125. eius modi fuit: he was such; he was so old and feeble that everyone was ready for him to retire (ei desinere).
iurare:to take an oath, i.e., as a character in the play.
126. sciens: Eng. would use an adv., knowingly.
fallo: fallere,to deceive, cheat, disappoint, fail; the joke is that, as Aesopus spoke the words from an oath, if I…fail, his voice in fact failed him.
127. quid: = cur, as often.
narrem: DELIBERATIVE SUBJUNCT.
nosti: = novisti, implying that Marius had already heard something of the games, not surprisingly, as they were a spectacular, if tasteless, event.
128. leporis: lepos, charm, grace, wit; PARTITIVE GEN. with id.
mediocres: here, ordinary.
apparatus…spectatio (129):the spectacle (sight) of the elaborate display.
AD FAMILIARES 7.1 (excerpts)
The public entertainments sponsored by Pompey at the dedication of his theater at Rome are vulgar displays which displeased Cicero and would have displeased his friend Marcus Marius as well; more formal than most of his correspondence, the letter is essentially an epistolary essay of the sort later written by Horace (in verse) and the younger Pliny. September or October, 55 B.C.
M. Cicero S. D. M. Mario
Marius’ absence from the games.
Gladiators fighting, terracotta relief 2nd century A.D. Museo Nazionale Romano, Rome, Italy
Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY.
115 Si te dolor aliqui corporis aut infirmitas valetudinis tuae tenuit quominus ad ludos venires, fortunae magis tribuo quam sapientiae tuae; sin haec, quae ceteri mirantur, contemnenda duxisti et, cum per valetudinem posses, venire tamen noluisti, utrumque laetor, et sine dolore corporis te fuisse et animo valuisse, 120 cum ea, quae sine causa mirantur alii, neglexeris.
Omnino, si quaeris, ludi apparatissimi, sed non tui stomachi; coniecturam enim facio de meo: nam primum honoris causa in scaenam redierant ei, quos ego honoris causa de scaena decessisse arbitrabar; deliciae vero tuae, noster Aesopus, eius 125 modi fuit ut ei desinere per omnis homines liceret. Is iurare cum coepisset, vox eum defecit in illo loco, “si sciens fallo.” Quid tibi ego alia narrem? Nosti enim reliquos ludos, qui ne id quidem leporis habuerunt quod solent mediocres ludi; apparatus enim spectatio tollebat omnem hilaritatem. Quid enim delectationis 130 habent sescenti muli in Clytaemestra? aut in Equo Troiano creterrarum tria milia? aut armatura varia peditatus et equitatus in aliqua pugna? Quae popularem admirationem habuerunt; delectationem tibi nullam attulissent. Quod si tu pereos dies operam dedisti Protogeni tuo (dummodo is tibi quidvis potius 135 quam orationes meas legerit), ne tu haud paulo plus quam quisquam nostrum delectationis habuisti.
129. hilaritatem: hilaritas, enjoyment, amusement.
130. sescenti: 600; commonly used for an indefinite large number, here a hyperbole emphasizing the extravagance of the spectacle.
muli: perhaps carrying Agamemnon’s booty when he returned to Clytemnestra from Troy.
Clytaemestra…Equo Troiano (131):Clytemnestra and The Trojan Horse, titles of two Roman tragedies presented during the ludi; they have not survived, but they clearly dealt with the Trojan cycle.
131. creterrarum: creterra, mixing bowl, for mixing water with wine as the ancients regularly did; here again possibly loot from the Trojan War.
armatura:armor, equipment.
peditatus et equitatus (132): both gen. sg., of the infantry and cavalry.
133. attulissent: sc. si adfuisses.
134. Protogeni: Protogenes, an educated Greek slave trained as a reader (in Greek, an anagnostes); many cultivated Romans had such slaves.
dummodo…legerit (135): this self-deprecating aside shows that Cicero did, after all, have a sense of humor and could even poke fun at himself.
quidvis: quivis,anyone, anything.
135. ne: a Greek interjection, employed in Lat. only before prons., surely, indeed.
haud paulo plus: i.e., a great deal more; LITOTES.
136. nostrum: gen. with quisquam.
delectationis: depends on plus.
137. venationes: venatio, animal-hunt; wild beasts (lions, panthers, elephants, etc.) were turned loose in an arena to fight human beings and one another.
binae:two each (day).
138. polito: polished, therefore refined, cultivated.
139. imbecillus: weak, powerless, by nature as compared with bestiae, and also because sometimes the gladiators were unarmed.
laniatur: laniare,to tear, mangle.
140. venabulo: venabulum, hunting spear.
