[49]
On the other hand, the following
instance of the same type of wit is quite admirable:
when Milo's accuser, by way of proving that he had
lain in wait for Clodius, alleged that he had put up
at Bovillae before the ninth hour in order to wait
until Clodius left his villa, and kept repeating the
question, “When was Clodius killed?”, Cicero replied, “Late!”1 a retort which in itself justifies us
in refusing to exclude this type of wit altogether.
Sometimes,
1 sero may mean at a late hour or too late.
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1921.
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