribitur laus Catonis, quem in eodem libro idem Cicero pronepotem fuisse dicit M. Catonis Censorii. IV. Eius igitur, quem Cicero laudavit, pater hic fuit M. Cato, cuius orationes feruntur inscriptae: M. Catonis Nepotis". V. Tum Apollinaris, ut mos eius in reprehendendo fuit, placide admodum leniterque: "laudo" inquit "te, mi fili, quod in tantula aetate, etiamsi hunc M. Catonem, de quo nunc quaeritur, quis fuerit, ignoras, auditiuncula tamen quadam de Catonis familia aspersus es. VI. Non unus autem, sed conplures M. illius Catonis Censorii nepotes fuerunt geniti non eodem patre; VII. duos enim M. ille Cato, qui et orator et censor fuit, filios habuit et matribus diversos et aetatibus longe dispares.

And there some adolescent, as I could conjecture from his discourses, not averse to letters, said: "this is M. Cato, not by the cognomen Nepos, but the grandson of M. Cato the Censor from his son, who was the father of M. Cato, a man of praetorian rank, who in the civil war at Utica procured death for himself with the sword by his own hand, concerning whose life there is a book of M. Cicero, which is inscribed Praise of Cato, whom in the same book the same Cicero says was the great‑grandson of M. Cato the Censor. 4. Of him, therefore, whom Cicero praised, the father was this M. Cato, whose speeches are said to be inscribed: ‘M. Catonis Nepotis’."
5. Then Apollinaris, as his custom in reprehending was, very placidly and gently said: "I praise you, my son, that at so small an age, even if you are ignorant who this M. Cato is, about whom inquiry is now being made, yet you have been sprinkled with some small hearsay about the family of Cato.
6. Moreover, not one, but several grandsons of that M. Cato the Censor were begotten, not from the same father;
7. for that M. Cato, who was both an orator and a censor, had two sons, different in mothers and far disparate in ages."

VIII. Nam iam adulescente altero matre eius amissa ipse quoque iam multum senex Saloni clientis sui filiam virginem duxit in matrimonium, ex qua natus est ei M. Cato Salonianus; hoc enim illi cognomentum fuit a Salonio, patre matris, datum. IX. Ex maiore autem Catonis filio, qui praetor designatus patre vivo mortuus est et egregios de iuris disciplina libros reliquit, nascitur hic, de quo quaeritur, M. Cato M. filius M. nepos.

8. For when the other was already a young man, his mother having been lost, he too, now very old, led into matrimony the virgin daughter of Salonius, his client, from whom there was born to him M. Cato Salonianus; for this was his cognomen, given to him from Salonius, the mother’s father. 9. From the elder son of Cato, however—who, designated praetor, died while his father was alive and left excellent books on the discipline of law—there is born this man about whom inquiry is made, M. Cato, M.’s son, M.’s grandson.

X. Is satis vehemens orator fuit multasque orationes ad exemplum avi scriptas reliquit et consul cum Q. Marcio Rege fuit inque eo consulatu in Africam profectus in ea provincia mortem obit. XI. Sed is non, ita ut dixisti, M. Catonis, praetorii viri, qui se Vticae occidit et quem Cicero laudavit, pater fuit, nec, quia hic nepos Catonis Censorii, ille autem pronepos fuit, propterea necessum est patrem hunc ei fuisse. XII.

10. He was a sufficiently vehement orator and left many speeches written after the exemplar of his grandfather; and he was consul with Q. Marcius Rex, and in that consulship, having set out to Africa, he met his death in that province. 11. But he was not, as you said, the father of M. Cato, the man of praetorian rank, who killed himself at Utica and whom Cicero praised; nor, because this man was a grandson of Cato the Censor, while that man was a great-grandson, is it therefore necessary that this man was his father. 12.

Hic enim nepos, cuius haec modo prolata oratio est, filium quidem M. Catonem habuit; sed non eum, qui Vticae perit, sed qui, cum aedilis curulis et praetor fuisset, in Galliam Narbonensem profectus ibi vita functus est. XIII. Ex altero autem illo Censorii filio longe natu minore, quem Salonianum esse appellatum dixi, duo nati sunt L. Cato et M. Cato.

For this grandson, whose speech has just now been produced, did indeed have a son, M. Cato; but not the one who perished at Utica, rather the one who, when he had been curule aedile and praetor, having set out into Narbonensian Gaul, there departed this life. 13. From that other son of the Censor, however, far the younger by birth, whom I said was called Salonianus, two were born: L. Cato and M. Cato.

XIV. Is M. Cato tribunus plebis fuit et praeturam petens mortem obiit, ex eoque natus est M. Cato praetorius, qui se bello civili Vticae interemit, de cuius vita laudibusque cum M. Tullius scriberet, pronepotem eum Catonis Censorii dixit fuisse. XV. Videtis igitur hanc partem familiae, quae ex minore Catonis filio progenita est, non solum generis ipsius tramitibus, sed temporum quoque spatio differre; nam quia ille Salonianus in extrema patris aetate, sicuti dixi, natus fuit, prognati quoque ab eo aliquanto posteriores fuerunt, quam qui a maiore fratre eius geniti erant.

14. That M. Cato was tribune of the plebs, and, while seeking the praetorship, he met death; and from him was born M. Cato, a praetorian, who killed himself at Utica in the civil war—about whose life and encomia, when M. Tullius was writing, he said that he was the great-grandson of Cato the Censor. 15. You see therefore that this part of the family, which is begotten from the younger son of Cato, differs not only by the pathways of the lineage itself, but also by an interval of times; for since that Salonianus was born in his father’s extreme age, just as I said, those sprung from him were also somewhat later than those who had been begotten from his elder brother.

XVI. Hanc temporum differentiam facile animadvertetis ex hac ipsa oratione, cum eam legetis". XVII. Haec Sulpicius Apollinaris audientibus nobis dixit.

16. You will easily observe this temporal difference from this very oration, when you read it".
17. Sulpicius Apollinaris said these things as we were listening.

Quae postea ita esse, uti dixerat, cognovimus, cum et laudationes funebres et librum commentarium de familia Porcia legeremus.

We afterward learned that these things were so, just as he had said, when we read both the funeral laudations and the commentary book on the Porcian family.

XXI. Quod a scriptoribus elegantissimis maior ratio habita sit sonitus vocum atque verborum iucundioris, quae a Graecis euphonia dicitur, quam regulae disciplinaeque, quae a grammaticis reperta est.I. Interrogatus est Probus Valerius, quod ex familiari eius quodam conperi, "has" ne "urbis" an "has urbes" et "hanc turrim" an "hanc turrem" dici oporteret. "Si aut versum" inquit "pangis aut orationem solutam struis atque ea verba tibi dicenda sunt, non finitiones illas praerancidas neque fetutinas grammaticas spectaveris, sed aurem tuam interroga, quo quid loco conveniat dicere; quod illa suaserit, id profecto erit rectissimum". II. Tum is, qui quaesierat: "quonam modo" inquit "vis aurem meam interrogem?" III. Et Probum ait respondisse: "Quo suam Vergilius percontatus est, qui diversis in locis "urbis" et "urbes" dixit arbitrio consilioque usus auris.

21. That the most elegant writers have had greater regard for the more pleasant sound of voices and words, which is called euphony by the Greeks, than for the rule and discipline that has been discovered by the grammarians.1. Probus Valerius was asked, as I learned from a certain intimate of his, whether it ought to be said “has” with “urbis” or “has urbes,” and “hanc turrim” or “hanc turrem.” “If you are composing a verse,” he said, “or you are building a piece of prose and you must speak those words, do not look to those over-rancid and musty grammatical definitions, but question your ear as to what it is fitting to say in each place; what it shall advise will assuredly be the most correct.” 2. Then the one who had asked said: “In what way do you wish me to question my ear?” 3. And Probus is said to have replied: “In the way Vergil consulted his own, who in different places said ‘urbis’ and ‘urbes,’ using the ear’s judgment and counsel.”

IV. Nam in primo georgicon, quem ego" inquit "librum manu ipsius correctum legi, "urbis" per "i" litteram scripsit. Verba e versibus eius haec sunt: urbisne invisere, Caesar, terrarumque velis curam. Verte enim et muta, ut "urbes" dicas: insubidius nescio quid facies et pinguius.

4. For in the first of the Georgics, which book I," he said, "read corrected by his own hand, he wrote ‘urbis’ with the letter ‘i’. The words from his verses are these:
is it the city you would visit, Caesar,
and would you wish the care of the lands? For turn it and change it, so that you say ‘urbes’: you will make it, I know not what, more insipid and fatter.

