1. Cicero, On The Nature of The Gods, 1.79 (2nd cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE)
| 1.79. Yes, and every ant like an ant! Still, the question is, like what man? How small a percentage of handsome people there are! When I was at Athens, there was scarcely one to be found in each platoon of the training-corps — I see why you smile, but the fact is all the same. Another point: we, who with the sanction of the philosophers of old are fond of the society of young men, often find even their defects agreeable. Alcaeus 'admires a mole upon his favourite's wrist'; of course a mole is a blemish, but Alcaeus thought it a beauty. Quintus Catulus, the father of our colleague and friend to‑day, was warmly attached to your fellow-townsman Roscius, and actually wrote the following verses in his honour: By chance abroad at dawn, I stood to pray To the uprising deity of day; When lo! upon my left — propitious sight — Suddenly Roscius dawned in radiance bright. Forgive me, heavenly pow'rs, if I declare, Meseem'd the mortal than the god more fair. To Catulus, Roscius was fairer than a god. As a matter of fact he had, as he has to‑day, a pronounced squint; but no matter — in the eyes of Catulus this in itself gave him piquancy and charm. |
|
2. Cicero, Pro Archia, 19 (2nd cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE)
| 19. sit igitur, iudices, sanctum apud vos, humanissimos homines, hoc poetae nomen quod nulla umquam barbaria violavit. Saxa atque atque Quintil. ( quinque locis ): et codd. solitudines voci voci Quintil. : voce codd. respondent, bestiae saepe immanes cantu flectuntur atque consistunt; nos instituti rebus optimis non poetarum voce moveamur? Homerum Colophonii civem esse dicunt suum, Chii suum Chii suum Chii sibi P. Thomas vindicant, Salaminii repetunt, Smyrnaei vero suum esse confirmant itaque etiam delubrum eius eius ei Lambinus in oppido dedicaverunt, permulti alii praeterea pugt inter se atque contendunt. ergo illi alienum, quia poeta fuit, post mortem etiam expetunt; nos hunc vivum qui et qui et b2k : qui ab1 : et qui cett. voluntate et legibus noster est repudiamus repudiabimus Lag. 9, Naugerius (1), praesertim cum omne olim studium atque omne ingenium contulerit Archias ad populi Romani gloriam laudemque celebrandam? nam et Cimbricas res adulescens attigit et ipsi illi C. Mario qui durior ad haec studia videbatur iucundus fuit. | |
|
3. Dio Chrysostom, Orations, 31.116 (1st cent. CE - missingth cent. CE)
| 31.116. Well, I once heard a man make an off-hand remark to the effect that there are other peoples also where one can see this practice being carried on; and again, another man, who said that even in Athens many things are done now which any one, not without justice, could censure, these being not confined to ordinary matters, but having to do even with the conferring of honours. "Why, they have conferred the title of 'Olympian,' " he alleged, upon a certain person he named, "though he was not an Athenian by birth, but a Phoenician fellow who came, not from Tyre or Sidon, but from some obscure village or from the interior, a man, what is more, who has his arms depilated and wears stays"; and he added that another, whom he also named, that very slovenly poet, who once gave a recital here in Rhodes too, they not only have set up in bronze, but even placed his statue next to that of Meder. Those who disparage their city and the inscription on the statue of Nicanor are accustomed to say that it actually bought Salamis for them. |
|
4. Martial, Epigrams, 1.61.11-1.61.12, 8.73.9-8.73.10, 10.103.3-10.103.6 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
|
5. Martial, Epigrams, 1.61.11-1.61.12, 8.73.9-8.73.10, 10.103.3-10.103.6 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
|
6. Statius, Siluae, 4.2.5-4.2.10 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
|
7. Gellius, Attic Nights, 19.9 (2nd cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
|
8. Epigraphy, Inscriptions of Aphrodisias, 12.27
|
