Adagia 3901–4000

Whenever we want to say that something must be appropriated by any and every possible means, whether right or wrong, we will use the phrase 'seize prize and plunder.' A 'prize' is awarded on merit, 'plunder' is something taken by force or craft. In the play I quoted above, Ballio says, 'So it's taken off me, the prize I promised as a joke.' The old man replies, 'From villains it is only right to take both prize and plunder.' He means that evil men should be robbed at every opportunity, because a bad thing done to a bad man is a good deed, just as an abusive remark directed at someone who deserves it is something well said.

In the same play, the pimp Ballio is forced to pay over the money and he says, 'I've decided to make today my funeral day instead of my birthday.' 'Funeral day' here means dismal and disastrous, whereas 'birthday' is happy and successful.

Suetonius records a number of sayings that the emperor Augustus liked to use in everyday conversation. Among these is one he used to mean that one must be satisfied with things as they are: 'We are satisfied with Cato as he is.' Cato of Utica endeavoured to preserve the Republic as it was and resist the transfer of power to a single individual, but without success. The party triumphed that apparently favoured rule by one man. Augustus so far agreed with Cato in not desiring any change in the constitutional arrangements of his own time, and so was a kind of contemporary Cato. I have already quoted in my Apophthegmata the incident recorded in Macrobius where the emperor Augustus came to the house where Cato once lived. Thinking to please Augustus, Strabo started to inveigh against Cato's obstinacy in preferring to take his own life rather than submit to the victorious Julius Caesar. Augustus replied, 'Anyone who does not wish for any change in the existing constitution is both a good citizen and a good man.' These words paid tribute to Cato's memory, but also served Augustus' own purposes, as indicating that no future change in the political order was to be countenanced.

[greek], Hungry triremes, so called because their maintenance involves great expense. The idea has been transferred to ships from thoroughbred horses, which are reared and fed for use in racing and very properly have enormous appetites. The phrase occurs in the orator Lysias. Alcaeus also uses the word in a tragicomedy, where he calls thirsty lamps [greek], because they 'consume a lot' of oil. The words will have a proverbial ring, like the 'greedy racing-car' that I discussed earlier, if they are applied to a spendthrift fellow who squanders vast sums of money.

[greek], Worth a penny, jokingly said of someone who wants to be thought of some account. The phrase derives ultimately from the Athenian custom whereby those whom the council of elders admitted to the list of adult males and who were accordingly described as [greek] 'approved,' received one obol 'penny,' a day from the public purse. So Aristotle tells us in the Politics. Some authorities say it was two obols, and it is possible that the small emolument was later doubled. Lysias refers to this obol payment in the speech On Behalf of the Disabled Person, and probably Aristophanes was alluding to it in the line in the Knights: '... has been such a man to most of those who get the penny dole.' Persons who were incapacitated for three months were classified as [greek] 'disabled.' Likewise, those who were on scrutiny not admitted to the ranks of men nor yet considered worthy of the penny were called [greek] 'not approved.'

[greek], Closer than an Areopagite, said of one who guards well a secret entrusted to him. Alciphron writes in one of his Letters, 'Become now for me closer than an Areopagite.' 'Close' in this sense means not simply holding one's tongue but specifically keeping a secret, not blabbing it abroad. The Greek word for this, [greek], was originally used of pots that were solid, not leaking anywhere. In Athens, capital charges were brought before the Areopagus and the case was heard at night, with scrupulous attention. Maybe it was strictly forbidden for the members of the council to talk openly about the proceedings there. Today there are survivals in Westphalia of this kind of judge, popularly known as 'The Sure,' and those admitted to this group take a solemn oath of silence, for there is some way of detecting crime known only to these who have so sworn.

This means trying to ingratiate oneself with others by addressing them as if they were members of one's family. This is very common today among the Italians - they address those they want to please as Tittle brother.' This Greek verb [greek]'to call brother,' is the same kind of formation as [greek] 'to call happy and blessed.' Horace writes in the Satires, 'And tack on "brother, father," / According to his age, merrily make him your relation.' Again, in the same work: 'When we were together, you heard me call you "father"; / And in your absence I called you "father" still.' There is an example of this usage in Aristophanes' Knights, and there are several in Plautus, including one in Pseudolus. There the young master in love effuses over his slave, saying, 'Tell me, Pseudolus, tell me do, shall I call you "father" / Or call you "mother dear"?'

I have already discussed the phrase [greek] 'to talk rubbish.' In Plautus' play Pseudolus, when the other two characters hurl the most shocking abuse at him, Ballio replies, 'Out you trot the same stale prophecy.' The phrase can be used of persons who offer nothing new, but only something that has long been common knowledge, for the true function of the prophet is either to declare something new that has not yet occurred, or to reveal something not known to anybody. Indeed, some persons with the gift of foreknowledge divine wonderful things about times gone by. There is nothing new in a pimp hearing himself called 'villain, perjurer, irreligious.'

[greek], To moan in concert. This phrase is used of people who join together to bemoan the same woes. The phrase derives from the practice in ancient times of two aulos-players sometimes playing the same melody together in concert. Aristophanes in the Knights: 'So we can moan together to one of Olympus' tunes.' This Olympus was some pupil or other of Marsyas. He wrote about doleful music for the aulos. Marsyas' music did him no good, so the pupil composed laments in honour of his master.

Festus Pompeius tells us that this was at one time used of common low-class prostitutes, referring to the cheap perfume they drenched themselves in. Plautus, in the Carthaginian: 'Wretched creatures, stinking of cheap scent, rank with rush-pong, unwashed .. .'

We call misers and people obsessed with making a profit 'shabby' and 'dirty.' Plautus expresses the same idea hyperbolically in the Carthaginian: 'Filth itself couldn't be filthier than that pimp Lycus, her boss.' The word 'filth' often means 'wicked' or 'corrupt' rather than plain 'dirty.' Cicero, in the speech about his house made before the priests, calls someone 'Scum! Monstrosity! Villainy!' And somewhere or other, as I recall, he refers to Piso as 'filth.' His use of 'filth' here is just like his frequent use of 'blot,' 'smut,' for a villain. Likewise, he often calls someone who disturbs public order 'a firebrand,' 'a whirl-wind,' 'a tempest.'

Demosthenes used this Greek term in the sense of 'try out,' 'examine.' It is thought to come from those who go round the watch at night with a bell to make sure that no one is asleep, or so that the watchmen can indicate that they are awake when the bell sounds. Or else from those who try out quails with a bell to see whether they are good for fighting, as Aristarchus has it. Some prefer to explain it as derived from the similar practice of testing horses to see whether they can stand the noise of trumpets and battle. At one time candidates for initiation into the mysteries were tested in a similar way with verbal abuse, and the theological schools still preserve remnants of this custom.

A totally destructive war, we say, is waged with 'Sword and flame,' or 'Sword and fire.' Cicero, in his speech for Lucius Flaccus: 'Good God! What could be worse than this? A situation in which we, who wrested sword and flame from the hands of Publius Lentulus now trust to the judgment of the ignorant multitude.' Or later in the same speech: 'Oh that night, the one that almost brought eternal darkness on this city, when the call went out to the Gauls to make war, to Catiline to march on the city, to the conspirators to seize sword and flame.' Again, in the speech on behalf of Sulla: 'whose sword I so recently blunted, whose flame I quenched.' In the speech about his house he adds 'rocks': 'Then when he had brought devastation upon my house with rocks and fire and sword.' Again, speaking on behalf of Plancus: 'Throughout that year you saw their sword in the forum, their flame in the buildings, their violence throughout the city.'

