Regum et imperatorum apophthegmata

Cicero summoned as a witness in a certain case Castus Popillius, who wanted to be a lawyer, but was ignorant and stupid. When he denied knowing anything, Cicero said, Very likely you think you are being asked about some point of law ! [*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of Cicero, chap. xxvi. (874 A), where the name of the man is given as Publius Consta.)

Hortensius, the orator, received as a fee a silver sphinx from Verres. When Cicero used innuendo in something that he said, Hortensius declared that he had no skill in solving riddles. Cicero retorted, And yet you have the sphinx at your house ! [*](Life of Cicero, chap. vii. (864 D), where the sphinx is of ivory. Cf. also Pliny, Natural History, xxxiv. 18 (48), and Quintillian, Inst. Or. vi. 3. 98. Intimacy with the sphinx, the author of riddles, should have helped Hortensius!)

Meeting Voconius with three daughters who had very ugly faces, he said softly to his friends,

Phoebus forbade when he his children got.[*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of Cicero, chap. xxvii. (874 D). The verse may possibly be from the Oedipus of Euripides. Cf. Nauck, Trag. Graec. Frag., adespota, no. 378.)

When Faustus, the son of Sulla, because of a multitude of debts, posted a notice of an auction of his goods, Cicero said, I find this notice more welcome than the kind which his father used to post. [*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of Cicero, chap. xxvii. (874 D), and Cicero, Letters to Atticus, ix. 11. The reference, of course, is to the proscription lists of men condemned which Sulla posted.)

When Pompey and Caesar took opposite sides, he said, I know from whom I flee without knowing to whom to flee. [*](Ibid. chap. xxxvii. (879 D); Cicero, Letters to Atticus, viii. 7. 2 ego vero quem fugiam habeo, quem sequar non habeo. )

He blamed Pompey for abandoning the city,