Laudator Temporis Acti

Dionysius, the Renegade, declared that pleasure was the end of action; this under the trying circumstance of an attack of ophthalmia. For so violent was his suffering that he could not bring himself to call pain a thing indifferent.

Διονύσιος δ' ὁ Μεταθέμενος τέλος εἶπε τὴν ἡδονὴν διὰ περίστασιν ὀφθαλμίας· ἀλγήσας γὰρ ἐπιπόνως ὤκνησεν εἰπεῖν τὸν πόνον ἀδιάφορον.

Any attempt to revise our estimate of a classic will inevitably seem an impertinence. A reasonable economy, it will be said, supports the notion that sixty or seventy generations cannot have been wholly mistaken about a classic. On the other hand the classics, simply because they are classics, are particularly susceptible to distortion and stultification. They constantly serve, after all, extraliterary purposes, and these other, "cultural" uses of the classic frequently interfere with critical judgment, preventing the reassessment, or even the assessment, of the work. Many classics—I think of Sophocles—are far more subversive of Christian culture than we suppose, and for this reason interpretations that reveal subversiveness are particularly resisted.

Over the first hundred years of the principate, people lumped together as the "opposition" shared the same kind of background in any one generation, though it was a slightly different one at different times. They were alert to the same ideas, under the same dark skies, a close group. On the periphery stood men of views and courage similar but not so extreme: Curiatius Maternus or Pliny; at the heart, someone like Thrasea Paetus. It was their receptions and banquets that emperors feared, where, after the slaves had left the room, voices got lower and zeal hotter for revolution, for "new things," in the usual phrase, novae res. Here too was where men praised old things: the Republic, Brutus, and the ancestral way of life, mos maiorum.

In like manner he persuaded the people of Patrae to attach their city to the sea by long walls. Thereupon some one said to the Patrensians: 'Athens will swallow you up!' 'Perhaps so,' said Alcibiades, 'but you will go slowly, and feet first; whereas Sparta will swallow you head first, and at one gulp.'

ἔπεισε δὲ καὶ Πατρεῖς ὁμοίως τείχεσι μακροῖς συνάψαι τῇ θαλάσσῃ τὴν πόλιν. εἰπόντος δέ τινος τοῖς Πατρεῦσιν ὅτι 'καταπιοῦνται ὑμᾶς Ἀθηναῖοι·' 'ἴσως,' εἶπεν ὁ Ἀλκιβιάδης, 'κατὰ μικρὸν καὶ κατὰ τοὺς πόδας, Λακεδαιμόνιοι δὲ κατὰ τὴν κεφαλὴν καὶ ἀθρόως.'

[2] When Gylippus thought the moment was right he began the assault. The armies engaged in hand-to-hand fighting in the area between the walls, where the Syracusan cavalry were of no use. [3] The Syracusans and their allies were defeated, and after they had collected their dead under truce and the Athenians had raised a trophy, Gylippus called the army together and addressed them. He said that the fault was his, not theirs: he had drawn them up too close to the walls and had thus deprived them of the benefit of their cavalry and javelin-throwers; and he would now lead them out again. [4] He told them to bear in mind that in terms of physical resources they were not outmatched, and in terms of spirit it was unthinkable that men who were Peloponnesians and Dorians should not expect as a right to overcome a group of Ionians, islanders and other assorted rabble and drive them from the land.

[2] ἐπειδὴ δὲ ἔδοξε τῷ Γυλίππῳ καιρὸς εἶναι, ἦρχε τῆς ἐφόδου: καὶ ἐν χερσὶ γενόμενοι ἐμάχοντο μεταξὺ τῶν τειχισμάτων, ᾗ τῆς ἵππου τῶν Συρακοσίων οὐδεμία χρῆσις ἦν. [3] καὶ νικηθέντων τῶν Συρακοσίων καὶ τῶν ξυμμάχων καὶ νεκροὺς ὑποσπόνδους ἀνελομένων καὶ τῶν Ἀθηναίων τροπαῖον στησάντων, ὁ Γύλιππος ξυγκαλέσας τὸ στράτευμα οὐκ ἔφη τὸ ἁμάρτημα ἐκείνων, ἀλλ᾽ ἑαυτοῦ γενέσθαι: τῆς γὰρ ἵππου καὶ τῶν ἀκοντιστῶν τὴν ὠφελίαν τῇ τάξει ἐντὸς λίαν τῶν τειχῶν ποιήσας ἀφελέσθαι· νῦν οὖν αὖθις ἐπάξειν. [4] καὶ διανοεῖσθαι οὕτως ἐκέλευεν αὐτοὺς ὡς τῇ μὲν παρασκευῇ οὐκ ἔλασσον ἕξοντας, τῇ δὲ γνώμῃ οὐκ ἀνεκτὸν ἐσόμενον εἰ μὴ ἀξιώσουσι Πελοποννήσιοί τε ὄντες καὶ Δωριῆς Ἰώνων καὶ νησιωτῶν καὶ ξυγκλύδων ἀνθρώπων κρατήσαντες ἐξελάσασθαι ἐκ τῆς χώρας.

Every man shall find his own desire; there is no one thing which pleases all: one man gathers thorns and another roses.

inveniet quod quisque velit: non omnibus unum est
    quod placet: hic spinas colligit, ille rosas.

I prattled on as if I were expert...

garriebam plane quasi peritus...

Yes, I'll step out, I'll step along as ... fast as my age permits and the occasion demands. (halting) But I know well enough how ... easy it is for me. For I've lost my nimbleness ... the years have taken hold of me ... it's a heavy body I carry ... my strength has left me. Ah, old age is a bad thing—a bad piece of freight! Yes, yes, it brings along untold tribulations when it comes; if I were to specify them all, it would be a long, long story.

ut aetas mea est atque ut hoc usus facto est
gradum proferam, progrediri properabo.
sed id quam mihi facile sit hau sum falsus.        755
nam pernicitas deserit: consitus sum
senectute, onustum gero corpus, vires
reliquere: ut aetas mala est! mers mala ergo est.
nam res plurumas pessumas, quom advenit, fert,
quas si autumem omnis, nimis longus sermo est.        760

758 ergo codd.: aegro Gratwick

Montaigne devotes a brief essay to a pair of pre-Socratic Greek thinkers, "Of Democritus and Heraclitus." The former is reputed to have been a misanthrope, perhaps a melancholic. The latter was known as "the laughing philosopher."

Labels: typographical and other errors

De Ste Croix was driven by a hatred of Christianity. He used to talk about his list of the most evil influences in world history, with Plato, St Paul and Augustine topping the list.

From trivial causes the tongue brings about great quarrels for men.

σμικρᾶς ἀπ' ἀρχῆς νεῖκος ἀνθρώποις μέγα
γλῶσσ' ἐκπορίζει.

LYS                         perii hercle ego miser!
PAR                                                              dig<nus es>.

LYS Poor me, I'm dead!
PAR (aside) Serves you right.

He loved to sprinkle howlers into his tutorial teaching (for instance the false claim that Julius Caesar had gone to Ireland) and unsuspecting pupils would repeat them in examination papers unaware that the examiners already knew them well. He also kept a barrel of beer in his rooms at Magdalen. After Schools (the final examination in Greats) he would entertain his finalists and throw half crowns to whoever had included one of his howlers in their Roman history paper.