I have already discussed 'mountains of gold.' Now, we can use the word 'fly' in any context to indicate that we have absolutely nothing of whatever it is; for example, 'There isn't a fly in the house.' Likewise, 'mountains' can be used for anything of which there is a huge abundance; for example, Plautus in the Pseudolus: 'They've all got heaps, great mountains of grain.' 'Mountains' is really superfluous here, but it has been added because it is such a familiar usage and reinforces the idea of abundance. Similarly, oppido came to be used for 'very much,' when farmers wanted to say they had as much of something as would be enough oppido 'for a town.' In the Haunted House, Plautus says mons erroris 'a mountain of a perplexity,' meaning a serious worry:
Salvation herself cannot save me now if she would.
For sure, another huge mountain of perplexity I've just seen
Down at the harbour. Master's back from abroad. Tranio's had it.
If you insert mox and read ita mox alium 'for sure, this very minute, another ...' the proper rhythm of the trochaic verse will be restored. In the Braggart Soldier, Plautus writes 'mountains of silver': 'He has mountains of silver, not mere lumps of it.'

To express the idea of 'the whole human race,' we say 'Since the human race began.' Cicero, in the speech he made before the priests concerning his house: 'Well then, who gave this fellow, the most foul, wicked, and degraded person ever seen since the human race began, who gave him that rich, fertile province of Syria, allowed him to bring war on people living totally at peace, who turned over to him, forcibly diverted from Caesar's legislative measures, money earmarked for purchasing land, who gave him power without limits?' Later on in the same speech: 'The thing I was accused of was not only no crime but the finest deed since the human race began.' Cicero again, speaking in defence of Cornelius Balbus: 'Since very few have been found since human kind began, who would expose their lives to the enemy's fire for their own country without the inducement of some reward .. .' Again, speaking in defence of Milo: 'The bravest man since the human race began.' Again, attacking Antony: 'The two most disgusting and abominable individuals since the human race began, Dolabella and Antony.' Again, in his book on the ideal orator: 'By far the best since the human race began,' and also in Brutus: 'Servilius Glauca was by far the most unconscionable since the human race began.'

Very similar to the last is the phrase 'In all human memory.' Cicero, in the speech made before the priests concerning his house: 'This is a grave and serious accusation, the gravest, in fact, in all human memory, since courts were first established to deal with cases of extortion.' Again, in his speech dealing with the reply given by the College of Diviners: 'In response to the motion put by you, the finest, the most courageous consuls in all human memory.' Again, speaking on behalf of Plancus: 'The Senate stood by me and, what's more, adopted mourning dress, the only occasion on which this was done officially for a single individual in all human memory.' For Plancus again: 'Nothing more magnificent in all human memory.' And again: 'The foulest and wickedest consuls in all human memory.' And writing to Plancus, in the tenth book of his letters to friends: 'Nothing more magnificent, more welcome in all human memory, nothing more opportune in its timing, have I ever seen turn up than your letter, my dear Plancus.' Again, in the eleventh book, writing to Brutus: 'You at any rate need no one to urge you on, seeing you felt no need of anyone to encourage you even in performing the greatest deed that ever was done in all human memory.' Speaking on behalf of Sestius: 'Out of all human memory, what could anyone select that was more honorific than having all good men by private consent and the whole senate by official decision go into mourning dress on behalf of myself, one individual citizen?' Again, when attacking Catiline: 'In this one war, the greatest and most vicious in all human memory'; and from another place in the same speech: 'An internal, civil war, the most vicious, the greatest, in all human memory.' Again, speaking on behalf of Rabirius when charged with treason: 'No case of more significant import in all human memory.' Speaking in support of Manilius' proposed legislation: 'Everything done without any precedent to be found in all human memory, anywhere among all mankind.' Finally, in his enquiry into Vatinius' suitability to give evidence: 'Absolutely unheard of in the whole of human memory.'

Those who run away and take themselves off to something other than the matter in hand are said in Greek [greek] 'To dance off.' The metaphor comes from dancing, especially dancing as part of a religious ceremony, as it was ill-omened to break off from that. This is shown by the proverb, 'All's well: the old man dances.' There is a well-known story in Herodotus about Hippocleides, who lost the girl he expected to marry by dancing in an indecent manner, and was rewarded with the remark, 'You have danced away your marriage.'

Origen called a work of his that dealt with miscellaneous topics, Stromateis 'Tapestries,' a metaphorical application of the word used for the embroidered hangings and coverlets which were at one time a source of great delight to the rich. The phrase can be applied to an inconstant person, as hangings show different patterns according as they are spread out or pleated, or arranged in various other ways. In Plautus' play Pseudolus, the pimp threatens his servants in these words: 'I'll use my strap and paint such a fancy pattern on your ribs / That curtains from Campania won't be near so colourful.' Campania in its heyday indulged excessively in soft living and luxuries. (Plautus mentions Alexandrian carpets as well as Campanian curtains.) I have spoken earlier of the francolin.

In the appointment of magistrates, it was not always the best candidate who was successful, but the one that fortune favoured, for everything depended on the popular vote. Cicero, attacking Piso, says, 'I am not dwelling on the way either of us got elected - granted that Lady Luck rules the hustings after all - there is more scope for congratulation in discussing what we did while we held the office of consul.'

Nonius Marcellus tells us that there was a proverbial saying often used by Varro, Fulmentum lectum scandunt 'They climb the choice fulmentum.' But he doesn't explain what fulmentum is or give the sense of the proverb. He merely says that the word occurs either as a neuter form fulmentum, or as a feminine fulmenta.

There's an old proverb about the Parthians, 'The more they drink, the thirstier they get.' It's typical of people who are drunk that, once the palate has got beyond registering taste, they just want to swill down more and more. The proverb can be used of misers, or indeed of students, because as one acquires knowledge so the desire for learning grows.

A term of popular abuse applied to low-class women of no account, derived from the verb screo 'to hawk,' that is, noisily to clear the mouth of purulent matter. Screa 'phlegm' was likewise used for anything worthless and contemptible. One could possibly use the word of old women who are always hawking and coughing. That is Festus' explanation. Nonius thinks it's a term of abuse for unattractive prostitutes, and cites a line from Plautus' play, the Travelling-Bag: 'gob-hawkers, with knobbly ankles, unsteady on their feet, unclean.'

People who rose to eminence from obscurity and difficult circumstances were said [greek] 'To come from Phelleus.' In Greek, [greek] was a word meaning 'hard, stony, and barren,' applied to an area suitable for pasturing goats, as goats are happy to feed in this kind of place. In the Clouds, Aristophanes writes, 'When you bring in the goats from Phelleus, / Clad like your father in a jerkin of leather.' There is a hilly, stony place in Attica actually called Phelleus, mentioned by Stephanus also, though he calls the hill Phellas, which may be a mistake in writing. I have touched on this material already in the adages 'Lighter than cork' and 'Phellinas.'

[greek], Refrain from misrepresentation in the market-place. The Athenians had a law which required the avoidance of all dishonesty in the market-place. Theophrastus tells us in his books On the Laws that the market controllers were concerned with ensuring two things in particular: first, that all the business of the market was carried on in an orderly manner, free from all disturbance, and second, that both the sellers and the buyers refrained from deception. This is the context of Anacharsis' comment, recorded in Diogenes Laertius: he said he was surprised that the Athenians had a law against cheating in the market-place, when they cheated and lied more often and more impudently there than they did anywhere else.

People use this colloquial turn of phrase to inform someone making a request that he hasn't a hope. They say, 'If I say yes, knock my eye out, knock my tooth out.' The old father in Plautus' Pseudolus says:
'on my word, knock my eye out if I give it you.'
He means that the last thing he'll do is give the slave the money to buy his son's light-o'-love. Similarly, Phormio in Terence's play of that name: 'Knock an eye out if you like - there's somewhere I can make you pay for this.'

