[77]
Another method of making
light of a statement is to suggest a reason. Cicero
employed this method against Vatinius. The latter
was lame and, wishing to make it seem that his health
was improved, said that he could now walk as much
as two miles. “Yes,” said Cicero, “for the days are
longer.” Again Augustus, when the inhabitants of
Tarraco reported that a palm had sprung up on the
altar dedicated to him, replied, “That shows how
often you kindle fire upon it.”
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.