I think I have now shown sufficient reason for regarding the usage of the comic stage as having an important bearing on the criticism of the letters. I have adopted this view as a principle in my recension of the text. In the criticism of Tacitus a parallelism from Virgil is almost as decisive in favour of a disputed reading as a parallel passage from the works of Tacitus himself; for it is certain that the very keynote of the prose of Tacitus is the imitation of the verse of Virgil. In the criticism of Cicero's letters we may go further, and say that to quote an analogous usage in Plautus or Terence is far more relevant than to quote an analogous usage from the Oratory or Philosophy of Cicero himself.*

B.

This coincidence between the letters and the stage might, as I have said, have been expected a priori, and we might also expect to find an extremely delicate use of language. When a writer has to treat of very delicate subjects at a time when there exists no secure postal transmission, he must express himself with caution, and this Cicero does with consummate skill. The difficulty of the letters is often thus greatly increased. The merest hint of the writer's thought must be confided to paper. Cicero often couches his meaning in riddles, which he fears that even Atticus may be unable to decipher. It is amazing that the cases are so few in which the ingenuity of scholars has not arrived at a solution at least plausible.

(1). Perhaps in no part of Latin literature is there such a delicate usage of the subjunctive as may be found in these letters. I have not neglected in my notes to call the attention of readers to such cases. Here I shall only quote one passage in which the joke depends altogether on the use of the subjunctive, and would vanish were the indicative substituted. He is telling (Att. vi. 1, 25) how among the goods of Vedius (which were accidentally included among the assets of Pompeius Vindullus deceased) were found images or portrait models of certain Roman ladies. This compromised the characters of these ladies, for Vedius was a notorious profligate. Among these models was one of Junia, sister of

* We have seen that the dialogues, as might be expected, have far greater affinities with the letters, as regards the diction, than have speeches and rhetorical essays of Cicero.

Brutus, and wife of Lepidus. Neither Brutus nor Lepidus took any notice of the matter, and Brutus still kept up his intimacy with Vedius. This is Cicero's way of telling it-in his (sc. rebus Vedii) inventae sunt quinque imagunculae matronarum, in quibus una sororis amici tui hominis Bruti qui hoc utatur, et illius Lepidi qui haec tam neglegenter ferat, among which was a model of the sister of your friend Brutus (a brute part,* indeed, to keep up the fellow's acquaintance), and wife of Lepidus (funny, indeed, to take the matter so coolly). Here, but for the subjunctive, there would be no play on the words Brutus and Lepidus.

(2). The phrase ita. . . ut is very delicately employed in the letters, and it is often hard to find an exact equivalent in English for this Latin idiom. For instance, Att. i. 1, 1, ita negant vulgo ut mihi se debere dicant, 'their refusal generally takes the form of a statement that they are pledged to me'; Att. i. 19, 8, ita tamen his noris amicitiis implicati sumus ut vafer ille Siculis insusurret cantilenam illam suam, involved as I am in many new acquaintanceships, yet I do not let them prevent me from having constantly in my ears the refrain of the astute Sicilian'; Q. Fr. i. 1, 10, quem scio ita laborare de existimatione sua ut etiam de nostra laboret, 'in whom I know a keen regard for his own reputation is yet compatible with as keen a regard for ours'; Att. ii. 4, 7, magni aestimo

.fructum palaestrae Palatinae, sed ita tamen ut nihil minus velim quam Pomponiam versari in timore ruinae, 'I greatly value the enjoyment of my palaestra on the Palatine, not, however, so much as to prevent my feeling that anything is better than to keep Pomponia in constant fear of the falling of the wall.' There are other good instances in Att. ii. 21, 1; ii. 24, 2; iii. 15, 2; and in the letter of Quintus, Ep. xii. § 13.

(3). Caution often compels Cicero to use covert language when dealing with dangerous topics. Hence the enigmatic Greek in which he refers to the dishonesty of Philotimus in some letters of the 6th book to Atticus. This caution has left its impression on the diction of the letters in the use of the plural when only one person is meant, e. g. veteres hostes novos amicos in referring to Caesar, Fam. v. 7, 1; and in Att. i. 17, 3, meos means Quintus,

*Cf. Hamlet, iii. 2: Polonius. I did enact Julius Caesar. I was killed in the Capitol. Brutus killed me. Ham. It was a brute part of him to kill so capital a calf

there.