In Pseudolus, Plautus wrote 'By land or sea,' meaning 'in any way whatsoever.' The phrase comes from the historians, who record exploits performed by land and sea, nations defeated in battle by land and sea. Cicero, in his speech for Cluentius: 'who has so many achievements to his credit by land and sea.' Again, speaking in support of Manilius' proposed legislation: 'What mighty exploits of his have we seen at home and abroad, by land and sea, how many missions brought to a successful conclusion!' Another example from the same speech: 'So that at last we were truly seen to rule all peoples and nations by land and sea.' Again, in the second of his speeches attacking Verres: 'though many plots were laid against me by Verres by land and sea.' In the seventh book of his letters to Atticus: 'How can I follow by land or sea a person whose whereabouts I don't know?' Demosthenes, in the closing section of his speech on behalf of Ctesiphon: 'If they are so beyond redemption, consign these same people and these alone to complete and utter destruction by land and sea.' Plautus uses the phrase like this:
I'll dredge up the money for you somehow by land or sea
Within the next three days.
In the fifth book of his work on Definitions of Good and Evil, Cicero adds a third term: 'One part deals with speaking, one with living, and in the third the natural world is so thoroughly investigated by them that no part in air, land, or sea, to use a poetic phrase, has been passed over.' He says 'poetic,' because the poets list only the three elements, as, for example, Ovid: 'Before there was sea or land or sky that overarches all'; Terence: 'O heaven! O earth! O Neptune's seas!'; Plautus, in the Amphitryo: 'All things now, sea and earth and sky, seem to me to be conspiring.'

Those who lost the right to vote and were removed from the list of jurymen were said to be 'Out-leaved,' just as soldiers who lost the right to be in the fighting force were said to be 'out-warranted.' Originally votes were cast not with pebbles but with leaves, so it's like saying that they were 'excluded from casting leaves.'

Cicero's use of the phrase Lacunam explere 'To fill up the gap,' to mean 'make good the loss,' in his fourth speech attacking Verres, has a proverbial look about it: 'The censors did exactly what people in this country always do when they have secured their office through bribery: they proceeded to use their position of authority so as to fill up the gap in their financial resources.' He calls the reduction in their assets 'a gap.' Again, writing to Atticus: 'See that there's no gap in the gold,' that is, that there is no shortfall. Aulus Gellius in book one, chapter three of his Attic Nights, calls a stain on one's reputation a 'gap': That slight stain, that kind of a gap that his reputation will incur, is made up for by the advantages won for his friend.' In texts, a 'fault' occurs where the reading is corrupt, whereas a 'gap' or lacuna occurs where there is something missing. One is emended, the other supplied.

Aeschines, in the speech On the False Legation: 'Indeed, [greek] "Letting no part of his body lie idle," not even the part where his words come streaming out, acting like an Aristides, the man who fixed the tribute-quotas for the Greeks and earned the nickname "The Just," he gets all indignant and spits out the word "bribes."' Consider, learned reader, whether one should here read not [greek] 'idle, inactive,' but [greek], that is, 'unsold,' meaning that every part of his body could be bought, even his mouth and voice. Though indeed [greek] can mean 'making no demands,' giving one to understand that he grabbed not only with his hands but with his whole body.

In the Pseudolus, Plautus used the phrase 'Clean and clear' to mean 'absolutely, sure as anything': 'Clean and clear, it is he - I know him - the master Polymachaeroplacides.' It's like saying 'his absolute and very self.' The overtones of the word still reflect the way it was used in early times, as the ancients used putus to mean 'cleansed,' hence putare 'to cleanse' or 'prune' vines, and the discarded shells from nuts and such-like are called putamina 'cleanings.' The phrase seems to have originated with goldsmiths, who coined 'Clean and clear' just as the jurisconsults did Sarta tecta 'Wind-proof and water-tight.'

'Under my own auspices,' that is, by my own choosing, depending on my own resources. So Virgil, in Aeneid book four: 'But if the fates allowed me of my own choosing to conduct my life / And soothe my heart-ache as I myself should will.' The phrase originates with Roman commanders who joined battle only after consulting the auspices. Any subsequent fighting was then said to be done 'under the auspices' of the person in supreme command. Very similar to this is the phrase I discussed earlier, 'By our own prowess.' Cicero, in the fifth of his Verrine speeches: 'Especially since you have plenty of all these things, thanks to your own prowess.' A thing happens 'thanks to our own prowess' when no outside help is required to bring it about.

A man who follows the example of his forebears is said to 'Tread in his ancestors' tracks.' Cicero, in his speech for Publius Sestius: 'A man who should have been standing in the tracks made by his ancestors.' The saying comes from travellers who mark carefully the tracks of those who have gone before, so that they do not go off the path. Similarly, those who fall away from the example of their forefathers or their teachers are said to 'abandon their tracks.' People who produce nothing original but stick to what others have discovered are said to 'tread in others' tracks.'

Plautus is using a proverbial expression in Pseudolus when he writes 'Sweet and bitter' for 'happy and sad.' The young man in love says about the note from his girlfriend, 'You bring me sweet and bitter mixed together.' Later on in the same play: 'Sweet and bitter, I've confided all to you. / You know my passion, you know my problem, you know my lack of cash.' Plautus again in Truculentus: 'Now I know the sweet and bitter, the things that money brings.'

Festus Pompeius cites a line from an old poem without naming an author, from which we can deduce that it was a piece of popular wisdom. In it we find a father giving his son instruction in farming, and he says, 'Dust in winter, mud in spring - fat barley-ears, my boy, you'll reap.' I think this means that if barley is sown in a clear bright winter followed by a wet spring a good crop results.

We have already listed many proverbial sayings derived from national characteristics. Here we have another, [greek] 'Talk Aexonian,' applied to people who can't stop making slanderous accusations. The people of Aexonia were lampooned for this trait in Old Comedy, as Stephanus tells us, adding the information that Aexonia is a place in Magnesia. He also mentions [greek], with an accent on the final syllable, the name of a deme in the Cecropian tribe. The adjective [greek] 'Aexonian' could be derived from either. This information about the Aexonians is supported by references to Menander's the Basket-Bearer, and to Plato's dialogue on courage: T will say nothing to that, though I could easily do so, or you might well call me Aexonian.' Marsilius translates 'Aexonian' as 'foulmouthed' and 'slanderous.'

Those who over-indulged belly and gullet were humorously told 'To drink gall-nut.' Gall-nuts are fruits which develop on trees, especially oaks, in the autumn and look like round nuts. There is a good deal of information about them in Pliny, Dioscorides, Galen, and Theophrastus. Their effect is astringent and drying, and for that reason they have many applications. Hence that line of Lucilius, where he bids spendthrifts and guzzlers 'drink gall-nuts and take a tuck in the belly,' that is, reduce their appetites. Sextus Pompeius Festus quotes the line. Horace has a line of similar import, where he writes that 'spendthrifts' bellies should be branded with a red-hot iron.'

The poet Naevius, in a trochaic tetrameter catalectic cited by Festus, uses the phrase sontica causa, meaning a really compelling reason: 'There must be some compelling reason why / You should destroy the woman.' The word originates in the Twelve Tables, where an illness is called 'compelling' if it is not an everyday complaint but one so serious that a defendant cannot be forced to appear in court.

Cicero often calls a notorious evil-doer 'stain, blot, filth, dirt.' Festus cites a line from Plautus where the word suasum occurs with similar meaning: 'Because, you shameful wretch, you've stained your dress with suasum "lampblack."' Festus thinks suasum is a stain made by smoky drip onto a white garment. Plautus' tetrameter could be applied to those who have an honest name, either handed down from their forebears or won by good deeds, but who stain it with some wickedness.

