Caecilius Statius

Statius Caecilius, also known as Caecilius Statius (c. 220 – c. 166 BC), was a Celtic Roman comic poet.

Quotes

• Tum in senectute hoc deputo miserrimum,
  Sentire ea aetate eumpse esse odiosum alteri.
  • And then this is what I think is the wretchedest thing in old age—when a man feels that at that time of life he himself is an object of loathing to his neighbour.
    • Ephesio, fragment 1, as quoted by Nonius, 1, 2
    • Cp. Cicero, De Senectute, 8, 25

• Facile aerumnam ferre possum, si inde abest iniuria:
  Etiam iniuriam, nisi contra constat contumelia.
  • Men can easily bear hardship if there is no injury with it; and they can bear even an injury, unless they have to face insults also.
    • Fallacia ('The Fraud'), fragment 4; as quoted by Nonius, 430, 10

• Hi sunt inimici pessumi fronte hilaro corde tristi.
  • For the worst of foes are those that have bright faces, gloomy hearts.
    • Hypobolimaeus ('The Changeling'), fragment 5; as quoted by Gellius, XV, 9, 1
    • Cp. Nonius, 205, 1–2

• Placere occepit graviter, post quam emortuast.
  • She began to please me mightily after she was dead and gone.
    • Plocium ('The Little Necklace'), fragment 3; as quoted by Nonius, 314, 21

• Edepol, senectus, si nil quicquam aliud viti
  Adportes tecum, cum advenis, unum id sat est,
  Quod diu vivendo multa quae non volt videt.
  • Ah! By heaven, Old Age, if there's no other mischief which you bring with you when you come—well—this one's quite enough—that a man by living long sees many things he doesn't want.
    • Plocium, fragment 9; as quoted by Cicero, De Senectute, 8, 25
    • Cp. Nonius, 247, 4 (Caecilius Plocio); with edepol cp. egad

• Vivas ut possis, quando nec quis ut velis.
  • Live as you may, since you can't as you'd like.
    • Plocium, fragment 11; as quoted by Donatus, Commentum ad Andriam Terenti, IV, 5, 10

• Serit arbores, quae saeclo prosint alteri.
  • He sows the seed of trees that they may be a profit to another age.
    • Synephebi ('Comrades in Youth'), fragment 2; as quoted by Cicero, De Senectute, 7, 24
    • Cf. Cicero, Tusculanae Disputationes, I, 14, 31
    • Eugene S. McCartney, "Arbores Quae Alteri Saeculo Prosint", The Classical Journal, vol. 41, no. 2 (1945), pp. 75–78

• In civitate fiunt facinora capitalia:
  Nam ab amico amante argentum accipere meretrix noenu volt.
  • Capital crimes are being committed in this State; for there's a whore who doesn't want to take money from a love-sick sweetheart.
    • Synephebi, fragment 3; as quoted by Cicero, De Natura Deorum, I, 6, 13

• Deum qui non summum putet
  Aut stultum aut rerum esse inperitum existumem.
  Cui in manu sit, quern esse dementem velit,
  Quem sapere, quern insanire, quem in morbum inici.
  • The man who does not believe that Love is the greatest of gods, I should think he's either a fool or else untried in worldly affairs. It is in his power to make mad whom he will, to make him wise or crazed, or cast him straight into disease.
    • Ex incertis fabulis, 15; as quoted by Cicero, Tusculanae Disputationes, IV, 32, 68

• Homo homini deus est, si suum officium sciat.
  • Man to man is a god if he knows his job.
    • Ex incertis fabulis, 16; as quoted by Symmachus, Epistulae, IX, 114

Translations

• E. H. Warmington, Remains of Old Latin I: Ennius and Caecilius, LCL 294 (1935)
• Norbert Guterman, A Book of Latin Quotations (New York: Anchor Books, 1966), pp. 30–33