“It was then that our state first seemed to have become more learned with a certain foreign type of education. For it was no little stream which flowed from Greece into this city, but the most powerful river of those disciplines and arts. Some people tell the tale that Demaratus—a Corinthian exceptional in his own city for his respect, wealth, and authority—who was not able to endure the tyrant Cypselos at Corinth, fled with his money and took up residence in Tarquinii, the most elegant city of Etruria at the time.
Once he heard that Cypselos’ power was complete, the man of freedom and bravery officially became an exile and re-established his home and roots here. When he had two sons with the Tarquinian mother of his family, he had them educated in every art of the Greek system…”
XIX. Sed hoc loco primum videtur insitiva quadam disciplina doctior facta esse civitas. influxit enim non tenuis quidam e Graecia rivulus in hanc urbem, sed abundantissimus amnis illarum disciplinarum et artium. fuisse enim quendam ferunt Demaratum Corinthium et honore et auctoritate et fortunis facile civitatis suae principem; qui cum Corinthiorum tyrannum Cypselum ferre non potuisset, fugisse cum magna pecunia dicitur ac se contulisse Tarquinios, in urbem Etruriae florentissimam. cumque audiret dominationem Cypseli confirmari, defugit patriam vir liber ac fortis et adscitus est civis a Tarquiniensibus atque in ea civitate domicilium et sedes collocavit. ubi cum de matre familias Tarquiniensi duo filios procreavisset, omnibus eos artibus ad Graecorum disciplinam erudiit. . .
Francesco Filelfo, Letter to Lorenzo Medici (Part 2)
“We know that in our own times, whatever we have either of elegant literature or of polished learning or even of eloquence itself has been summoned back into the light from the underworld, and summoned back not just so that the people of our times could yield to those most learned ancients whom we admire so much, whether poets, or orators, or philosophers.
In all of these things, one must pay thanks to your most flourishing republic, by whose munificence Manuel Chrysoloras, a man who is in no way ignorant of any elegant learning, was summoned from Constantinople here into Italy, and taught Greek with extraordinary erudition first among you in Florence, then in Milan, and skillfully both rooted out and destroyed all of that inept and inveterate barbarism of speech and judgment from our citizens.
We can see from these beginnings that it was brought about that subsequently some youths, eager to acquire some of this improved learning and eloquence, went to Greece and brought back all of the elegance of learning back to us.
Further, to return from whence we were diverted, we should discuss (and not at more length than necessary) whether literary speech and Latin are the same or entirely different.
They are not the same, nor wholly different.
Latin was common both to the learned and unlearned, who were nourished on it from infancy, and it was their mother tongue and common tongue, just as that which we see among the Greeks, from their five languages which they call dialects, one is called koine, that is common, even though one must hold on to the same thing from individual languages which applies to one’s mother/common tongue and to grammar.”
Scimus enim nostris prope temporibus quicquid habemus elegantioris aut litteraturae, aut doctrinae cuiusquam politioris, aut ipsius denique eloquentiae, tanquam ab inferis revocatum in lucem, et ita revocatum, ut non admodum multum a nostris huius tempestatis hominibus concedatur eruditissimis illis priscis, quos magis admiramur, vel poetis, vel oratoribus, vel philosophis.
Quibus quidem in rebus, tuae potissimum florentissimae reipublicae gratia est habenda, cuius munificentissimo beneficio Manuel Chrisolora, vir nullius expers elegantioris disciplinae, ex urbe Constantinopoli in Italiam accersitus, cum et apud vos primo, deinde Mediolani doceret eruditius graece, inveteratam illam omnem ineptamque barbariam, et dicendi et iudicandi, ex hominibus nostris non mediocriter eruit atque extirpavit.
Quibus initiis videmus effectum ut, cum nonnulli postea iuvenes, melioris disciplinae et eloquentiae cupidi, in Graeciam traiecissent, omnem inde ad nostros eruditionis elegantiam reportarint.
Caeterum, ut eo redeamus unde divertimus, discutiendum est, et id quidem haud pluribus quam sit opus, idemne sit sermo litteralis et latinus, an diversus omnino.
