Ye Olde Latin Wit

[primsong]

I got a copy of three of Cicero's essays - very cool book with the Latin on one side and the English on the other so you can compare straight across. First of all let me say On Old Age should be required reading - seriously! Fabulous stuff. Anyone middle-aged and up should totally get forthwith to the nearest library or bookstore and find this to read.

Secondly, his On Divination has been vastly amusing to me.

(regarding cocks crowing being hailed as a sign of military victory) - "And is it true that these fowls are not accustomed to crow except when they are victorious?...'Oh, that was a portent' you say. A fine portent indeed! you talk as if it were a fish and not a cock had done the crowing."

(regarding thunder and lightning as signs from the gods) - "...And so we find it recorded 'When Jove thunders or lightens it is impious to hold an election.' This was ordained, perhaps, from reasons of political expediency; for our ancestors wished to have some excuse for not holding elections sometimes." and "Is it passing strange, if Jupiter warns us by means of thunderbolts that he sends so many to no purpose! What, for example is his object in hurling them into the middle of the sea?...and why does he fling them on the shores of people who do not take any notice of them?"

(regarding portents) - "Now if a thing is to be considered a portent because it is seldom seen then a wise man is a portent; for as I think, it oftener happens that a mule brings forth a colt than that nature produces a sage." and "A man referred to him for interpretation as a portent the fact that a snake was seen at his house, coiled about a beam. 'That was not a portent...it would have been if the beam had been wrapped about the snake.'"

(regarding mice chewing on wooden shields being seen as a sign of defeat) - "But are we simple and thoughtless enough to think it is a portent for mice to gnaw something when gnawing is their one business in life?... as if it mattered one whit whether mice, which are gnawing something day and night, gnawed shields or sieves! Hence, by the same token, the fact that, at my house, mice recently gnawed my Plato's Republic should fill me with alarm for the Roman republic; or if they had gnawed my Epicurus On Pleasure I should have expected a rise in the market price of food!"

*(a book implying gourmands increase food demand)


I would have loved to have seen Cicero in a televised debate. X-D

Comments

[estellye.livejournal.com]

This is great! Who knew Latin could be so snarky? ;) These days everything in Latin is all pomp and gravity.

[primsong.livejournal.com]

I'm thinking Cicero's middle name should have been "Snark". He's takes all the opposition's arguments completely apart with a liberal dusting of sarcasm - I'm getting more of his stuff after I'm done with these.

cicero

[chytha.livejournal.com]

Interesting. I remember having at one time a copy of Caesar's Gallic Wars ("All Gaul is divided into three parts",etc) in Latin, and trying my hand at Latin (never having it in school) ...I don't know whatever became of it, but it was cool to have and try to read (I am incurable curious :))
I also am currently reading the biography of John Adams, by David McCullough - very good reading. And he records that Adams was a big fan of Cicero - required it's reading by his kids....maybe I should venture there sometime?....

Re: cicero

[primsong.livejournal.com]

There's good reason he was such a long-term stabilizing and rallying point for the Roman people when their government went wonky. He isn't shy about his own popularity, but he certainly would qualify as "wise" - I completely recommend his letters as well.

I still want to somehow reach back through time and throttle the unspeakable blots who had him killed. We need more people like this, and they come along all too infrequently.