F

tuos, Pomponia; invidorum refers to Hortensius in Att. iii. 7, 2. So Pompeius is often referred to by a plural attribute. Somewhat like this is the pluralis modestiae (as Draeger calls it, Hist. Synt. i. 25), whereby a man speaking of himself in a somewhat boastful tone softens the arrogance by the use of the plural: see on Fam. v. 4, 2 (Ep. lxxxix): again, in that same letter tuorum refers to Clodius alone, but is made plural invidiae minuendae causa.

(4). The use of epistolary tenses is familiar to readers of the letters, and is commented on in the notes. For the emphatic egʊ pointing to the fact that the sentence in which it occurs is an answer to a question, see Ep. lxii. § 1.

C.

(1). A very interesting feature in these letters is Cicero's use of Greek words and phrases. They were the argot of literary Rome. I have so treated them in translating passages in which they occur. I have done so even when I was forced to introduce a metaphor not even hinted at in the Greek word. For instance, in Att. i. 1, 2, where Cicero says ut mihi videatur non esse à dúvarov Curium obducere, I render 'that it seems to me on the cards to carry Curius against them.' If Cicero uses a Greek word where he could quite as easily have used a Latin, we must take this circumstance into account in translating. Greek words are also frequently used as part of the terminology of rhetoric and politics; but the most interesting point connected with this feature in the style of the letters is the fact that very often Greek words are called in to supply a deficiency in the Latin language, and that in those very cases in a number of instances our own language fails, and we are obliged to borrow from the French; so that a French word is not only the best, but the only, word to express the meaning of the Greek term in the letter. This fact is always taken notice of in the notes; but the following list may be given here of Greek words naturalised by Cicero to supply a want in Latin, and translatable by us only in naturalised French words:-àкndía, ennui; àdiapopía, nonchalance; δυσωπία, mauvaise honte; ὁδοῦ πάρεργον, en passant; μετέωρος, distrait ; μείλιγμα, douceur; νεωτερισμὸς, bouleversement ; ροιζόθεμις (?), fracas ; σκυλμός, emeute; μαλ' ἀριστοκρατικώς, en grand seigneur; καχέκτης, mauvais sujet; ἀπρακτότατος, maladroit, fainéant; ἀφελὴς, ingénu, naif; ὑποσόλοικον, a bétise; σφάλμα, a faux pas; ἀπροσδιό

νυσον, ἄκυρον, mal à propos; ὑπόμνημα, mémoire; περίστασις, entourage ; πρόσνευσις, penchant ; δύσχρηστα, désagrémens; σύγχυσιν τῆς πολιτείας, coup d'état; λέσχη, causerie ; ἀνεμοφόρητα, canards; àropléyμara, bons mots; àμpıλapía, embarras de richesse; while áróravyμa corresponds very nearly to the Italian fiasco. In all or very nearly all of these the Latin actually wants a word, and has borrowed it from the Greek, while we, to supply a like lacuna in our own tongue, have recourse to the French.

(2). Sometimes, as I have observed above, the Greek word answers rather to our slang or cant phrases: of this we have examples in ariota, 'impecuniosity'; auoopov, 'bad form'; woλíTevua, 'platform'; Tọiσapeitaɣírne, ‘a bigwig'; ¿oxù, ‘a lead'; avu kárw, topsy-turvy'; ikтéveιa, ‘gush'; ¿Eaкavlíčε, to pick holes'; ἐπίτηκτα, “ veneering”; ὀξύπεινος, “sharpset; θορυβοποιεῖ, 'he is an alarmist'.* And often we find that, by a curious coincidence, Cicero borrows an expression from the Greek where we have recourse not to French or to any vernacular argot, but to Latin. Where we should say de mortuis nil nisi bonum, or more briefly de mortuis, Cicero invariably has oùx óoín 40μévoioiv,† and the proverb ne sutor supra crepidam (often wrongly quoted ultra)‡ appears in Cicero in its Greek dress as ἔρδοι τις 8 Again μηδὲ δίκην || is