V. Contra in tertio Aeneidis "urbes" dixit per "e" litteram: centum urbes habitant magnas. Hic item muta, ut "urbes" dicas: nimis exilis vox erit et exsanguis; tanta quippe iuncturae differentia est in consonantia vocum proximarum. VI. Praeterea idem Vergilius "turrim" dixit, non "turrem", et "securim", non "securem":

5. On the contrary, in the third of the Aeneid he said "urbes" with the letter "e": centum urbes habitant magnas. Here likewise change it, so that you say "urbes": the voice will be too exiguous and bloodless; for so great is the difference of the juncture in the consonance of proximate sounds. 6. Moreover, the same Vergil said "turrim," not "turrem," and "securim," not "securem":

turrim in praecipiti stantem
incertam excussit cervice securim.

the tower standing on a precipice
he shook the wavering axe from his neck.

Quae sunt, opinor, iucundioris gracilitatis, quam si suo utrumque loco per "e" litteram dicas". VII. At ille, qui interrogaverat, rudis profecto et aure agresti homo: "cur" inquit "aliud alio in loco potius rectiusque esse dicas, non sane intellego". VIII. Tum Probus iam commotior: "noli" inquit "igitur laborare, utrum istorum debeas dicere, "urbis" an "urbes". Nam cum id genus sis, quod video, ut sine iactura tua pecces, nihil perdes, utrum dixeris". IX. His tum verbis Probus et hac fini hominem dimisit, ut mos eius fuit erga indociles, prope inclementer.

Which are, I suppose, of a more pleasing slenderness than if in its proper place you were to say each with the letter "e".
7. But the man who had asked the question, indeed raw and a fellow with a rustic ear: "Why," he says, "you say that one thing in one place is rather and more correctly [said] than another, I truly do not understand."
8. Then Probus, now more stirred: "Do not, then," he says, "bother yourself about which of those you ought to say, 'urbis' or 'urbes.' For since you are the sort that I see, so that you may err without any loss to yourself, you will lose nothing, whichever you say."
9. Then with these words Probus in this way also put an end and dismissed the man, as was his custom toward the unteachable, almost harshly.

X. Nos autem aliud quoque postea consimiliter a Vergilio duplici modo scriptum invenimus. Nam et "tres" et "tris" posuit eodem in loco ea iudicii subtilitate, ut si aliter dixeris mutaverisque et aliquid tamen auris habeas, sentias suavitatem sonitus claudere. XI. Versus ex decimo hi sunt:

10. But we afterward also found another thing similarly written by Vergil in a twofold way. For he has set both "tres" and "tris" in the same place with such subtlety of judgment that, if you say it otherwise and have altered it, and yet have some ear, you would perceive the sweetness of the sound to limp. 11. These verses are from the tenth:

tres quoque Threicios Boreae de gente suprema
et tris, quos Idas pater et patria Ismara mittit.

three also Thracians of Boreas’s supreme lineage,
and three, whom father Idas and fatherland Ismara send.

"Tres" illic, "tris" hic; pensicula utrumque modulareque: reperies suo quidque in loco sonare aptissime. XII. Sed in illo quoque itidem Vergilii versu:

“‘Tres’ there, ‘tris’ here; weigh each on the little scale and modulate them: you will find each in its own place to sound most aptly. 12. But also in that likewise verse of Vergil:

haec finis Priami fatorum,

this was the end of Priam’s fates,

si mutes "haec" et "hic finis" dicas, durum atque absonum erit, respuentque aures, quod mutaveris. Sicut illud contra eiusdem Vergilii insuavius facias, si mutes:

if you should change “haec” and say “hic finis,” it will be harsh and dissonant, and the ears will spit back what you have altered. Just as, on the contrary, you would make that other line of the same Vergil less suave, if you change:

quem das finem, rex magne, laborum?

what end do you grant, great king, to the labors?

Nam si ita dicas: "quam das finem", iniucundum nescio quo pacto et laxiorem vocis sonum feceris. XIII. Ennius item "rectos cupressos" dixit contra receptum vocabuli genus hoc versu:

For if you say it thus: "quam das finem," you will somehow have produced an unpleasant and more lax sound of the voice.
13. Likewise Ennius said "rectos cupressos" contrary to the received gender of the word in this verse:

capitibus nutantis pinos rectosque cupressos.

pines nodding with their heads and upright cypresses.

Firmior ei, credo, et viridior sonus esse vocis visus est "rectos" dicere "cupressos" quam "rectas". XIV. Contra vero idem Ennius in annali duodevicesimo "aere fulva" dixit, non "fulvo", non ob id solum, quod Homerus eera batheian dicit, sed quod hic sonus, opinor, vocabilior est visus et amoenior. XV. Sicuti Marco etiam Ciceroni mollius teretiusque visum in quinta in Verrem "fretu" scribere quam "freto": "Perangusto" inquit "fretu divisa". Erat enim crassius vetustiusque "perangusto freto" dicere.

A firmer, I believe, and more lively sound of the voice seemed to him to say "rectos" "cupressos" rather than "rectas". 14. On the contrary, indeed, the same Ennius in the eighteenth Annal said "aere fulva", not "fulvo", not for this reason only, that Homer says eera batheian, but because this sound, in my opinion, seemed more vocable and more agreeable. 15. Just so, to Marcus Tullius Cicero too it seemed softer and more well-turned in the fifth Against Verres to write "fretu" rather than "freto": "Perangusto" he says "fretu divisa". For it was more crass and more old-fashioned to say "perangusto freto".

XVI. Itidem in secunda simili usus modulamine "manifesto peccatu" inquit, non "peccato"; hoc enim scriptum in uno atque in altero antiquissimae fidei libro Tironiano repperi. XVII.

16. Likewise in the second, using a similar modulation, he said 'manifesto peccatu', not 'peccato'; for I found this written in both the one and the other Tironian book of the most ancient fidelity. 17.

Verba sunt Ciceronis haec: "Nemo ita vivebat, ut nulla eius vitae pars summae turpitudinis esset expers, nemo ita in manifesto peccatu tenebatur, ut, cum inpudens fuisset in facto, tum inpudentior videretur, si negaret". XVIII. Huius autem vocis cum elegantior hoc in loco sonus est, tum ratio certa et probata est. XIX.

These are Cicero’s words: "No one lived in such a way that no part of his life was free from the highest turpitude; no one was so held in manifest sin that, although he had been shameless in the deed, then he would seem more shameless if he denied it." 18. Moreover, as for this word, not only is its sound more elegant in this place, but the reason is certain and approved. 19.

"Hic" enim "peccatus", quasi "peccatio", recte Latineque dicitur, sicut "hic incestus" non qui admisit, sed quod admissum est, et "hic tributus", quod "tributum" nos dicimus, a plerisque veterum dicta sunt. "Hic" quoque "adlegatus" et "hic arbitratus" pro "adlegatione" proque "arbitratione" dicuntur, qua ratione servata "arbitratu" et "adlegatu meo" dicimus. XX. Sic igitur "in manifesto peccatu" dixit, ut "in manifesto incestu" veteres dixerunt, non quin Latinum esset "peccato" dicere, sed quia in loco isto positum subtilius ad aurem molliusque est.

"This" indeed "peccatus," as it were "peccation," is correctly and in good Latin said, just as "this incestus," not he who committed it, but that which has been committed, and "this tributus," which we call "tributum," were said by many of the ancients. "This" also "adlegatus" and "this arbitratus" are said for "adlegatio" and for "arbitratio"; with this rationale kept we say "by my arbitratu" and "by my adlegatu." 20. Thus therefore he said "in manifesto peccatu," as the ancients said "in manifesto incestu," not that it would not be Latin to say "peccato," but because, placed in that passage, it is subtler and softer to the ear.

XXI. Lucretius aeque auribus inserviens "funem" feminino genere appellavit in hisce versibus:

21. Lucretius, equally serving the ears, called "funem" in the feminine gender in these verses:

haut, ut opinor, enim mortalia saecla superne
aurea de caelo demisit funis in arva,

not, as I suppose, for a golden rope from above
let down from heaven into the fields the mortal ages,

cum dicere usitatius manente numero posset:

since he could have said it in a more customary way, with the number remaining:

aureus e caelo demisit funis in arva. XXII. Sacerdotes quoque feminas M. Cicero "antistitas" dicit, non secundum grammaticam legem "antistites". Nam cum insolentias verborum a veteribus dictorum plerumque respueret, huius tamen verbi in ea parte sonitu delectatus: "Sacerdotes" inquit "Cereris atque illius fani antistitae". XXIII.

a golden rope he sent down from heaven into the fields. 22. Marcus Cicero also calls women priests "antistitae," not according to the grammatical law "antistites." For although he generally rejected the unusual forms of words spoken by the ancients, yet, delighted by the sound of this word in that part: "Priestesses," he says, "the antistitae of Ceres and of that shrine." 23.

Vsque adeo in quibusdam neque rationem verbi neque consuetudinem, sed solam aurem secuti sunt suis verba modulis pensitantem. XXIV. "Quod qui non sentiunt," inquit idem ipse M. Cicero, cum de numerosa et apta oratione dissereret, "quas auris habeant aut quid in his hominis simile sit, nescio". XXV.