In the Haunted House, Plautus writes 'Seize the locks' for seizing the opportunity offered and making the most of it. The phrase comes either from the god the Greeks call [greek] 'Opportunity,' who is represented with hair on the front of his head but bald at the back, or from the custom of holding onto the hair of someone you don't want to get away. What Plautus writes is as follows:
If you're sure he'll be yours for ever,
That you'll hold your lover all your life,
Then I suppose you'd better put yourself
At his disposal only, seize the fellow's locks, as the saying goes,
And make your money that way.

'Even a gardener oft speaks to the point,' as the proverb goes. In Plautus' play, the Haunted House, Tranio, who is a slave of shocking character, utters a sentiment worthy of any theologian: 'Nothing is more miserable than a guilty conscience.' This agrees with the Hebrew saying 'A cheerful heart has a continual feast,' and with this: 'Conscience is a thousand witnesses.' Horace considers that happiness consists in 'a conscience that does not accuse, no guilty thought to pale one's cheek.'

A line from Virgil's Georgics, book one, shows that simple rustic equipment could be called 'Celeus' goods': 'You'll need as well what's made of withies, / Celeus' goods of little worth." See the story related in Ovid's Fasti:
Places too have their allotted fate.
That now called Eleusis, Ceres' place,
Once was the farm of aged Celeus.
He was returning home with load of acorns,
Berries too from brambles plucked,
Dry wood to burn upon his hearth.
His little daughter from the hills
Was bringing home the goats,
And in his cradle lay his baby son, unwell.
Celeus was king of Eleusis, and the father of Triptolemus, to whom Ceres revealed the principles of agriculture, because Celeus offered her hospitality. Plautus has a line: 'Like Celio's goods and chattels, peg next to peg.' It's surprising that Plautus here gives Celio a long first syllable when the name has a short syllable elsewhere. There is nothing unusual in having Celio for Celeus: compare the two forms scorpio, scorpius 'scorpion.'

Plautus seems to use the word ampullacea in The Two Menaechmuses to describe a woman who is splendidly dressed and well kitted out. The text actually says, 'Since he keeps you well found in jewellery and clothes, with flask hope (ampula spent). / They're quite right when they say, my girl, it's better to be sensible.' It's quite obvious that the words ampula spem are corrupt. Some people keep the reading ampullosam 'with many a flask,' but that does not fit the trochaic metre. Ampullaceam fits both metre and sense. The word occurs in Pliny book fifteen, where he is listing types of pears, though possibly the text is corrupt there too. What Pliny says is:
The myrrh-pear, the bay-leaf pear, the nard-pear are so called from their
smell; the barley-pear from the season when it is ripe, the ampullacea 'flask-
pear' from its long neck, and the Coriolan .. ?

The soldier in Plautus' play, the Carthaginian, is using a proverbial expression when he says, 'Pshaw! Hot air! I wouldn't give a dram for seven nights with her!' He is speaking of a girl who gives herself airs but is not particularly good-looking. By 'dram' the soldier means the smallest possible amount. Being a soldier, he's used to measures of drink. The dram-measure (cyathus) is the smallest size of drink, the bowl (crater) is considerably larger.

At one time, to indicate great good fortune, people said, 'I'm a god,' or 'I'm in heaven.' Plautus similarly says in the Carthaginian, 'I'm a king, if I can get him to my place today.' He puts the words into the mouth of the pimp Lycus, who hopes his fortune will be made if he can entice some man with plenty of ready money into his establishment.

An amusing phrase used by Plautus with a kind of proverbial ring: 'Through more slots than a sieve/ meaning 'in very many places, all over': 1 see I must re-roof the whole of my house - / As it is, it lets in daylight through more slots than a sieve.' A stupid chatterbox is commonly said to be 'as watertight as a sieve.'

Plautus in the Rope: 'As it is, he's making mock of toil and net as well.' Here it is meant quite literally by the old master, as he had sent his slave Gripus fishing in spite of the great storm the night before. It will be more satisfying to use it metaphorically with reference to a person hoping to extract a legacy from someone, but whose hunting fails to net the bird. Plautus here used the old form retia for later rete 'net.' This saying is related to the ones I discussed earlier, 'I have wasted both oil and toil' and 'Care and cost lost.'

Cicero, writing to Plancus, in the tenth book of his Letters to Friends: 'You have achieved all that is best - "Guided by virtue, fortune attending."' This is such a worthy sentiment and so neatly expressed that some people have adopted it as their public motto. Virtue chooses what is best, but if the undertaking does not succeed, in noble endeavours as in great ones, even to have shown the will is a fine thing. If however success does follow, praise is due in the first instance to virtue, who leads the way in deeds of note, secondly to fortune, as one that follows in virtue's train.

Cicero in book four of Definitions of Good and Evil: 'With regard to objects which are so small that they have to be searched out, it is often the case that we have to say it doesn't matter to us whether they exist or not, just as "Adding a torch to the light of the sun" (the example you adduced) is of no significance, or adding a penny (teruncius) to Croesus' millions.' The teruncius was so called because it was worth three times (ter) an ounce piece (uncia), and became a proverbial example of something of little value. Croesus, king of Lydia, was famous for being one of the world's inordinately rich men.

It seems that the Romans had a proverbial joke phrase, 'Wearers of the beard,' which they used to refer to men of old-fashioned simple ways and rustic honesty. The Romans did in fact adopt the practice of shaving or trimming the beard only late on. According to Pliny, it was Publius Ticinius Mena who first imported a barber from Sicily in the four-hundredand-fifty-fourth year of Rome's history. Until that time they had let their beards grow. Cicero, in the fourth book of his Definitions of Good and Evil, writes: You should have said that you couldn't accept the belief of those ancient thinkers, those 'Wearers of the beard,' as we might call them, using that phrase we have for some of our own contemporaries. This belief of theirs was that a good man, who lived a decent life and also enjoyed good health and a good reputation and had adequate means to live on, would have a preferable life of better quality and more to be desired than a man, equally good, but also, 'in many a way,' like Ennius' Alcmaeon, 'by sickness, exile and poverty ensnared.' Those ancient thinkers rather naively considered the more desirable life to be superior, happier. The Stoics, however .. .'
This line of Juvenal illustrates the same idea: 'It's easy to deceive a bearded king.'

Vestigium ponere, To tread upon, come across, was used by Cicero in book five of his Definitions of Good and Evil: 'Although there is an endless supply in this city - wherever we go, we tread on some bit of history.' There's an amusing tale told of someone, Stratonicus, I think, who was walking about on tiptoe in some town or other, looking round as he did so, and when he was asked what he was doing, he said he was afraid of treading on a town-crier, hinting at the excessive numbers of town-criers in the place. Cicero, again in book five of the above work: 'Why! Wisdom wouldn't have a place to set her foot if you take away all the duties of life.' I know I have already discussed the proverb 'He has no place to set his foot,' but at the time I didn't remember this example, and it's too good to be passed over, as it illustrates a nice metaphorical use of the phrase, applied to the things of the mind. Cicero means that there is no place for wisdom if there is no weighing of duties.

In his fragmentary work On the Universe, Cicero says, 'We must of course believe the men of old, the ancients, as they say, who claimed they were the offspring of the gods. It is not clear whether Cicero means that the whole expression was commonly bandied about, or whether he was marking just the word 'ancient,' which we use for persons belonging to a far distant age, whose origin was unknown to their descendants and so was usually ascribed to the gods.

