[8arg] That ὁμοιοτέλευτα, ὁμοιόπτωτα, and other devices of the kind which are considered ornaments of style, are silly and uerile, is indicated, among other places, in some verses of Lucilius.
LUCILIUS in the fifth book of his Satires shows, and indeed most wittily, how silly, useless, and puerile are ὁμοιοτέλευτα, or “words of the same ending,” ἰσοκατάληκτα, or “words of the same sound,” πάρισα, or “words exactly balanced,” ὁμοιόπτωτα, or “words of the same case,” and other niceties of that kind which those foolish pedants who wish to appear to be followers of Isocrates use in their compositions without moderation or taste. For having complained to a friend because he did not come to see him when he was ill, he adds these merry words: 1
Although you do not ask me how I am,[p. 327]
I'll tell you, since with those I still abide
Who of all mortals are the lesser part 2 . . .
You are the slacker friend 3 who'd wish him dead
Whom you'd not visit though it was your debit.
But if you chide this “visit” joined with “debit”
('Twas writ by chance), if you detest it all,
This silly, puerile, Isocratic 4 stuff,
I'll waste no time on you, 5 since such you are. 6
