Noctes Atticae

Gellius, Aulus

Gellius, Aulus. The Attic Nights of Aulus Gellius. Rolfe, John C., translator. Cambridge, Mass.; London: Harvard University Press; William Heinemann, 1927 (printing).

That devotion to play-actors, and love of them, was shameful and disgraceful, with a quotation of the words of the philosopher Aristotle on that subject.

A WEALTHY young man, a pupil of the philosopher Taurus, was devoted to, and delighted in, the society of comic and tragic actors and musicians, as if they were freemen. Now in Greek they call artists of that kind oi( peri\ Dio/nuson texni=tai or

craftsmen of Dionysus.
Taurus, wishing to wean that youth from the intimacy and companionship of men connected with the stage, sent him these words extracted from the work of Aristotle entitled Universal Questions, and bade him read it over every day: [*](Prob. xxx. 10; frag. 209, Rose.)
Why are the craftsmen of Dionysus for the most part worthless fellows? Is it because they are least of all familiar with reading and philosophy, since the greater part of their life is given to their essential pursuits and much of their time is spent in intemperance and sometimes in poverty too? For both of these things are incentives to wickedness.

Specimens of letters of King Alexander and the philosopher Aristotle. just as they were written; with a rendering of the same into Latin.

THE philosopher Aristotle, the teacher of king Alexander, is said to have had two forms of the lectures and instructions which he delivered to his pupils. One of these was the kind called e)cwterika/,

v3.p.433
or
exoteric,
the other a)kroatika/, or
acroatic.
[*](i.e. esoteric, or inner, for the initiated only. The term was originally applied to Aristotle's acrobatic (or acroamatic) writings, which were not made public, as were his exoteric Dialogues, but were read to hearers only (cf. a)kou/w) and were of a strictly scientific character. Except for the fragments of his Dialogues, all the works of Aristotle which have come down to us are of the latter class.) Those were called
exoteric
which gave training in rhetorical exercises, logical subtlety, and acquaintance with politics; those were called
acroatic
in which a more profound and recondite philosophy was discussed, which related to the contemplation of nature or dialectic discussions. To the practice of the
acroatic
training which I have mentioned he devoted the morning hours in the Lyceum, [*](See note on vii. 16. 1 (ii, p. 135).) and he did not ordinarily admit any pupil to it until he had tested his ability, his elementary knowledge, and his zeal and devotion to study. The exoteric lectures and exercises in speaking lie held at the same place in the evening and opened them generally to young men without distinction. This he called deilino\s peri/patos, or
the evening walk,
the other which I have mentioned above, e(wqino/s, or
the morning walk
; [*](Hence the term peripatetics, from peripate/w, walk up and down.) for on both occasions he walked as he spoke. He also divided his books on all these subjects into two divisions, calling one set
exoteric,
the other
acroatic.

When King Alexander knew that he had published those books of the

acroatic
set, although at that time the king was keeping almost all of Asia in a state of panic by his deeds of arms, and was pressing King Darius himself hard by attacks and victories, yet in the midst of such urgent affairs he sent a letter to Aristotle, saying that the philosopher had not done right in publishing the books and so revealing to the
v3.p.435
public the acroatic training, in which he himself had been instructed.
For in what other way,
said he,
can I excel the rest, it that instruction which I have received from you becomes the common property of all the world? For I would rather be first in learning than in wealth and power.

Aristotle replied to him to this purport:

Know that the acroatic books, which you complain have been made public and not hidden as if they contained secrets, have neither been made public nor hidden, since they can be understood only by those who have heard my lectures.

I have added copies of both letters, taken from the book of the philosopher Andronicus. [*](Frag. 662, Rose.) I was particularly charmed with the slender thread of elegant brevity in the letter of each.

    "
  1. Alexander to Aristotle, Greeting.

You have not done right in publishing your acroatic lectures; for wherein, pray, shall I differ from other men, if these lectures, by which I was instructed, become the common property of all? As for me, I should wish to excel in acquaintance with what is noblest, rather than in power. Farewell.

  1. "Aristotle to King Alexander, Greeting.

You have written to me regarding my acroatic lectures, thinking that I ought to have kept them secret. Know then that they have both been made public and not made public. For they are intelligible only to those who have heard me. Farewell, King Alexander.

v3.p.437

When trying, in the phrase cunetoi\ ga\r ei)sin, to express the word cunetoi/ by a single Latin term, I found nothing better than what is written by Marcus Cato in the sixth book of his Origins: [*](Frag. 105, Peter2.)

Therefore I think the information is more comprehensible (cognobilior).

It is asked and discussed whether it it is more correct to say habeo curam vestri, or vestrum.