As Theocritus wrote in the Syracusan Women: Κάλλιστ᾽, ἐνδοῖ πᾶσαι, ὁ τὰν νυὸν εἶπ᾽ ἀποκλάξας, 'Splendid! Everyone's inside - as the young man said, shutting the door on his bride.' The ancient commentator tells us that we have a proverb here. My guess is that its origin was as follows: the husband got weary of his wife and shut her out of the house. When she knocked at the door and asked to be taken back, the husband replied, 'Everyone's inside!' Or maybe, when the bride was conducted according to custom to her husband's house, he shut the door and spoke these words. This can be given a more serious application if someone unworthy to be received as a friend is angling to be accepted into one's circle. One can then reply, 'Everyone's inside.' Or - a more likely explanation - we will use it to mean everything is safe and secure, since the Greek verb [greek] can mean not only 'to shut out,' but also 'to shut in' something we want to be set aside and kept safe. Hence the Greek noun [greek], meaning 'guard-house.' So it is possible that the bridegroom shut his bride into the marriage-chamber and excluded all the other females, saying, 'Everyone's inside.' One woman is enough for the bridegroom, so he excluded the rest as supernumerary! [greek] is the Sicilian word for 'key,' hence [greek].

There is a line at the end of the same Idyll which looks like a proverb. Gorgo is anxious to get home because her husband is short-tempered, and she adds: [greek] 'Don't go near a hungry man.' Hunger makes the temper worse. So in Plautus somebody asks a person talking crossly how long it is since he had a meal. Also in Plautus we find: 'Being kept waiting for a meal when one is hungry drives the bile up one's nose.'

Here's another one from the same poem: [greek] 'Toil on toil,' meaning no end to the task. Here the woman is complaining about her husband because he had bought dirty, coarse wool, involving her in a lot of work. Virgil too, speaking of the cultivation of vines: 'On this there is never spent of pains enough.'

Very tall men are laughed at even today for being slow and useless. Like many other things, this has worked its way down to us from antiquity. In that same poem, Praxinoa calls her husband [greek] 'a fellow over eight feet tall,' exaggerating his height, because he was so stupid he went to the market and brought home salt instead of soap. I have already written about 'The boot of Maximinus.' The ancients jokingly called very tall men 'long-shanks.' Varro in Tripalus, cited by Nonius: 'I say nothing; the fellow in front of me, some long-shanks, is taking care of it all.'

[greek], To show the hollow or sole of one's foot. This is said of those who take to flight in battle. In the Roman historians, we very frequently find the Latin equivalent 'turn the back,' that is, turn tail. The Greek proverb is reported in Hesychius. Even today we say of runaways that they 'show a clean pair of heels.'

The Jurists are constantly using the phrase Factum transactum 'Done and dealt with,' to mean that nothing relevant to the business in hand has been omitted. Cicero, in his third speech attacking Catiline: 'The thing that needed to be done first of all has been done and dealt with.' The phrase occurs in Terence too, and many other reputable authors.

When some business is carried through not straightforwardly but with deceitful and devious machinations, we speak of 'Meanders,' a metaphor derived from the river Meander, which twists and bends in its course, and gets its name from this, as it 'wanders about seeking human communities.' Cicero, in his speech attacking Piso: 'What meanderings, as you threaded your way through every uninhabited district, what diversions, what roundabout routes did you choose?' Prudentius uses the word in one of his hymns which I quoted above in the adage 'A labyrinth.' The Meander is a river which waters Lydia, bending and flowing back on itself. Pliny writes of it in book five, chapter twenty-nine: 'The Meander has its source in a lake in the mountainous region of Aulocrene. It flows close by many towns, and is often enlarged by tributaries. Its curves are so tortuous that it is often believed to flow backwards. Its course takes it first through the region of Apamena, then that of Eumenia, then the Bargyliotic Plains, and finally Caria. It is a tranquil river, irrigating all those lands with extremely fertile deposits of mud. About ten stades from Miletus it gently debouches into the sea.' 'Meander' is also the name of an embroidery pattern put round the borders of cloaks, consisting of an intertwining line wrapped round on itself like a labyrinth. See Virgil Aeneid, book five: 'To the victor, a gold-embroidered cloak with border wide / Of Meliboean purple, where two meanders intertwine.'

The ancients used the word masculus 'masculine' not only to signify gender but also for anything vigorous, solid, and robust. Nonius Marcellus cites an example from one of Varro's Satires, called [greek] 'The ass hears music': 'I am convinced there's nothing masculine for the business.' The grammarians think Horace meant 'firm and solid,' when he wrote of 'a male yolk.' This is in the Satires, where he writes as follows of long-shaped eggs: 'For they are thicker shelled and contain a male yolk.' Virgil too describes the white and better sort of frankincense as 'masculine.' It will have a nice touch if you transfer the word to abstract things, for example, calling a noble and strong spirit 'masculine.'

I have already written of the 'Sardonic grin.' Theocritus writes of something similar in his Thalysia: 'And calmly he addressed me, his lips just parting and with twinkling eye, / And the laughter stayed within his mouth.' Homer calls a bitter laugh 'sardonic.' Theocritus is describing a civilized, friendly laugh, which becomes an unseemly hoot if it is allowed to break out.

[greek], With fat measure, used by Theocritus in the same poem, meaning ample and generous: 'For indeed with measure fat / The goddess has piled high their threshing-floor with barley.' This is similar to the adages I discussed earlier, 'In handfuls' and 'To take with both hands.'

In his commentary on Cicero's speech in defence of Milo, Asconius Pedianus cites a senarius of the poet Naevius aimed at the Metelli and implying that they became consuls not on their merits but at the whim of Fortune, ruler of the hustings, as they call her. The line runs: 'By Fate here in Rome Metelli become consuls.' This annoyed the Metellus who was consul at the time and he replied in a hypercatalectic senarius, a verse form which Asconius says was also called a Saturnian: 'Evil will the Metelli bring on poet Naevius.' Cicero makes an oblique reference to this exchange when he says, 'Unlike the rest of your family, you were not "By Fate" .. .' This amusing gibe at the Metelli can be turned against anyone advanced beyond his merits to wealth and honour.

Theocritus in the Wayfarers: [greek] 'For not even your master Eumaras had a skin on which to sleep.'1 The shepherd Lacon makes this tendentious remark to insinuate the utter poverty of some goatherd or other who didn't have even a goatskin on which to sleep. The ancients used to lie on animal skins both at table and in bed. In Homer the suitors are lying on ox-skins as they feast. Even today we say, 'He hasn't a bed, or a mattress, to sleep on.'

[greek] An ass looks most lovely to another ass. Likes attract each other. Diogenes Laertius quotes a number of extracts which Alcimus assembled out of Plato and the comic writer Epicharmus, by which he hoped to show that the philosopher had filched a great deal from the comic writers. Among these we find the following lines in iambic metre:
It is no wonder that we speak thus,
That we admire ourselves, and think
Ourselves fine creatures, for to a dog
Another dog looks good, and to an ox an ox.
One ass to another lovely seems, and pig to pig.
This can be used when disreputable persons strike up a relationship based on their similarity of character and way of life, for example, soldiers together, or gamblers, or drinkers, or sophists. It's surprising that Epicharmus didn't bring in the ape, since no other animal is more satisfied with its own kind.

[greek], Plato's lice. These have become proverbial, as Myronianus gives us to understand. In his work on Parallels, as cited by Diogenes Laertius in his life of Plato, Myronianus deduces that Plato died of the louse disease, because people commonly speak of 'Plato's lice.' The Greek name for this disease is phthiriasis. It is a disgusting and painful condition. Lucius Sulla died of it as well, though we do find in the ancient writers differing opinions as to the manner of his death. Myronianus says nothing about the use of the proverb. One can however deduce that it was directed at those of dirty habits, because philosophers pay very little attention to polishing the outer man, being absorbed in the cultivation of the mind.