To such a degree, in certain cases, they followed neither the rationale of the word nor usage, but only the ear, weighing words by its own moduli. 24. "As for those who do not sense this," says that same M. Cicero, when he was discoursing about rhythmical and apt oration, "what kind of ears they have, or what in them is like to a human being, I do not know". 25.

Illud vero cumprimis apud Homerum veteres grammatici adnotaverunt, quod, cum dixisset quodam in loco koloious te pseras te, alio in loco non pseron, set psaron dixit: ton d'hos te psaron nephos erchetai ee koloion, secutus non communem, sed propriam in quoque vocis situ iucunditatem; nam si alterum in alterius loco ponas, utrumque feceris sonitu insuave.

That point, especially in Homer, the ancient grammarians noted: namely that, when he had said in one place koloious te pseras te, in another place he said not pseron, but psaron:
ton d'hos te psaron nephos erchetai ee koloion,
following not the common, but the proper pleasantness of each word in its position; for if you put the one in the other’s place, you will have made each unpleasant in sound.

XXII. Verba Titi Castricii rhetoris ad discipulos adulescentes de vestitu atque calciatu non decoro.I. T. Castricius, rhetoricae disciplinae doctor, qui habuit Romae locum principem declamandi ac docendi, summa vir auctoritate gravitateque et a divo Hadriano in mores atque litteras spectatus, cum me forte praesente - usus enim sum eo magistro - discipulos quosdam suos senatores vidisset die feriato tunicis et lacernis indutos et gallicis calciatos: "equidem" inquit "maluissem vos togatos esse; si pigitum est, cinctos saltem esse et paenulatos. Sed si hic vester huiusmodi vestitus de multo iam usu ignoscibilis est, soleatos tamen vos, populi Romani senatores, per urbis vias ingredi nequaquam decorum est, non hercle vobis minus, quam illi tum fuit, cui hoc M. Tullius pro turpi crimine obiectavit". II. Haec me audiente Castricius et quaedam alia ad eam rem conducentia Romane et severe dixit. III.

22. Words of Titus Castricius, rhetor, to adolescent pupils about unseemly dress and footwear.1. T. Castricius, a teacher of rhetorical discipline, who held at Rome the leading place for declaiming and teaching, a man of the highest authority and gravity and esteemed by the deified Hadrian in morals and letters, when, I chancing to be present—for I made use of him as my teacher—he had seen certain of his pupils, senators, on a holiday, dressed in tunics and lacernae and shod with Gallic footwear, said: “For my part I would have preferred you to be togate; if that is irksome, at least to be belted and in paenulae. But if this your sort of attire, from long usage now, is pardonable, yet for you, senators of the Roman people, to go through the city’s streets in sandals is by no means decorous, by Hercules, no less for you than it then was for that man to whom M. Tullius objected this as a shameful charge.” 2. These things, with me listening, Castricius said in Roman fashion and sternly, and certain other points conducive to that matter. 3.

Plerique autem ex his, qui audierant, requirebant, cur "soleatos" dixisset, qui gallicas non soleas, haberent. IV. Sed Castricius profecto scite atque incorrupte locutus est: V. omnia enim ferme id genus, quibus plantarum calces tantum infimae teguntur, cetera prope nuda et teretibus habenis vincta sunt, "soleas" dixerunt, nonnumquam voce Graeca "crepidulas". VI. "Gallicas" autem verbum esse opinor novum non diu ante aetatem M. Ciceronis usurpari coeptum, itaque ab eo ipso positum est in secunda Antonianarum: "Cum gallicis" inquit "et lacerna cucurristi". VII. Neque in ea significatione id apud quemquam alium scriptum lego gravioris dumtaxat auctoritatis scriptorem; sed, ut dixi, "crepidas" et "crepidulas" prima syllaba correpta id genus calciamentum appellaverunt, quod Graeci krepidas vocant, eiusque calciamenti sutores "crepidarios" dixerunt.

Plerique, however, of those who had heard were asking why he had said “sandaled,” since they had gallicae, not sandals. 4. But Castricius indeed spoke neatly and without corruption: 5. for almost all footwear of that kind, in which only the lowest heels of the soles are covered, the rest almost bare and bound with rounded thongs, they called “soleae,” sometimes, with the Greek word, “crepidulae.” 6. But I think “gallicae” to be a new term, which began to be employed not long before the age of M. Cicero; and so by that man himself it is set in the second of the Philippics Against Antony: “With gallicae,” he says, “and a lacerna you ran.” 7. Nor do I read that term in that signification in anyone else—at least any writer of weightier authority; but, as I said, they called that kind of footwear “crepidas” and “crepidulas,” with the first syllable short, which the Greeks call krepidas, and the cobblers of that kind of footwear they called “crepidarii.”

VIII. Sempronius Asellio in libro rerum gestarum XIV: "Crepidarium" inquit "cultellum rogavit a crepidario sutore".

8. Sempronius Asellio in the 14th book of his Deeds (Res Gestae): "A crepidary small knife," he says, "he asked for from a crepidary shoemaker."

XXIII. ...I. Conprecationes deum inmortalium, quae ritu Romano fiunt, expositae sunt in libris sacerdotum populi Romani et in plerisque antiquis orationibus. II. In his scriptum est: "Luam Saturni, Salaciam Neptuni, Horam Quirini, Virites Quirini, Maiam Volcani, Heriem Iunonis, Moles Martis Nerienemque Martis". III. Ex quibus id, quod postremum posui, sic plerosque dicere audio, ut primam in eo syllabam producant, quo Graeci modo dicunt Nereidas.

23. ...1. The conprecations of the immortal gods which are done by the Roman rite have been expounded in the books of the priests of the Roman people and in very many ancient orations. 2. In these it is written: "Luam Saturni, Salaciam Neptuni, Horam Quirini, Virites Quirini, Maiam Volcani, Heriem Iunonis, Moles Martis Nerienemque Martis". 3. Of which, that which I have placed last, I hear very many say thus, that they lengthen the first syllable in it, in the way the Greeks say Nereids.

Sed qui proprie locuti sunt, primam correptam dixerunt, tertiam produxerunt. IV. Est enim rectus casus eius vocabuli, sicut in libris veterum scriptum est, "Nerio", quamquam M. Varro in satura Menippea, quae inscribitur Skiomachia, non "Nerio", sed "Nerienes" vocative dicit in his versibus: te Anna ac Peranna, Panda Cela, te Pales, Nerienes et Minerva, Fortuna ac Ceres. V. Ex quo nominandi quoque casum eundem fieri necessum est.

But those who spoke properly said the first was short, they made the third long. 4. For the nominative case of that word, as it is written in the books of the ancients, is "Nerio", although M. Varro in a Menippean satire, which is entitled Skiomachia, says not "Nerio" but "Nerienes" in the vocative in these verses:
you, Anna and Peranna, Panda Cela, you, Pales,
Nerienes and Minerva, Fortune and Ceres. 5. Whence it is necessary that the nominative case also be the same.

Sed Nerio a veteribus sic declinabatur quasi Anio: VI. nam perinde ut "Anienem", sic "Nerienem" dixerunt tertia syllaba producta. VII. Id autem, sive "Nerio" sive "Nerienes" est, Sabinum verbum est, eoque significatur virtus et fortitudo.

But "Nerio" was declined by the ancients thus as "Anio":
6. for just as they said "Anienem," so they said "Nerienem," with the third syllable lengthened.
7. But, whether it is "Nerio" or "Nerienes," it is a Sabine word, and by it is signified virtus (manly valor) and fortitude.

VIII. Itaque ex Claudiis, quos a Sabinis oriundos accepimus, qui erat egregia atque praestanti fortitudine, "Nero" appellatus est. IX. Sed id Sabini accepisse a Graecis videntur, qui vincula et firmamenta membrorum neura dicunt, unde nos quoque Latine "nervos" appellamus.

8. And so from the Claudii, whom we have received as sprung from the Sabines, the one who was of outstanding and preeminent fortitude was called "Nero". 9. But the Sabines seem to have received that from the Greeks, who call the bonds and firmaments of the limbs neura, whence we too in Latin call them "nervos".

X. Nerio igitur Martis vis et potentia et maiestas quaedam esse Martis demonstratur. XI. Plautus autem in Truculento coniugem esse Nerienem Martis dicit, atque id sub persona militis in hoc versu: Mars peregre adveniens salutat Nerienem uxorem suam. XII.

10. Therefore Nerio is shown to be the force and potency and a certain majesty of Mars. 11. But Plautus, in the Truculentus, says that Neriene is the spouse of Mars, and he says it under the persona of a soldier in this verse: Mars, arriving from abroad, greets Neriene, his wife. 12.

