Gaius Lucilius

Gaius Lucilius (180, 168 or 148 – 103 BC) was the earliest Roman satirist, of whose writings only fragments remain. A Roman citizen of the equestrian class, he was born at Suessa Aurunca in Campania, and was a member of the Scipionic Circle.

Quotes

E. H. Warmington, Remains of Old Latin, vol. 3, LCL 329 (1935)

Norbert Gutterman, A Book of Latin Quotations (1966), pp. 40–42

• O curas hominum! O quantum est in rebus inane!
  • Oh, the cares of mankind! Oh, how much emptiness there is in the world!
  • Fragment of Book I, quoted by Persius, Satires, I, 1; Warmington (1935), p. 2

• Vivite lurcones, comedones, vivite ventris!
  • Good living to you, you gluttons, you guzzlers, good living to you, you bellies!
  • Fragment of Book II, quoted by Nonius, 10, 27; Warmington (1935), p. 25

• Ut pueri infantes credunt signa omnia aena
  vivere et esse homines, sic isti somnia ficta
  vera putant, credunt signis cor inesse in aenis.
  Pergula pictorum, veri nil, omnia ficta.
  • As baby children believe that all bronze statues are alive and are men, so these (superstitious grown-ups) think the fictions of dreams are real, and believe that bronze statues have a living heart inside. These things are a painters' gallery, nothing real, all make-believe.
  • Fragment of Book XV, quoted by Lactantius, Divine Institutes, I, 22, 13; Warmington (1935), p. 167

• Aurum vis hominemne? Habeas. "Hominem? quid ad aurum?"
  • Gold or man, which do you want? Take your choice. "The man? What is the man compared with his gold?"
  • Fragment of Book XIX, quoted by Nonius, 358, 13; Warmington (1935), p. 183
  • Cp. Robert Burns, "A Man's a Man for a' That" (1795)

• Publicanus vero ut Asiae fiam, ut scripturarius
  pro Lucilio, id ego nolo et uno hoc non muto omnia.
  • To become a tax-farmer of Asia, a collector of pasture-taxes, instead of Lucilius—that I don't want; in exchange for what I am—for this alone of all things I'm not taking the whole world.
  • Fragment of Book XXVI, quoted by Nonius, 351, 6; Warmington (1935), p. 209

• Homini amico et familiari non est mentiri meum.
  • It is not my way to lie to a friend and aquaintance [sic].
  • Fragment of Book XXVI, quoted by Lactantius, Divine Institutes, VI, 18, 6; Warmington (1935), p. 223

• Ut Romanus populus victus vei, superatus proeliis
  saepe est multis, bello vero numquam, in quo sunt omnia.
  • The Roman people has been often beaten by force and overcome in many battles, but never in a whole war, in which lies all that is vital.
  • Fragment of Book XXVI, quoted by Nonius, 437, 14; Warmington (1935), p. 229

• Hunc laborem sumas laudem qui tibi ac fructum ferat.
  • You must undertake a labour that may bring praise and profit for you.
  • Fragment of Book XXVI, quoted by Nonius, 396, 9; Warmington (1935), p. 229

• Paulo hoc melius quam mediocre, hoc minus malum quam ut pessumum.
  • This is a little better than middling, that is a little less bad than what you would call the worst.
  • Fragment of Book XXVII, quoted by Nonius, 29, 21; Warmington (1935), p. 253

• Cupiditas ex homine cupido ex stulto numquam tollitur.
  • Longing can be put out of a [lustful] man, but lust is never put out from a fool.
  • Fragment of Book XXIX, quoted by Nonius, 436, 32; Warmington (1935), p. 311

• Accipiunt leges, populus quibus legibus exlex.
  • They agree to laws by which the people are outlaws.
  • Fragment of Book XXX, quoted by Nonius, 10, 10; Warmington (1935), p. 331

• Nunc vero a mani ad noctem festo atque profesto
  totus item pariterque die populusque patresque
  iactare indu foro se omnes, decedere nusquam;
  uni se atque eidem studio omnes dedere et arti—
  verba dare ut caute possint, pugnare dolose,
  blanditia certare, bonum simulare virum se,
  insidias facere ut si hostes sint omnibus omnes.
  • But, as it is, from morning till night, on holiday and workday, the whole commons and the senators too, all alike go bustling about in the Forum and nowhere leave it; all give themselves over to one and the same interest and artifices—those of being able to swindle with impunity, to fight cunningly, to strive, using soft words as weapons, to act the 'fine fellow,' to lie in wait, as though all men were enemies of all men.
  • Unassigned Fragment, quoted by Lactantius, Divine Institutes, V, 9, 20; Warmington (1935), p. 373

About

• Quo fit ut omnis
  Votiva pateat veluti descripta tabella
  Vita senis.
  • So here, as in a votive tablet penned,
    You see the veteran’s life from end to end.
  • Horace, Satires, II, 1, 32 (Conington); Classical and Foreign Quotations, 3rd ed. (1904), no. 2353A
  • Said of Lucilius, the satirist, the lines were appropriately chosen by Boswell to figure upon the title-page of his famous biography.

• Ense velut stricto quotiens Lucilius ardens
  infremuit, rubet auditor cui frigida mens est
  criminibus, tacita sudant praecordia culpa.
  • When Lucilius roars and rages as if with sword in hand, the hearer, whose soul was cold with crime, grows red; he sweats with the secret consciousness of sin.
  • Juvenal, I, 165–7; G. G. Ramsay, Juvenal and Persius, LCL 91 (1918), p. 17

• Secuit Lucilius urbem,
  te Lupe, te Muci, et genuinum fregit in illis;
  omne vafer vitium ridenti Flaccus amico
  tangit et admissus circum praecordia ludit,
  callidus excusso populum suspendere naso.
  • Lucilius flayed our city: he flayed you, Lupus, and you, Mucius, and broke his jaw over you. Horace, sly dog, worming his way playfully into the vitals of his laughing friend, touches up his every fault; a rare hand he at flinging out his nose and hanging the people on it!
  • Persius, Satires, I, 114–5; Ramsay (1918), p. 329; or "lashed the city"; see Peter Green, Essays in Antiquity (1960), pp. 154–5

Further reading

• Frédéric Buret, Syphilis To-day and among the Ancients, tr. A. H. Ohmann-Dumesnil, vol. 1 (F. A. Davis, 1891), pp. 179–80