We can apply to those who threaten us with dire consequences or prophesy a nasty fate these lines of Theocritus from his poem, The Rustic SingingMatch: 'But the seer Telemos, threatening me with doom, / May take home his doom and save it for his children.' The Cyclops had sworn by his one eye, which, he said, saw everything and always would. The seer Telemos however had predicted that Ulysses would put out that eye. The Cyclops turns the prediction back on the seer and his children. Similarly in Virgil: 'That prediction may the gods turn back on him that made it!' And again: 'Such sufferings may the gods reserve for him and his children's children!' Also Homer in Iliad book four: 'With their own heads, with their wives and their children they pay.' This is like Plato's expression, 'on your own head.'

[greek], To the ends of the earth, that is, an extremely remote place. Theocritus in his Idyll about the Syracusan women: 'That's my fine man for you! He goes to the end of the world / And takes not a house but a den for beasts.' The wife is blaming her husband for taking a house in a very remote place, and, what's more, something fit for beasts rather than human habitation. Cicero often uses the phrase 'To the ends of the earth,' as in his sixth speech attacking Verres: 'How did you think other nations were going to react to this, what impression did you imagine the news of this deed of yours would make when it reached the realms of other kings and spread to the ends of the earth?' Cicero again, speaking in defence of Sulla: 'What an incredible, what a ridiculous idea, to think that the person who wanted to stage a massacre in Rome, who planned to send the city up in flames, would pack his closest associate off and give him a job to do at the ends of the earth!' And in the thirteenth Philippic: 'How can I pass over Saxa Decidius, a man haled from nations on the edge of the world?' Again, writing to Publius Lentulus in the first book of his Letters to Friends: 'Just call to mind the people for whose benefit you sent from the ends of the earth, and don't be afraid .. .' Again in the fifteenth book, writing to Marcus Marcellus: 'Though we are far away and dispatched by you to the ends of the earth.' St. Jerome often uses the phrase, for example, 'a monster to be relegated to the ends of the earth.' Plautus, in the Haunted House: 'I've been to desert lands as well, sailed past the furthest shores.'

In book two of his letters to his brother Quintus, Cicero quotes the following line from a Greek play, obviously assuming it to be well known: [greek]i 'Such deeds does dreadful war engender.' In the context, he means that many farcical situations arise from the dissensions of those in power. His actual words are: 'There is absolutely no movement on the political front, but this is because the country is in decline rather than happy with the situation. The views I expressed in the Senate are more likely to convince other people than convince myself. "Such dreadful deeds does war engender."' If transferred to private quarrels, the phrase will be even more satisfactory.

Anything said or done sincerely and without dissimulation is said to be done 'With honest brow.' Cicero, when defending Gaius Rabirius: 'If they then spoke the truth with totally honest brow, they are now lying; if they then lied, let them tell us the truth.' Conversely, anything done with dissimulation we say is done 'with deceitful brow.' Cicero, writing to his brother, if the letter is correctly ascribed to him, says that 'brow, eyes, face, often lie, words oftenest of all.' The brow and the eyes best reveal what the mind is thinking. Words can be falsified without difficulty, but, as Ovid says, 'How hard it is for guilt to wear a guiltless face!' Dido in Virgil 'wears false hope upon her face, and crushes down her trouble deep within her heart.' Terence, in the Self-Tormenter: 'Bah! The villain even invents faces.' And in the Phormio, Geta helps Antiphon to put on the right expression to meet his father, but the lad cannot keep it up.

The ancient architects of gastronomic extravagance even thought up the idea of serving at dinner a whole ox or camel stuffed with all kinds of other creatures. They also invented the 'Trojan pig,' which has gone into popular speech, so called because it concealed within its womb various species of living creatures, just as the Wooden Horse concealed the armed warriors. In book three of the Saturnalia, Macrobius tells us that when Cincius was making his speech advocating the passing of the Lex Fannia (the purpose of which was to curb extravagance), he slated his contemporaries for serving the Trojan Pig at their dinners. If I had the choice, I would rather have the Trojan Pig than the Trojan Horse! The saying will fit either splendid banquets or a man stuffed with all kinds of delicacies.

We speak of things being 'A hair's breadth apart,' when we mean that the difference is minimal. This is a stronger expression than saying 'a straw's breadth.' Theocritus, in his Idyll, Thyonicus: 'I'll maybe find I've gone mad. [greek] "I'm only a hair's breadth off it."' The speaker is a man in love who fears his passion may send him mad, and he's so close to it that there is hardly 'A hair in between.' Plautus has a similar use in the Haunted House: 'It doesn't matter a feather whether patron or client is the better man. / A man without any boldness in his breast .. .' 'It doesn't matter a feather' means 'it is quite irrelevant.' Asinius Pollio in a letter to Cicero: 'I won't stir a foot's breadth away from you.'

[greek] is a word used of someone who is 'smitten' or 'struck' by the wild inspiration of the Muses. See Virgil in the Georgics: 'whose holy offerings I bear, smitten with love for them.' It can also be used of those who love their own poetic creations as parents love their offspring. See Cicero in the second book of letters to his brother Quintus: 'Good heavens, no Muse-struck person ever reads his latest poem with more pleasure than I feel when listening to you.' Compare Horace's line: 'He loves poetry; this is his sole concern.'

We learn from Plutarch's book 'On Noble Deeds Performed by Women' that even in his day women were still praying to be loved by their husbands 'As Phrygius loved Pieria.' This is the story behind the words. Some of the Ionians who had migrated to Miletus rebelled against the sons of Neleus, took themselves off to Myous, and settled there. They suffered much at the hands of the inhabitants of Miletus, who maintained a state of war against them because of their defection, but the war was not prosecuted with total ferocity, nor was all communication between the two communities at an end, but quite often on festal days the women from Myous would go to Miletus. One of those who seceded was a man called Pythes, who had a wife called Hippygia and a daughter Pieria. On one feast-day in Miletus, sacrifice was being offered to Diana, who is there called Neleis, and Pythes sent his wife and daughter, who had begged to be allowed to attend the festival. By far the most powerful of the sons of Neleus was Phrygius. He fell in love with Pieria, and was wondering what he could do that would best please her. She said that nothing could please her more than if he would make it possible for her to come to Miletus frequently and bring many girls with her. Phrygius understood from this that she was asking for peace and friendship for her fellow-citizens, so he declared an end to hostilities. Consequently, Pieria was highly honoured in Miletus as well as Myous, so that all the girls who were getting married used to pray, as a good omen, 'May I be loved by my husband as Phrygius loved Pieria.'

[greek], Life is a sort of time in exile. In Plato's Axiochus, Socrates adduces this sentiment as a popular saying known to everybody - though this dialogue is considered spurious. Its author was more likely a Christian who wanted to imitate Plato, as this sentiment is often found in Holy Scripture, namely, that this life is life as an exile, life as an alien, life in a land that is not our true home. Though even Socrates as depicted by Plato does say that the souls of men have fallen from heaven and endeavour to return there by the study of philosophy.

In the same dialogue, after someone has praised agriculture, Socrates replies: [greek] "But isn't the whole thing a festering sore," as they say, always producing some reason for grief?' Horace's Vulteius agreed with that sentiment. Anything that is a trial and tribulation we call a sore, an abscess, a canker. We read that Caesar Augustus used to call the two Julias, his daughter and grand-daughter, and Agrippa, whom he first adopted and later repudiated, his three 'abscesses,' his three 'cankers.' He so hated their extravagant behaviour that whenever they were mentioned he used to cry out, adapting Homer's words: 'Would that I had never wed, that I had childless died.' This verse too could well be treated as proverbial and used by men who have made an unhappy marriage or found themselves with disappointing children. The head phrase will do also for a man of unpleasant character. In his Lament for Adonis, Theocritus calls a bitter grief 'a festering wound in the heart': 'Deep, deep is the wound dealt to Adonis' groin; / Deeper still the wound that festers in Cytherea's heart.'

