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The words of Homer which I mentioned above are these: Iliad, iii. 221. When from his breast his mighty voice went forth and: Iliad, iv. 350, etc. What a word has passed the barrier of your teeth. I have added also a passage from Marcus Tullius, in which he expresses his strong and just hatred of silly and unmeaning volubility. He says: De Orat. iii. 142. Provided this fact be recognized, that neither should one commend the dumbness of a man who knows a subject, but is unable to give it expression in speech, nor the ignorance of one who lacks knowledge of his subject, but abounds in words; yet if one must choose one or the other alternative, I for my part would prefer tongue-tied knowledge to ignorant loquacity. Also in the first book of the De Oratore i. 51. he wrote as follows: For what is so insane as the empty sound of words, however well-chosen and elegant, if there be no foundation of sense or sagacity? But Marcus Cato in particular is a relentless assailant of this fault. For in the speech entitled If Caelius, tribune of the commons, should have summoned him, See Jordan's Cato, xl. 1. The meaning of the title, which is uncertain, is discussed in his Prolegomena, p. lxix f. Se refers to Cato himself. By some the speech is regarded as identical with the one mentioned by Fronto, vol. i, p. 117, L.C.L., and by Plutarch, Cato ix. 7, vol. ii, p. 329, L. C.L. he says: That man is never silent who is afflicted with the disease of talking, as one in a lethargy is afflicted with that of drinking and sleeping. For if you should not come together when he calls an assembly, so eager is he to talk that he would hire someone to listen. And so you hear him, but you do not listen, just as if he were a quack. For a quack's words are heard, but no one trusts himself to him when he is sick. Again Cato, in the same speech, xl. 2, Jordan. upbraiding the same Marcus Caelius, tribune of the commons, for the cheapness at which not only his speech but also his silence could be bought, says: For a crust of bread he can be hired either to keep silence or to speak. Most deservedly too does Homer call Thersites alone of all the Greeks a)metroeph/s, of measureless speech, and a)krito/muqos, Iliad ii. 212 246. a reckless babbler, declaring that his words are many and a)/kosma, or disordered, like the endless chatter of daws; Iliad, ii 213. for what else does e)kolw/a (he chattered ) mean? There is also a line of Eupolis most pointedly aimed at men of that kind: Fr. 95, Koch. In chatter excellent, unable quite to speak, and our countryman Sallust, wishing to imitate this, writes: Hist. iv. 43, Maur. Talkative rather than eloquent. It is for the same reason that Hesiod, wisest of poets, says Works and Days, 719. that the tongue should not be vulgarly exposed but hidden like a treasure, and that it is exhibited with best effect when it is modest, restrained and musical. His own words are: The greatest of man's treasures is the tongue, Which wins most favour when it spares its words And measured is of movement. The following verse of Epicharmus is also to the point: Fr. 272, Kaib. Thou art not skilled in speech, yet silence cannot keep, and it is from this line surely that the saying arose: Who, though he could not speak, could not be silent.