Super ea re audivi non incelebrem hominem dicere nimis comice Plautum inperito et incondito militi falsam novamque opinionem tribuisse, ut Nerienem coniugem esse Martis putaret. XIII. Sed id perite magis quam comice dictum intelleget, qui leget Cn. Gellii annalem tertium, in quo scriptum est Hersiliam, cum apud T. Tatium verba faceret pacemque oraret, ita precatam esse: "Neria Martis, te obsecro, pacem da, te uti liceat nuptiis propriis et prosperis uti, quod de tui coniugis consilio contigit, uti nos itidem integras raperent, unde liberos sibi et suis, posteros patriae pararent". XIV.

On that matter I heard a not uncelebrated man say that Plautus, too comically, had assigned to an unskilled and unpolished soldier a false and novel opinion, namely that he thought Neriene to be the spouse of Mars. 13. But one will understand that to have been said skillfully rather than comically, who reads the third Annal of Gnaeus Gellius, in which it is written that Hersilia, when she was speaking in the presence of Titus Tatius and was begging for peace, prayed thus: "Neria of Mars, I beseech you, grant peace, grant that it may be permitted by you to enjoy one’s own proper and prosperous nuptials, since by the counsel of your consort it befell that they likewise carried us off intact, whence they might prepare children for themselves and their own, posterity for the fatherland." 14.

"De tui" inquit "coniugis consilio" Martem scilicet significans; per quod apparet non esse id poetice a Plauto dictum, sed eam quoque traditionem fuisse, ut Nerio a quibusdam uxor esse Martis diceretur. XV. Inibi autem animadvertendum est, quod Gellius "Neria" dicit per "a" litteram, non "Nerio" neque "Nerienes". XVI. Praeter Plautum etiam praeterque Gellium Licinius Imbrex, vietus comoediarum scriptor, in fabula, quae Neaera inscripta est, ita scripsit: nolo ego Neaeram te vocent, set Nerienem, cum quidem Mavorti es in conubium data.

"‘Of your spouse’s counsel,’ he says, clearly signifying Mars; through which it appears that this was not said poetically by Plautus, but that there was also a tradition that by some Nerio was said to be the wife of Mars. 15. In that same place, however, it is to be noticed that Gellius says 'Neria' with the letter 'a', not 'Nerio' nor 'Nerienes'. 16. Besides Plautus and besides Gellius, Licinius Imbrex, an old writer of comedies, in the play which is entitled Neaera, wrote thus:
I do not want them to call you Neaera, but Nerienē,
since indeed you have been given in connubium to Mavors.

XVII. Ita autem se numerus huiusce versus habet, ut tertia in eo nomine syllaba contra quam supra dictum est corripienda sit; cuius sonitus quanta aput veteres indifferentia sit, notius est, quam ut plura in id verba sumenda sint. XVIII.

17. But the measure of this verse is such that the third syllable in that name must be shortened, contrary to what was said above; how great an indifference there was among the ancients regarding its sound is too well-known for more words to be expended on it. 18.

Ennius autem in primo annali in hoc versu:

Ennius, however, in the first Annal, in this verse:

Nerienem Mavortis et Herem,

Neriene of Mavors and Hera,

si, quod minime solet, numerum servavit, primam syllabam intendit, tertiam corripuit. XIX. Ac ne id quidem praetermittendum puto, cuicuimodi est, quod in commentario quodam Servii Claudii scriptum invenimus, "Nerio" dictum quasi "Neirio", hoc est sine ira et cum placiditate, ut eo nomine mitem tranquillumque fieri Martem precemur; "ne" enim particula, ut apud Graecos, ita plerumque in Latina quoque lingua privativast.

if, which he very seldom does, he kept the meter, he lengthened the first syllable, he shortened the third. 19. And I think not even this should be passed over, whatever it amounts to, that in a certain commentary of Servius Claudius we have found written that “Nerio” is said as if “Neirio,” that is, “without anger” and “with placidity,” so that by that name we may pray that Mars become mild and tranquil; for the particle “ne,” as among the Greeks, so for the most part also in the Latin tongue, is privative.

XXIV. ...I. M. Cato consularis et censorius publicis iam privatisque opulentis rebus villas suas inexcultas et rudes ne tectorio quidem praelitas fuisse dicit ad annum usque aetatis suae septuagesimum. Atque ibi postea his verbis utitur: "Neque mihi" inquit "aedificatio neque vasum neque vestimentum ullum est manupretiosum neque pretiosus servus neque ancilla. Si quid est," inquit "quod utar, utor; si non est, egeo.

XXIV. ... Likewise M. Cato, consular and censorial, says that, when public and private affairs were already opulent, his villas were uncultivated and rough, not even overlaid with plaster, up to the seventieth year of his age. And there afterwards he uses these words: “Neither for me,” he says, “is any building nor vessel nor garment costly by craftsmanship, nor a costly male slave nor maidservant. If there is anything,” he says, “which I may use, I use it; if there is not, I do without.”

Suum cuique per me uti atque frui licet". Tum deinde addit: "Vitio vertunt, quia multa egeo; at ego illis, quia nequeunt egere". II. Haec mera veritas Tusculani hominis egere se multis rebus et nihil tamen cupere dicentis plus hercle promovet ad exhortandam parsimoniam sustinendamque inopiam quam Graecae istorum praestigiae philosophari sese dicentium umbrasque verborum inanes fingentium, qui se nihil habere et nihil tamen egere ac nihil cupere dicunt, cum et habendo et egendo et cupiendo ardeant.

"To each his own it is permitted through me to use and to enjoy." Then he adds: "They impute it as a fault, because I lack many things; but I to them, because they cannot lack." 2. This pure truth of the Tusculan man, saying that he is in want of many things and yet desires nothing, by Hercules promotes more toward exhorting parsimony and sustaining indigence than the Greek sleights-of-hand of those who say they philosophize and fashion empty shadows of words, who say that they have nothing and yet lack nothing and desire nothing, while they burn with having and lacking and desiring.

XXV. Quaesitum tractatumque, quid sint "manubiae"; atque inibi dicta quaedam de ratione utendi verbis pluribus idem significantibus.I. In fastigiis fori Traiani simulacra sunt sita circum undique inaurata equorum atque signorum militarium, subscriptumque est: "ex manubiis". II. Quaerebat Favorinus, cum in area fori ambularet et amicum suum consulem opperiretur causas pro tribunali cognoscentem nosque tunc eum sectaremur, quaerebat, inquam, quid nobis videretur significare proprie "manubiarum" illa inscriptio. III. Tum quispiam, qui cum eo erat, homo in studiis doctrinae multi atque celebrati nominis: ""ex manubiis"" inquit "significat "ex praeda"; manubiae enim dicuntur praeda, quae manu capta est". IV. "Etiamsi" inquit Favorinus "opera mihi princeps et prope omnis in litteris disciplinisque Graecis sumpta est, non usque eo tamen infrequens sum vocum Latinarum, quas subsicivo aut tumultuario studio colo, ut hanc ignorem manubiarum interpretationem vulgariam, quod esse dicantur manubiae praeda.

25. It was asked and discussed what "manubiae" are; and therein certain things were said about the method of using several words that signify the same thing.I. On the pediments of Trajan’s Forum statues are set all around on every side, gilded, of horses and of military standards, and it is written beneath: "from the manubiae".
II. Favorinus was asking, as he was walking in the open space of the forum and was waiting for his friend the consul, who was hearing cases from the tribunal, and we were then accompanying him—he was asking, I say, what it seemed to us that inscription "of manubiae" properly signified.
III. Then someone who was with him, a man of great and celebrated name in the pursuits of learning, said: ""from the manubiae"" signifies "from the booty"; for manubiae are called the booty which has been taken by hand.
IV. "Although," said Favorinus, "my chief and almost all my effort has been spent in Greek letters and disciplines, yet I am not to that degree infrequent in Latin words, which I cultivate with spare-time or tumultuary study, that I should be ignorant of this vulgar interpretation of manubiae, namely, that manubiae are said to be booty.

Sed quaero, an M. Tullius, verborum homo diligentissimus, in oratione, quam dixit de lege agraria Kalendis Ianuariis contra Rullum, inani et inlepida geminatione iunxerit "manubias" et "praedam", si duo haec verba idem significant neque ulla re aliqua dissident?" V. Atque, ut erat Favorinus egregia vel divina quadam memoria, verba ipsa M. Tulli statim dixit. VI. Ea nos hic adscripsimus: "Praedam, manubias, sectionem, castra denique Cn. Pompei sedente imperatore decemviri vendent"; et infra itidem duo haec simul iunctim posita dixit: "Ex praeda, ex manubiis, ex auro coronario". VII. Ac deinde ad eum convertit, qui manubias esse praedam dixerat, et: "videturne tibi" inquit "utroque in loco M. Cicero duobus verbis idem, sicuti tu putas, significantibus inepte et frigide esse usus ac tali ioco dignus, quali apud Aristophanen, facetissimum comicorum, Euripides Aeschylum insectatus est, cum ait:

But I ask whether M. Tullius, a most diligent man of words, in the oration which he delivered on the agrarian law on the Kalends of January against Rullus, joined “manubiae” and “praeda” in a vain and ungraceful doubling, if these two words signify the same and in no respect differ? 5. And, as Favorinus had an excellent, even in a way divine, memory, he immediately recited M. Tullius’s very words. 6. We have written them here: “Booty (praeda), manubiae, auction (sectio), finally, with Cn. Pompey sitting as commander, the decemvirs will sell the camp”; and lower down likewise he set these two placed together: “From booty, from manubiae, from coronation-gold (aurum coronarium).” 7. And then he turned to the man who had said that manubiae were praeda, and said: “Does it seem to you that in each place M. Cicero, with two words signifying the same, as you suppose, used them ineptly and coldly, and is worthy of such a jest as that with which, in Aristophanes, wittiest of the comic poets, Euripides attacks Aeschylus, when he says:

dis tauton hemin eipen ho sophos Aischylos.
heko gar eis gen, phesi, kai katerchomai;
heko de tauton esti toi katerchomai.
Ne ton Di', hosper g'ei tis eipoi geinotoi;
chreson sy maktran, ei de boulei, karpodon?"

