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Notes on Passages in Cicero

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

John MacInnes
John MacInnes
Affiliation:
The University of Manchester
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Extract

In Brutus § 274 Cicero writes: The style of M. Calidius was pure and limpid; he used no word that was ‘ durum aut insolens aut humile aut longius ductum. Erant autem et uerborum et sententiarum ilia lumina quae uocant Graeci …(§ 275) “ Qua de re agitur” autem illud quod multis locis in iuris consultorum includitur formulis et ubi esset uidebat.’ In the last phrase, which I give in the MSS reading, editors have adopted for et ubi the suggestion of Corradus id ubi. There seem to be two objections to it: (I) poor sense, (2) doubtful syntax. Impelled by these objections but pressing overmuch the relevancy of a somewhat similar phrase (De Fin. V. 26. 78: si est quisquam qui acute in causis uidere soleat quae res agatur is es profecto tu) one editor proposed ‘ acutissime uidebat.’ But the context shows that Cicero is describing the language of Calidius, not his mental powers; so a reference to keenness in perceiving the subject of dispute is not relevant. In § 276 the passage proceeds to enumerate the formal qualities of his style:. ‘ accedebat ordo rerum plenus artis, actio liberalis, totumque dicendi placidum et sanum genus.’

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 5 , Issue 2 , April 1911, pp. 98 - 101
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1911

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References

1 In the last century b.c., as is well known, there were two theories about the correct Latin style. One party represented by Caesar sought to restore greater regularity to Latin by observ-ance of in importing or in forming words. The other party represented by Varro accepted irregularity as a necessary thing on the principle of in language; cp. Laurant LeStyledesDiscoursdeCiceron,-pp.g5 sqq.; Norden, DieantikeKunstprosa, pp. 185 sqq.; Sandys,History of Classical Scholarship, p. 176

2 All the other fragments of the De Analogia including that given by Aul. Gell. (I. 10. 4), deal with the morphology of words, so the citation made by Cicero may have come from Caesar's introduction to his book. Or does it also refer to the choice of words according to their form ?

3 It is possible that the original remark of Caesar did not end where it ends in Cicero.

4 After conjecturing delicto independently, I saw from Wilkins' note in his edition in the new Oxford Classical Texts that Schiitz had antici-pated me, without however inserting non. In the only copy of Schutz's edition that I have found (Leipzig, 1815) the reading is num pro derelicto, with no remark on any previous reading by the editor.