Laudator Temporis Acti

Cambridge is teaching students that Anglo-Saxons did not exist as a distinct ethnic group as part of efforts to undermine "myths of nationalism".

Britain's early medieval history is taught by the Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic, but the terms within its own title are being addressed as part of efforts to make teaching more "anti-racist".

Its teaching aims to "dismantle the basis of myths of nationalism" by explaining that the Anglo-Saxons were not a distinct ethnic group, according to information from the department.

The department's approach also aims to show that there were never "coherent" Scottish, Irish and Welsh ethnic identities with ancient roots.

The increased focus on anti-racism comes amid a broader debate over the continued use of terms like "Anglo-Saxon", with some in academia alleging that the ethnonym is used to support "racist" ideas of a native English identity.

Information provided by the Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic (ASNC) explains its approach to teaching, stating: "Several of the elements discussed above have been expanded to make ASNC teaching more anti-racist.

"One concern has been to address recent concerns over use of the term 'Anglo-Saxon' and its perceived connection to ethnic/racial English identity.

"Other aspects of ASNC's historical modules approach race and ethnicity with reference to the Scandinavian settlement that began in the ninth century.

"In general, ASNC teaching seeks to dismantle the basis of myths of nationalism — that there ever was a 'British', 'English', 'Scottish', 'Welsh' or 'Irish' people with a coherent and ancient ethnic identity — by showing students just how constructed and contingent these identities are and always have been."

One lecture addresses how the modern use of the term "Anglo-Saxon" has been embroiled in "indigenous race politics", by questioning the extent of settlement by a distinct ethnic group that could be called Anglo-Saxon.

The term typically refers to a cultural group which emerged and flourished between the fall of Roman Britain, and the Norman conquest, when Germanic peoples — Angles, Saxons, and Jutes — arrived and forged new kingdoms in what would later become a united England. This was also the period of Old English epics such as Beowulf.

However, the term Anglo-Saxon has recently become embroiled in controversy, with some academics claiming that the term Anglo-Saxon has been used by racists — particularly in the US — to support the idea of an ancient white English identity, and should therefore be dropped.

In 2019, the International Society of Anglo-Saxonists voted to change its name to the International Society for the Study of Early Medieval England, "in recognition of the problematic connotations that are widely associated with the terms 'Anglo-Saxon'".

This was triggered by the resignation from the society of the Canadian academic Dr Mary Rambaran-Olm, who has since written that the field of Anglo-Saxon studies is one of "inherent whiteness".

She later wrote in the Smithsonian magazine that: "The Anglo-Saxon myth perpetuates a false idea of what it means to be 'native' to Britain."

Greek opened other worlds to me. It had begun as a slog. My very first act of conscious impiety was to decide, on a strict cost-opportunity basis, to devote my attention in school chapel not to the Psalms but to the silent recitation of Greek irregular verbs. But even this grind added a further dimension to my heart. When muttering verbs, I would stare at the stained glass windows of the school chapel. These were classic examples of what could be called "Anglican Hellenism." Here was an idealized ancient world, in which Apostles and Fathers of the Church were dressed in impeccable togas. In scenes of the life of Saint Martin or of the confrontation between Saint Ambrose and Theodosius I, holy persons in pure classical garb appeared before emperors and their soldiers, who were dressed in uniforms taken straight from our textbooks of Roman history. Eventually, Greek and Latin would open up for me not only the road back to Athens and Rome, but also (and just as importantly) the road to Galilee and to Saint Paul.

A regular churchgoer, he kept himself awake during sermons by mentally translating them into Greek, sentence by sentence as uttered, a practice he recommended as "a peculiarly rewarding means of grace."

Yet the mind of Zeus the aegis-bearer is different at different times,
and hard for mortal men to recognize.

ἄλλοτε δ' ἀλλοῖος Ζηνὸς νόος αἰγιόχοιο,
ἀργαλέος δ' ἄνδρεσσι καταθνητοῖσι νοῆσαι.

There is not even one seer among human beings on the earth
who could know the mind of aegis-bearing Zeus.

μάντις δ' οὐδ' εἷς ἐστιν ἐπιχθονίων ἀνθρώπων
ὅστις ἂν εἰδείη Ζηνὸς νόον αἰγιόχοιο.

If I were asked what it is I do not like in my students today, I should not be able to answer at once, nor to say very much, but I should be quite specific. I know their defects, and consequently have no need to resort to vague generalities. I do not like their smoking, drinking, and marrying late, nor the fact that they are so unconcerned, at times even so callous, as to tolerate want in their midst and to neglect paying up their arrears in the Students' Aid Society. They do not know other languages, and express themselves incorrectly in their own. Only yesterday one of my colleagues, a professor of hygienics, complained to me that he is obliged to lecture twice as long as he should because of their poor knowledge of physics and complete ignorance of meteorology. They readily succumb to the influence of the latest authors, even when they are by no means the best, but they are utterly indifferent to the classics such as Shakespeare, Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus, or Pascal, and it is this inability to distinguish the great from the inferior that more than anything else betrays their lack of practical intelligence.

I am going to stigmatise Gibbon's as the worst style of language ever yet invented by man—its affectation and platitude being both consummate. It is like the most tasteless water-gruel, with a handful of Epsom salts strewed in for flowers, and served with the airs of being turtle.

[5] Sensuality is simply a form of voluptuous gluttony, an excessive superfluity on the part of those dedicated to the passion of pleasure. [6] Diogenes [88 TrGF 1h] wrote revealingly in one of his tragedies:

Those who are sated at heart by pleasures
of abominably effeminate luxury
are unwilling for hardships however small,

and so on—shameful words and typical of pleasure-seekers.

[5] τί γὰρ ἕτερον ἡ τρυφὴ ἢ φιλήδονος λιχνεία καὶ πλεονασμὸς περίεργος πρὸς ἡδυπάθειαν ἀνειμένων; [6] ἐμφαντικῶς ὁ Διογένης ἔν τινι τραγῳδίᾳ γράφει·

οἱ τῆς ἀνάνδρου καὶ διεσκατωμένης
τρυφῆς ὑφ' ἡδοναῖσι σαχθέντες κέαρ
πονεῖν θέλοντες οὐδὲ βαιά,

καὶ τὰ ἐπὶ τούτοις ὅσα αἰσχρῶς μὲν εἴρηται, ἐπαξίως δὲ τῶν φιληδόνων.

σαχθέντες Meineke: ἀχθέντες L
θέλοντες Sylburg: ἐθέλοντες L

At the end of his life, when Nietzsche was going insane, he said something along the lines of, "God of the Jews, you have won."

Some say that he was wounded by an invisible being, others by one of the Nomads who were called Ishmaelites; others by a trooper who could not endure the pains of famine in the wilderness. But whether it were man or angel who plied the steel, without doubt the doer of the deed was the minister of the will of God. It is related that when Julian had received the wound, he filled his hand with blood, flung it into the air and cried, You have won, O Galilean. Thus he gave utterance at once to a confession of the victory and to a blasphemy. So infatuated was he.

ἀλλ' οἱ μέν τινα τῶν ἀοράτων ταύτην ἐπενηνοχέναι φασίν, οἱ δὲ τῶν νομάδων ἕνα τῶν Ισμαηλιτὥν καλουμένων, ἄλλοι δὲ στρατιώτην τὸν λιμὸν καὶ τὴν ἔρημον δυσχεράναντα. ἀλλ εἴτε ἄνθρωπος εἴτε ἄγγελος ὦσε τὸ ξίφος, δῆλον ὡς τοῦτο δέδρακε τοῦ θείου νεύματος γενόμενος ὑπουργός. ἐκεῖνον δέ γέ φασι δεξάμενον τὴν πληγὴν εὐθὺς πλῆσαι τὴν χεῖρα τοῦ αἵματος καὶ τοῦτο ῥίψαι εἰς τὸν ἀέρα καὶ φάναι· νενίκηκας Γαλιλαῖἑ, καὶ κατὰ ταὐτὸν τήν τε νίκην ὁμολογῆσαι καὶ τὴν βλασφημίαν τολμῆσαι· οὕτως ἐμβρόντητος ἦν.

Sunt qui ab invisibili quopiam incussum dicant, alii ab uno e nomadibus, quos Ismaelitas vocant: alii a milite famis et solitudinis molestias non ferente. Verum sive homo, sive angelus ferrum impulit, certum est, quisquis fuit, divinae voluntatis ministrum fuisse. Ferunt porro illum vulnere accepto implesse manum sanguine, et hoc in aerem projecto dixisse: Vicisti, Galilaee; simulque et victoriam confessum esse, et blasphemiam, adeo vecors erat, evomuisse.