Twice the same thing did the wise Aeschylus say to us.
“For I am come to land,” he says, “and I disembark”;
but “I am come” is the same as “I disembark.”
By Zeus, just as if someone should say “earth-come”;
use “kneading-trough,” or, if you will, “fruit-basket”?

VIII. "Nequaquam vero" inquit ille "talia videntur, quale est maktra et karpodos, quae vel a poetis vel oratoribus Graecis nostrisque celebrandae et ornandae rei gratia duobus eadem pluribusve nominibus frequentantur." IX. "Quid igitur" inquit Favorinus "valet haec repetitio instauratioque eiusdem rei sub alio nomine in "manubiis" et in "praeda"? num ornat, ut alioqui solet, orationem? num eam modulatiorem aptioremque reddit?

8. "By no means, indeed," he said, "do they seem of such a kind as maktra and karpodos, which either by Greek poets or orators or by our own, for the sake of a subject to be celebrated and adorned, are commonly employed under two or more names for the same thing." 9. "What then," said Favorinus, "is the force of this repetition and instauration of the same thing under another name in 'manubiae' and in 'praeda'? Does it adorn, as it is otherwise wont, the oration? Does it render it more modulated and more apt?"

num onerandi vel exprobrandi criminis causa exaggerationem aliquam speciosam facit? sicut in libro eiusdem M. Tulli, qui de constituendo accusatore est, una eademque res pluribus verbis vehementer atque atrociter dicitur: "Sicilia tota, si una voce loqueretur, hoc diceret: "quod auri, quod argenti, quod ornamentorum in meis urbibus, sedibus, delubris fuit"". Nam cum urbes semel totas dixisset, sedes delubraque addidit, quae sunt ipsa quoque in urbibus. X. Item in eodem libro simili modo: "Siciliam" inquit "provinciam C. Verres per triennium depopulatus esse, Siculorum civitates vastasse, domos exinanisse, fana spoliasse dicitur". XI. Ecquid videtur, cum Siciliam provinciam dixerit atque insuper etiam civitates addiderit, domos etiam et fana, quae infra posuit, conprehendisse?

does it, for the purpose of loading or upbraiding a charge, make some specious aggravation? just as in the book of that same Marcus Tullius, which is On Constituting the Accuser, one and the same thing is said with more words vehemently and atrociously: "All Sicily, if with one voice it were speaking, would say this: "whatever of gold, whatever of silver, whatever of ornaments there was in my cities, seats, shrines"." For when he had once said whole cities, he added seats and shrines, which are themselves also in cities. 10. Likewise in the same book in a similar way: "Sicily," he says, "the province, Gaius Verres is said to have laid waste for three years, to have ravaged the cities of the Sicilians, to have emptied the houses, to have despoiled the temples." 11. Does it seem that, when he said the province of Sicily and, over and above, also added the cities, he included also the houses and the temples, which he put below?

Verba haec item multa atque varia: "depopulatus esse, vastasse, exinanisse, spoliasse", nonne unam et eandem vim in sese habent? Sane. Sed quia cum dignitate orationis et cum gravi verborum copia dicuntur, quamquam eadem fere sint et ex una sententia cooriantur, plura tamen esse existimantur, quoniam et aures et animum saepius feriunt.

These words likewise, many and varied—“to have depopulated, to have devastated, to have emptied out, to have despoiled”—do they not have in themselves one and the same force? Certainly. But because they are spoken with the dignity of the oration and with a weighty copiousness of words, although they are almost the same and arise from one sentiment, they are nevertheless thought to be several, since they strike both the ears and the mind more often.

XII. "Hoc ornatus genus in crimine uno vocibus multis atque saevis exstruendo ille iam tunc M. Cato antiquissimus in orationibus suis celebravit, sicut in illa, quae inscripta est de decem hominibus, cum Thermum accusavit, quod decem liberos homines eodem tempore interfecisset, hisce verbis eandem omnibus rem significantibus usus est, quae quoniam sunt eloquentiae Latinae tunc primum exorientis lumina quaedam sublustria, libitum est ea mihi apomnemonevein: "Tuum nefarium facinus peiore facinore operire postulas, succidias humanas facis, tantam trucidationem facis, decem funera facis, decem capita libera interficis, decem hominibus vitam eripis indicta causa, iniudicatis, indemnatis". XIII. Item M. Cato in orationis principio, quam dixit in senatu Pro Rhodiensibus, cum vellet res nimis prosperas dicere, tribus vocabulis idem sentientibus dixit.

12. "This kind of ornament, of piling up a single charge with many and savage words, that most ancient M. Cato already then celebrated in his speeches; just as in that one which is entitled On Ten Men, when he accused Thermus for having killed ten free men at the same time, he used these words, all signifying the same thing—since they are certain half-lights of Latin eloquence then first rising, it has pleased me to apomnemonevein them: "You seek to cover your nefarious crime with a worse crime; you make human butchery; you make so great a slaughtering; you make ten funerals; you kill ten free heads; you snatch away life from ten men with no case stated, untried, uncondemned." 13. Likewise M. Cato, at the beginning of the speech which he delivered in the senate On Behalf of the Rhodians, when he wanted to say things too prosperous, said it with three words meaning the same thing.

XIV. Verba eius haec sunt: "Scio solere plerisque hominibus in rebus secundis atque prolixis atque prosperis animum excellere atque superbiam atque ferociam augescere". XV. Itidem Cato ex originum VII in oratione, quam contra Servium Galbam dixit, conpluribus vocabulis super eadem re usus est: "Multa me dehortata sunt huc prodire, anni, aetas, vox, vires, senectus; verum enimvero cum tantam rem peragier arbitrarer," ... XVI. "Sed ante omnis apud Homerum eiusdem rei atque sententiae luculenta exaggeratio est:

14. His words are these: "I know that for most men, in favorable and long-extended and prosperous circumstances, the spirit is wont to rise high, and pride and ferocity to grow."
15. Likewise Cato, from the Origins 7, in the speech which he delivered against Servius Galba, used several words about the same matter: "Many things dissuaded me from coming forth hither—years, age, voice, strength, old age; but indeed, since I judged that so great a matter was to be carried through," ...
16. "But before all, in Homer there is a splendid exaggeration of the same thing and sentiment:"

Hektora d'ek beleon hypage Zeus ek te konies
ek t'androktasies ek th'haimatos ek te kydoimou.

And Zeus led Hector away from the missiles,
out from the dust, from the man-slaughter, from the blood, and from the battle-din.

Item in alio versu:

Likewise in another verse:

hysminai te machai te phonoi t'androktasiai te.

melees and battles and slaughters and man-slaughters.

XVII. Nam cum omnia ista utrobique multa et cognominata nihil plus demonstrent quam proelium, huius tamen rei varia facies delectabiliter ac decore multis variisque verbis depicta est. XVIII.

17. For since all those things on both sides, many and cognominated, show nothing more than battle, nevertheless the varied aspect of this matter has been delightfully and decorously depicted with many and various words. 18.

Neque non illa quoque aput eundem poetam una in duobus verbis sententia cum egregia ratione repetita est: Idaeus enim, cum inter Aiacem et Hectorem decertantes armis intercederet, bis ad eos verbis usus est: meketi, paide philo, polemizete mede machesthe, XIX. in quo versu non oportet videri alterum verbum idem, quod superius, significans supplendi numeri causa extrinsecus additum et consarcinatum. Est enim hoc inane admodum et futtile.

Nor indeed is this lacking either: with the same poet a single thought in two words was repeated with excellent rationale; for Idaeus, when he was interceding with arms between Ajax and Hector contending, twice used these words to them: meketi, paide philo, polemizete mede machesthe, 19. in which verse it ought not to seem that the latter word, signifying the same as the former, was added from outside and patched together for the sake of filling out the meter. For this is exceedingly empty and futile.

