“Tradition has it that Demosthenes was excessively sharp, charming and neat in his apparel and other habits. Because of this he was mocked by his rivals for “expensive dressing gowns” and soft, fine tunics. For this reason too, they didn’t avoid describing him with vulgar and profane words, to the point that he was said to be barely a man and one with a hard-used mouth too.”
Demosthenen traditum est vestitu ceteroque cultu corporis nitido venustoque nimisque accurato fuisse. Et hinc ei τὰ κομψὰ illa χλανίσκα et μαλακοὶ χιτωνίσκοι ab aemulis adversariisque probro data, hinc etiam turpibus indignisque in eum verbis non temperatum, quin parum vir et ore quoque polluto diceretur.
The Loeb by John C. Rolfe (1927) translates ore quoque polluto as “he was even guilty of unnatural vice”. Clearly, this is not a literal translation. For us, “polluted” or “unclean” mouth doesn’t quite do the work. I am not entirely satisfied with “a hard-used mouth”, but I wasn’t sure where to go without stooping to vulgarity. I have no problem with the profane—but I prefer to save the dirty language for when the Latin or Greek is dirty too.
I am now hearing Gellius as one of the rednecks in Deliverance. “Boy, you got a hard used mouth…”
Ha! I think Gellius is too refined for that. He’s a classicist sipping wine at a dinner part “quoting” Deliverance.