Book 6
3.53
This form of jest is as poor as is the invention of punning names by the addition, subtraction or change of letters: I find, for instance, a case where a certain Acisculus was called Pacisculus because of some compact which he had made, while one Placidus was nicknamed Acidus because of his sour temper, and one Tullius was dubbed Tollius From toellre to take away. because he was a thief.
3.54
Such puns are more successful with things than names. It was, for example, a neat hit of Afer's when he said that Manlius Sura, who kept rushing to and fro while he was pleading, waving his hands, letting his toga fall and replacing it, was not merely pleading, but giving himself a lot of needless trouble. This pan cannot be reproduced. Watson attempts to express it by doing business in pleading and overdoing it. But overdoing it has none of the neatness of salagere, which is said to have a spice of wit about it, since it means lit. to do enough, an ironic way of saying to overdo it. For there is a spice of wit about the word satagere in itself, even if there were no resemblance to any other word.
