Institutio Oratoria

although he had

always in previous times been regarded as an utter fool, was, after inheriting an estate, asked to speak first on a motion—

1. What men call wisdom is a legacy,

Probably from a lost comedy.

where legacy is substituted for the original faculty. Or again we may invent verses resembling well known lines, a trick styled parody by the Greeks. A neat application of proverbs may also be effective,

as when one man replied to another, a worthless fellow, who had fallen down and asked to be helped to his feet,

Let someone pick you up who does not know you.

[*]( Hor. Ep. I. xvii. 62, where the passers by reply Quaere peregrinum to an imposter who, having fallen down and broken his leg, implores them to pick him up, crying Credite, non ludo: crudeles, tollite claudum. ) Or we may shew our culture by drawing on legend for a jest, as Cicero did in the trial of Verres, when Hortensius said to him as he was examining a witness,

I do not understand these riddles.

You ought to, then,

said Cicero,

as you have got the Sphinx at home.

Hortensius had received a bronze Sphinx of great value as a present from Verres.