Here I am silent, describing my life in verse.
I enjoyed a bright reputation, and the height of prosperity.
Praecilius by name, a native of Cirta, I was a skillful banker.
My honesty was wonderful, and I always adhered to truth;
I was courteous to all men, and whose distress did I not succor?
I was always gay, and hospitable to my dear friends;
a great change came over my life after the death of the virtuous Valeria.
As long as I could, I enjoyed the sweets of holy matrimony;
I celebrated a hundred happy birthdays in virtue and happiness;
but the last day has arrived, as the spirit leaves my exhausted limbs.
Alive I earned the titles which you read,
as Fortune willed it. She never deserted me.
Follow me in like manner; here I await you! Come.

hic ego qui taceo, versibus mea vita demonstro:
lucem clara fruitus et tempora summa
Praecilius Cirtensi lare argentariam exibui artem.
fydes in me mira fuit semper et veritas omnis.
omnibus communis ego cui non misertus? ubique,        5
risus, luxuria semper fruitus cun caris amicis.
talem post obitum dominae Valeriae non inveni pudicae
vitam; cum potui, gratam habui cun coniuge sanctam.
natales honeste meos centum celebravi felices,
at venit postrema dies, ut spiritus inania mempra reliquat.        10
titulos quos legis, vivus mee morti paravi,
ut voluit Fortuna; nunquam me deseruit ipsa.
sequimini tales, hic vos expecto, venitae.

1 meam vitam 2 ff das acrostichon L. P(raecilius) Fortunatus 2 clara(m), wie luxuria(m) s. auch CE 980 CIL XI 987 5 omnisbus d. stein 7 oder talem (nämlich amicum) pudicae, 11 titulos zweisilbig wie CE 551, 3 (τίτλον) 13 exopecto d. stein

Either say something better than silence, or keep silent.

ἢ λέγε τι σιγῆς κρεῖσσον ἢ σιγὴν ἔχε.

Other southerners retreated into their work and families rather than into the church. George Mercer, for example, claimed, "My profession and my books are my only pride and pleasure: my house my castle: my family my country."

Ignoring politics, where southerners had to face both the Yankees and the harsh realities of defeat, constituted a less total but more common means of withdrawal. Many white southerners insisted that political matters no longer interested them. One Georgian argued that politics had become as useless to him "as diamond shoe-buckles would have been for Robinson Crusoe. . . ." An Alabaman maintained that he "lived in a very retired way" and had "turned away" from political discourse "with curses and disgust, as I would have done from the breath of a cur that had gorged himself on carrion."

LYS (pointing to himself) This man is exceeding all men,
surpassing them in pleasures and joys:
so opportunely do the things I wish for happen,
so opportunely does what I'm doing follow, arrive, and occur,
and so much does one joy crowd on other joys.

LYS hic homost omnium hominum praecipuos,        1115
voluptatibus gaudiisque antepotens:
ita commoda quae cupio eveniunt,
quod ago adsequitur, subest, supsequitur,
ita gaudiis gaudium suppeditat.

vocatum accurrit, prope est, pedibus adhaeret (quasi canis)

If all men were to bring their joys into one place,
yet my happiness would surpass them.

gaudia sua si omnes homines conferant unum in locum,
tamen mea exsuperet laetitia.

[1] I can't remember ever passing the time so pleasantly as I did on my recent visit to Spurinna; and, indeed, there is no one whom I would rather take for an example in my old age, if I am spared to live so long, for no way of living is better planned than his. [2] A well-ordered life, especially where the old are concerned, gives me the same pleasure as the fixed course of the planets. A certain amount of irregularity and excitement is not unsuitable for the young, but their elders should lead a quiet and orderly existence; their time of public activity is over, and ambition only brings them into disrepute.

[3] This is the rule strictly observed by Spurinna, and he even maintains a due order and succession in matters which would be trivial were they not part of a daily routine. [4] Every morning he stays in bed for an hour after dawn, then calls for his shoes and takes a three-mile walk to exercise mind and body. If he has friends with him he carries on a serious conversation, if he is alone a book is read aloud, and this is sometimes done when there are friends present, so long as they do not object. [5] Then he sits down, the book is continued, or preferably the conversation; after which he goes out in his carriage accompanied by his wife (a model to her sex) or one of his friends, a pleasure recently mine. [6] There is a special sort of pleasure in being thus singled out and given the entry into a bygone age as he talks of great men and their deeds to give you inspiration, though modesty restrains him from any appearance of laying down the law. [7] After a drive of seven miles he will walk another mile, then sit again or retire to his room and his writing, for he composes lyric verses in both Greek and Latin with considerable success; they are remarkable for their wit, grace, and delicacy, and their charm is enhanced by the propriety of their author. [8] When summoned to his bath (in mid-afternoon in winter and an hour earlier in summer) he first removes his clothes and takes a walk in the sunshine if there is no wind, and then throws a ball briskly for some time, this being another form of exercise whereby he keeps old age at bay. After his bath he lies down for a short rest before dinner, and listens while something light and soothing is read aloud. Meanwhile his friends are quite free to do the same as he does or not, as they prefer. [9] Dinner is brought on in dishes of antique solid silver, a simple meal but well served; he also has Corinthian bronze for general use, which he admires though not with a collector's passion. Between the courses there is often a performance of comedy, so that the pleasures of the table have a seasoning of letters, and the meal is prolonged into the night, even in summer, without anyone finding it too long amid such pleasant company.

[10] The result is that Spurinna has passed his seventy-seventh year, but his sight and hearing are unimpaired, and he is physically agile and energetic; old age has brought him nothing but wisdom. [11] This is the sort of life I hope and pray will be mine, and I shall eagerly enter on it as soon as the thought of my years permits me to sound a retreat. Meanwhile innumerable tasks fill my time, though here again Spurinna sets me a reassuring example, for he also accepted public offices, held magistracies, and governed provinces as long as it was his duty, and thus his present retirement was earned by hard work. [12] I have set myself the same race and goal, and I bind myself to it now with you as my witness: so, if you see me fail to stop, you can call me to account with this letter of mine and bid me retire when I can do so without being accused of laziness.

There is a special sort of pleasure in being thus singled out and given the entry into a bygone age as he talks of great men and their deeds to give you inspiration, though modesty restrains him from any appearance of laying down the law.

quam pulchrum illud, quam dulce secretum! quantum ibi antiquitatis! quae facta, quos viros audias! quibus praeceptis imbuare! quamvis ille hoc temperamentum modestiae suae indixerit, ne praecipere videatur.

How fine, how exquisite was that tête-à-tête! How evocative of the old days! What events and what personalities one would hear of! In what rules of conduct would you be steeped, though he has imposed the restraint which his moderation demands, namely not to appear to lay down the law.

The ancients generally thought violent laughter undignified. Cf. Isocrates Demon. 15, Plato Laws 732 C, 935 B, Epictetus Encheirid. xxxiii.4, Dio Chrys. Or. 33.703 R. Diogenes Laertius iii.26, reports that Plato never laughed excessively in his youth. Aristotle's great-souled man would presumably have eschewed laughter (Eth. iv.8, Rhet. 1389 b 10), as Lord Chesterfield advises his son to do.

No one who is wise grieves over small things.

οὐδεὶς ἐπὶ σμικροῖσι λυπεῖται σοφός.

For philosophy may be counterfeited, but eloquence never.

philosophia enim simulari potest, eloquentia non potest.

...theo-logia as a term, "God-reasoning," appears to be Abelard's invention...

These and similar varieties of the human race have been made by the ingenuity of Nature as toys for herself and marvels for us. And indeed who could possibly recount the various things she does every day and almost every hour?

haec atque talia ex hominum genere ludibria sibi, nobis miracula ingeniosa fecit natura. ex singulis quidem quae facit in dies ac prope horas, quis enumerare valeat?

The tragic poet Chaeremon (TrGF 71 F 15) claims that wine provides those who consume it with

laughter, wisdom, a quick wit, sound judgment.

Χαιρήμων δὲ ὁ τραγῳδὸς παρασκευάζειν φησὶ τὸν οἶνον τοῖς χρωμένοις

γέλωτα, σοφίαν, εὐμαθίαν⁴, εὐβουλίαν.

