Wednesday, March 30, 2022
An Expert Expectorator
Ammianus Marcellinus 27.3.5 (tr. John C. Rolfe):
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Symmachus was succeeded as prefect of the city by Lampadius, a former praetorian prefect, a man who took it very ill if even his manner of spitting was not praised, on the ground that he did that also with greater skill than anyone else; but yet he was sometimes strict and honest.J. den Boeft et al., Philological and Historical Commentary on Ammianus Marcellinus XXVII (Leiden: Brill, 2009), p. 51:
advenit post hunc urbis moderator Lampadius, ex praefecto praetorio, homo indignanter admodum sustinens, si (etiam cum spueret) non laudaretur, ut id quoque prudenter praeter alios faciens, sed non numquam severus et frugi.
This has been called a bowdlerized and priggish paraphrase of Juv. 3.106–7 laudare paratus/si bene ructavit, si rectum minxit amicus (Den Hengst, 2007, 172), because Amm. substitutes the less offensive spuere for Juvenal's ructare and mingere, and somewhat pedantically explains the witticism.
