Nugo. How many “hear ill of themselves” who have unstopped and normal ears?
Turd. I believe that it is to the point to quote the passage in Cicero’s Tusculanae Quaestiones. M. Crassus was somewhat deaf—but what was worse, he “heard ill.”
Nugo. There is no doubt that this must be traced back to slander. But, I say, Bambalio, have you found your Tusculanae Quaestiones?
VI. The Lost Book
Bamb. Yes, at the huckster’s, but so interpolated that I did not at first recognise it.
Nugo. Who had stolen it?
Bamb. Vatinius. And may he be repaid for his misdeed!
Grac. Ah! that man with the hook-like and pitch-black hands! Never let such a man have access to your book-cases, nor to your manuscript-boxes if you wish all your things to be safe and sound. Don’t you know that every one holds Vatinius for a thief of purses and he has been accused of thieving purses before the Principal (gymnasiarcha).