Laudator Temporis Acti

I know not how it is, but their commerce with the ancients appears to me to produce, in those who constantly practise it, a steadying and composing effect upon their judgment, not of literary works only, but of men and events in general. They are like persons who have had a very weighty and impressive experience; they are more truly than others under the empire of facts, and more independent of the language current among those with whom they live.

For hateful, withering old age is pickling us.

τὸ γὰρ ἀπεχθόμενον γῆρας ἁμὲ μαραῖνον ταριχεύει.

Spiritual experience is poured into a complex śāstric text, and to understand it we must turn primarily to textual tools or, to use a word perhaps no longer very popular in the contemporary American academy, to philology. Years ago, invited to deliver an Infinity Lecture at the University of Hawaii, I received a warning from my host, Prof. Arindam Chakrabarti, about not being too philological in my exposition (“You must understand, we are in a Philosophy Department”). The next day I started my lecture with a praise of philology, understood in the highest sense as a discipline that, by using paleographic, linguistic, historical, and hermeneutic tools, aims at establishing and understanding a text, (re-)placing it within its contemporary cultural parameters. As a rhetorical device to counteract the common identification of philology with something very boring, old, dusty, ugly, etc., I asked the audience whether they had ever seen the so-called Primavera (Spring) by Botticelli. Well, recent studies have shown that that beautiful and sensual young girl surrounded by flowers in the center of the painting in actual fact represents Philologia—the whole scene coming from Martianus Capella’s De Nuptiis Mercurii and Philologiae, a work very highly praised at the court of Lorenzo il Magnifico. In it, we meet Apollo giving advice to his brother Mercury, tired at last of his bachelor status: “Leave Goddesses aside and marry Philologia instead; she is human, agreed, but among humans she is the closest to the stars.”

I am well aware that making emendations and corrections to manuscripts is a widespread practice nowadays, perhaps even too widespread. Our ancestors aptly called the highest case of textual criticism divinatio. However, the question is “Can everybody afford divinationes?” Behind any bold emendation lies the unspoken belief: “If I cannot understand a passage, it is because the passage is corrupt.” A very risky statement, indeed . . . I remember one of my students, many years ago, whose translation into Italian of the Spandapradīpikā by Bhāgavata Utpala contained an impressive amount of corrections to the edited text: whenever he did not understand the text (which happened frequently due to his being a rather poor Sanskritist) he corrected the not-always-easy text to adapt it to his imperfect understanding. Unflinching self-consciousness and self-criticism—in other words a precise awareness of his limits—would be of substantial help to the emendor by making him at least more cautious in his job.

I saw https://laudatortemporisacti.blogspot.com/2023/08/too-late.html (digging a well after you're thirsty) and was reminded of a similar proverb in Sanskrit that imagines something even more absurd: when a house is burning down, it's too late to dig a well. :-)

A poem/epigram by Bhartṛhari uses this idea in its last line. As translated by Ryder (fairly close, with the added title being a connection made by him):

IN THE DAYS OF THY YOUTH

While life is vigorous and bright,
        While sickness comes not, nor decay,
While all your powers are at their height,
        While yet old age is far away,
Then, wise man, let your thoughts be turning
        To heaven's hopes and fears of hell;
For when the house is fired and burning,
        It is too late to dig a well.

yāvat svastham idaṃ śarīram arujaṃ yāvac ca dūre jarā
yāvac cendriya-śaktir apratihatā yāvat kṣayo nāyuṣaḥ |
ātma-śreyasi tāvad eva viduṣā kāryaḥ prayatno mahān
sandīpte bhavane tu kūpa-khananaṃ pratyudyamaḥ kīdṛśaḥ ||

Some more translations here: https://shreevatsa.net/bhartrhari/web/K194.html

He felt a hand on his arm. Ferdy O'Donnell.

"Would you like me to walk a bit of the way with you, Owen?"

"And why should you wish to do that?" MacCarthy asked, drawing his arm free. "I know the way. We will construe Virgil these long summer evenings, Ferdy. I am a very fine scholar."

"I know that, Owen."

"You are not. You have that low, seminary Latin. You will never see how meaning curls and curves through a line. Still, we must do our best for you. Better than nothing, Ferdy. Better than nothing."