I ASKED Sulpicius Apollinaris, when I was studying with him at Rome in my youth, on what principle people said habeo curam vestri, or

I have care for you,
and misereor vestri, or
I pity you,
and what he thought the nominative case of vestri was in such connections. Thereupon he answered me as follows:
You ask something of me about which I too have long been in a state of uncertainty. For it seems to me that one ought to say, not vestri, but vestrum, just as the Greeks say e)pimelou=mai u(mw=n and kh/domai u(mw=n, where u(mw=n is translated by vestrum more fittingly than by vestri, having vos for the naming case, or the 'direct' case, as you called it. Yet in not a few places,
said he, "I find nostri and vestri, not nostrum or vestrum. Thus Lucius Sulla says, in the second book of his Autobiography: [*](Frag. 3, Peter2.)
But if it is possible that even now you think of me (nostri), and believe me worthy to be your fellow citizen rather than your enemy, and to fight for you rather than against you, this will surely be due to my services and those of my forefathers.
Also Terence in the Phormio: [*](v. 172.)
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  1. Of such a nature are we almost all,
  2. That with ourselves (nostri) we discontented are.
Afranius wrote in an Italian play: [*](v. 417, Ribbeck3.)
  1. At last some god or other pitied us (nostri).
And Laberius in the Necyomantia: [*](v. 62, Ribbeck3.)

  1. Detained for many days, he us (nostri) forgot.

There is no doubt,
said he,
that in all these phrases: 'we are discontented,' he forgot us,' 'he pitied us' (nostri), the same case is used as in 'I repent' (mei paenitet), 'he pitied me' (mei miseritus est), ' he forgot me' (mei oblitus est). But mei is the case of questioning, [*](See note on xiii. 26. 1.) which the grammarians call 'genitive,' and comes from ego; and the plural of ego is nos. Tui also is formed from tu, and the plural of this is vos. For Plautus has thus declined those pronouns in the Pseudolus, in the following lines: [*](vv. 3 ff.)
  1. O Sir, could I be told without your words
  2. What wretchedness so grievous troubles you,
  3. I would have spared the trouble of two men:
  4. My own (mei), of asking you, and yours (tis = tui), of answering.
For Plautus here uses mei, not from meus, but from ego. Therefore if you should choose to say patrem mei instead of patrem meum, as the Greeks say to\n pate/ra mou, it would be unusual, but surely correct, and on the same principle that Plautus used labori mei, 'the trouble of me,' for labori meo, ' my trouble.' The same rule applies also in the plural number, where Gracchus said [*](O.R.F p. 248, Meyer2.) misereri vestrum and Marcus
v3.p.441
Cicero [*](Pro Planc. § 16.) contentio vestrum, and contention nostrum, [*](Div. in Caec. § 37.) and on the same principle Quadrigarius in the nineteenth book of his Annals wrote these words: [*](Frag 83, Peter2.) 'Gaius Marius, when pray will you pity us (nostrum) and the State?' Why then should Terence use paenitet nostri, not nostrum, and Afranius nostri miseritus est, not nostrum? Indeed,
said he,
no reason for this occurs to me except the authority of a certain ancient usage, which was not too anxious or scrupulous in the use of language. For just as vestrorum is often used for vestrum, as in this line from the of Plautus, [*](v. 280.)
  1. The greatest part of you (vestrorum) know that is true
(where vestrorum is for vestrum), in the same way vestri also is sometimes used for vestrum. But undoubtedly one who desires to speak very correctly will prefer vestrum to vestri. And therefore,
said he,
those have acted most arbitrarily who in many copies of Sallust have corrupted a thoroughly sound reading. For although he wrote in the Catiline: [*](xxxiii. 2.) 'Often your forefathers (maiores vestrum), pitying the Roman commons,' they erased vestrum and wrote vestrz over it. And from this [*](Indoles is perhaps the nature of the error, i.e., the disposition to make an error of that kind.) that error has grown and found its way into more manuscripts.
This is what I remember hearing from Apollinaris, and I noted down his very words at the time, exactly as they were spoken."

v3.p.443

How the opinions of the Greeks differ as to the number of Niobe's children.

A STRANGE and indeed almost absurd variation is to be noted in the Greek poets as to the number of Niobe's children. For Homer says [*](Iliad xxiv. 602.) that she had six sons and six daughters; Euripides, [*](Frag. 455, N2.) seven of each; Sappho, [*](Frag. 143, Bergk.) nine; Bacchylides [*](Frag. 46, Blass2.) and Pindar, [*](Frag. 65, Bergk.) ten; while certain other writers have said that there were only three sons and three daughters.