⁴ εὐμαθίαν Wagner: ἀμαθίαν CE

Sed intolerabilis est anapaestus in quarto pede, qui facile removeri potest, si pro εὐμαθίαν scribitur ἀμαθίαν. Nam corruptela etiam sententiae inesse videtur: Chaeremo haud dubie dicere voluit (cf. fgm. sequ.), aliam esse in aliis hominibus vini efficacitatem; itaque primum risum, deinde ejus contrarium sapientiam commemoravit. Postea vero duo verba sequuntur, quae fere eandem vim habent, quorum alterum igitur, si recte Chaeremonis mentem perspeximus, emendandum est.

εὐμαθίαν libri, ἀμαθίαν scripsi.

laughter, wisdom, foolishness, good counsel.

Labels: typographical and other errors

[T]he war was preceded, according the practice of civilized nations, by the most solemn protestations that each party was sincerely desirous of peace.

Many men find silence a prescription against troubles;
and this belongs especially to a self-controlled temper.

πολλοῖς γὰρ ἀνθρώποισι φάρμακον κακῶν
σιγή· μάλιστα δ' ἐστὶ σώφρονος τρόπου.

"Bosh," answered Grant. "I never said a word against eminent men of science. What I complain of is a vague popular philosophy which supposes itself to be scientific when it is really nothing but a sort of new religion and an uncommonly nasty one."

Now a child for a while and then a youth of erotic ways, a destitute now for a while and then very wealthy, just like an actor, man makes at the end of his role—when diseased in all limbs by age and wrinkled all over the body—his exit behind the scene that veils the abode of Yama (death).

Irish poets learn your trade,
Sing whatever is well made,
Scorn the sort now growing up
All out of shape from toe to top,
Their unremembering hearts and heads
Base-born products of base beds.
Sing the peasantry, and then
Hard-riding country gentlemen,
The holiness of monks, and after
Porter-drinkers' randy laughter;
Sing the lords and ladies gay
That were beaten into the clay
Through seven heroic centuries;
Cast your mind on other days
That we in coming days may be
Still the indomitable Irishry.

ἰθάκηνδ᾽ ἐσελεύσομαι. As between this and the MS variant ἰθάκην ἐσελεύσομαι, the form with -δε is to be preferred after ἐλεύσομαι (cf. Od. 17.52, Il. 6.365). ἰθάκηνδε ἐλεύσομαι is possible at the caesura (S.R. West 1988: 86) but has no MS attestation, being a conjecture of Ahrens.

In reply to her spoke Zeus, the gather of clouds:

Labels: typographical and other errors

'Siser' is reported from Varro onwards, three times in poetry (Horace, the Moretum, Columella, Book X) with three more in Columella, eight in Pliny. Therefore of some significance for classical scholars. None the less, little care or curiosity has obtained.

A familiar passage in Horace proves instructive. 'Siser' occurs in the first course of the banquet of Nasidienus, along with radishes, horseradishes, and others, 'qualia lassum pervellunt stomachum' (Sat. ii 8, 8 ff.). The German commentary has 'Rapunzel', with no doubts expressed.¹⁵ That is to say, French 'raiponce', English 'rampion'. It may be for this reason that OLD was content with 'perhaps rampion', offering no alternative (fasc. vii, 1980).

Rampion, a name not often on the lips of men, must be banished forthwith and for ever. It is soft and sweet and miserable, merely 'Campanula rapunculus'.¹⁶ By contrast, Umbelliferae, that potent and odorous family with flavours owed to essential oils, which goes all the way from parsley by parsnips to fennel and hemlock.

English translators and commentators on Columella and Pliny likewise conform to the notorious 'déformation professionelle' of classical philology (that is, 'psittacosis'). They bring up another unfamiliar word to vex the innocent reader, namely 'skirret', vouchsafing no kind of elucidation.¹⁷

Yet they were on the right track. The skirret is the water parsnip, sevium sisarium, 'formerly much cultivated in Europe for its esculent tubers'.¹⁸ Further, it may perhaps be held identical with Pliny's 'siser erraticum' commended on medical grounds (xx 34 f.).

But enough. In the year 1958 a masterly demonstration established the parsnip himself.¹⁹ To be ignored only at dire peril.<sup>20

15</sup> Kiessling-Heinze (1957). And Villeneuve translated it as 'raiponce' (Budé, 1951).

¹⁶ According to OED 'very rare in England'. The Italian name is 'rampanzolo'.

¹⁷ In annotation on NH xix 62, the Loeb edition (1950) stated that 'siser' may be the parsnip, but in 90 and 93 it is translated as 'skirret'; and in 88 the parsnip is 'pastinaca'. Again, in Columella's poem (x 114), 'siser' appears as 'Skirwort', to be registered as 'skirwort' four times in the Index (Loeb, vol. iii, 1955). Further, the comprehensive Loeb Index of plants (compiled by W.H.S. Jones) did not help: probably not che skirret 'but rather the parsnip, peucedanum sativum, or the carrot, Daucus carota' (vol. iii (1956), 538).

¹⁸ OED. In French 'chenis'; not to be confused with 'chervil', of the same family, which is 'cerfolium'.

¹⁹ A.C. Andrews, 'The Parsnip as a Food in the Classical Era', CP liii (1958), 155 ff. He had previously dealt with celery and parsley, CP xliv (1949), 91 ff. and with the carrot, ibid. 182 ff.

²⁰ André was in favour long ago, op. cit. (1956), 395: 'probablement le panais (Pastinaca sativa)'. And no hesitation in his note on NH xix 90 (Budé, 1964), duly citing A.C. Andrews.

• A Lazy Lot
• Three Things
• Scholarly Psittacism
• The Law of Lazy Repetition

Do not let a flaunting woman coax and cozen and deceive you: she is after your barn.

μὴ δὲ γυνή σε νόον πυγοστόλος ἐξαπατάτω
αἱμύλα κωτίλλουσα, τεὴν διφῶσα καλιήν.

Don't let a woman mystify your mind
With sweet talk and the sway of her behind —
She's just after your barn.

Ancient India remains the province of the philologists—among whom I am proud to number myself. It can only be approached through its texts, and the philological methods employed to investigate these texts may, to the outsider, appear to approach the status of a mystery religion, to be even more esoteric than the contents of the texts they study. As a philologist, a practitioner of this cult, I am certain that the intricacies of the method are necessary. But I also regret the result: that the knowledge we gain too often remains walled off from the rest of the scholarly community, that the process of gaining it is so consuming that we often lack the energy to communicate it to others—and that others will not invest their energy in attending to the unfamiliar details that must be grasped in order to understand the whole.

He considered joy and grief to be the supreme good and evil, the one brought about by wisdom, the other by folly.

τέλος δ᾽ ὑπελάμβανε χαρὰν καὶ λύπην· τὴν μὲν ἐπὶ φρονήσει, τὴν δ᾽ ἐπὶ ἀφροσύνῃ.

The teachers who guided us in this brisk forced march of learning were a mixed bunch. Private schools such as Aravon were human bird sanctuaries. Some teachers were local figures. They held part-time teaching assignments as a form of outdoor relief (welfare). Mr. Monk Gibbon (known as "Gubb-Gubb") was one such gentleman down on his luck. He was a travel writer, who later wrote a Batsford travel book on the baroque churches of Austria. He was also a poet; and not only was he a poet—he was also a cousin of W.B. Yeats. As we have seen, he was permanently aggrieved that his distinguished relative had not included any of his poems in the famous Oxford Book of Modern Verse.

Monk Gibbon made a point of coming to Aravon only on Fridays. It was known why he did so. As a Protestant school, we refused to eat fish on Fridays, as the Catholics did. Instead, Irish stew was served for lunch. And the Friday Irish stew was the best meat dish of the week. Well-fed, Monk Gibbon would then proceed to conduct what he considered to be a Latin lesson.

Latin [he told us] is all about endings. Yes: that's it ... endings. Nominative ending and accusative ending.

Brown! Hit Cornish!

This was a bad turn for the lesson to take. Cornish, who sat beside me, was a boy of conker toughness. Such a blow would not remain unavenged after class. Knowing that I would sign my own death warrant by striking him, I gave Cornish a hesitant tap.

There you are! [Monk Gibbon continued] Brownus hits Cornishum. That's it. Nominative Brownus. Accusative Cornishum. There you have it!

Wherewith the poet wrapped his thick tweed coat more tightly around him, placed his feet on the stove that warmed the classroom, and settled down into his armchair as if for a good sleep. It was not, perhaps, the best introduction to a classical tongue.