"Much better," O'Donnell said, standing with him at the open door.

"You did not quarrel with those fellows, did you?"

"Which of them deserves to quarrel with me? They are a low lot, Ferdy, a low lot. You must hold yourself apart from that lot, now mind that. Remember Virgil. That lot in there, Virgil wouldn't have given them the sweat off his balls."

Oh, it's an awful business—waiting till thirst has you by the throat before you dig your well!

                                                  miserum est opus
igitur demum fodere puteum, ubi sitis faucis tenet.

The most eminent of his pupils was Benjamin Disraeli, who, though never in the highest form, read a considerable amount of Latin and Greek while at the school.³ If his knowledge of the languages was somewhat superficial, this was to be ascribed to his character rather than to Cogan's teaching. 'I don't like Disraeli,' said Cogan, 'I could never get him to understand the subjunctive.'

3 Monypenny, Life of Disraeli, I, p. 24 f.

Oh! joy, joy! no more helmet, no more cheese nor onions!³ No, I have no passion for battles; what I love is to drink with good comrades in the corner by the fire when good dry wood, cut in the height of the summer, is crackling; it is to cook pease on the coals and beechnuts among the embers, it is to kiss our pretty Thracian⁴ while my wife is at the bath.

³ This was the soldier's usual ration when on duty.
⁴ Slaves often bore the name of the country of their birth.

ἥδομαί γ᾽ ἥδομαι
κράνους ἀπηλλαγμένος
τυροῦ τε καὶ κρομμύων.
οὐ γὰρ φιληδῶ μάχαις,        1130
ἀλλὰ πρὸς πῦρ διέλκων μετ᾿ ἀνδρῶν ἑταίρῶν φίλων,
ἐκκέας τῶν ξύλων ἅττ᾿ ἂν ᾖ δανότατα τοῦ θέρους
ἐκπεπρεμνισμένα,        1135
κἀνθρακίζων τοὐρεβίνθου τήν τε φηγὸν ἐμπυρεύων,
χἄμα τὴν Θρᾷτταν κυνῶν
τῆς γυναικὸς λουμένης.

John [Dillon] had played a decisive role in securing a joint appointment for me in classics as well as in history. We would meet in his house on Euclid Street to discuss the cosmos of later Platonism. It was an all-embracing system that emanated, with benign inevitability, from the Wholly One—the pantelôs hen. (John's wife, Jean, would always refer irreverently to this Supreme Being, who plainly occupied a large space in the minds of John and his philosophical friends, as "the Pantyhose Hen.")

I love the truth, I want to be told the truth; I hate a liar.

ego verum amo, verum volo dici mi: mendacem odi.

It would not have been entirely unprecedented for the senate to authorise a candidate to stand for the consulship in absentia, and Caesar requested this exemption for himself . But Cato talked out the whole of the last day on which the matter could be discussed, so that no permission was given. Perhaps he invented the institution of the filibuster: certainly he slammed the door upon all hopes of the Republic and Caesar ever again co-operating in harmony.

The story goes that when Ronald Knox was six years old, he was walking on the beach one day with his seven-year-old brother, Wilfred. Gazing out upon the briny deep, Wilfred felt a philological stirring in his soul. He turned to Ronald and wondered aloud, “Ronnie, do you consider that Xenophon’s men cried ‘θάλαττα’ [thalatta, Attic dialect form for “sea”] or ‘θάλασσα’ [thalassa, non-Athenian form]?” Young Ronnie replied, in impeccably r-less English: “The latter.”

True story? No, probably not, but it’s at least ben trovato for the boy who would grow up to be dubbed “the wittiest young man in England.”

He recounts, for example, that one of the best days of his life was one “on which, in a space of nine hours, I succeeded in reading the Republic from cover to cover”—in Greek!

Do not be left behind in the house, maiden;^a
you have lately seen terrible deaths,
and many sufferings unprecedented,
and none of these things is not Zeus.

^a These words are addressed to the leader of the Chorus.

λείπου μηδὲ σύ, παρθέν᾽, ἐπ᾽ οἴκων,
μεγάλους μὲν ἰδοῦσα νέους θανάτους,
πολλὰ δὲ πήματα καὶ καινοπαθῆ,
κοὐδὲν τούτων ὅ τι μὴ Ζεύς.

