[203] Cicero, in the letter to Tiro (xvi. 21) above referred to, says that Gorgias was useful to him in his declamatory exercises, but he had dismissed him in obedience to his father’s positive command.
[204] It does not appear which of the Munatii this was.
[205] Crassus could not well misunderstand the Stoical doctrine, but he appears to have purposely expressed himself as if the Stoics considered “rich” and “good” as convertible terms. Cicero’s repartee implies that “good” is the more comprehensive term: Crassus therefore was not “good,” because he was “rich.”
[206] This is a frigid joke. Axius in Greek (ἄξιος) signifies “worthy;” and Cicero’s words literally translated are, he is “worthy of Crassus,” if we take Axius as a Greek word. They can also mean, he is “Axius son of Crassus.” The wit lay in associating the name of Axius and Crassus; but the joke is only made duller by the explanation.
A Roman Senator named Axius is mentioned by Cicero (Ad Attic. iii. 15, and elsewhere).
[207] See the Life of Crassus, c. 16.
[208] L. Gellius Publicola was consul with Cn. Cornelius Lentulus, B.C. 72.
[209] It is uncertain who this man was. The allusion to the hole in his ear signifies that his ears were bored to carry pendants or earrings after the fashion of some nations at that time. Cicero meant to imply that he was not of genuine Italian stock. Juvenal alludes to a man’s foreign origin being shown by his ears being bored, in the following terms:—
“——quamvis
Natus ad Euphratem, molles quod in aure fenestræ