63 Colloquial and Li.. - Ganino.com

158 john briscoe
be that Cato himself is responsible for the invention of the metaphor. It
is, however, not dissimilar to the rustic metaphors referred to by Cicero,
Orat. 81 20 (though they are all verbs or adjectives) and one cannot exclude
the possibility that Cato took it from rural speech.
The penultimate sentence of Gellius’ verbal citation reads Leonides Laco,
qui simile apud Thermopylas fecit, propter eius virtutes omnis Graecia gloriam
atque gratiam praecipuam claritudinis inclitissimae decoravere monumentis
‘Leonidas the Spartan, who did something similar at Thermopylae –
because of his virtues the whole of Greece adorned his special glory and
esteem with monuments of the most renowned distinction.’ 21 We have here
an instance of the ‘detached nominative’: 22 Leonides Laco has no predicate,
but is picked up by eius (the nominative, as often, is followed by a relative
clause). It is indeed likely that the idiom, which serves to emphasise
the nominative, was used in conversation, but it is found elsewhere in
literature (Adams 2005b: 92 cites Cic. Fin. 3.11, Livy 1.40.2),andistobe
regarded as focalisation, not lax syntax. It also occurs in the text of laws
(see Lex Agraria (RS 2) 15, Lex Cornelia de xx quaestoribus (RS 14) 2.41–4),
as well as in a senatus consultum reported by Livy at 41.9.10: ifthislastis
not authentic, Livy will have deliberately imitated a construction found in
legal Latin. Much of the language of Roman legislation, senatus consulta
etc., remained unchanged over long periods, and it is likely that the usage
will have occurred in laws passed in the first half of the second century bc.
ButCatoadoptedittoaddforcetowhathewassayingaboutLeonidas,
not because it was a legalism or a colloquialism.
Fragment 95, 23 the Rhodian speech, contains five items which Till
(1935 = 1968) and/or Calboli (1978) saw as colloquialisms.
(i) Fragment 95a (Gel.6.3.14). secundae res laetitia transvorsum trudere
solent a recte consulendo atque intellegendo, ‘Prosperity, because of the
happiness it produces, tends to push people sideways, away from making
correct decisions and judgements.’ Calboli (1978: 281–2) regardstransvorsum
trudere as colloquial. As he says, tra(ns)vorsus is a term often used in
20 SeeFerriandProbert,thisvolumep.27. 21 On claritudinis inclitissimae cf. Briscoe 2005: 59.
22 See H–S 29, Calboli 1986: 1090–3, Adams 2005b: 92–3; forresumptiveis in the idiom cf. TLL
vii/2.463.54 ff. Madvig (1873: 592) and Peter (1914: 80) emended it away, replacing qui with quia and
quidem respectively.
23 I merely mention in passing 93, where Cato calls the north-west wind cercius, rather than the normal
circius. He is writing about Spain, and Adams (2007: 225–9) observes that Cato’s orthography
is reflected in Spanish cierzo (he argues that the word is of Celtic origin). Cato may have been
representing the way he had heard the word pronounced in Spain, but, obviously, one cannot talk
of a colloquialism.