Those who stand ready to obey every nod and are given authority to carry out this or that task are, as we are told, referred to as 'The governor's squad.' Cicero, in the first letter to his brother Quintus: 'As for the private associates and personal attendants you have chosen to accompany you, the ones that people usually refer to as a sort of "governor's squad," we have to take responsibility not only for what they do but even for what they say.' A governor's subordinates need no other excuse than to say they were carrying out orders, so that any complaint is directed at the governor, not at themselves as his agents. The same kind of control is exercised over persons who are so beholden to someone for their keep and various obligements that they dare not say no to any request.

This is Theocritus' exaggerated way of describing furious anger in his Thyonicus: 'She went bright red. [greek] "You could easily have lit a lantern at her face." The words are spoken by a lover who is complaining about his girlfriend's provoking behaviour. When she refused to speak at the party, someone said to her, 'Lost your tongue? Seen a wolf?' and at the word 'wolf she went red as fire, because there was present a young man she fancied, called Wolf. Angry people are said to burn. We have a similar, if cruder, exaggerated expression today: 'He was so hot with rage you could have fried an egg on his face.'

[greek]: Cicero quotes this half line as something very well known in the letter to his brother Quintus that begins, 'Statius came to see me': His arrival did away with all the expectation that would have attached to yourself and all the crowds that would have gathered if he had left together with you and had never been seen before. And that seemed to me no bad thing. People have said all they had to say, and much of it was to the effect that 'ever for some great man ...' I am glad that all this was over and done with while you were still away.
It's not clear where this half line comes from. Possibly instead of [greek] 'ever,' one should read [greek] 'ask for,' or [greek] 'he asks for' or 'he seeks.'

Those who fear some harm take refuge at a sanctuary, at an altar, at a citadel, at the emperor's statues, at the temples of the gods. But there is no place where one can take refuge from death, a thought which Sophocles expressed in the following lines:
Whensoe'er the hour of death shall hard upon you press,
Go even to Jove's temple if you will, but still escape you cannot.
The words that look proverbial here are [greek] 'Not even to Jove's temple,' meaning the safest place of sanctuary. It was here that the eagle took refuge when persecuted by the beetle.

[greek], To speak oracles, applied to those who say things that are unquestionably true. Theocritus in the Syracusan Women: 'The old lady spoke some oracles before she went.' I have already discussed 'Straight from the tripod' and 'A leaf from the Sibyl's book.' Cicero, in the letter to Brutus which begins, 'My letter was already signed and sealed,' says, 'You may take this as an oracle straight from Pythian Apollo.' Cicero again, in the fifth book of his Definitions of Good and Evil: 'Because, I replied, when Zeno makes the magnificent statement, coming straight, as it were, from the oracle's mouth, "For the purpose of the happy life, virtue needs nothing outside itself ..." '

In a letter from book two of the letters to his brother Quintus, Cicero speaks of 'philosophy from the Syrian district,' meaning 'simple and home-spun,' the sort we learn from mixing with ordinary, humble folk, not from the treatises of Zeno and Plato. The relevant section reads: 'We are scholars of such a sort that we can even live with the workmen. We got this philosophy not from Hymettus but from the Syrian district.'1 Hymettus is a hill in Attica; it's where the honey of Hymettus comes from. He contrasts with Hymettus the 'Syrian district,' which thus suggests uncultured simplicity, especially as he had been speaking of sophisticated, cultivated conversation just before. It seems that Cicero had had some building work done on his property at the time. Though I do wonder whether the text is corrupt here, as various readings are offered in the editions. The learned reader might consider whether instead of area Syra 'the Syrian district' one should read ex hara Syra 'from the Syrian sty.' Compare what Cicero says in his speech attacking Piso: 'product of the sty, not the school.' The Syrians were as famous for their lack of civilization at that time as the Athenians were for their cultured wit.

In his Preface addressed to the Emperor Vespasian, Pliny the Elder tells us that Apion, the literary scholar, was called by the Emperor Tiberius 'The world's cymbal,' no doubt because of the fame he enjoyed, though, Pliny adds, he would be better thought of as 'the drum of the world's reputation.' This Apion used to say that he bestowed immortality on anyone to whom he dedicated a work. It was in reference to this that Tiberius called him 'The world's cymbal,' meaning that he bestowed on people fair fame, which resounded pleasingly round the world. Because of his arrogance, Pliny thought he should be called 'the drum of the world's reputation,' because he bestowed fame, but not necessarily fair fame. A drum resounds, but the noise is not attractive. There is also the thought that drums are made of ass-skin.

The rich do everything magnificently, the poor sparingly. In Theocritus' Graces, Praxinoe is praising Ptolemy for celebrating the festival of Adonis magnificently, with no expense spared, and says, apparently using a proverbial expression, 'With the rich, all things are rich.' You can adapt this idea by saying a scholar does all in a scholarly way, a pious man in a pious way, a king in a kingly way.

Cicero was using a proverbial figure of speech when he said in his speech defending Aulus Caecina, 'It has "Nowhere to put a finger out,"' an exaggerated expression, meaning that there is absolutely nothing that can be said or done. The whole passage reads as follows: 'In short, that excessive influence which holds sway elsewhere in the state, in this one type of case has no effect; it does not know how to proceed, how to get at the jury, where to put a finger out.' The phrase is derived from the gestures used by orators, the various types of which are described by Quintilian. The simplest gesture is pointing the finger, used by common, unmannered people.

Cicero, speaking in defence of Milo: 'He was well aware that a defendant who admits to a crime may nonetheless be acquitted. Otherwise, seeing that we admitted to the charge, he would never have ordered a trial, nor would you have had this life-giving letter to vote with, as well as the sinister one.' 'The sinister letter' is the Greek [greek], the 'life-giving' one, [greek]. The latter was used to acquit the defendant, the former to condemn. I have already said something about this in the adage 'To prefix a theta.' It is Asconius Pedianus who says (that is, if the texts are free from error) that [greek] was used to condemn, [greek] to acquit, and NL (that is, non liquet) to give a verdict of 'not proven.' Livy used the phrase 'a more sinister mark.'

[greek], Scion of Jove, a phrase used of a man endowed with remarkable ability. A shepherd so addresses another shepherd who is wonderfully skilled in music, and to whom he makes the gift of a club to do him honour. The club is the typical accoutrement of Hercules, offspring of Jove, and the ancients observed that the poets always depict the sons of Jove as civilized and humane, the sons of Neptune on the other hand as fierce and wild. Music indeed teaches civilized behaviour. The poem says, 'Since you are in all truth a scion formed of very Jove.' However, the ancient commentator on the passage thinks that the line refers to the fact that those who speak truth are said to be the offspring of Jove, and to support this view, he quotes the words that Homer gives to Jove:
Nothing of mine can be recalled, nor can it ever deceive
When once I give it my nod.
The shepherd is at this point being praised for modestly rejecting any comparison between himself and famous musicians. Virgil shows him in a similar light:
The shepherds say
That I'm inspired, but I'm not one to believe them.

[greek], Birds of the Muses. In his Idyll, Thalysia, Theocritus applies this apparently proverbial expression to poets, the reason being that they are like nightingales, singing their songs unceasingly. The commentator on the passage remarks that all song birds are 'Birds of the Muses' flock,' but Theocritus gives us to understand that he hates those poets who are arrogant enough to pit their cuckoo-calls against Homer.

Astrologers mark certain days as lucky or unlucky for doing this or that. But no day should be spent in idleness, because no day is so inauspicious that it cannot be good for something, if one makes proper use of the time thus made available. A day that is not propitious for fighting or sailing can be well spent on sorting out one's private affairs. And there isn't any day that isn't favourable for improving one's mind. The sentiment comes from Hesiod's Works and Days: 'Never is the day entirely bad.'

