Book 6
3.78
Cassius Severus showed his wit by transferring a charge made against himself to a different quarter. For when lie was reproached by the praetor on the ground that his advocates had insulted Lucius Varus, an Epicurean and a friend of Caesar, he replied, I do not know who they were who insulted him, I suppose they were Stoics. Of retorts there are a number of forms, the wittiest being that which is helped out by a certain verbal similarity, as in the retort made by Trachalus to Suelius. The latter had said, If that is the case, you go into exile : to which Trachalus replied, And if it is not the case, you go back into exile. The point is obscure; we have no key to the circumstances of the jest.
