Laudator Temporis Acti

It is prophesied into Trophonios' [cave]. The proverb is applied to gloomy and unlaughing people. For those descending into Trophonios are said to spend the entire time unlaughing.

εἰς Τροφωνίου μεμάντευται. ἐπὶ τῶν σκυθρωπῶν καὶ ἀγελάστων ἡ παροιμία τάττεται. οἱ γὰρ καταβαίνοντες εἰς Τροφώνιον λέγονται τὸν ἑξῆς χρόνον ἀγέλαστοι εἶναι.

Afterwards, however, he will recover all his faculties, and the power to laugh will return to him.

ὕστερον μέντοι τά τε ἄλλα οὐδέν τι φρονήσει μεῖον ἢ πρότερον καὶ γέλως ἐπάνεισίν οἱ.

• Killjoy
• Heraclitus the Agelast
• No Tittering
• Against Monastic Laughter
• Now Hear About Laughter
• No More Laughing, No More Fun
• Stop Laughing
• Don't Laugh
• Crassus Agelastus
• Did Adam Laugh Before the Fall?
• Against Laughter
• Agelasts
• Did Christ Ever Laugh?

Therefore do not yoke your tongue to an ill-omened speech, nor let your lips give vent to evil forebodings.

                        μηδ᾽ ἐπιζευχθῇς στόμα
φήμῃ πονηρᾷ μηδ᾽ ἐπιγλωσσῶ κακά.        1045

In this part of the country is seen the tower of Timon, the only man to see that there is no way to be happy except to shun other men.

κατὰ τοῦτο τῆς χώρας φαίνεται πύργος Τίμωνος, ὃς μόνος εἶδε μηδένα τρόπον εὐδαίμονα εἶναι γενέσθαι πλὴν τοὺς ἄλλους φεύγοντα ἀνθρώπους.

The wavering crowd is torn into opposing factions.

scinditur incertum studia in contraria vulgus.

39 scinditur Cf. Luc. 10.416f. Latium sic scindere corpus / dis placitum, Tac. Hist. 1.13 hi discordes et rebus minoribus sibi quisque tendentes, circa consilium eligendi successoris in duas factiones scindebantur. But cf. already G. 4.419f. quo plurima uento cogitur / inque sinus scindit sese unda reductos; the abstract development was to be expected. Leumann, 14 remarks that PColt1 here (Cavenaile, CPL, p.34) marks not long syllables but those bearing the word-accent.

incertum Honest uncertainty perhaps seen as a first step towards noisy and unprofitable partisanship; not here alone, an expert (and commentary ultimately unsympathetic) view of crowd mentality. Cf. Ehlers, TLL 7.1.883.76f.; tacet EV.

studia in contraria Cf. Eur. Hec. 117ff. (a later occasion), Cic. Cael. 12 (of Catiline) neque ego umquam fuisse tale monstrum in terris ullum puto, tam ex contrariis diuersisque <atque> inter se pugnantibus naturae studiis cupiditatibusque conflatum, Suet. Aug. 81 (Aug. and the doctors) contrariam et ancipitem rationem medendi necessario subiit, Tac. Hist. 4.6 ea ultio, incertum maior an iustior, senatum in studia diduxerat. See TLL 4.770.42f. (Spelthahn), Hellegouarc'h, 176, n.12. Also used of the divided passions of a sporting crowd, 5.148, 228, 450; cf. EV 4, 1045.

uulgus With a little of the disapproval present at 1.148f. cum saepe coorta est / seditio saeuitque animis ignobile uulgus; cf. too 2.99, 119, 798, 11.451 (with n.), 12.223, Pomathios, 152, A. La Penna, EV 4, 911, and in Vergiliana (ed. H. Bardon and R. Verdière, Leiden 1971), 285.

Strangers, you have only to declare your need, for we have everything that suits this house: warm baths, beds to charm away fatigue, and the presence of honest faces.

ξένοι, λέγοιτ᾽ ἂν εἴ τι δεῖ· πάρεστι γὰρ
ὁποῖά περ δόμοισι τοῖσδ᾽ ἐπεικότα,
καὶ θερμὰ λουτρὰ καὶ πόνων θελκτηρία        670
στρωμνή, δικαίων τ᾽ ὀμμάτων παρουσία.

As an Oxford man, he struck me as a prig: he was always throwing his education about.

So true is it, evidently, that a base nature, when given great indulgence, generates public disasters.

οὕτως ὡς ἔοικε πονηρὰ φύσις, μεγάλης ἐξουσίας ἐπιλαβομένη, δημοσίας ἀπεργάζεται συμφοράς.