Marcus Cornelius Fronto→Marcus Aurelius|c. 143 AD|Marcus Cornelius Fronto|From Rome (career hub)|To Rome (career hub)|AI-assisted
My lord, [the opening is damaged.] Unless speech is dignified by honorable language, it becomes plainly shameless. In the end, when you yourself have had to speak in the Senate or before the people, you have never used a far-fetched word or an obscure or unusual figure. You know that Caesar's eloquence ought to be like a war trumpet, not a flute: with the flute there is less sound and more difficulty.
? 140–143 A.D. to his own Caesar. . . . . unless speech is graced by dignity of language, it becomes downright impudent and indecent. In fine you too, when you have had to speak in the Senate or harangue the people, have never used a far-fetched word, never an unintelligible or unusual figure, as knowing that a Caesar's eloquence should be like the clarion not like the clarionet, in which there is less resonance and more difficulty.
ad M. Caesarem 3.1 [35 Hout; 1.52 Haines]
<Domino meo>
<...> verborum honestatur, fit plane impudica. Denique idem tu, quom in senatu vel in contione populi dicendum fuit, nullo verbo remotiore usus es, nulla figura obscura aut insolenti: Ut qui scias eloquentiam Caesaris tubae similem esse debere, non tibiarum, in quibus minus est soni, plus difficultatis.
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My lord, [the opening is damaged.] Unless speech is dignified by honorable language, it becomes plainly shameless. In the end, when you yourself have had to speak in the Senate or before the people, you have never used a far-fetched word or an obscure or unusual figure. You know that Caesar's eloquence ought to be like a war trumpet, not a flute: with the flute there is less sound and more difficulty.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.
Latin / Greek Original
ad M. Caesarem 3.1 [35 Hout; 1.52 Haines] <Domino meo> <...> verborum honestatur, fit plane impudica. Denique idem tu, quom in senatu vel in contione populi dicendum fuit, nullo verbo remotiore usus es, nulla figura obscura aut insolenti: Ut qui scias eloquentiam Caesaris tubae similem esse debere, non tibiarum, in quibus minus est soni, plus difficultatis.