Nec idem est, nec ex omni parte alius.
Sermo latinus erat doctis indoctisque communis, qui simul cum infantia alebatur, eratque materna ipsa vernaculaque lingua qualem videmus apud Graecos eam quae ex quinque linguis quas dialektous, dialectus, vocant, koine, coene, hoc est communis, nominatur, quamquam etiam de singulis linguis idem est tenendum, quo ad maternam vulgaremque linguam atque grammaticam.
“The Attic sex-worker, once the torturer was finally worn out, chewed threw her own tongue and spat it out at the face of the angry tyrant—that is, she spat out her voice too so that she would not be able to expose her conspirators if she was overcome…”
Attica meretrix carnifice iam fatigato postremo linguam suam comesam in faciem tyranni saevientis exspuit, ut exspueret et vocem, ne coniuratos confiteri posset, si etiam victa voluisset.
Plutarch, Moralia 1088b
“Metrodoros says ‘I have often spat on the pleasures of the flesh.’ ”
“One of them came right up to him and spat at him.”
εἷς δὲ καὶ προσέπτυσεν ἐξεναντίας προσελθών.
Beekes 2010
Select Papyri, P Gurob. 2
“Woman, you were at that place with Kallipos…and you were insulting me, claiming that I had said to certain people that…When I was insulting you in turn, you spat on me….and took my collar…so I am suing you for assault for 200 drachmae.”
“When someone was criticizing him for spending too much on meals, he said “Wouldn’t you have purchased the same for three obols?” When the man said he would, Aristippos said, “Ok, I am not a hedonist; you are a money-grubber.”
At a different time, Simos, who was Dionysius’ steward, a Phrygian and a nasty fellow too, was showing him expensive houses with fine tile work. When Aristippos coughed and spat in his face and he resented it, the man replied, “I didn’t have any more appropriate a place.”
“He never forgot the slight. After the king’s death when Anaxarchus was sailing and was forced to land on Cyprus, Nicocreon had him arrested and placed him on a mortar, ordering that he be pounded to death with iron pestles.
But he, not giving a shit about the punishment, uttered that famous saying, “You pound the bag of Anaxarchus but you do not pound Anaxarchus.” When Nicocreon ordered his tongue to be cut off, the story is that he bit it off and spat it at him.”
“The most noble thing is to be just.
The best thing is to live without sickness; the sweetest is when
Someone has the ability to get what he wants each day.”
Dr. ADAMS told us, that in some of the Colleges at Oxford, the fellows had excluded the students from social intercourse with them in the common room. Johnson. “They are in the right, Sir: there can be no real conversation, no fair exertion of mind amongst them, if the young men are by; for a man who has a character does not choose to stake it in their presence.” Boswell. “But, Sir, may there not be very good conversation without a contest for superiority?” Johnson. “No animated conversation, Sir, for it cannot be but one or other will come off superiour. I do not mean that the victor must have the better of the argument, for he may take the weak side; but his superiority of parts and knowledge will necessarily appear; and he to whom he thus shews himself superiour is lessened in the eyes of the young men. You know it was said, ‘Mallem cum Scaligero errare quam cum Clavio recte sapere.’ In the same manner take Bentley’s and Jason de Nores’ Comments upon Horace, you will admire Bentley more when wrong, than Jason when right.”
“I [Hippocrates] said, “Know that you should explain the reason for your laughter.” And [Democritus], after glaring at me for a bit, said, “you believe that there are two reasons for my laughter, good things and bad things. But I laugh for one reason: the human being. Humans are full of ignorance but empty of correct affairs, acting like babies in their little plots, and also laboring over endless toil without winning any profit.
Humans travel to the ends of the earth and over the uncharted wilds with unchecked desires, minting silver and gold and never stopping in the pursuit of possession, but always throwing a fit for more, so that there’s never one bit less than others have. And then, they are not at all ashamed to call themselves happy.”
