Monday, September 02, 2024
Liberty
Livy 5.6.17 (speech of Appius Claudius; tr. Aubrey de Sélincourt):
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Does not Roman liberty consist in the glorious privilege of snapping our fingers at the Senate and magistrates, and looking with contempt upon law, tradition, established ordinance, and military discipline?From Eric Thomson:
ea demum Romae libertas est, non senatum, non magistratus, non leges, non mores maiorum, non instituta patrum, non disciplinam vereri militiae.
Aubrey de Sélincourt manages to extract "the glorious privilege of snapping our fingers at" and "look with contempt upon" from only two words in the Latin (non … vereri). Quite a feat. A ratio 1 to 6.