Who can live without a snack?

quis potest sine offula vivere?

When I catch up with Hügi a couple of weeks later, he is in Wiltshire (478 trees and 402 miles in), enjoying the hospitality of Wyndham's Oak, the oldest tree in Dorset.

Labels: typographical and other errors

But the image of Heracles, most devoutly worshipped by the inhabitants, is merely the male member upright on the pedestal.

τοῦ Ἑρμοῦ δὲ τὸ ἄγαλμα, ὃν οἱ ταύτῃ περισσῶς σέβουσιν, ὀρθόν ἐστιν αἰδοῖον ἐπὶ τοῦ βάθρου.

Labels: typographical and other errors

What then is good? The knowledge of things. What is evil? The lack of knowledge of things.

quid ergo est bonum? rerum scientia. quid malum est? rerum imperitia.

I care not for seeming but for truth.

οὐ τοῦ δοκεῖν μοι, τῆς δ' ἀληθείας μέλει.

οὐ Gaisford: ὁ codd.

For the value of truth over appearing good cf. οὐ γὰρ δοκεῖν ἄριστος, ἀλλ' εἶναι θέλει ('for he does not wish to seem the best, but to be the best', Aesch. Sept. 592, spoken about Alcmeon's father Amphiaraus), Ag. 788–9, Eur. Telephus fr. 698, Phoenix fr. 809 TrGF.

virtute enim ipsa non tam multi praediti esse quam videri volunt.

esse quam videri bonus malebat.

Conjectural emendation as practised by —— is not a game, an exercise requiring skill and heed, like marbles or skittles or cat's-cradle, but a pastime, like leaning against a wall and spitting.

My favourite work of fiction, the Latin dictionary.

On one occasion, when Porson, Reed, and some other of the literati, with John Kemble, were assembled at Dr. Burney's at Hammersmith, and were examining some old newspapers in which the execution of Charles I. was detailed, they observed some particulars stated in them which they doubted whether Hume or Rapin had mentioned. Reed, who, being versed in old literature, was consulted as the oracle on the point, could not recollect; but Porson repeated a long passage from Rapin in which the circumstances were fully noticed. Archdeacon Burney, who favoured me with this anecdote, told me, at the same time, that he had often, when a boy, taken down Humphry Clinker, or Foote's plays, from his father's shelves, and heard Porson repeat whole pages of them walking about the room.

Basil Montague related that Porson, in his presence, and that of some other persons, read a page or two of a book, and then repeated what he had read from memory. "That is very well," said one of the company, “but could the Professor repeat it backwards?" Porson immediately began to repeat it backwards, and failed only in two words.

Priestley, the bookseller, used to relate that Porson was once in his shop, when a gentleman came in, and asked for a particular edition of Demosthenes, of which Priestley was not in possession. The gentleman being somewhat disappointed, Porson, whose attention was directed towards him, asked him whether he wished to consult any passage in Demosthenes. The gentleman replied in the affirmative, and specified the passage. Porson then asked Priestley for a copy of the Aldine edition, and, having received it, and turned over a few leaves, put his finger on the passage, "showing," said Priestley, "not only his knowledge of the author, but his familiarity with the position of the passage in that particular edition."

A similar anecdote used to be told by Mr. Cogan. One day Porson called on a friend who happened to be reading Thucydides, and who asked leave to consult him on the meaning of a word. Porson, on hearing the word, did not look at the book, but at once repeated the passage. His friend asked how he knew that it was that passage. "Because," replied Porson, "the word occurs only twice in Thucydides, once on the right hand page, in the edition which you are using, and once on the left. I observed on which side you looked, and accordingly knew to which passage you referred."

[....]

A remark which he made to Mrs. Edwards, however, a friend of Dr. Parr's, intimates that he was quite conscious of the natural goodness of his memory. He told her that "his memory was a source of misery to him, as he could never forget anything, even what he wished not to remember." Themistocles is not the only one that has longed for the art of forgetting.

For instance, we are told that the famous Athenian Themistocles was endowed with wisdom and genius on a scale quite surpassing belief; and it is said that a certain learned and highly accomplished person went to him and offered to impart to him the science of mnemonics, which was then being introduced for the first time; and that when Themistocles asked what precise result that science was capable of achieving, the professor asserted that it would enable him to remember everything; and Themistocles replied that he would be doing him a greater kindness if he taught him to forget what he wanted than if he taught him to remember. Do you observe what mental force and penetration the man possessed, what power and range of intellect? inasmuch as his answer brings home to us that nothing that had once been introduced into his mind had ever been able to pass out of it, inasmuch as he would rather have been able to forget something that he did not wish to remember than to remember everything that he had once heard or seen.

ita apud Graecos fertur incredibili quadam magnitudine consili atque ingeni Atheniensis ille fuisse Themistocles; ad quem quidam doctus homo atque in primis eruditus accessisse dicitur eique artem memoriae, quae tum primum proferebatur, pollicitus esse se traditurum; cum ille quaesisset quidnam illa ars efficere posset, dixisse illum doctorem, ut omnia meminisset; et ei Themistoclem respondisse gratius sibi illum esse facturum, si se oblivisci quae vellet quam si meminisse docuisset. videsne quae vis in homine acerrimi ingeni, quam potens et quanta mens fuerit? qui ita responderit, ut intellegere possemus nihil ex illius animo, quod semel esset infusum, umquam effluere potuisse; cum quidem ei fuerit optabilius oblivisci posse potius quod meminisse nollet quam quod semel audisset vidissetve meminisse.

• Richard Porson's Powers of Memory
• Remembering and Forgetting

Consider me very seriously here in a strange country, inhabited by things that call themselves Doctors and Masters of Arts; a country flowing with syllogisms and ale, where Horace and Virgil are equally unknown...

Feeble has grown the old man's body, toothless his gums and bald his head; but there he goes, upon his crutches, clinging firmly to fruitless hope!

The body has become decrepit; the head has turned grey; the mouth has been rendered toothless; grasping a stick, the old man moves about. Even then, the mass of desires does not go.

And yet again what monstrous absurdities these Christians invent about this God of theirs, whom they can neither show nor see! that he searches diligently into the ways and deeds of all men, yea even their words and hidden thoughts, hurrying to and fro, ubiquitously; they make him out a troublesome, restless, shameless and interfering being, who has a hand in everything that is done, interlopes at every turn, and can neither attend to particulars because he is distracted with the whole, nor to the whole because he is engaged with particulars.

at etiam Christiani quanta monstra, quae portenta confingunt! deum illum suum, quem nec ostendere possunt nec videre, in omnium mores, actus omnium, verba denique et occultas cogitationes diligenter inquirere, discurrentem scilicet atque ubique praesentem: molestum illum volunt, inquietum, inpudenter etiam curiosum, siquidem adstat factis omnibus, locis omnibus intererrat, cum nec singulis inservire possit per universa districtus nec universis sufficere in singulis occupatus.

[2] The Athenians gained repute because they punished as harmful to the state the indolent and idle who followed no useful pursuits, and the Lacedaemonians because they permitted their oldest men to beat with their canes such of the citizens as were disorderly in any public place whatever; but for what took place in the homes they took no thought or precaution, holding that each man's house-door marked the boundary within which he was free to live as he pleased. [3] But the Romans, throwing open every house and extending the authority of the censors even to the bed-chamber, made that office the overseer and guardian of everything that took place in the homes; for they believed that neither a master should be cruel in the punishments meted out to his slaves, nor a father unduly harsh or lenient in the training of his children, nor a husband unjust in his partner­ship with his lawfully-wedded wife, nor children disobedient toward their aged parents, nor should own brothers strive for more than their equal share, and they thought there should be no banquets and revels lasting all night long, no wantonness and corrupting of youthful comrades, no neglect of the ancestral honours of sacrifices and funerals, nor any other of the things that are done contrary to propriety and the advantage of the state.