Francesco Filelfo, Letter to Lorenzo Medici (Part 1)
“Lorenzo Medici, since I see that some are wrapped up in that error and believe that there is no real difference between literary and Latin speech, and furthermore that that they all use this same speech common at those times at which the most outstanding poets – the comedians as much as the tragedians and the most eloquent orators – flourished, and which we ourselves use now, I thought (since you are endowed with the noblest birth, intellect, and learning) that you would not be displeased in light of our friendship to learn from me what opinion I think we should take on the subject.
I have done this with more accuracy, since Leonardo Bruni, our friend and surely a most eloquent man, has discoursed much against Flavio Biondo, and Poggio, following Leonardo’s death, gratified Karolus of Arezzo by covering up the little book written against Biondo’s writings which offended the glory of his fellow citizen. Neither of these people properly discharged his duty. But I, serving the cause of truth, shall bring forth not what others have wished or would wish, but what pertains to the matter at hand.
First of all I think that I can say without doubt and clearly affirm that nothing is more abhorrent to the old mode of Roman speech than this common language which all of Italy now uses.
For if the ancient Romans had used speech of this sort, some of their writings or books would have remained either in verse or in prose – such volumes as we now see a lot of, written learnedly and elegantly by those who have earned a reputation in modern times: the two Guidos of Florence, Dante, Petrarch, Bocaccio, Asculanus Cicchus, and many others, whose monuments no memory will ever obscure.
And so, this common language which all of Italy now speaks, even though it is worse in some regions than in others, has nothing in common with that ancient speech which was in use during the age of Cicero.
There is no wonder here, given that so many barbarous tribes overran Italy. The Vandals, the Huns, the Lombards, the Germans, the Burgundians, the British, the Franks, the Belgians, one nation upon another, who confused and corrupted the language itself and our customs and all of our learning and the majesty of our speech.”
Cum viderem nonnullos in eo versari errore, Laurenti Medices, ut arbitrarentur nihilo prorsus inter se differre sermonem litteralem et latinum, praeterea eadem hac omnes usos vulgari lingua temporibus iis, quibus egregii poetae, tam comici quam tragici, et oratores eloquentissimi floruerunt apud Romanos, qua ipsi nunc utimur, existimavi tibi, qui nobilissimo es et genere et ingenio et doctrina, pro nostra amicicia fore non ingratum si ex me cognosceres quid ea de re sentiendum putem.
Quod eo feci accuratius, quoniam et Leonardus Arretinus, familiaris noster, vir sane facundissimus, adversus Blondum Flavium multa disseruit, et post Leonardi obitum Poggius, Karolo gratificatus Arretino, quem disertissimi concivis gloriam offenderet libellum etiam contra illius scripta contexuit; cum neuter suo sit functus officio. At ego, veritati inserviens, non quid caeteri aut voluerint aut velint, sed quid in rem sit, in medium referam.
Et omnium primum illud mihi videor indubitato posse ac dilucide affirmare, nihil magis abhorruisse a communi loquendi Romanorum consuetudine, quam hanc vulgarem linguam qua nunc omnis utitur Italia.
Nam, si huiusmodi sermone prisci Romani illi essent usi, extarent aliqua eorum scripta, aliqui libri, aut versu aut soluta oratione, qualia videmus hac tempestate volumina plurima perdocte et eleganter scripta ab iis qui proximis temporibus claruere: duobus Guidonibus florentinis, Dante Aldigerio, Francisco Petrarca, Ioanne Boccacio et Asculano Ciccho aliisque quam plurimis, quorum monimenta nulla unquam memoria obscurabit.
Itaque lingua haec vulgaris qua nunc universa loquitur Italia, tametsi in alia quam in alia eius regione deterius, nihil habet omnino commune cum vetusto illo sermone qui Ciceronis memoria erat in usu.
Et ne id quidem mirum, cum tot deinceps barbarae gentes in Italiam irruerunt. Vandali, Hunni, Gotthi, Longobardi, Germani, Burgundiones, Britanni, Franci, Belgae, et aliae atque aliae nationes, quae et linguam ipsam et mores doctrinamque omnem maiestatemque dicendi confuderunt atque inquinarunt.