"Scotland is a better country than England," said an ugly, blear-eyed lad, about a head and shoulders taller than myself, the leader of a gang of varlets who surrounded me in the play-ground, on the first day, as soon as the morning lesson was over. "Scotland is a far better country than England, in every respect."

"Is it?" said I. "Then you ought to be very thankful for not having been born in England."

"That's just what I am, ye loon; and every morning, when I say my prayers, I thank God for not being an Englishman. The Scotch are a much better and braver people than the English."

"It may be so," said I, "for what I know—indeed, till I came here, I never heard a word either about the Scotch or their country."

"Are ye making fun of us, ye English puppy?" said the blear-eyed lad; "take that!" and I was presently beaten black and blue. And thus did I first become aware of the difference of races and their antipathy to each other.

As something essentially classical, Hellenistic civilization was the opposite of those revolutionary, innovating cultures that are propelled forward by a great creative drive. It rested essentially upon the peaceful possession of an already acquired capital. It is a mistake to say, as is often said by its detractors, that it "was born with its head back to front," looking back to the past. It is not autumnal, tormented with nostalgic regrets for a vanished spring. On the contrary, it looks upon itself as firmly established in an unchanging present, in the full blaze of a hot summer sun. It knows what mighty reserves it possesses, what past masters it has. The fact that these appeared at a certain moment of time, under the influence of certain historical forces, is unimportant; what matters is that they exist and can be re-discovered in the same way, again and again, by each successive generation, can be recognized and admired and imitated. A classical culture can be defined as a unified collection of great masterpieces existing as the recognized basis of its scale of values.

How is this? You take me for a regular old Death's-head, eh?
So I seem to be such coffin contents, eh, to be living such a very long life, do I?
See here, my lad, I'm not over fifty-four,
and I'm still keen-sighted, quick-handed, and nimble-footed.

quid ais tu? itane tibi ego videor oppido Accherunticus?
tam capularis? tamne tibi diu videor vitam vivere?
nam equidem hau sum annos natus praeter quinquaginta et quattuor,
clare oculis video, pernix sum pedibus, manibus mobilis.        630

Now I, I still have some fervour and freshness in my carcass,
I'm not yet dried up for all that charms and ravishes.

et ego amoris aliquantum habeo umorisque etiam in corpore        640
necdum exarui ex amoenis rebus et voluptariis.

The whole passage (616-766) is quite remarkable. It has been called, among other things, a «full-scale Clubman's manifesto»⁵, and attempts have been made to connect it with a «gross type of Epicureanism»⁶. At the beginning of Act III, Palaestrio, Periplecomenus and Pleusicles are on the stage, but it is definitely Periplecomenus who dominates the scene, and the audience finds out a good deal about him. He is fifty-four, and his hair is white, but he is still full of vigour, and he understands the younger generation, because he remembers the time when he was young and in love. In fact, there is still some «love and juice» in him,

et ego amoris aliquantum habeo umorisque etiam in corpore (639-40).

Clearly, here is a man who enjoys the pleasures of life, an agreeable table-companion, good-natured, well-behaved, amusing. After all, he is an Ephesian, not an Apulian. He has gracious manners, dances well, is, above all, a loyal friend, hospitable and generous. He is also quite happy to live as a bachelor.

Without my going into more details, it has become clear, I think, that we have here the portrait of an accomplished Hellenistic bonvivant, the very opposite of the uncouth Soldier. In a way, this is a compendium of certain type of urbanitas. Leo (quoted in the commentary of Brix-Niemeyer-Köhler, Teubner, 1916, p. 88) called it appropriately «ein Stück neuattischen Lebens, innerlich einheitlich und aus einem Gusse». We might even go further and label the whole passage an outline of a Hellenistic «Gesellschaftsideal», valid in Athens as well as in Ephesus or Rome.

It would be tempting to interpret this text line by line and show its roots in a popularizing blend of Peripatetic and Epicurean ethics. But this is not the point of my paper⁷.