[2] Ἀθηναῖοι μὲν δόξης ἔτυχον ὅτι τοὺς ῥᾳθύμους καὶ ἀργοὺς καὶ μηδὲν ἐπιτηδεύοντας τῶν χρησίμων ὡς ἀδικοῦντας τὸ κοινὸν ἐζημίουν, Λακεδαιμόνιοι δέ ὅτι τοῖς πρεσβυτάτοις ἐπέτρεπον τοὺς ἀκοσμοῦντας τῶν πολιτῶν ἐν ὁτῳδήτινι τῶν δημοσίων τόπῳ ταῖς βακτηρίαις παίειν· τῶν δὲ κατ᾽ οἰκίαν γενομένων οὔτε πρόνοιαν οὔτε φυλακὴν ἐποιοῦντο, τὴν αὔλειον θύραν ἑκάστου ὅρον εἶναι τῆς ἐλευθερίας τοῦ βίου νομίζοντες. [3] Ῥωμαῖοι δὲ πᾶσαν ἀναπετάσαντες οἰκίαν καὶ μέχρι τοῦ δωματίου τὴν ἀρχὴν τῶν τιμητῶν προαγαγόντες ἁπάντων ἐποίησαν ἐπίσκοπον καὶ φύλακα τῶν ἐν αὐταῖς γινομένων, οὔτε δεσπότην οἰόμενοι δεῖν ὠμὸν εἶναι περὶ τὰς τιμωρίας οἰκετῶν οὔτε πατέρα πικρὸν ἢ μαλθακὸν πέρα τοῦ μετρίου περὶ τέκνων ἀγωγὰς οὔτε ἄνδρα περὶ κοινωνίαν γαμετῆς γυναικὸς ἄδικον οὔτε παῖδας γηραιῶν ἀπειθεῖς πατέρων οὔτε ἀδελφοὺς γνησίους τὸ πλεῖον ἀντὶ τοῦ ἴσου διώκοντας, οὐ συμπόσια καὶ μέθας παννυχίους, οὐκ ἀσελγείας καὶ φθορὰς ἡλικιωτῶν νέων, οὐχ ἱερῶν ἢ ταφῶν προγονικὰς τιμὰς ἐκλιπούσας, οὐκ ἄλλο τῶν παρὰ τὸ καθῆκον ἢ συμφέρον τῇ πόλει πραττομένων οὐδέν.

Generally, this constitutes an extremely attractive volume, but in my eyes it has a fatal flaw: the facing translation means that I cannot use this book in my classes. Clearly, Oxford University Press believes there is an audience (in Britain?) for this format (compare the Aris and Phillips editions); that speaks volumes about the teaching of ancient Greek. Have our British cousins given up? Perhaps the Press can be persuaded to issue an edition without English for us old mastodons who do not believe students will learn Greek with a translation at hand.

Some pedagogues will throw up their hands in horror at a comentator who also provides a translation. Their students, they say, will 'cheat' by looking at the translation before having wrestled sufficiently with the Greek. I credit readers with more maturity than this: it is perfectly open to them to put a piece of paper over the right-hand page and use the translation as a secondary check rather than a primary shortcut.

I am not at all fond of regimentation or repression; that is why I have never written a novel about Utopia, as is the case with almost all of the sinful human race who have written anything in our time. Utopia always seems to me to mean regimentation rather than emancipation; repression rather than expansion. It is generally called a Republic, and it always is a Monarchy. It is a Monarchy in the old and exact sense of the term; because it is really ruled by one man, the author of the book. He may tell us that all the characters in the book spontaneously delight in the beautiful social condition, but somehow we never believe him. His ideal world is always the world that he wants, and not the world that the world wants. Therefore, however democratic it may be in theory or in the book, it is always pretty despotic when it begins to be approached in practice through the law. The first modern moves towards any Utopian condition are generally as coercive as Prohibition. All that we call Utopia is but the rather evasive and vague expression of the natural, boyish, and romantic sentiment: "If I were King."

Atreus's sons, and you other well-greaved Achaeans,
may the gods who have their homes on Olympos grant you
to sack Priam's city, and win a safe homecoming!
But release my dear daughter, accept the ransom I offer,
show respect for Zeus's son, Apollo, the deadly archer.

Ἀτρεΐδαι τε καὶ ἄλλοι ἐϋκνήμιδες Ἀχαιοί,
ὑμῖν μὲν θεοὶ δοῖεν Ὀλύμπια δώματ᾿ ἔχοντες
ἐκπέρσαι Πριάμοιο πόλιν, εὖ δ᾿ οἴκαδ᾿ ἱκέσθαι·
παῖδα δ᾿ ἐμοὶ λύσαιτε φίλην, τὰ δ᾿ ἄποινα δέχεσθαι,        20
ἁζόμενοι Διὸς υἱὸν ἑκηβόλον Ἀπόλλωνα.

Out of 88 Iliadic and 94 Odyssean occurrences of θεοί in the nominative this is the only one in which it is scanned as a monosyllable by synizesis (though cf. θεοῖσιν at Od. 14.251). It is certain that the poets were capable of expressing this kind of simple thought without the use of such a rare pronunciation (it became commoner later) and the abandonment of such an extensive and strict formular system. Bentley's ὔμμι θεοὶ μὲν δοῖεν is the best emendation proposed so far, the postponement of μέν being unusual but not impossible.

θεοί Scanned as one syllable, the sounds ε and οι being run together in pronunciation; this is known as synizesis or synecphonesis. Out of a total of 182 occurrences of the nominative θεοί in Homer, this is the only one scanned as a monosyllable. In order to avoid this apparent anomaly, Bentley conjectured ὔμμι θεοὶ μὲν δοῖεν. Normally, one expects that the words which come immediately before μέν and δέ will be corresponding elements in a binary contrast; thus we would expect another nominative contrasted with θεοί doing something to or for the Greeks (ὔμμι). However, Homeric usage is not absolute on this point and more or less violent postponements of μέν are found (e.g. 13.13). Bentley's conjecture is thus not unattractive.

It is commonly objected to this line that the synizesis of θεοί in the oldest part of Homer is impossible: Bentley accordingly conjectures ὔμμι θεοὶ μὲν δοῖεν. But this reading puts the μὲν quite in the wrong place; if μὲν is to qualify the whole clause it ought to be the second word in it, and it does not make any sense to make it qualify θεοί. It the line is to be altered at all it would be better to read: ὑμῖν μὲν τοι δοῖεν, for it would not be un-Homeric to use Ὀλύμπια δώματ᾿ ἔχοντες by itself for the gods, and this reading is such as might give rise to corruption and our text. I believe that it is a safe rule in Homeric criticism that the order of words is not to be meddled with except under pressing necessity, that the freer uncontracted forms of Homeric words have been everywhere cut down without remorse but that the words themselves have been preserved with most extraordinary fidelity. You can hardly read half a dozen lines of Homer without coming across forms of words which ought to be restored to an older form, but you may read all Homer through and scarcely come across a dozen lines where any plausible emendation has been made which alters the order of the words or the words themselves¹.

Now there is another place in Homer where the short form of θεοῖσι occurs, ξ.251. It is true that the Odyssey has many more short and contracted forms of words than the oldest part of the Iliad. But if θεοῖσι is contracted once and once only in the former, why not also once in the latter? And ξ.251 is a line which defies emendation; the only way to get rid of it would be the rough method of downright expulsion. And why should there be any difficulty about it? Will the opponents of all contraction and synizesis in Homer consider this simple fact? Homer uses three forms of the same infinitive, τεuxέμεναι, τεύχεμεν and τεύχειν. He uses three forms of the same genitive, Φοίβοιο, Φοίβοο and Φοίβου. In the oldest parts therefore he uses the uncontracted forms and two stages of contraction, uses them perpetually and without the least hesitation, and no one will dare endeavour to remove them or to explain them away. And it would be easy for the merest beginner in Homeric science to add more cases of the same kind. Perhaps it would be as well to talk less about contracted forms and short forms of the dative plural and so forth, until some one shall have "corrected" the "un-Homeric contractions" of ἄγειν and τοῦ in A.338, 340. And if θύρεον in ι.340 can be scanned as an iambus, why not θεός as a monosyllable?

¹ Cf. however on the other side Meurad [sic, read Menrad] de Contractionis Usu Homerico, p. 168. But most of his instances are puerile, and simply shew the weakness of his case.

Our desires in life are of every kind. One man yearns to get nobility, another cares nothing for that but wants to be called the father of abundant possessions for his house. Another chooses to say nothing wholesome based on sound thinking and to entice his fellows with vile audacity; while others again prefer base gains to honorable achievement. That's how diversely men's ways of life range. But I for my part want to get none of these things, and would rather have the credit of good repute.