* Modern physicians still write their prescriptions in Latin, and affect the use of Latin terms in hygienic or sanitary matters. The letters affect Greek terms in these cases. 'An attack' (of ague) is Añis; paralysis' is πapáλvois; depletion is àpaíperis; 'sweating' is diapópnσis; 'a defluxion of humours' is éπipopá. In Fam. xvi. 18, 1, Cicero gives Tiro a little prescription-ea (valetudo tua) quid postulet non ignoras; τέψιν, ἀκοπίαν, περίπατον σύμμετρον, τέρψιν, εὐλυσίαν κοιλίας. So Fam. xiv. 7, 1, Xogy Expatov noctu eieci: Att. xiv. 51, hoírnoas, 'you were doing Banting'; and Att, x. 181, nútókŋσev, 'mother and child are doing well.' Again, Tórns is 'a low diet'; #poσavaтρépew is 'to feed up' after blood-letting; and ¿μetikǹy agere is 'to be under a régime of daily emetics.' We have a better term for 'Banting' if the conjecture TenTikhy (Fam. viii. 1, 4) be accepted.

† The verse is οὐχ ὁσίη κταμένοισιν ἐπ' ἀνδράσιν εὐχετάασθαι, Hom. Od. xxii. 412. But Cic. writes p0μévoiσi: see Att. iv. 7, 2. He makes a similar μvŋμovɩkòv audrŋua in writing Agamemno for Ulixes, in de Div. ii. 63.

The proverb is derived from the story of Apelles, who accepted the cobbler's critieism when it referred to the loop (ansa) of a sandal (crepida); but when, elated by his success, the cobbler began to criticize the leg of the statue (cavillante circa crus) Apelles warned him ne super crepidam iudicaret, 'you must not criticize higher up than the sandal,' Plin. H. N. xxxv. 36, 12. Supra is the word used by Valerius Maximus also in telling the same story; ultra has no authority, and, indeed, no meaning. ξ ἔρδοι τις ἣν ἕκαστος εἰδείη τέχνην.-Ar. Vesp. 1422.

Η μηδὲ δίκην δικάσῃς πρὶν ἂν ἀμφοῖν μῦθον ἀκούσῃς.—Phocylides.

audi alteram partem ; & lapsus memoriae is a μνημονικὸν ἁμάρτημα; vira voce is ζῶσα φωνή; seriatim is κατὰ μίτον or κατὰ λεπτόν ; corpus (in the sense in which we use the word in the phrase Corpus Poetarum) is σῶμα ; and muta persona is κωφόν πρόσωπον.

D.

The following are the most characteristic uses of words :

(1). Strange words coined to suit a momentary need, such as Pseudo-Cato (Cato's ape'); Pseudo-damasippus; the curious verbal facteon formed on the analogy of φιλοσοφητέον which immediately precedes it; Fulviaster or Fulviniaster (which is often regarded as corrupt, but is defended by Antoniaster, Fragm. Or. Var. 8); desideratives like petiturit, he is ke about standing'; Sullaturit, 'he is bent on a coup d'état'; proscripturit, he is eager for a proscription': we have also salaco, a swaggerer'; tocullio, a bit of a usurer'; and strangest of all, the singular substantives Appietas and Lentulitas, meaning, 'your mere possession of the name Appius or Lentulus', in a very manly and dignified letter, Fam. iii. 7, 5.

Like these are strange words arising directly from the context, such as consponsor, inhibitio (remigum), traductor (ad plebem), breriloquens, levidensis, tagax; and from the fact that things are spoken of in the letters which are not likely to be mentioned clsewhere, such as glutinator (applied to a certain class of bookbinders), apparitio (the office of an apparitor); to which may be added strangelyformed words, such as inconsiderantia, obviamitio.

(2). A great prevalence of diminutives, such as the following, of which those printed in italics are not found amongst classical writers save in Cicero: actuariolum, aedificatiuncula, ambulatiuncula, animula, assentatiuncula, atriolum, auricula, captiuncula, cerula, chartula, classicula, commotiuncula, contiuncula, deliciolae, deversoriolum, dextella, diecula, febricula, filiolus, furcilla, gloriola, laureola, imagunculae, lectiunculae, lintriculus, litterulae, membranula, memoriola, nauseola, negotiolum, nervuli, ocelli, olusculum, oppidulum, pagella, paginula, plangunculae (probably a corruption of imagunculae), plebecula, porticula, possessiuncula, raudusculum, ripula, rumusculi, rutula, sedecula, servula, simiolus, sportella, tectoriolum, tocullio, villula, vindemiola, vocula, vulticulus; to which add the proper names Atti