Kitap 13
29
When we, as was fitting, had expressed, not only approval, but admiration of all this that we had heard from Fronto, he said: Take care, however, not to think that mortales multi is to be used always and everywhere in place of multi homines, lest that Greek proverb, to\ e)pi\ th=| fakh=| mu/ron, or 'myrrh on lentils, That is, to use a costly perfumed oil to dress a dish of lentils; proverbial for a showy entertainment with little to eat which is found in one of Varro's Satires, p. 219, Bücheler. be applied to you. This judgment of Fronto's, though relating to trifling and unimportant words, I thought I ought not to pass by, lest the somewhat subtle distinction between words of this kind should escape and elude us.
30
That fades has a wider application than is commonly supposed.