5 In her [Elaine Fantham's] review of Lothar Schaaf's book (see below), Gnomon 53, 1981, 195.

6 See below.

7 The reader who wishes to pursue this will find more material in the publications listed below: The commentary of A.O.F. Lorenz, Berlin, 1869, esp. on vv. 636-7; 638-41; 675; F. Ranke, Periplecomenus, Diss. Phil. Marburg, 1900, 65-88. (This is a useful compilation of material. The author had studied with Leo and Wilamowitz, but his main adviser was Theodor Birt); P.R. Coleman-Norton, «Philosophical Aspects of Early Roman Drama», Classical Philology 31, 1936, 331 and n. 28; C.F. Saylor, «Periplectomenus and the Organisation of the Miles Gloriosus», Eranos 75, 1977, 1-13; Elaine Fantham, «Philemon's Thesauros as a Dramatisation of Peripatetic Ethics», Hermes 105, 1977, 406-21.

... "gender-fluid" (4.301) is perhaps too redolent of contemporary jargon for ambiguus ...

Then just consider what they were like when he took them over from me, noble six-footers and not the civic shirkers, vulgarians, imps, and criminals they are now, but men with an aura of spears, lances, white-crested helmets, green berets, greaves, and seven-ply oxhide hearts.

σκέψαι τοίνυν οἵους αὐτοὺς παρ᾿ ἐμοῦ παρεδέξατο πρῶτον,
εἰ γενναίους καὶ τετραπήχεις, καὶ μὴ διαδρασιπολίτας,
μηδ᾿ ἀγοραίους μηδὲ κοβάλους, ὥσπερ νῦν, μηδὲ πανούργους,        1015
ἀλλὰ πνέοντας δόρυ καὶ λόγχας καὶ λευκολόφους τρυφαλείας
καὶ πήληκας καὶ κνημῖδας καὶ θυμοὺς ἑπταβοείους.

Repentance is for idiots. Nothing has worth beside
enduring still when dying with wrath and sword and pride.

Die Reue ist der Narren! Nur das ist Atmens wert,
Im Tod noch auszuharren beim Groll, beim Stolz, beim Schwert.

Fools but repent their actions! he is but worthy of breath,
Who, sword in hand, hot hate in heart, firmly endures till death.

But of all the occupations by which gain is secured, none is better than agriculture, none more profitable, none more delightful, none more becoming to a freeman.

omnium autem rerum, ex quibus aliquid acquiritur, nihil est agri cultura melius, nihil uberius, nihil dulcius, nihil homine libero dignius.

This is the traditional Roman attitude, reflected in Cato's response recorded at 2.89 (cf. ad loc.), as well as at Colum. 1 praef. 10 (after considering the claims of warfare, overseas commerce, moneylending, etc.: quae si et ipsa et eorum similia bonis fugienda sunt, superest, ut dixi, unum genus liberale et ingenuum rei familiaris augendae, quod ex agricolatione contingit). But some Greek authors held similar views; cf. X. Oec. 5.17: καλῶς δὲ κἀκεῖνος εἶπεν ὃς ἔφη τὴν γεωργίαν τῶν ἄλλων τεχνῶν μητέρα καὶ τροφὸν εἶναι; Muson. 57.6: ἔστι καὶ ἕτερος πόρος οὐδὲν τούτου κακίων, τάχα δὲ καὶ ἀμείνων νομισθεὶς ἂν οὐκ ἀλόγως ἀνδρί γ' εὐρώστῳ τὸ σῶμα , ὁ ἀπὸ γῆς . . . This attitude led inter alia to the creation of the latifundia (on which cf. Shatzman, 36-37). Contrast Seneca's condemnation of excessive land-purchases at Ep. 89.20; cf. Griffin, 1976, 298. In calling agriculture and hunting servilia officia (Cat. 4.1) Sallust no doubt meant to be provocative; cf. Stockton, 7, n. 6; A. Cossarini, "II prestigio dell' agricoltura in Sallustio e Cicerone," Atti dell' Istitutο Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, Classe di scienze morali, lettere ed arti, 138 (1979-80), 355-64.

The injured man's cure for pain is his enemy's pain.

laeso doloris remedium inimici est dolor.

It's a pleasant stain that comes from an enemy's blood.

iucunda macula est ex inimici sanguine.