Sed cum in iuvenibus gloriae studio flagrantibus pervicaciam ferociamque et cupidinem pugnae leniter tamen ac placide obiurgaret, atrocitatem rei et culpam perseverandi bis idem dicendo alio atque alio verbo auxit inculcavitque, duplexque eadem conpellatio admonitionem facit instantiorem. XX. Ne illa quidem significationis eiusdem repetitio ignava et frigida videri debet: mnesteres d'ara Telemachoi thanaton te moron te ertyon, quod bis idem: thanaton et moron dixerit; indignitas enim moliendae tam acerbae tamque iniustae necis miranda mortis iteratione defleta est. XXI.

But when he, in youths blazing with zeal for glory, was nevertheless gently and peacefully rebuking their obstinacy and ferocity and desire of battle, he heightened and inculcated the atrocity of the matter and the fault of persevering by saying the same thing twice with one word and then another, and the twofold same compellation makes the admonition more urgent. 20. Nor should even that repetition of the same signification seem idle and frigid: and the suitors then were urging upon Telemachus both death and doom, because he said the same thing twice: “death” and “doom”; for the unworthiness of a murder so bitter and so unjust to be wrought has been bewailed by the admirable iteration of “death.” 21.

Ceterum quis tam obtunso ingeniost, quin intellegat:

Moreover, who is of such an obtuse intellect that he would not understand:

bask'ithi, oule Oneire,

Begone, go, baneful Dream,

and

bask'ithi, Iri tacheia,

begone, swift Iris,

verba idem duo significantia non frustra posita esse ek parallelon, ut quidam putant, sed hortamentum esse acre imperatae celeritatis? XXII. "Verba quoque illa M. Ciceronis in L. Pisonem trigemina, etiamsi durae auris hominibus non placent, non venustatem modo numeris quaesiverunt, sed figuram simulationemque oris pluribus simul vocibus verberaverunt: XXIII.

that two words meaning the same are not set down to no purpose ek parallelon, as some think, but are a sharp exhortation to commanded celerity? 22. "Those threefold words of M. Cicero too, against L. Piso, although they do not please men of a hard ear, not only sought grace by the numbers, but with several voices at once lashed the figure and the simulation of the face: 23.

"Vultus denique" inquit "totus, qui sermo quidam tacitus mentis est, hic in fraudem homines impulit, hic eos, quibus erat ignotus, decepit, fefellit, induxit". XXIV. Quid igitur simile est" inquit "apud eundem in "praeda" et "manubiis"? Nihil profecto istiusmodi. XXV.

"Finally the whole countenance," he says, "which is a kind of silent discourse of the mind, this drove men into fraud, this deceived, beguiled, led in those to whom it was unknown." 24. "What, then, is there similar," he says, "in that same author between 'praeda' and 'manubiis'?" Nothing of that sort, assuredly. 25.

Nam neque ornatius fit additis manubiis neque exaggeratius modulatiusve; sed aliud omnino "praeda" est, ut in libris rerum verborumque veterum scriptum est, aliud "manubiae". XXVI. Nam praeda dicitur corpora ipsa rerum, quae capta sunt, manubiae vero appellatae sunt pecunia a quaestore ex venditione praedae redacta. XXVII.

For it is made neither more ornate by adding manubiae nor more exaggerated or more modulated; but "praeda" is something altogether different, as it is written in the books of ancient things and words, and "manubiae" something else. 26. For praeda is said of the very bodies of the things that have been captured, whereas manubiae are called the money realized by the quaestor from the sale of the praeda. 27.

Vtrumque ergo dixit M. Tullius cumulandae invidiae gratia decemviros ablaturos persecuturosque: et praedam, quae nondum esset venundata, et pecuniam, quae ex venditione praedae percepta esset. XXVIII. "Itaque haec inscriptio, quam videtis: "ex manubiis", non res corporaque ipsa praedae demonstrat - nihil enim captum est horum a Traiano ex hostibus -, sed facta esse haec conparataque "ex manubiis", id est ex pecunia praedaticia, declarat.

Therefore M. Tullius said both, for the sake of heaping up ill-will, that the Decemvirs would take away and prosecute: both the praeda (prey/booty), which had not yet been put up for sale, and the money which had been received from the sale of the praeda. 28. Therefore this inscription, which you see: "ex manubiis", does not indicate the things and the very bodies of the booty—for none of these were taken by Trajan from the enemies—but declares that these things were made and procured "ex manubiis", that is, from praedatic money (booty-money).

XXIX. Manubiae enim sunt, sicuti iam dixi, non praeda, sed pecunia per quaestorem populi Romani ex praeda vendita contracta. XXX.

29. For the manubiae are, just as I have already said, not booty, but money collected by the quaestor of the Roman People from the sale of the booty. 30.

Quod "per quaestorem" autem dixi, intellegi nunc oportet praefectum aerario significari. Nam cura aerarii a quaestoribus ad praefectos translata est. XXXI.

What I said “through the quaestor,” however, ought now to be understood to signify the prefect of the treasury. For the care of the treasury has been transferred from the quaestors to the prefects. 31.

Est tamen nonnusquam invenire ita scripsisse quosdam non ignobiles scriptores, ut aut temere et incuriose "praedam" pro "manubiis" et "manubias" pro "praeda" posuerint aut tropica quadam figura mutationem vocabuli fecerint, quod facere concessum est scite id periteque facientibus. XXXII. Sed enim, qui proprie atque signate locuti sunt, sicut hoc in loco M. Tullius, manubias pecuniam dixerunt".

However, it is possible in some places to find that certain not ignoble writers wrote thus: that either rashly and carelessly they put ‘booty’ for ‘manubiae’ and ‘manubiae’ for ‘booty,’ or by a certain tropic figure they made a mutation of the term—which it is conceded to do for those who do it cleverly and expertly. 32. But indeed, those who have spoken properly and precisely, as in this place M. Tullius, called manubiae “money”."

XXVI. Verba P. Nigidii, quibus dicit in nomine Valeri in casu vocandi primam syllabam acuendam esse; et item alia ex eiusdem verbis ad rectam scripturam pertinentia.I. P. Nigidii verba sunt ex commentariorum grammaticorum vicesimo quarto, hominis in disciplinis doctrinarum omnium praecellentis: "Deinde" inquit "voculatio qui poterit servari, si non sciemus in nominibus, ut "Valeri", utrum interrogandi an vocandi sint? Nam interrogandi secunda syllaba superiore tonost quam prima, deinde novissima deicitur; at in casu vocandi summo tonost prima, deinde gradatim descendunt". II. Sic quidem Nigidius dici praecipit. Sed si quis nunc Valerium appellans in casu vocandi secundum id praeceptum Nigidii acuerit primam, non aberit, quin rideatur.

26. The words of P. Nigidius, in which he says that in the name Valeri in the vocative case the first syllable ought to be sharpened; and likewise other things from that same man’s words pertaining to correct writing.1. These are the words of P. Nigidius from the twenty-fourth of the grammatical commentaries, a man excelling in all disciplines of learning: “Then,” he says, “how will the intonation be able to be preserved, if we shall not know in names, as ‘Valeri,’ whether they are for questioning or for calling? For in questioning the second syllable has a higher tone than the first, then the last is cast down; but in the case of calling the first has the highest tone, then they descend step by step.” 2. Thus indeed Nigidius bids it be said. But if someone now, addressing Valerius, in the vocative case, should, according to that precept of Nigidius, accent the first syllable, he will not be far from being laughed at.

III. "Summum" autem "tonum" prosoidian acutam dicit et, quem accentum nos dicimus, "voculationem" appellat et "casum interrogandi" eum dicit, quem nunc nos genetivum dicimus. IV. Id quoque in eodem libro Nigidiano animadvertimus: "Si "huius"" inquit ""amici" vel "huius magni" scribas, unum "i" facito extremum; sin vero "hi magnei", "hi amicei" casu multitudinis recto, tum ante "i" scribendum erit "e", atque id ipsum facies in similibus". Item: "si "huius terrai" scribas, "i" littera sit extrema, si "huic terrae", per "e" scribendum est". Item: ""mei" qui scribit in casu interrogandi, velut cum dicimus "mei studiosus", per "i" unum scribat, non per "e"; at cum "mihei", tum per "e" et "i" scribendum est, quia dandi casus est". V. Haec nos auctoritate doctissimi hominis adducti propter eos, qui harum quoque rerum scientiam quaerunt, non praetermittenda existimavimus.

3. "The 'highest' 'tone'" he calls the prosodic acute, and what we call the accent he names "voculation," and he calls "the case of questioning" that which we now call the genitive. 4. We also noticed this in the same Nigidian book: "If you write 'huius' 'amici' or 'huius magni', make the last letter a single 'i'; but if 'hi magnei', 'hi amicei' in the straight case of multitude (the nominative plural), then before the 'i' an 'e' must be written, and you will do this same in similar instances." Likewise: "if you write 'huius terrai', let the letter 'i' be the last; if 'huic terrae', it must be written with 'e'." Likewise: "'mei'—he who writes in the case of questioning, as when we say 'mei studiosus'—let him write with a single 'i', not with 'e'; but when 'mihei', then it must be written with 'e' and 'i', because it is the case of giving (the dative case)." 5. Moved by the authority of a most learned man, we have thought these matters not to be passed over, for the sake of those who seek knowledge of these things as well.

