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They Said it First. The Wisdom of the Ancient Greeks and Romans (K.F.) Kitchell. Pp. xxii + 326. Mundelein, ILL: Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, 2019. Paper, US$19. ISBN: 978-0-86516-864-0.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 September 2020

Jo Lashly*
Affiliation:
Head of Classics, Shrewsbury High School
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Abstract

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Book Reviews
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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Copyright © The Author(s) 2020

This entertaining book is in a long tradition of list books and it does not disappoint. I think it would be an interesting addition to a school or a departmental library as it demonstrates well that we are following in the footsteps of so many generations before us; as Terence wrote in The Eunuch: nullum'st iam dictum quod non dictum sit prius (there is nothing that has been said now, that has not been said before) but that aside there is a delight in flicking through a book like this and coming across gems both in Latin and Greek, all of which are referenced should you wish to delve further. I have read books of quotations in the past, but this one allies the ancient quote with one or more modern ones not only reinforcing the idea that there is nothing new under the sun but proving it! In his introduction the author states his aims as entertainment and enlightenment (how Aristophanic) and he provides an extensive bibliography should readers wish to pursue the subject further. He sensibly comments that, from the examples we can see that the ancients were, while grappling with many of the same concerns that we have, heading home to households run by those whose freedoms were severely limited. It is a big claim for a collection such as this to be wanting to make people think about their own social values but it is worth spending some time thinking about the apparent contradiction between high-minded political or social comment and the reality that lies behind it. Also, in the introduction there is a nod towards the tradition of collecting quotes together in one place, and we must be grateful to the grammarians for constantly using quotes from authors whose work has not otherwise survived, so we should be grateful to Athenaeus, Aulus Gellius, Diogenes Laertius and Stobaeus, though there is always that nagging annoyance that they did not include just one more. Kitchell has helpfully divided the collection into topics for easier use if browsing is not your reason for picking this volume up, and so we have areas such as Bragging, Family, Hypocrisy, Marriage, Stress, Politics and Power, Taxes, Teaching and Writing, to name but a few. Quotations range from pithy – homines, dum docent, discunt (while men teach, they learn)– to the more wordy – canis timidus vehementius latrat quam mordet: altissima quaeque flumina minimo sono labuntur (the cowardly dog barks more loudly than it bites, and the deepest rivers flow with the least sound) – which was, apparently, a popular Bactrian saying, quoted by Quintus Curtius. My favourite part of this book, however, is seeing how sayings have adapted to their culture or time, or are just plain funny. We all know the saying ‘to make a mountain out of a molehill’ but in Lucian it is apparently: ἐλέφαντα ἐκ μυίας ποιεῖν (to make an elephant from a mouse), in Cicero, arcem ex cloaca facere (to make a citadel from a sewer) and in Cicero again si aut tragoedias agamus in nugis (or if we were to make tragedies from trifles). I think I'll quoting Lucian a bit more from now on.