[73]
But since we are to consider you not as Aristarchus, but as a sort of
grammatical Phalaris, a man who does not put a mark to a bad verse but who
pursues the poet with arms, I wish to know what fault you find with this
verse “Arms to the gown must yield.” “You
say,” says he “that the greatest generals must yield to
the gown.”Why now, you ass, am I to teach you letters? I do not
want words for such a purpose but a stick. I did not say this
gown, in which I am clothed, nor, when I said “arms,”
did I mean the sword and shield of any one particular general. But as the
gown is the emblem of peace and tranquillity, and arms on the contrary are a
token of disturbance and war, speaking after the manner of poets, I wished
this to be understood that war and tumult were to yield to peace and
tranquillity.
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M. Tullius Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, literally translated by C. D. Yonge, B. A. London. George Bell & Sons, York Street, Covent Garden. 1891.
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