§intro.1Animadverti, Brute, saepe Catonem, avunculum tuum, cum in senatu sententiam diceret, locos gravis ex philosophia tractare abhorrentis ab hoc usu forensi et publico, sed dicendo consequi tamen, ut illa etiam populo probabilia viderentur; §intro.2quod eo maius est illi quam aut tibi aut nobis, quia nos ea philosophia plus utimur, quae peperit dicendi copiam et in qua dicuntur ea, quae non multum discrepent ab opinione populari, Cato autem, perfectus mea sententia Stoicus, et ea sentit, quae non sane probantur in volgus, et in ea est haeresi, quae nullum sequitur florem orationis neque dilatat argumentum: minutis interrogatiunculis quasi punctis quod proposuit efficit.
I have often noticed, Brutus, that your uncle Cato, when expressing his opinion in the senate, treated weighty topics from philosophy that are foreign to this forensic and public usage, but nevertheless succeeded by his speaking in making even those things seem plausible to the people; this is all the greater achievement for him than for either you or us, because we make more use of that philosophy which has given birth to richness of speech and in which those things are said which do not differ much from common opinion; Cato, on the other hand, in my opinion a perfect Stoic, both holds views that are certainly not approved by the populace, and belongs to that sect which follows no flower of eloquence and does not expand an argument: by tiny, short questions, like punctures, he accomplishes what he has proposed.
§intro.3sed nihil est tam incredibile, quod non dicendo fiat probabile, nihil tam horridum, tam incultum, quod non splendescat oratione et tamquam excolatur.
But there is nothing so incredible that it cannot be made plausible by speaking, nothing so rough, so uncultivated, that it does not shine through eloquence and become, as it were, polished.
quod cum ita putarem, feci etiam audacius quam ille ipse, de quo loquor: Cato enim dum taxat de magnitudine animi, de continentia, de morte, de omni laude virtutis, de dis inmortalibus, de caritate patriae Stoice solet oratoriis ornamentis adhibitis dicere; ego tibi illa ipsa, quae vix in gymnasiis et in otio Stoici probant, ludens conieci in communis locos.
Since I thought this was so, I have done something even bolder than he himself of whom I speak: for Cato, at least, is accustomed to speak in a Stoic manner, yet employing oratorical ornaments, about greatness of soul, self-control, death, all praise of virtue, the immortal gods, and love of country; I, for my part, in play, have cast for you into commonplaces those very doctrines which the Stoics themselves scarcely approve in their schools and leisure.
§intro.4quae quia sunt admirabilia contraque opinionem omnium, temptare volui possentne proferri in lucem et ita dici, ut probarentur, an alia quaedam esset erudita, alia popularis oratio, eoque hos locos scripsi libentius, quod mihi ista para/doca quae appellant maxime videntur esse Socratica longeque verissima.
And because these things are wondrous and contrary to the opinion of all, I wanted to try whether they could be brought into the light and so expressed as to be approved, or whether there was one kind of eloquence for the learned, and another for the populace; and for this reason I wrote these topics the more willingly, because those things which they call 'paradoxes' seem to me to be especially Socratic and by far the truest.
§intro.5accipies igitur hoc parvum opusculum, lucubratum his iam contractioribus noctibus, quoniam illud maiorum vigiliarum munus in tuo nomine adparuit, et degustabis genus exercitationum earum, quibus uti consuevi, cum ea, quae dicuntur in scholis qetikw=s, ad nostrum hoc oratorium transfero dicendi genus.
You will therefore receive this small work, composed by lamplight during these now shorter nights, since that tribute of my longer night-watches has already appeared under your name; and you will sample the kind of those exercises which I have been accustomed to practice, when I transfer those things which are discussed in the schools theoretically to this oratorical style of ours.
hoc tamen opus in acceptum ut referas nihil postulo; non enim est tale, ut in arce poni possit, quasi Minerva illa Phidiae, sed tamen, ut ex eadem officina exisse adpareat.
However, I do not ask that you enter this work to my credit; for it is not such as could be placed in the citadel, like that famous Minerva of Phidias, but still such that it may appear to have come from the same workshop.