Noctes Atticae

How Demosthenes, while still young and a pupil of the philosopher Plato, happening to hear the orator Callistratus add ressing the people, deserted Plato and became a follower of Callistratus.

HERMIPPUS has written [*](Fr. Hist. Gr. iii. 49, Mu:;ller.) that Demosthenes, when quite young, used to frequent the Academy and

listen to Plato.

And this Demosthenes,

says he,

when he had left home and, as usual, was on his way to Plato, saw great throngs of people running to the same place; he inquired the reason of this, and learned that they were hurrying to hear Callistratus. This Callistratus was one of those orators in the Athenian republic that they call dhmagwgoi/, or 'demagogues.' [*](Leaders of the people.) Demosthenes thought it best to turn aside for a moment and find out whether the discourse justified such eager haste. He came,

says Hermippus,

and heard Callistratus delivering that famous speech of his, h( peri\ )Wrwpou= di/kh. [*](The Action about Oropus.) He was so moved, so charmed, so captivated, that he became a follower of Callistratus from that moment, deserting Plato and the Academy.

That whoever says dimidium librum legi, or dimidiam fabulam audivi, and uses other expressions of that kind, speaks incorrectly: and that Marcus Varro gives the explanation of that error: and that no early writer has used such phraseology.

VARRO believes that dimidium librum legi (

I have read half the book

), or dimidiam fabulam legi (

I have read half the play

), or any other expression of that kind, is incorrect and faulty usage.

For,

says he, [*](Fr. p. 349, Bipont.) one ought to say dimidiatum librum ('the halved book'), not dimidium, and dimidiatam fabulam, not dimidiam. But, on the contrary, if from a pint a half-pint has been poured, one should not say that 'a halved pint' has been poured, but a ' half-pint,' and when one has received five hundred sesterces out of a thousand that were owing him, we must say that he has received a half sestertium, [*](The sestertium was the designation of a thousand sesterces, originally a gen. plur., later a norm. sing. neut.) not a halved one. But if a silver bowl," he says,

which I own in common with another person, has been divided into two parts, I ought to speak of it as 'halved,' not as 'a half': but my share of the silver of which the bowl is made is a 'half,' not 'halved.'

Thus Varro discusses and analyzes very acutely the difference between dimidium and dimidiatum, and he declares that Quintus Ennius spoke, in his Annals, with understanding in the line: [*](Ann. 536, Vahlen2, reading sicut.)

1. As if one brought a halved cup of wine,

and similarly the part that is missing from the cup should be spoken of as

half,

not

halved.

Now the point of all this argument, which Varro sets forth acutely, it is true, but somewhat obscurely, is this: dimidiatum is equivalent to dismediatum, and means

divided into two parts,

and therefore dimidiatum cannot properly be used except of the thing itself that is divided; dimidium, however, is not that which is itself divided, but is one of the parts of what has been divided. Accordingly, when we wish to say that we have read the half part of a book or heard the half part of a play, if we say dimidiam fabulam or dimidium librum, we make a mistake; for in that case you are using dimidium of the whole thing which has been halved and divided. Therefore Lucilius, following this same rule, says: [*](1342, Marx.)

1. With one eye and two feet, like halved pig,

and in another place: [*](1282 f., Marx.)

1. why not? To sell his trash the huckster lauds
2. (The rascal!) half a shoe, a strigil split.

Again in his twentieth book it is clearer still that Lucilius carefully avoids saying dimidiam horam, but puts dimidium in the place of dimnidiam in the following lines: [*](570, Marx.)

1. At its own season and the self-same time,
2. The half an hour and three at least elapsed,
3. At the fourth hour again. [*](The meaning is very uncertain. Marx thinks that the reference is to the quartam ague, "the attacks of which regularly subside at the same time (eandem ad quartam horam.), after a minimum duration of three hours and a half.' Lucilius refers, not to the fourth hour of the day (non diei horam dicit), but to every fourth hour of the period of illness (totius temporis spatii quo aegrotus cubat febri correptus). Dumtaxat is to be taken with the numeral, as in Plaut. Truc. 445. For ad quartam he cites Seneca, Nat. Quaest. iii. 16. 2, quartana ad horam venit, and Suet. Aug. lxxxvii, 1, ad Kalendas Graecas soluturos.)

For while it was natural and easy to say

three and a half elapsed,

he watchfully and carefully shunned an improper term. From this it is quite clear that not even

half an hour

can properly be said, but we must say either

a halved hour

or

the halt part of an hour.

And so Plautus as well, in the Bacchides, [*](1189.) writes

half of the gold,

not

the halved gold,

and in the Aulularia, [*](291.)

half of the provisions,

not

the halved provisions,

in this verse:

1. He bade them give him half of all the meats;

But in the Menaechmi he has

the halved day,

not

half,

as follows: [*](157.)

1. Down to the navel now the halved day is dead.

Marcus Cato, too, in his work On Farming, writes: [*](De Agr. 151. )

Sow cypress seed thick, just as flax is commonly sown. Over it sift earth from a sieve to the depth of a halved finger. Then smooth it well with a board, with the feet, or with the hands.

He says

a halved finger,

not

a half.

For we ought to say

half of a finger,

but the finger itself should be said to be

halved.

Marcus Cato also wrote this of the Carthaginians: [*](p. 56, fr. 3, Jordan.)

They buried the men halfway down (dimidiatos) in the ground and built a fire around them; thus they destroyed them.

In fact, no one of all those who have spoken correctly has used these words otherwise than in the way I have described.