[sect. 2]
Attici (sales): the Athenians were noted for their wit. Cf., e.g., Cic. de Off. 1.104 duplex omnino est iocandi genus: unum inliberale petulans flagitiosum obscenum, alterum elegans urbanum ingeniosum facetum. Quo genere non modo Plautus noster et Atticorum antiqua comoedia, sed etiam philosophorum Socraticorum libri referti sunt. The whole passage may be read to advantage in connection with the letter before us.
capior facetiis : Cicero himself was a noted wit, and collections of his witticisms were made both by his freedman Tiro, and by his friend Trebonius. Cf. quod meum, etc., Ep. LXI.4n. and Fam. 15.21.2.
nostratibus: cf. Ep. XXXVI.1n.
oblitas Latio : i.e. adulterated or tinctured by the admixture of Latin elements.
tum : i.e. about 90 B.C.
, when the Italians received the right of Roman citizenship.
bracatis et transalpinis nationibus : Suetonius (Jul. 80) gives the following satirical couplet as one sung in the streets after Caesar gave the Gauls the right of citizenship:
Gallos Caesar in triumphum ducit, idem in curiam.
Galli bracas deposuerunt, latum clavum sumpserunt.
veteris leporis : the contests in wit between the representatives of different Italian towns had been from time immemorial the favorite entertainment of the people at their public gatherings, until they gave way to more conventional dramatic performances of a more or less un-Roman character. Cf. Fam. 7.31.2.
Granios: the generalizing plural. Granius, a herald noted for his wit, was a contemporary of the orator L. Crassus. Cicero mentions him frequently, saying of him (de Or. 2.244): Granio quidem nemo dicacior. Cf. also Brut. 172; pro Planc. 33.
omnis Lucilios: i.e. Lucilius and men like him. Cicero refers to C. Lucilius, the satirist (180-103 B.C.
). Cf. Horace's estimate of the wit of Lucilius in Sat. 1.4 and 10.
Crassos: L. Licinius Crassus, the orator. Cf. Cic. Brut. 143 erat summa gravitas, erat cum gravitate iunctus facetiarum et urbanitatis oratorius, non scurrilis lepos.
Laelios: C. Laelius (Sapiens), the Chief interlocutor in the de Amicitia, and introduced as a speaker into the de Re Publica and the de Senectute. Cicero says of him (de Off. 1.108): in C. Laelio multa hilaritas. Cf. also Hor. Sat. 2.1.71 ff. It is strange, as Manutius observes, that Cicero does not in this connection mention C. Julius Caesar Strabo Vopiscus, of whom he remarks (de Off. 1.133): sale vero et facetiis Caesar, Catuli patris frater, vicit omnes.
moriar si: see ne vivam, Ep. IV.4n.
vernaculae, native; opposed to peregrinus.