XXVII. De versibus, quos Vergilius sectatus videtur, Homeri ac Partheni.I. Partheni poetae versus est: Glaukoi kai Nerei kai einalioi Melikertei. II. Eum versum Vergilius aemulatus est itaque fecit duobus vocabulis venuste inmutatis parem:

27. On the verses of Homer and Parthenius which Vergil seems to have followed.1. There is a verse of the poet Parthenius: To Glaucus and to Nereus and to sea-dwelling Melicertes. 2. Vergil emulated that verse and thus, with two words charmingly changed, made one equal to it:

Glauco et Panopeae et Inoo Melicertae.

to Glaucus and to Panopea and to Ino Melicertes.

III. Sed illi Homerico non sane re parem neque similem fecit; esse enim videtur Homeri simplicior et sincerior, Vergilii autem neoterikoteros et quodam quasi ferumine inmisso fucatior:

3. But he did not really make it equal or similar in substance to that Homeric one; for Homer’s seems simpler and more sincere, whereas Virgil’s is more neoteric and, with a certain, as it were, solder inserted, more painted-over.

Tauron d'alpheioi, tauron de Poseidaoni.
Taurum Neptuno, taurum tibi, pulcher Apollo.

A bull to Alpheius, a bull to Poseidon.
A bull to Neptune, a bull to you, fair Apollo.

XXVIII. De sententia Panaetii philosophi, quam scripsit in libro de officiis secundo, qua hortatur, ut homines ad cavendas iniurias in omni loco intenti paratique sint.I. Legebatur Panaetii philosophi liber de officiis secundus ex tribus illis inclitis libris, quos M. Tullius magno cum studio maximoque opere aemulatus est. II. Ibi scriptum est cum multa alia ad bonam frugem ducentia, tum vel maxime, quod esse haerereque in animo debet. III.

28. On the opinion of the philosopher Panaetius, which he wrote in the second book On Duties, wherein he exhorts that men be intent and prepared in every place for avoiding injuries.1. The second book of the philosopher Panaetius On Duties was being read, from those three renowned books, which M. Tullius emulated with great zeal and with the greatest effort. 2. There it is written, along with many other things conducive to good fruit, then most especially, that which ought to be and to adhere in the mind. 3.

Id autem est ad hanc ferme sententiam: "Vita" inquit "hominum, qui aetatem in medio rerum agunt ac sibi suisque esse usui volunt, negotia periculaque ex inproviso adsidua et prope cotidiana fert. Ad ea cavenda atque declinanda perinde esse oportet animo prompto semper atque intento, ut sunt athletarum, qui pancratiastae vocantur. IV. Nam sicut illi ad certandum vocati proiectis alte brachiis consistunt caputque et os suum manibus oppositis quasi vallo praemuniunt membraque eorum omnia, priusquam pugna mota est, aut ad vitandos ictus cauta sunt aut ad faciendos parata: ita animus atque mens viri prudentis adversus vim et petulantias iniuriarum omni in loco atque in tempore prospiciens debet esse, erecta, ardua, saepta solide, expedita, numquam conivens, nusquam aciem suam flectens, consilia cogitationesque contra fortunae verbera contraque insidias iniquorum quasi brachia et manus protendens, ne qua in re adversa et repentina incursio inparatis inprotectisque nobis oboriatur".

And that is to nearly this meaning: “The ‘life,’” he says, “of men who pass their age in the midst of affairs and wish to be of use to themselves and their own, brings unexpected businesses and dangers, continual and almost everyday. To guard against and to avoid them one ought to be with a spirit always prompt and intent, as are those athletes who are called pancratiasts. 4. For just as they, when called to contend, stand with arms flung high and far, and with hands set opposite they pre-fortify, as by a rampart, their head and face, and all their limbs, before the fight is stirred, are either cautious for avoiding blows or prepared for dealing them: so the soul and mind of a prudent man, looking out in every place and at every time against the force and petulances of injuries, ought to be erect, elevated, fenced solidly, unencumbered, never blinking, nowhere bending its battle-line, its counsels and thoughts stretching forth, as arms and hands, against the buffets of fortune and the ambushes of the unjust, lest in any matter an adverse and sudden onset arise upon us unprepared and unprotected.”

XXIX. Quod Quadrigarius "eum multis mortalibus" dixit; an quid et quantum differret, si dixisset "cum multis hominibus".I. Verba sunt Claudii Quadrigarii ex annalium eius XIII: "Contione dimissa Metellus in Capitolium venit cum mortalibus multis; inde domum proficiscitur, tota civitas eum reduxit". II. Cum is liber eaque verba M. Frontoni nobis ei ac plerisque aliis adsidentibus legerentur et cuidam haut sane viro indocto videretur "multis mortalibus" pro "hominibus multis" inepte frigideque in historia nimisque id poetice dixisse, tum Fronto illi, cui hoc videbatur: "ain tu," inquit "aliarum homo rerum iudicii elegantissimi, "mortalibus multis" ineptum tibi videri et frigidum, nil autem arbitrare causae fuisse, quod vir modesti atque puri ac prope cotidiani sermonis "mortalibus" maluit quam "hominibus" dicere, eandemque credis futuram fuisse multitudinis demonstrationem, si "cum multis hominibus" ac non "cum multis mortalibus" diceret? III. Ego quidem" inquit "sic existimo, nisi si me scriptoris istius omnisque antiquae orationis amor atque veneratio caeco esse iudicio facit, longe longeque esse amplius, prolixius, fusius in significanda totius prope civitatis multitudine "mortales" quam "homines" dixisse.

29. That Quadrigarius said “eum multis mortalibus”; whether, and how much, it would differ if he had said “cum multis hominibus”.I. These are the words of Claudius Quadrigarius from the 13th book of his Annals: “With the assembly dismissed, Metellus came to the Capitol with many mortals; from there he sets out for home, the whole commonwealth led him back.” II. When that book and those words were being read to M. Fronto and to me and to several others sitting by, and it seemed to a certain man, by no means unlearned, that “multis mortalibus” instead of “hominibus multis” was inept and chilly in history and that he had said it too poetically, then Fronto said to that man, to whom this seemed so: “Do you mean to say, you—a man of most elegant judgment in other matters—that ‘mortalibus multis’ seems to you inept and frigid, and do you think there was no reason why a man of modest and pure and almost everyday speech preferred to say ‘mortalibus’ rather than ‘hominibus’, and do you believe the demonstration of the multitude would have been the same, if he had said ‘cum multis hominibus’ and not ‘cum multis mortalibus’?” III. “For my part,” he said, “I so judge—unless love and veneration for that writer and for all ancient diction makes my judgment blind—that it was by far, far more ample, more prolix, more diffuse, in signifying the multitude of nearly the whole citizenry, to have said ‘mortals’ rather than ‘men’.”

IV. Namque "multorum hominum" appellatio intra modicum quoque numerum cohiberi atque includi potest, "multi" autem "mortales" nescio quo pacto et quodam sensu inenarrabili omne fere genus, quod in civitate est et ordinum et aetatum et sexus conprehendunt; quod scilicet Quadrigarius, ita ut res erat, ingentem atque promiscam multitudinem volens ostendere "cum multis mortalibus" Metellum in Capitolium venisse dixit emphatikoteron, quam si "cum multis hominibus" dixisset". V. Ea nos omnia, quae Fronto dixit, cum ita, ut par erat, non adprobantes tantum, sed admirantes quoque audiremus: "videte tamen," inquit "ne existimetis semper atque in omni loco "mortales multos" pro "multis hominibus" dicendum, ne plane fiat Graecum illud de Varronis satura proverbium to epi tei phakei myron." VI. Hoc iudicium Frontonis etiam in parvis minutisque vocabulis non praetermittendum putavi, ne nos forte fugeret lateretque subtilior huiuscemodi verborum consideratio.

4. For the appellation "of many men" can be confined and included within even a moderate number, but "many mortals" somehow and by a certain ineffable sense comprehends almost every kind—the orders, ages, and sex—that is in a community; which indeed Quadrigarius, wishing to show, as the matter was, a vast and promiscuous multitude, said that Metellus came into the Capitol "with many mortals" more emphatically than if he had said "with many men." 5. All these things that Fronto said, when we were hearing them not only approving, as was proper, but also admiring, he said: "Yet see that you do not think that 'many mortals' must always and everywhere be said in place of 'many men,' lest that Greek proverb from Varro’s Satura become downright applicable—to epi tei phakei myron." 6. I thought this judgment of Fronto not to be passed over even in small and minute vocables, lest perchance the subtler consideration of words of this kind escape us and lie hidden.

