Book 6
3.65
But I shall overload this book with illustrations and turn it into a common jest-book, if I continue to quote each jest that was made by our forefathers. All forms of argument afford equal opportunity for jests. Augustus for example employed definition when he said of two ballet-dancers who were engaged in a contest, turn and turn about, as to who could make tile most exquisite gestures, that one was a dancer and the other merely interrupted the dancing.
3.66
Galba on the other hand made use of partition when he replied to a friend who asked him for a cloak, It is not raining and you don't need it; if it does rain, I shall wear it myself. Similar material for jests is supplied by genus, species, property, difference, conjugates, See v. x. 85. adjuncts, antecedents, consequents, contraries, causes, effects, and comparisons of things greater, equal, or less, See v. x. 55 sqq. as it is also by all forms of trope.
3.67
Are not a large number of jests made by means of hyperbole? Take for instance Cicero's cp. de Orat II. lxvi. 267, where the jest is attributed to Crassus. remark about a man who was remarkable for his height, He bumped his head against the Fabian arch, or the remark made by Publius Oppius about the family of the Lentuli to the effect, that since the children were always smaller than their parents, the race would perish by propagation. Again, what of irony?