ἔρωτες ἡµῖν εἰσὶ παντοῖοι βίου·
ὃ µὲν γὰρ εὐγένειαν ἱµείρει λαβεῖν,
τῷ δ' οὐχὶ τούτου φροντίς, ἀλλὰ χρηµάτων
πολλῶν κεκλῆσθαι βούλεται πατὴρ δόµοις·
ἄλλῳ δ' ἀρέσκει µηδὲν ὑγιὲς ἐκ φρενῶν        5
λέγοντι πείθειν τοὺς πέλας τόλµῃ κακῇ·
οἱ δ' αἰσχρὰ κέρδη πρόσθε τοῦ καλοῦ βροτῶν
ζητοῦσιν· οὕτω βίοτος ἀνθρώπων πλάνη.
ἐγὼ δὲ τούτων οὐδενὸς χρῄζω τυχεῖν,
δόξαν δὲ βουλοίµην ἂν εὐκλείας ἔχειν.        10

• Every Humour Hath His Adjunct Pleasure
• Suum Cuique
• Archilochus, Fragment 19 West
• Priamel (from the movie Johnny Guitar)
• Book Lovers
• A Priamel by Asclepiades
• Monday's Child Again?
• Different Strokes for Different Folks
• Attraction
• Priamel

[5] When, now, though poor, I am at no disadvantage on that account in comparison with those who possess much, why in the world should I have denounced Fortune because she did not make me equal to you kings who have much gold treasured up? Nay, even in my private affairs I am so far removed from misfortune that I consider myself to be one of a favoured few of the blest, when I compare myself with the rich, and in this I take the greatest pride. [6] For my sorry little farm suffices to furnish me with the necessaries of life if I am industrious and frugal, and Nature does not compel me to seek more than is necessary; on the contrary, all food is pleasing to me which hunger prepares, every drink is sweet when thirst provides it, sleep is gentle when induced by fatigue, the clothing which keeps one from shivering is most adequate, and the cheapest utensil of all that can serve the same purposes is the most suitable. [7] Hence not even on this score should I be justified in denouncing Fortune, since she has given me as much substance as Nature wished me to have; as for things in excess of that, she has neither implanted in me any craving for them nor given me any store of them.

[5] ὁπότε δὲ πενόμενος οὐδὲν παρὰ τοῦτ᾽ ἔλαττον ἔχω τῶν πολλὰ κεκτημένων, τί παθὼν ἂν κατηγόρησα τῆς τύχης, ὅτι οὐχ ὑμῖν ἐξίσωσε τοῖς βασιλεῦσιν, οἷς ὁ πολὺς θησαυρίζεται χρυσός; ἀλλὰ μὴν ἔν γε τοῖς ἰδίοις τοσοῦτον ἀπέχω κακοδαιμονίας ὥστ᾽ ἐν ὀλίγοις πάνυ τῶν μακαρίων ἐμαυτὸν εἶναι δοκῶ παρὰ τοὺς πλουσίους ἐξετάζων, καὶ ἐπὶ τούτῳ μέγιστον φρονῶ· [6] ἐπειδὴ τὰ μὲν ἀναγκαῖα τὸ λυπρὸν ἀπόχρη μοι γήδιον φιλεργοῦντι καὶ ταμιευομένῳ παρέχειν, τὰ δ᾽ ἔξω τῶν ἀναγκαίων οὐ βιάζεται ζητεῖν ἡ φύσις, ἀλλὰ καὶ τροφὴ πᾶσα ἡδεῖά μοι ἣν ἂν ὁ λιμὸς σκευάσῃ, καὶ ποτὸν ἅπαν γλυκύ ὅταν ἡ δίψα πορίσῃ, καὶ ὕπνος μαλθακός ὅταν ἡγήσηται κόπος, ἐσθής τε ἡ παρέχουσα μὴ ῥιγοῦν αὐταρκεστάτη, καὶ σκεῦος ὅ τι ἂν εὐτελέστατον τῶν δυναμένων τὰς αὐτὰς παρέχειν χρείας οἰκειότατον. [7] ὥστ᾽ οὐδὲ κατὰ τοῦτο δίκαιος εἴην ἂν τῆς τύχης κατηγορεῖν, ἥ μοι τοσαύτην παρέσχεν οὐσίαν ὅσην ἡ φύσις ἐβούλετο ἔχειν· τῶν δ᾽ ὑπερβαλλόντων οὔτε πόθον ἐνέφυσεν οὔτ᾽ εὐπορίαν ἔδωκεν.

Years of studying classical texts do not lead me to a position where I can relax in a warm glow of mastery. My day-to-day experience is chiefly one of puzzlement.

[....]

When I approach a line of Homer, I look at every single word. Quite often, I write a note on every single word. Then I delete quite a few of them. This is what I call 'negative research': one does a lot of reading, writes what one regards as an elegant distillation, then crosses it out because it does not seem worth foisting on others. The hope is that what remains might be useful.

The compromise bill infuriated the ideological fringes of both pirates...

Labels: typographical and other errors

For what harm can be done to men going into battle by those long locks, the fierceness of their glance, and the grim aspect of their countenances? And these awkward prancings, the useless brandishing of their weapons, the many clashings of their shields, and all the other demonstrations of barbarian and senseless bravado, whether through motions or through sounds, indulged in by way of threats to their foes—what advantage are they calculated to bring to those who attack unintelligently, or what fear to those who with cool calculation stand their ground in the midst of danger?

τί γὰρ ἂν δυνήσονται δεινὸν ἐργάσασθαι τοὺς ὁμόσε χωροῦντας αἱ βαθεῖαι κόμαι καὶ τὸ ἐν τοῖς ὄμμασιν αὐτῶν πικρὸν καὶ ὁ βλοσυρὸς τῆς ὄψεως χαρακτὴρ; αἵ τε δὴ πλημμελεῖς αὗται σκιρτήσεις καὶ τὰ διὰ κενῆς ἀνασείσματα τῶν ὅπλων καὶ οἱ πολλοὶ τῶν θυρεῶν κτύποι καὶ ὅσα ἄλλα ὑπὸ βαρβάρου καὶ ἄφρονος ἀλαζονείας κατά τε μορφὰς καὶ φωνὰς ἐν ἀπειλαῖς πολεμίων σπαθᾶται, τίνα παρέχειν πέφυκε τοῖς ἀνοήτως ἐπιοῦσι πλεονεξίαν ἢ τοῖς μετὰ λογισμοῦ παρὰ τὰ δεινὰ ἑστῶσι φόβον;

Differing predilections obtain, and different types of writing. The subjugation of north-western Spain was the prime military achievement that marked the first decade of the reign, celebrated by the closing of Janus for the second time. Caesar Augustus himself had taken the field against the Cantabrians in 26. Hence 'Cantaber' no fewer than six times in Horace—but nowhere in any other poet.

Labels: typographical and other errors

Many times it seems to us the city has done
the same thing with the best and the brightest of its citizens
as with the old coinage and the new gold currency.
For these, not counterfeit at all,
but the finest it seems of all coins,
and the only ones of the proper stamp, of resounding metal
amongst Greeks and foreigners everywhere,
we never use, but the inferior bronze ones instead,
minted just yesterday or the day before with the basest stamp.
So too the citizens whom we know to be noble and virtuous,
and righteous and true men of quality
and trained in the palaestra and dancing and music,
these we despise, but the brazen foreigners and redheads
worthless sons of worthless fathers, these we use for everything,
these latest parvenus, whom the city before this
wouldn't have lightly used even for random scapegoats.
But now, you dimwits, change your ways,
and employ the good ones again. And if you succeed,
it's praiseworthy. But if you stumble, at least you'll hang from a respectable tree—
So wise men will think, if anything happens to you.