XXX. Non hactenus esse "faciem", qua volgo dicitur.I. Animadvertere est pleraque verborum Latinorum ex ea significatione, in qua nata sunt, decessisse vel in aliam longe vel in proximam eamque decessionem factam esse consuetudine et inscitia temere dicentium, quae, cuimodi sint, non didicerint. II. Sicuti quidam faciem esse hominis putant os tantum et oculos et genas? quod Graeci dicunt quando facies sit forma omnis et modus et factura quaedam corporis totius a faciendo dicta, ut ab aspectu species et a fingendo figura.

30. That "face" is not merely what is commonly said.1. It is to be observed that very many Latin words have departed from the signification in which they were born, either into a far different one or into a neighboring one; and that this departure has been brought about by the consuetude and ignorance of those speaking rashly, who have not learned of what sort they are. 2. Just as some think the face of a man to be only the mouth and the eyes and the cheeks? whereas the Greeks say that facies is the entire form and mode and a certain facture of the whole body, said to be from facĕre (to make), just as species is from aspectus (a looking-at) and figura from fingere (to shape).

III. Itaque Pacuvius in tragoedia, quae Niptra inscribitur, "faciem" dixit hominis pro corporis longitudine:

III. And so Pacuvius in the tragedy which is entitled Niptra, said "faciem" of a man for the length of the body:

"aetate" inquit "integra,
feroci ingenio, facie procera virum".

"with age intact," he says,
"of ferocious disposition, a man tall in form".

IV. Non solum autem in hominum corporibus, sed etiam in rerum cuiusquemodi aliarum "facies" dicitur. Nam montis et caeli et maris facies, si tempestive dicatur, probe dicitur. V. Sallustii verba sunt ex historia secunda: "Sardinia in Africo mari facie vestigii humani in orientem quam occidentem latior prominet". VI. Ecce autem id quoque in mentem venit, quod etiam Plautus in Poenulo "faciem" pro totius corporis colorisque habitu dixit.

4. Not only, moreover, in the bodies of human beings, but also in things of any other kind, “facies” is said. For the aspect of a mountain and of the sky and of the sea, if it be said seasonably, is said properly. 5. The words of Sallust are from the second history: “Sardinia in the African sea, with the aspect of a human footprint, projects broader toward the east than toward the west.” 6. Behold, moreover, this also comes to mind: that Plautus too in the Poenulus used “facies” for the habit (form) of the whole body and of the color/complexion.

Verba Plauti haec sunt: sed earum nutrix qua sit facie, mi expedi. - statura non magna, corpore aquilost. - ipsa east.

The words of Plautus are these:
but expound to me, my dear, what face their nurse has. -
of not great stature, swarthy in body. - she herself.

- specie venusta, ore atque oculis pernigris. - formam quidem hercle verbis depinxti probe! VII.

-
of comely appearance, with a face and eyes jet-black. -
you have indeed, by Hercules, depicted her form well with words! 7.

Praeterea memini Quadrigarium in undevicesimo "faciem" pro statura totiusque corporis figura dixisse.

Moreover, I remember that Quadrigarius in the nineteenth used "face" in place of the stature and the figure of the whole body.

XXXI. Quid sit in satura M. Varronis "caninum prandium".I. Laudabat venditabatque se nuper quispiam in libraria sedens homo inepte gloriosus, tamquam unus esset in omni caelo saturarum M. Varronis enarrator, quas partim Cynicas, alii Menippeas appellant. Et iaciebat inde quaedam non admodum difficilia, ad quae conicienda adspirare posse neminem dicebat. II. Tum forte ego eum librum ex isdem saturis ferebam, qui Hydrokyon inscriptus est.

31. What “the canine luncheon” is in a satire of M. Varro.1. Lately someone, sitting in a bookshop, a man foolishly vainglorious, was praising and hawking himself, as though he were the sole expositor in all the world of the satires of M. Varro, which some call Cynic, others Menippean. And he was tossing out there certain points not particularly difficult, about which he said that no one could even aspire to make a conjecture. 2. Then by chance I was carrying that book from those same satires, which is entitled Hydrokyon.

III. Propius igitur accessi et: "nosti," inquam "magister, verbum illud scilicet e Graecia vetus musicam, quae sit abscondita, eam esse nulli rei? oro ergo te, legas hos versus pauculos et proverbii istius quod in his versibus est, sententiam dicas mihi". IV. "Lege" inquit "tu mihi potius, quae non intellegis, ut ea tibi ego enarrem". V. "Quonam" inquam "pacto legere ego possum, quae non adsequor?

3. So I drew nearer and said: "Do you know, teacher, that old word, namely from Greece, ‘music which is hidden is good for nothing’? I beg you therefore, read these few verses and tell me the meaning of that proverb which is in these verses."
4. "You rather read out to me what you do not understand," he said, "so that I may expound those things to you."
5. "How," said I, "am I able to read what I do not grasp?"

indistincta namque et confusa fient, quae legero, et tuam quoque impedient intentionem". VI. Tunc aliis etiam, qui ibi aderant, compluribus idem comprobantibus desiderantibusque accipit a me librum veterem fidei spectatae luculente scriptum. VII. Accipit autem inconstantissimo vultu et maestissimo.

"for indistinct and confused will become the things that I shall read, and they will impede your attention as well." 6. Then, with several others too who were present there approving the same and desiring it, he receives from me an old book of proven fidelity, handsomely written. 7. However, he receives it with a most inconstant and most gloomy countenance.

VIII. Sed quid deinde dicam? non audeo hercle postulare, ut id credatur mihi.

8. But what then shall I say? I do not, by Hercules, dare to demand that this be believed on my word.

IX. Pueri in ludo rudes, si eum librum accepissent, non hi magis in legendo deridiculi fuissent; ita et sententias intercidebat et verba corrupte pronuntiabat. X. Reddit igitur mihi librum multis iam ridentibus et: "vides" inquit "oculos meos aegros adsiduisque lucubrationibus prope iam perditos; vix ipsos litterarum apices potui conprehendere; cum valebo ab oculis revise ad me et librum istum tibi totum legam". XI. "Recte" inquam "sit oculis, magister, tuis; XII. sed, in quo illis nihil opus est, id, rogo te, dicas mihi: "caninum prandium" in hoc loco, quem legisti, quid significat?" XIII.

9. Boys raw in the school, if they had received that book, would not have been more laughable in reading; thus he both was cutting off sentences and was pronouncing words corruptly.
10. Therefore he gives back to me the book, many by now laughing, and says: "you see my eyes sick and almost already ruined by assiduous lucubrations; I could scarcely grasp the very apexes of the letters; when I shall be well as to my eyes, revisit me, and I will read this whole book to you."
11. "May it be well with your eyes, teacher;"
12. "but, in a matter for which they are of no use, that, I ask you, tell me: in this place which you read, what does 'canine luncheon' signify?"
13.

Atque ille egregius nebulo quasi difficili quaestione proterritus exsurgit statim et abiens "non" inquit "parvam rem quaeris; talia ego gratis non doceo". XIV. Eius autem loci, in quo id proverbium est, verba haec sunt: "Non vides apud Mnesitheum scribi tria genera esse vini, nigrum, album, medium, quod vocant kirron, et novum, vetus, medium? et efficere nigrum viris, album urinam, medium pepsin?

And that distinguished scamp, as if terrified by a difficult question, at once gets up and, going away, says: “you are asking no small matter; such things I do not teach for free.” 14. But the words of that passage, in which that proverb occurs, are these: “Do you not see it written by Mnesitheus that there are three kinds of wine, black, white, and middle, which they call kirron, and new, old, and middle? and that the black effects vigor in men, the white urine, the middle pepsin (digestion)?”

novum refrigerare, vetus calefacere, medium esse prandium caninum?" XV. Quid significet "prandium caninum", rem leviculam diu et anxie quaesivimus. XVI. Prandium autem abstemium, in quo nihil vini potatur, caninum dicitur, quoniam canis vino caret.

that the new cools, the old warms, the middle is a "canine luncheon"? 15. What "canine luncheon" signifies—a very trifling matter—we sought long and anxiously. 16. But an abstemious luncheon, in which no wine is drunk, is called "canine," since the dog lacks wine.

XVII. Cum igitur "medium vinum" appellasset, quod neque novum esset neque vetus, et plerumque homines ita loquantur, ut omne vinum aut novum esse dicant aut vetus, nullam vim habere significavit neque novi neque veteris, quod medium esset, et idcirco pro vino non habendum, quia neque refrigeraret neque calefaceret. "Refrigerare" id dicit, quod Graece psychein dicitur.

17. Therefore, since he had called it "medium wine," which was neither new nor old, and since people for the most part speak thus, that they call every wine either new or old, he signified that it has no potency, neither of the new nor of the old, because it was middle, and therefore not to be accounted as wine, since it would neither refrigerate nor heat. "To refrigerate" denotes what in Greek is called psychein.