Institutio Oratoria

and of a pleader who was a fluent speaker extempore, that

his ability was all in ready money.

Of the same kind, too, was the remark recorded by Marsus as having been made by Pompey to Cicero when the latter expressed distrust of his party:

Go over to Caesar and you will be afraid of me.

Had this last remark been uttered on a less serious subject and with less serious purpose, or had it not been uttered by Pompey himself, we might have counted it among examples of humour.

I may also add the words used by Cicero in a letter [*](Now lost. Caerellia was a literary lady.) to Caerellia to explain why he endured the supremacy of Caesar so patiently:

These ills must either be endured with the courage of Cato or the stomach [*](i.e. he must stomach it. ) of Cicero,

for here again the word

stomach

has a spice of humour in it. I felt that I ought not to conceal my feelings on this point. If I am wrong in my views, I shall not, at any rate, lead my readers astray, since I have stated the opposite view as well, which they are at liberty to adopt if they prefer it.