πολλάκις γ᾽ ἡμῖν ἔδοξεν ἡ πόλις πεπονθέναι
ταὐτὸν εἴς τε τῶν πολιτῶν τοὺς καλούς τε κἀγαθοὺς
εἴς τε τἀρχαῖον νόμισμα καὶ τὸ καινὸν χρυσίον.        720
οὔτε γὰρ τούτοισιν, οὖσιν οὐ κεκιβδηλευμένοις
ἀλλὰ καλλίστοις ἁπάντων, ὡς δοκεῖ, νομισμάτων
καὶ μόνοις ὀρθῶς κοπεῖσι καὶ κεκωδωνισμένοις
ἔν τε τοῖς Ἕλλησι καὶ τοῖς βαρβάροισι πανταχοῦ
χρώμεθ᾽ οὐδέν, ἀλλὰ τούτοις τοῖς πονηροῖς χαλκίοις,        725
χθές τε καὶ πρώην κοπεῖσι, τῷ κακίστῳ κόμματι.
τῶν πολιτῶν θ᾽ οὓς μὲν ἴσμεν εὐγενεῖς καὶ σώφρονας
ἄνδρας ὄντας καὶ δικαίους καὶ καλούς τε κἀγαθοὺς
καὶ τραφέντας ἐν παλαίστραις καὶ χοροῖς καὶ μουσικῇ,
προυσελοῦμεν, τοῖς δὲ χαλκοῖς καὶ ξένοις καὶ πυρρίαις        730
καὶ πονηροῖς κἀκ πονηρῶν εἰς ἅπαντα χρώμεθα,
ὑστάτοις ἀφιγμένοισιν, οἷσιν ἡ πόλις πρὸ τοῦ
οὐδὲ φαρμακοῖσιν εἰκῇ ῥᾳδίως ἐχρήσατ᾽ ἄν.
ἀλλὰ καὶ νῦν, ὦνόητοι, μεταβαλόντες τοὺς τρόπους
χρῆσθε τοῖς χρηστοῖσιν αὖθις· καὶ κατορθώσασι γὰρ        735
εὔλογον, κἄν τι σφαλῆτ᾽, ἐξ ἀξίου γοῦν τοῦ ξύλου,
ἤν τι καὶ πάσχητε, πάσχειν τοῖς σοφοῖς δοκήσετε.

There is more advice in the speech which concludes the parabasis (the antepirrhema). This is not about ordinary citizens, but about political leaders, and it is introduced by a famous comparison with Athenian coinage. The same thing has happened to the best men, says the chorus, as to the old silver coins and the new gold ones. At this time the Athenians had three kinds of coinage. For nearly two centuries they had used silver coins, but in the latter part of the Peloponnesian War, when the Spartans occupied Dekeleia, they could no longer get regular access to their silver mines at Laureion. So in 407/6 they melted down some gold dedications on the Akropolis to make gold coins; but even a small gold coin has a high value, and these were not much use for everyday shopping. A few months before the performance of Frogs, therefore, they produced some bronze coins plated with silver. These were, like most modern coins, tokens, representing a higher amount than the intrinsic value of the metal they contained. Consequently they were unpopular, and Gresham's law operated: the bronze coins were constantly in circulation, while the silver and gold disappeared.¹⁴ That is just how it is, says the chorus, with our citizens. We treat insultingly those who are well-born, well-behaved, upright, fine, good men, with the traditional education in music and athletics, and instead we use for every purpose the bronze, foreign, red-haired ones, bad sons of bad fathers, the latest arrivals (727-33). 'We use' must mean that they are elected to be generals and to hold other important offices. The passage seems to mean that such offices are now given to recent immigrants and not to the members of old-established Athenian families.

¹⁴ I follow the usual view here, but there is some disagreement about the numismatic details. Cf. W.E. Thompson Mnemosyne 19 (1966) 337-43, A. Giovannini GRBS 16 (1975) 185-90, J.H. Kroll GRBS 17 (1976) 329-41, W. Weiser ZPE 76 (1989) 275.

I know as well as anybody that the modern world is full of lawless little men and mad little movements.

Porson declared that he learned nothing while a schoolboy at Eton. "Before I went there," he said, "I could nearly repeat by heart all the books which we used to read in the schools."

He thought the Decline and Fall beyond all comparison the greatest literary production of the eighteenth century, and was in the habit of repeating long passages from it.

He insisted that all men are born with abilities nearly equal. "Any one;" he would say, "might become quite as good a critic as I am, if he would only take the trouble to make himself so. I have made myself what I am by intense labour: sometimes, in order to impress a thing upon my memory, I have read it a dozen times, and transcribed it six."*

* But he was certainly gifted by nature with most extraordinary powers of memory. Dr. Downie, of Aberdeen, told me that, during a visit to London, he heard Porson declare that he could repeat Smollett's Roderick Random from beginning to end:—and Mr. Richard Heber assured me that soon after the appearance of the Essay on Irish Bulls (the joint production of Edgeworth and his daughter), Porson used, when somewhat tipsy, to recite whole pages of it verbatim with great delight.—ED.

His favourite authors in Greek (as, I believe, every body knows) were the tragedians and Aristophanes; he had them almost by heart.

If I tell the truth I shall not give you pleasure;
and if I give you any pleasure I shall not be telling the truth.

εἰ µὲν φράσω τἀληθές, οὐχί σ' εὐφρανῶ·
εἰ δ' εὐφρανῶ τί σ', οὐχὶ τἀληθὲς φράσω.

In aversion from 'opimum', 'rapidum' (Madvig) and 'varium' (Koestermann) were cited in Tacitus (1958), 146 n. 1. The source of those attributions is not at the moment discoverable. Giarratano (1939) assigned 'rapidum' to Heinisch and neglected 'varium'.

Historiarum Lib. I c. 2 in codice Mediceo est: Opus aggredior opibus casibus, atrox proeliis, discors seditionibus, ipsa etiam pace saevum. Editur e codicibus interpolatis opimum casibus; sed neque opimus sic simpliciter de copia dicitur, neque h. l. commune adiectivum, ad ea etiam, quae sequuntur, substantiva aptum, poni potuit, sed quod proprietatem cum casibus coniunctam significaret, ut atrox et discors. Id erit: Opus aggredior rapidum casibus (de celeri et inexspectato cursu). Nocuit r semel scriptum (apidum). [Ernestius horridum, similiter ratiocinans.]

HIST. 1, 2.
„Opus aggredior opímum casibus, atrox proeliis, discors seditionibus, ipsa etiam pace saevum.“
Adiectivum opimum, quod iam inde a Pichena in omnibus legitur Taciti editionibus, duabus de causis, quae etiam Kiesslingio aliquam de recipienda hac lectione moverunt dubitationem, plane mihi videtur reiiciendum. Primum enim non de quavis dicitur abundantia: ego quidem nullum adhuc inveni exemplum, ex quo de malis quoque rebus hanc vocem usurpari appareat; quumque h. l. casus adversi funestique sint intelligendi, mirum sane videri debet, Tacitum, qui semel tantum hoc adiectivo usus sit, hoc ipso loco tam inusitata eo usum esse ratione. Deinde generalis illa multitudinis casuum significatio comparata cum ceteris, quibus quale opus suum futurum sit praefatur, perquam frigida est et languida. Quae quum ita sint, corruptam cod. Med. scripturam opibus mutandam esse censeo in rapidum, quae vox, litera r propter eandem literam in fine praecedentis vocabuli positam omissa, a librario, cuius oculis animoque verba adhuc obversabantur opus et casibus, facile corrumpi potuit in opibus. Rapidum dicitur opus quod rapidi in eo narrantur casus, i.e., casus, qui celeriter et praeter expectationem incidunt perniciem plerumque afferentes. Ita rapidae dicuntur procellae, rapidi torrentes, rapidum fulmen, rapidus ignis, rapidum venenum: et rapere, raptare non raro pro vastare, evertere ponuntur. cf. An. XIII, 6. „Rapi Armeniam allatum est.“ An. IV, 23. II, 77. „An festinamus cum Germanici cineribus appellere, ut te inauditum et indefensum planctus Agrippinae ac vulgus imperitum primo rumore rapiant?“ Referenda autem videntur verba rapidum casibus ad mala illa improvisa, quibus Italia tum gravissime afflicta est: ad subitam inundationem Tiberis (Hist. I, 86), ad incendium Capitolii (Hist. III, 72. IV, 54.), ad ignem, quo urbs Roma Tito imperante per tres dies totidemque noctes vastata est (Suet. Tit. c. 8.), ad pestilentiam, quantam non temere alias fuisse dicit Suetonius (Tit. c. 8.), ad deflagrationem montis Vesuvii, qua haustae aut obrutae urbes sunt in fecundissima Campaniae ora.

Struthus, Circonicus, Cremnus, Cercobulus, and Collabus,⁴³ crooks who snatch purses, have chains clanking around their shins, and wear fetters smooth; do you expect to recover your ring from among these people? In my presence, one of them stole the sole of a runner's shoe from him while he was actually running.

⁴³ Comical names. Struthus means "lascivious," and Circonicus "someone who beats hawks"; Cremnus means "cliff" and thus "dangerous"; Cercobulus refers to someone who "thinks of genitals"; and Collabus stands for collops "hermaphrodite."

Struthus [fuit], Circonicus, Cremnus, Cercobulus, Collabus,
loculiripidae, cruricrepidae, ferriteri mastigiae:
inter eosne homines condalium te redipisci postulas?
coram eorum unus surrupuit currenti cursori solum.