When a small amount is sliced off a lucrative deal for someone, we can say he's had 'a drop of dressing added.' See Cicero, speaking on behalf of Aulus Cluentius: 'And the one who cooked up the whole business also added a drop of dressing to this Bulbus. Consequently, anyone who got a little smack of hope from what he was saying didn't think him at all a distasteful fellow.' (A 'speck' of gold is a similar sort of phrase for a very tiny amount.) Apart from the proverbial turn of phrase in Cicero's words, there is also an amusing pun on the names. Stelemus had promised a large sum of money to one of the jurors called Bulbus - the name means 'Onion.' This Stelemus, who was cooking up the whole business - he's called in Latin conditor with the second syllable long, that is, 'seasoner,' not conditor with a short syllable, 'originator' - adds to Bulbus another juror who was called Gutta, which means 'Drop.' This livened Bulbus up, for cooks add seasonings to edible bulbs, which are a sort of onion, to take the sharpness off, and Cicero is suggesting this when he says that he seemed by no means 'a distasteful fellow.' Anything that happens gradually is said to do so 'drop by drop.' See Plautus, in the Merchant 'My heart will melt away drop by drop, like salt put in water.' Anyone who makes frequent but tiny gifts gives 'a drop at a time.'

'You have touched the issue with a needlepoint' is very like 'You're on the right track,' which occurs in Plautus' play, the Comedy of Asses: 'Isn't it as I say, Libanus? - You're on the right track. That's how it is.' Those who are mistaken are said to be right off track, and those who have a good idea what's going on are said to be 'on the right track.' This is a very common colloquial expression even today. There's a very similar turn of phrase in Casina: 'At least I'm back on track,' meaning, 'I really understand things now.'

In the same play, the trader says:
He can come bursting with threatenings and wrath fit for Achilles,
But if your angry chap lays a finger on me, your angry chap
Will get a thrashing.
This seems to be a proverbial phrase for dreadful overbearing threats. The verse form would indeed allow the reading Aeacinae 'fit for Aeacus' rather than Aeacidinae 'fit for Achilles,' and some people have proposed this reading, but Plautus is most likely thinking of Aeacus' descendant Achilles, whom Homer constantly represents as short-tempered and aggressive, as, for example, at the beginning of the first book of the Iliad, where he is so incensed against Agamemnon that he lays his hand on the hilt of his sword and would have moved from angry words to actual blows if Pallas Athene had not caught him by the hair and held him back. The whole work in fact starts with Achilles' wrath - the very first words are, [greek] 'Wrath, o goddess, is the theme .. .' I can't see the relevance in this context of the remarks some commentators make about Aeacus, the judge of the dead. Besides, anything indomitable and invincible is called 'Achillean.'

The shine of oil has become so proverbial that even Sacred Scripture bids us anoint our faces and conceal the gloom of fasting. In Truculentus, Plautus speaks of a courtesan all dressed up in her best as follows: 'She glows! She's all flowers! She's as shiny as oil!' Oil adds brightness and lustre to everything.

In the Haunted House, Plautus speaks of 'Hercules' profits,' meaning 'huge spending':
He spends enough money to lay on a banquet!
He's ruined his father!
That one single slave, that Tranio, sharpest of fellows,
Could easily squander the profits of Hercules.
I have already recorded that most people in ancient times were accustomed to dedicate a tenth of their profits to Hercules, convincing themselves that their business would flourish through Hercules' favour. All these tenths necessarily added up to a huge sum of money. Plautus humorously calls it 'Hercules' profits,' as if Hercules sold his favour.

'You are teaching the taught, reminding the mindful, talking to one who knows' and other similar phrases have been discussed earlier. Plautus expresses the same idea in an amusing way in the Comedy of Asses. Demaenetus is complaining about his wife and says, 'I must admit that she's unreasonable and difficult.' Libanus replies, 'You told me that after (posterius) I believed you,' that is, 'I knew that before you said it.' I do not see why Nonius here explains posterius 'after' as meaning minus 'less.' The following line in Plautus has a proverbial sound too: 'You are the first to feel it, but we knew it before.' As the Satirist says, 'He will be the last to know the shame brought on his house.' And Terence: 'He's the only one who doesn't know it all.' Even if we know of others' misfortunes before they do, it doesn't grieve us. It is the people it affects who have a real sense of the misfortune, others merely know of it.

Those who foresee future events long before they happen are said to see them in advance 'As if from a watch-tower.' Cicero, writing to Servius Sulpicius in book four of his Letters to Friends: 'I saw the storm that was coming long before it happened, as if from a watch-tower.' Not only towns and fortified positions have their look-out posts, but ships too, and from them skilled captains can observe in advance that winds and storms are imminent.

At one time a person who was taking an oath had to repeat a prescribed form of words dictated to him, so as to make the oath more binding. Plautus, in the Comedy of Asses: 'times when you merrily and consciously perjured yourself in set form of words.' Again, in the Bacchis Sisters: 'I gave an undertaking in set form of words / That I would this day give to the woman .. .' Sometimes the person taking the oath grasped an altar to increase the solemn binding force of the oath. So, when they wanted to indicate an oath of the most solemn kind, they could say something like, 'Even if you swear with your hands on the altar, I won't believe you.' Cicero, for example, in the speech defending Lucius Flaccus: 'Is a man whom no one would believe if he swore with his hands grasping the altar, going to get us to accept what he wants without any oath, just by writing a letter?'

I have already told how King Antigonus, grandson of Demetrius, was given the humorous nickname Doson by his soldiers, because he was always making promises, saying (in Greek) [greek] 'I'll give' and then not always fulfilling his promise. The Romans had a similar sort of word, Agones, a name for the officiants who killed the sacrificial victim, because it was customary for them to ask the people before striking the blow, 'Agon?' that is, 'Am I to proceed?' See Ovid in his versified calendar: 'Always he asks whether he should proceed, and never / Does he proceed unbidden.' Lactantius writes about Agones in his commentary on Statius. The word will be appropriate to ditherers, who are always considering and never actually embarking on any course of action.

In the Bacchis Sisters, Plautus calls a useless, witless old fellow 'A rotten mushroom.' Mushrooms, though naturally rather tasteless, were at one time considered a delicacy, and still are in Italy, but only if fresh and tender. Nothing is more unpalatable than stale ones. Plautus writes:
He walks around, cumbering the earth,
Witless, senseless, as useless as a rotten mushroom.
The words 'cumbering the earth' themselves have a proverbial ring, like, 'a useless weight upon the earth.' Again in the same play, 'mushroom' is one of the abusive words Plautus uses for stupidity: 'Silly, stupid, moronic mushrooms, doddering, drivelling dolts.' In the Haunted House, he uses 'thicket' to call someone 'thick': 'You don't talk sense or truth, you thicket.' Other trees can be seen as an image of dignity and intelligence, but thickets grow haphazard, know nothing of cultivation, and either bear no fruit or only what is wild and useless.

I have already discussed 'One should remember the living.' The courtesan in Plautus' Truculentus gives a new twist to the idea, treating her lover as a dead man now he's stopped being a source of presents. She says:
While a man's alive, you may know him.
Once he's dead, you may let him be.
You I knew when you were alive.
According to Hesiod, it's cash that gives men life. Once that's gone, a fellow's dead.

There are people of such a nature that you find it difficult to put up with them, but they are so active and so eager to do you service that whenever the occasion arises you can't prevent yourself from giving them something to do for you. A sore eye gets worse if you rub it and yet it's natural to put your hand to the place that hurts. Plautus writes in the Persian:
I'm not a willing slave and I'm not as my master would have me be.
But I'm like a runny eye to him - he still can't keep his hands away,
He has to give me orders and make use of me
To bolster up his plans.
Plautus again, in the Bacchis Sisters:
That slave is like a runny eye. If you haven't got one
You don't want it, don't feel the lack of it,
But if you get one, you can't prevent yourself from touching it.