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Dear Language Enthusiast,
Welcome to the Latin Monthly, the Internet
newsletter from Transparent Language. This is the final
issue in our three-part series looking back on some of the
most notable people, events, and accomplishments of ancient
Rome. This month takes a look at the art of satire in
ancient Rome, as expounded by its most famous practitioner,
Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus, 65-8 BC).
The satirical writings of ancient Rome contributed one of
the key ingredients of the modern mindset-- a witty
irreverence calculated to produce reform while satisfying
the desire to laugh at other people from a position of
imagined superiority. It is but a single step from Horace
to Saturday Night Live. (Whether that step is up or down is
a matter of personal preference.)
The satirical texts are less significant than the
revolutionary, and distinctly modern, frame of mind that
they express. Satire is one of the deepest, and most
enduring, cultural contributions of ancient Rome. The excerpt
used below is from Horace's Satires, Book I, Satire IV.
Sincerely,
Transparent Language
www.transparent.com
latine:
"Laedere gaudes," inquit, "et hoc studio pravus facis."
Unde petitum hoc in me iacis? Est auctor quis denique eorum
vixi cum quibus? Absentem qui rodit amicum, qui non defendit
alio culpante, solutos qui captat risus hominum famamque dicacis,
fingere qui non visa potest, commissa tacere qui nequit: hic
niger est; hunc tu, Romane, caveto.
Ego si risi quod ineptus pastillos Rufillus olet, Gargonius hircum,
lividus et mordax videor tibi?
Mentio si quae de Capitolini furtis iniecta Petilli te coram
fuerit, defendas ut tuus est mos:
"Me Capitolinus convictore usus amicoque a puero est, causaque
mea permulta rogatus fecit, et incolumis laetor quod vivit in
urbe, sed tamen admiror quo pacto iudicium illud fugerit."
Hic nigrae sucus lolliginis, haec est aerugo mera. Quod vitium
procul afore chartis atque animo prius, ut si quid promittere
de me possum aliud vere, promitto.
Liberius si dixero quid, si forte iocosius, hoc mihi iuris
cum venia dabis. Insuevit pater optimus hoc me, ut fugerem
exemplis vitiorum quaeque notando.
In English:
"You like to hurt people’s feelings," someone says, "and
you do it with malice aforethought."
Where did you find this accusation to throw at me? Did it
come, in point of fact, from any of the people that I’ve
lived with? The one who backbites a friend who
isn’t there, who doesn’t stand up for him when he’s criticized by
someone else; the man who strives for unbridled laughter and a
reputation for wit; who can make up things that were never seen,
and is incapable of keeping a secret: this is the one
whose heart is black, this is the man you should beware, O Roman.
If I snickered, because silly Rufillus smells like breath mints, and Gargonius like a goat-- do I seem spiteful and snappish to you?
If a reference were made in your presence to the thefts of
Petillius Capitolinus, you would defend him in your usual manner:
"Capitolinus is a close acquaintance of mine, and a friend
since childhood; he’s done a great many things on my behalf,
whenever asked, and I’m happy to see that he’s still living here,
undisturbed, in Rome-- and yet-- I can’t for the life of
me understand how he managed to get off without a guilty verdict!"
Here is the ink of the black cuttlefish; this is pure spite. That
such a defect may be distant from my writings and, first and
foremost, from my heart and mind-- that is my promise, if I can
truly promise anything at all.
If I have spoken too freely, or perhaps too much in jest,
you will grant me this right in a spirit of forgiveness.
For my excellent father instilled this habit in me,
so that I would avoid vicious faults by heeding bad examples.
[Trans. by RWC]
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