1020 Struthus Schoell: Truthus B: Truchus C: Terruchus D: Trochus Spengel
fuit del. Gratwick
Circonicus Leo: Cerconicus P
Cremnus Trappes-Lomax: Crinnus P: Crimnus Scaliger: Crinus Hermann
Cercobulus P: Cerdobulus Spengel: Cricolabus vel Cricoclopus Ritschl

1021 loculiripidae Gratwick: oculicrepidae P: collicrepidae Becker: cruristrepidae Loewe: scapulicrepidae Guyet

1023 coram Gratwick: quorum P
surrupuit P: surpuit Gratwick

...Cercobulus, 'Genital-minded' will be fit company for a Struthus...

Κερκόβουλος ist zunächst unbestritten. Von griechischen Namen lassen sich nur Κέρκις, Κέρκιος, Κέρκων, Κερκίων, Κερκίνος, Κερκίδας bei Fick-Becht. S. 161. 316, Bechtel, griech. Spitzn. S. 33, vergleichen; Κέρκιος auch als Komödientitel bei Anaxandrides, Kock II 143. Offenbar gehört hierher auch κέρκωψ, wenngleich die Bildung nicht ganz durchsichtig ist; die κέρκοπες sind die Erzbetrüger und Taschenspieler: in ihre Sphäre wird damit auch Κερκόβουλος gewiesen.

On a contrary estimate, so it can be maintained, the central government of the Caesars lived largely by expedients. It preferred to ignore problems until they were brought to its notice or could no longer be avoided. Roman statesmen would have concurred in the maxim of the excellent Antonio de Mendoza, the first viceroy of New Spain: 'do little and do that slowly'. That was the lesson of their own experience through long ages. The diffusion of Latin civilization in the western lands was a long process, begun in violence but promoted by peace and prosperity, not by the deliberate actions of any government.

[....]

After policy, administration. It never fails to earn praise and honour in the modern age, for it appeals to routine and favours careerism. The Romans consented to have as little administration as possible. They were inspired by an ingrained dislike of interfering with the habits of individuals or communities. That healthy abstinence comes out in various ways, most clearly in their normal attitude towards foreign religions: no cause for alarm unless morality was impaired or public order endangered.

Through tolerance or salutary neglect the Caesars were able to superintend a world empire without elaborate regulations or a horde of bureaucrats.

What is France but a once magnificent house now occupied by ignorant squatters. By no means the majority, but enough to destroy the culture and the law. After all the confused, tragic, costly work through war, plague, famine, revolution, and wrong turns, the house stood beautifully nonetheless and with potential unmatched in history. And now they write on the walls, break the windows, and make fires on the floor.

But what professor's life is a bed of roses? We find in the orations that Libanius addresses to his students sufficient evidence of his troubles. In speciously receptive moments his pupils plagued the weary old sophist to entertain them with specimens of his epideictic oratory, and when he complied he sometimes found that he had cast his pearls before swine.⁴ Nothing could be truer to life than his picture of those lubberly youths tardily answering the summons to the lecture hall, mincing in, as he says, at the pace of a bride, or a tightrope walker, the late comers annoying those already seated, then even in the progress of the speech exchanging nods and whispers about horses and charioteers, actors and dancers, a fight just past or impending, while some stood as if carved out of stone, one hand crossed over the other, others fidgeted with their noses, and so on through the catalogue of schoolboy rudeness.⁵ In wilder moods they might seize upon one of the pedagogues who attended them to school and toss him in a carpet—a form of sport to which the emperor Otho was addicted in his riotous youth thereby drawing down upon themselves a lecture upon the heinousness of their sin.<sup>6

4</sup> Or. 3.

⁵ Or. 3, 11-13. The passage has been translated or paraphrased by various writers on the schools of the period: Sievers, op. cit. p. 29; Capes, University Life in Ancient Athens, p. 143 f.; Walden, Universities of Ancient Greece, p. 321 f.; Schemmel, "Der Sophist Libanios als Schüler und Lehrer" (Neue Jahrb. xx [Pädagogik x], 65).

⁶ Or. 58, 18; Suet. Otho 2.

In describing the discovery which convinced him that black arts were in practice against him, Libanius says "there appeared in the audience hall, I know not whence, a chameleon—an old chameleon, dead for many months. Its head was placed between its two hind feet, one of its forefeet was missing, the other was closing the mouth to impose silence."¹⁰ The last clause shows clearly that Libanius saw in the wretched body of the creature a token of the sufferings that some enemy desired to inflict upon him.

¹⁰ Or. 1, 249.

For I would distinguish Greeks from barbarians, not by their name nor on the basis of their speech, but by their intelligence and their predilection for decent behaviour, and particularly by their indulging in no inhuman treatment of one another. All in whose nature these qualities predominated I believe ought to be called Greeks, but those of whom the opposite was true, barbarians.

τὸ γὰρ Ἑλληνικὸν οὐκ ὀνόματι διαφέρειν τοῦ βαρβάρου ἠξίουν οὐδὲ διαλέκτου χάριν, ἀλλὰ συνέσει καὶ χρηστῶν ἐπιτηδευμάτων προαιρέσει, μάλιστα δὲ τῷ μηδὲν τῶν ὑπὲρ τὴν ἀνθρωπίνην φύσιν εἰς ἀλλήλους παρανομεῖν. ὅσοις μὲν οὖν ταῦτα ἐπὶ πλεῖον ὑπῆρξεν ἐν τῇ φύσει, τούτους οἶμαι δεῖν λέγειν Ἕλληνας, ὅσοις δὲ τἀναντία βαρβάρους.

Clientela was potent and pervasive all through society. The way that society divided is illustrated by language. On the one side the men of substance (senatorial or equestrian), the 'locupletes'. They take up space, they are solid and three-dimensional. On the other, the thin men, the 'tenues' or 'tenuiores', who are barely visible as individuals. In the mass they are filling-material, that is plebs. There is a curious parallel in Polynesia—'big men' and 'rubbish men', for so the latter are content to call themselves.

Well then, I maintain that everyone does everything which he does for the sake of pleasure or gain or honor; for I observe that no desire springs up in men save for these objects.

ἐγὼ μὲν οὖν ἡδονῆς ἢ κέρδους ἢ τιμῆς ἕνεκα φημὶ πάντας πάντα πράττειν· ἔξω γὰρ τούτων οὐδεμίαν ἐπιθυμίαν ὁρῶ τοῖς ἀνθρώποις ἐγγιγνομένην.

Human rights are closely bound up with liberty and democracy. Liberty is an equivocal term, and in any age its ambitious advocates should be submitted to cool scrutiny. As for democracy, it took a long time to become respectable. John Adams somewhere styles it 'the most ignoble, unjust, and detestable form of government'. A writer who did much for its rehabilitation was George Grote, an English banker and liberal politician, in his History of Greece a century and a half ago.

Among the contemporaries of Adams, various and frequent appeal was made to precedents from the republics of antiquity. Some, however, such as Hamilton and Franklin, deplored the habit, and Randall of Massachusetts made a firm pronouncement: 'The quoting of ancient history was no more to the point than to tell how our ancestors dug clams at Plymouth.'

Preoccupation with the past can be burdensome, deceptive, or noxious. And, in the words of Henry Adams, 'history is in essence incoherent and immoral'.

What would you have me say of the affairs of France? We are too near, and too remote, to form an accurate judgment of that wonderful scene. The abuses of the Court and Government called aloud for reformation; and it has happened, as it will always happen, that an innocent well-disposed prince has paid the forfeit of the sins of his predecessors; of the ambition of Louis XIV., of the profusion of Louis XV. The French nation had a glorious opportunity, but they have abused, and may lose their advantages. If they had been content with a liberal translation of our system, if they had respected the prerogatives of the Crown and the privileges of the nobles, they might have raised a solid fabric on the only true foundation, the natural aristocracy of a great country. How different is the prospect! Their king brought a captive to Paris after his palace had been stained with the blood of his guards; the nobles in exile; the clergy plundered in a way which strikes at the root of all property; the capital an independent republic; the union of the provinces dissolved; the flames of discord kindled by the worst of men (in that light I consider Mirabeau); and the honestest of the Assembly, a set of wild visionaries (like our Dr. Price), who gravely debate, and dream about the establishment of a pure and perfect democracy of fiveand-twenty millions, the virtues of the golden age, and the primitive rights and equality of mankind, which would lead, in fair reasoning, to an equal partition of lands and money.