Invective
Cicero, Post Reditum in Senatu 6.13-14 (on Gabinius; tr. N.H. Watts):
Dignified, indeed, was the figure he presented when, in the Circus of Flaminius, he was first introduced as consul to a meeting of the people, not by a tribune of the plebs, but by a past master in piracy and brigandage; when, heavy with wine, somnolence, and debauchery, with hair well-oiled and neatly braided, with drooping eyes and slobbering mouth, he announced with tipsy mutterings, and an air of sage sententiousness, that he was gravely displeased at the punishment of uncondemned citizens. Under what bushel has this mouthpiece of wisdom so long been hiding his light? Why has this curled dancer suffered his sublime virtues to lie for so long eclipsed by a life of junketings and brothelry? The other, Caesoninus Calventius, has been engaged from his youth in public affairs, though he has had nothing, save an hypocritical assumption
of austerity, to recommend him, neither mental vigour, nor eloquence, nor military skill, nor an interest in the study of mankind, nor liberal culture. Had you chanced to see in passing that unkempt, boorish, sullen figure, you might have judged him to be uncouth and churlish, but scarcely a libertine or a renegade.To hold converse with such a man as this, or with a post in the forum, would be all one in your eyes; you would call him stockish, insipid, tongue-tied, a dull and brutish clod, a Cappadocian plucked from some slave-dealer’s stock-in-trade. But now see our friend at home! see him profligate, filthy, and intemperate! the ministers to his lust not admitted by the front door, but skulking in by a secret postern! But when he developed an enthusiasm for the humanities, when this monster of animalism turned philosopher by the aid of miserable Greeks, then he became an Epicurean; not that he became a whole-hearted votary of that rule of life, whatever it is; no, the one word pleasure was quite enough to convert him. He chooses for his mentors not those dull dotards who devote entire days to discussions upon duty or virtue, who preach industry and toil and the glory of risking life for one’s country; he chooses rather those who argue that no hour should be devoid of its pleasure, and that every physical member should ever be partaking of some delightful form of indulgence.
Cum vero in circo Flaminio, non a tribuno plebis consul in contionem, sed a latrone archipirata productus esset, primum processit qua auctoritate vir! vini, somni, stupri plenus, madenti coma, composito capillo, gravibus oculis, fluentibus buccis, pressa voce et temulenta: quod in cives indemnatos esset animadversum, id sibi dixit gravis auctor vehementissime displicere. Ubi nobis haec auctoritas tam diu tanta latuit? cur in lustris et helluationibus huius calamistrati saltatoris tam eximia virtus tam diu cessavit?
Nam ille alter Caesoninus Calventius ab adolescentia versatus est in foro, cum eum praeter simulatam versutamque! tristitiam nulla res commendaret, non consilium, non dicendi facultas, non rei militaris, non cognoscendorum hominum studium, non liberalitas: quem praeteriens cum incultum, horridum maestumque vidisses, etiam si agrestem et inhumanum existimares, tamen libidinosum et perditum non putares.Cum hoc homine an cum stipite in foro constitisses, nihil crederes interesse: sine sensu, sine sapore, elinguem, tardum, inhumanum negotium, Cappadocem modo abreptum de grege venalium diceres. Idem domi quam libidinosus, quam impurus, quam intemperans non ianua receptis, sed pseudothyro intromissis voluptatibus! Cum vero etiam litteris studere incipit et belua immanis cum Graeculis philosophari, tum est Epicureus, non penitus illi disciplinae quaecumque est deditus, sed captus uno verbo voluptatis. Habet autem magistros non ex istis ineptis, qui dies totos de officio ac de virtute disserunt, qui ad laborem, ad industriam, ad pericula pro patria subeunda adhortantur, sed eos, qui disputent horam nulam vacuam voluptate esse debere: in omni parte corporis semper oportere aliquod gaudium delectationemque versari.
I don’t have access to Ilona Opelt, Die lateinischen Schimpfwörter und verwandte sprachliche Erscheinungen. Eine Typologie (Heidelberg: Winter, 1965).
February 10, 2025 at 02:33PM
https://ift.tt/5A2PIfa
Michael Gilleland