“I would pay more than a part of my own life to embrace you on this happiest and most anticipated anniversary of your imperial accession—a day which I consider to be the birthday of my health, dignity, and security.
But serious shoulder pain and even worse neck pain afflict me so badly that I can barely bend, straighten up, or turn because I have to keep my neck so still. But I have returned to my Lares, Penates, and Family gods and have taken up my vows and I have prayed that next year I can embrace you twice on this day, twice to kiss your chest and hands, simultaneously completing the duty of this year and next.”
| Antonino Pio Augusto Fronto.
Carius <quam> vitae meae parte adpicisci cupio ut te complecterer felicissimo et optatissimo initi imperii die, quem ego diem natalem salutis dignitatis securitatis meae existimo. Sed dolor humeri gravis, cervicis vero multo gravissimus ita me adflixit, ut adhuc usque vix inclinare me vel erigere vel convertere possim: ita immobili cervice utor. Sed apud Lares Penates deosque familiares meos et reddidi et suscepi vota, et precatus sum, uti anno insequenti bis te complecterer isto die, bis pectus tuum et manus exoscularer praeteriti simul et praesentis anni vicem perficiens.
“Even the ancients applied themselves to disgraceful subjects (or inconceivable, if you prefer), which the Greeks called adoxous hypotheseis. It was not only the sophists who did this, but real philosophers too. My main man Favorinus lowered himself to those subjects with the greatest cheer, thinking them fit either for clearing his mind, exercising his subtlety, or conquering difficulties with practice, just as when he sought some praise of Thersites, he praised a fever which recurred every four days and then spoke many things which were difficult to come up with on either side, and left them written in his books. He even brought Plato forth as a witness in the praises of the fever, saying that he wrote that one who suffers from quartan fever and recovers full strength will later enjoy more reliable and constant good health. Moreover, in those very same fever praises, he played around charmingly with this little idea: ‘The verse is well proven by the history of humanity: Sometimes the day is like a step-mother, sometimes like a mother.’ The line means that one cannot be doing well on every day, but do well on one day and poorly on another. Since this was the case, he said, ‘since in human life fortune is alternately good and bad, how much more fortunate is this fever broken by a two-day stretch: here we have one stepmother for every two mothers.'”
Infames materias, sive quis mavult dicere inopinabiles, quas Graeci adoxous hypotheseis appellant, et veteres adorti sunt non sophistae solum, sed philosophi quoque, et noster Favorinus oppido quam libens in eas materias se deiciebat vel ingenio expergificando ratus idoneas vel exercendis argutiis vel edomandis usu difficultatibus, sicuti, cum Thersitae laudes quaesivit et cum febrim quartis diebus recurrentem laudavit, lepida sane multa et non facilia inventu in utramque causam dixit eaque scripta in libris reliquit. Sed in febris laudibus testem etiam Platonem produxit, quem scripsisse ait, qui quartanam passus convaluerit viresque integras recuperaverit, fidelius constantiusque postea valiturum. Atque inibi in isdem laudibus non hercle hac sententiola invenuste lusit: “versus” inquit “est longo hominum aevo probatus::
ἄλλοτε μητρυιὴ πέλει ἡμέρη, ἄλλοτε μήτηρ.
Eo versu significatur non omni die bene esse posse, sed isto bene atque alio male. Quod cum ita sit,” inquit “ut in rebus humanis bene aut male vice alterna sit, haec biduo medio intervallata febris quanto est fortunatior, in qua est mia metryia, duo meteres?”
“You’re following with your dicks out; and you will eat breakfast [like] goats”
ἕπεσθ’ ἀπεψωλημένοι· τράγοι δ’ ἀκρατιεῖσθε.
From the Suda
“You will breakfast”: Aristophanes in Wealth has “You will breakfast like goats”. This means you will breakfast with an exposed penis: you will do wild things like goats, since after sex, goats lick the penis. [So this means] you will lick the end of a dick like a goat.”
“akratieisthe” stands in for “you would eat”. For akratismos means eating first thing in the morning. Or, “you will do wild things”, since after intercourse, goats lick their own genitals.”
