Kitap 1
7
But besides Plautus, whom my friend used as an example in this instance, I myself have come upon a great abundance of such expressions in the early writers, and I have jotted them down here and there in these notes of mine. But quite apart from that rule and those authorities, the very sound and order of the words make it quite clear that it is more in accordance with the careful attention to diction and the rhythmical style of Marcus Tullius that, either being good Latin, he should prefer to say potestatem rather than potestate. For the former construction is more agreeable to the ear and better rounded, the latter harsher and less finished, provided always that a man has an ear attuned to such distinctions, not one that is dull and sluggish; it is for the same reason indeed that he preferred to say explicavit rather than explicuit, which was already coming to be the commoner form.
7
These are his own words from the speech which he delivered On Pomnpey's Military Command: § 30. Sicily is a witness, which, begirt on all sides by many dangers, he freed (explicavit), not by the threat of war, but by his promptness in decision. But if lie had said explicuit, the sentence would halt with weak and imperfect rhythm. The cadence _u_u was a favourite one with Cicero at the end of a sentence.
8
An anecdote found in the works of the philosopher Sotion about the courtesan Lais and the orator Demosthenes.
