Noctes Atticae

That aeditumus is a Latin word.

Aeditimus[*](So the MSS.; aeditumus is a variant spelling.) is a Latin word and an old one at that, formed in the same way as finitimus and legilimus. In place of it many to-day say aedituus by a new and false usage, as if it were derived from guarding the temples. [*](That is, from aedes and tueor.) This ought to be enough to say as a warning [*](There is a lacuna in the text.) . . . because of certain rude and persistent disputants, who are not to be restrained except by the citation of authorities.

Marcus Varro, in the second book of his Latin Language addressed to Marcellus, thinks [*](Fr. 56, G. & S.) that we ought to use aedituus rather than aedituus, because the latter is made up by a late invention, while the former is pure and of ancient origin. Laevius too,

in the Protesilaodamia I think, used claustritumum [*](Fr. 16, Bährens.) of one who had charge of the fastenings of a door, evidently using the same formation by which he saw that aeditumus, or

one who guards the temples,

is made. In the most reliable copies of Marcus Tullius' Fourth Oration against Verres I find it written: [*](ii. 4. 96.)

The custodians (aeditumi) and guards quickly perceive it,

but in the ordinary copies aeditui is read. There is an Atellan farce of Pomponius' entitled Aeditumus. In it is this line: [*](v. 2, Ribbeck. 3)

1. As soon as I attend you and keep your temple-door (aeditumor).

Titus Lucretius too in his poem [*](vi. 1273.) speaks of aedituentes, instead of aeditui. [*](Both aeditumus and aedituus are good Latin words. The former is made like finitumus and originally meant belonging to a temple; it derived its meaning guardian of a temple from aedituus (aedes and tueor).)

That those are deceived who sin in the confident hope of being undetected, since there is no permanent concealment of wrongdoing; and on that subject a discourse of the philosopher Peregrinus and a saying of the poet Sophocles.

WHEN I was at Athens, I met a philosopher named Peregrinus, who was later surnamed Proteus, a man of dignity and fortitude, living in a hut outside the city. And visiting him frequently, I heard him say many things that were in truth helpful and noble. Among these I particularly recall the following:

He used to say that a wise man would not commit a sin, even if he knew that neither gods nor men

would know it; for he thought that one ought to refrain from sin, not through fear of punishment or disgrace, but from love of justice and honesty and from a sense of duty. If, however, there were any who were neither so endowed by nature nor so well disciplined that they could easily keep themselves from sinning by their own will power, he thought that such men would all be more inclined to sin whenever they thought that their guilt could be concealed and when they had hope of impunity because of such concealment.

But,

said he,

if men know that nothing at all can be hidden for very long, they will sin more reluctantly and more secretly.

Therefore he said that one should have on his lips these verses of Sophocles, the wisest of poets: [*](Fr. 280 N2)

1. See to it lest you try aught to conceal;
2. Time sees and hears all, and will all reveal.

Another one of the old poets, whose name has escaped my memory at present, called Truth the daughter of Time.