SELEUCUS.
The Word "Repudiate" (Vol. iv., p. 54.).
—That the use of the word repudiate, in the sense of refuse, repel, reject, abandon, disown, cast off, is by no means modern; and that such phrases as "I repudiate the idea," "I repudiate the sentiment," "I repudiate the proposal," are strictly correct, is evident from the use of the word by "standard classical authors" in the original language from which it has come down to us. Sallust, for instance, in his History of Catiline's Conspiracy, says that Lentulus advised him to seek assistance everywhere, even amongst the dregs of the populace; asking him at the same time, "Why, since the senate had already adjudged him to be an enemy to the republic, he should repudiate the slaves?" i. e., refuse to enrol them in his levies.
"Cum ab senatu hostis judicatus sit, quo consilio servitia repudiet?"—Sall. Cat. 44.
Cicero, in his Offices, in opposition to the opinion of the peripatetic school, that anger is implanted in us by nature for useful ends, lays it down as a principle, that "on all occasions anger ought to be repudiated;" that is, "cast out of the mind," and says that "it is to be wished that persons who are at the head of the state should be like the laws, which inflict punishment not in anger but in justice."
"Illa (iracundia) vero omnibus in rebus repudianda est."—Cic. de Off. I. xxv. 13.
Cicero knew nothing of the Christian grace of "being angry and sinning, not;" he knew nothing of the severity of love. In another place he tells us that on one occasion Themistocles declared in the Athenian assembly, that he had a plan to propose which would be of great advantage to the state, but ought not to be made public. He was willing, however, to communicate it to any one person whom they might select. Aristides, rightly named the Just, being the person selected, Themistocles disclosed his plan to him: which was, secretly to set fire to the Lacedæmonian fleet in the dockyard of Gytheum, by which means they would effectually crush the power of the Lacedæmonians. Aristides returned to the assembly, and at once declared that Themistocles' plan was certainly very advantageous, but by no means honourable; whereupon the Athenians, rightly considering that what was not attended with honour, could not be attended even with advantage in reality, without hearing another word, "repudiated the whole affair;" that is, utterly rejected the proposal.
"Itaque Athenienses, quod honestum non esset, id ne utile quidem putaverunt; totamque eam rem, quam ne audierant quidem, auctore Aristide, repudiaverunt."—Cic. de Off. III. xi. 12.
In a third place, he relates that some persons forged a will of one Minucius Basilus, who had died in Greece; and, in order that they might the more easily obtain their end, put down Marcus Crassus and Quintus Hortensius, two of the most influential men in Rome at that time, as co-legatees with themselves, who although they suspected the will to be forged, yet did not repudiate the little legacy coming to them through other persons' fraud, because forsooth they were not privy to the actual commission of the forgery.
"Qui cum illud falsum esse suspicarentur, sibi autem nullius essent conscii culpæ, alieni facinoris munusculum non repudiaverunt."—Cic. de Off. III. xviii. 4.