PAGE 12
On Talkativeness
by
Footnotes:
[541] Or
Garrulity
,
Chattering
,
Prating
. It is Talkativeness in a bad sense.
[542] Or Heptaphonos. See Pausanias, v. 21.
[543] Some unknown poet’s words. I suppose they mean driving one mad, making one “Like sweet bells jangled, out of tune and harsh.”
[544] So our English proverb, “Empty vessels make the greatest sound.”
[545] Literally in a semi-circular place. It is not quite clear whether the front seats of the theatre are meant, or, as I have taken it, more generally, of some public place for entertainment or meeting, some promenade or piazza.
[546] Reading [Greek: akouein], which seems far the best reading.
[547] Homer, “Iliad,” v. 226; “Odyssey,” vi. 81.
[548] “Bacchae,” 385-387.
[549] See Ovid, “Tristia,” iv. 4, 55-58.
[550] For example, Horace, “Epistles,” i. 2, 62: “Ira furor brevis est” I read [Greek: homotoichos] with Mez.
[551] Homer, “Odyssey,” xiv. 463-465.
[552] Ibid. 466.
[553] Compare the German proverb, “Thought when sober, said when drunk”–“Nuchtern gedacht, voll gesagt.”
[554] Cf. Quintilian, x. 1, 78: “His aetate Lysias major, subtilis atque elegans et quo nihil, si oratori satis est docere, quaeras perfectius. Nihil enim est inane, nihil arcessitum; puro tamen fonti quam magno flumini propior.” Cf. ix. 4, 17.
[555] Somewhat like Pindar, “Pyth.” i. 1. 1, 2.
[556] “Odyssey,” xii. 452, 453.
[557] See Cicero, “Ad Fam.” vii. 18; Catullus, xxii. 5, 6.
[558] See “Iliad,” xiv. 214-217.
[559] “Allusio ad Homericum [Greek: epei ponos allos epeigei.]”– Xylander.
[560] “Laws,” xi. p. 935 A.
[561] So true are the words of AEschylus, [Greek: glosse mataia zemia prostribetai].–“Prom.” 329.
[562] Our “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.”
[563] “Non Citticus, sed Eleates. v. Cic. Tuscul. ii. 22, et Nat. Deor. 3, 33.”– Reiske.
[564] See Pausanias, i. 23. Leaena means “lioness.” On the conspiracy see Thucydides, vi. 54-59.
[565] Homer, “Odyssey,” xix. 494. Plutarch quotes from memory. The nurse’s name was Euryclea.
[566] Odyssey,” xix. 210-212. Quoted again “On Moral Virtue,” Sec. iv.
[567] Literally bark. See “Odyssey,” xx. 13, 16.
[568] “Odyssey,” xx. 23.
[569] See “Odyssey,” ix. [Greek: Kyklopeia].
[570] Euripides, “Ino.” Fragment, 416.
[571] “Significat Q. Caecilium Metellum, de quo Liv. xl. 45, 46.”– Reiske.
[572] Euripides, “Ino.” Fragm. 415. Compare St. James, iii. 5, 6.
[573] Fabius Maximus. So Tacitus, “Annals,” i. 5, who relates this story somewhat differently.
[574] See Tacitus, “Annals,” i. 3. As to his fate, see “Annals,” i. 6.
[575] Tiberius Nero, who actually did succeed Augustus.
[576] The Emperor’s wife.
[577] So it is in Sec. xii. But perhaps here it means, “I wish you had more sense, Fabius!”
[578] Adopting the reading of Reiske.
[579] Reading [Greek: phorutou] or [Greek: phoryton], as Wyttenbach.
[580] Reading [Greek: katechein dynantai] with Reiske.
[581] See Sophocles, Fragm. 162.
[582] Homer, “Iliad,” x. 457.
[583] Compare “Moralia,” p. 177 A; Horace, “Satires,” i. 7. 3: “Omnibus et lippis notum et tonsoribus.”
[584] Homer, “Iliad,” xxii. 207.
[585] Sophocles, “Antigone,” 317-319.
[586] See Pausanias, iii. 17; iv. 15; x. 5.
[587] Compare the idea of the people of Melita, Acts xxviii. 4.
[588] An Allusion to Dolon in Homer, “Iliad,” x., 374, sq. according to Xylander.
[589] Quoted again by our author in his “Publicola,” p. 105 B., and assigned to Epicharmus.
[590] So Shakspere has taught us, “Brevity is the soul of wit.”– Hamlet, Act ii Sc. 2.
[591] “In Protagora.”– Xylander.
[592] That is, is all kernel. See passim our author’s “Apophthegmata Laconica.”
[593] Or, apophthegmatic nature.
[594] Dionysius the younger, tyrant of Syracuse, was expelled, and afterwards kept a school at Corinth. That is the allusion. It would be like saying “Remember Napoleon at St. Helena.”
[595] See Pausanias, x. 24.
[596] See Plato, “Charmides,” 165 A.
[597] A title applied to Apollo first by Herodotus, i. 91, from his ambiguous ([Greek: loxa]) oracles.
[598] Part of the words of an oracle of the Pythian Priestess, slightly changed. The whole oracle may be seen in Herodotus, i. 47.
[599] Proverb of cross purposes.
[600] Reading [Greek: exerasthai] with Duebner.
[601] Catullus calls him “tumidus,” i.e. long-winded, 95, 10. See also Propertius, iii. 34-32. He was a Greek poet, a contemporary of Socrates and Plato, and author of a Thebaid. Pausanias mentions him, viii. 25; ix. 35.
[602] The mediaeval proverb, Ubi dolor ibi digitus.
[603] A proverbial expression for having no judgment. See Sophocles, Fragm. 307; Plato, “Charmides,” 154 B; Erasmus, “Adagia.” So we say a person’s mind is a blank sheet on a subject he knows nothing about.
[604] Euripides, Fragm. 202. Quoted also by Plato, “Gorgias,” 484 E.
[605] Reading with Reiske, [Greek: misthon auto dounai to mikron siopesai me dynamenos].
[606] A celebrated Greek historian, and pupil of Isocrates. See Cicero, “De Oratore,” ii. 13.
[607] Of Tarsus. See Cicero, “De Officiis,” iii. 12.