§1.10.11quod si datur, erit etiam oratori necessaria, siquidem (ut diximus) haec quoque pars, quae ab oratoribus relicta a philosophis est occupata, nostri operis fuit, ac sine omnium talium scientia non potest esse perfecta eloquentia.
If this is granted, music will also be necessary for the orator, since (as we have said) this part too, which was abandoned by orators and occupied by philosophers, belonged to our work, and without the knowledge of all such things, perfect eloquence cannot exist.
§1.10.12atque claros nomine sapientiae viros, nemo dubitaverit, studiosos musices fuisse, cum Pythagoras atque eum secuti acceptam sine dubio antiquitus opinionem vulgaverint, mundum ipsum ratione esse compositum, quam postea sit lyra imitata, nec illa modo contenti dissimilium concordia, quam vocant ἁρμονίαν, sonum quoque iis motibus dederint.
And no one would doubt that men illustrious in the name of wisdom were devoted to music, since Pythagoras and those who followed him published the opinion, doubtless received from antiquity, that the world itself was composed by proportion, which the lyre afterwards imitated, and, not content only with that concord of dissimilar things, which they call harmony, they also attributed sound to those movements.
§1.10.13nam Plato, cum in aliis quibusdam tum praecipue in Timaeo, ne intelligi quidem nisi ab iis, qui hanc quoque partem disciplinae diligenter perceperint, potest.
For Plato, both in certain other works and especially in the Timaeus, cannot even be understood except by those who have diligently grasped this part of discipline too.
de philosophis loquor, quorum fons ipse Socrates iam senex institui lyra non erubescebat?
Am I speaking of philosophers, whose very source, Socrates, even when an old man, was not ashamed to be instructed on the lyre?
§1.10.14duces maximos et fidibus et tibiis cecinisse traditum et exercitus Lacedaemoniorum musicis accensos modis.
It is handed down that the greatest leaders sang both to stringed instruments and flutes, and that the armies of the Lacedaemonians were inflamed by musical measures.
quid autem aliud in nostris legionibus cornua ac tubae faciunt? quorum concentus quanto est vehementior, tantum Romana in bellis gloria ceteris praestat.
What else, indeed, do the horns and trumpets do in our legions? The more vehement their concert is, by so much does Roman glory in wars excel the rest.
§1.10.15non igitur frustra Plato civili viro, quem πολιτικὸν vocat, necessariam musicen credidit. et eius sectae, quae aliis severissima aliis asperrima videtur, principes in hac fuere sententia, ut existimarent sapientium aliquos nonnullam operam his studiis accommodaturos.
Therefore, not without reason did Plato believe music to be necessary for the civil man, whom he calls 'politikos.' And the leaders of that sect which seems to some the most severe, to others the most harsh, were of this opinion, as to think that some of the wise men would bestow some labor on these studies.
et Lycurgus, durissimarum Lacedaemoniis legum auctor, musices disciplinam probavit.
And Lycurgus, the author of the harshest laws for the Lacedaemonians, approved of the discipline of music.
§1.10.16atque eam natura ipsa videtur ad tolerandos facilius labores velut muneri nobis dedisse, si quidem et remigem cantus hortatur; nec solum in iis operibus, in quibus plurium conatus praeeunte aliqua iucunda voce conspirat, sed etiam singulorum fatigatio quamlibet se rudi modulatione solatur.
And nature itself seems to have given it to us as if for a gift, in order to tolerate labors more easily, since even the rower is encouraged by song; and not only in those works in which the effort of many conspires, some pleasant voice leading the way, but also the fatigue of individuals solaces itself with however rude a modulation.
§1.10.17laudem adhuc dicere artis pulcherrimae videor, nondum eam tamen oratori coniungere.
I seem still to be speaking the praise of a most beautiful art, and not yet to be conjoining it with the orator.
transeamus igitur id quoque, quod grammatice quondam ac musice iunctae fuerunt; siquidem Archytas atque Euenus etiam subiectam grammaticen musicae putaverunt, et eosdem utriusque rei praeceptores fuisse cum Sophron ostendit, mimorum quidem scriptor sed quem Plato adeo probavit, ut suppositos capiti libros eius,
Let us pass over, therefore, that fact also, that grammar and music were once conjoined; since Archytas and Evenus even thought grammar to be subordinate to music, and that there were the same teachers of both subjects is shown not only by Sophron, a writer of mimes indeed, but whom Plato so highly approved that he is believed to have had his books placed under his head when he died, but also by Eupolis, in whose work Prodamus teaches both music and letters, and by Maricas, who is Hyperbolus, confessing that he knows nothing of music except letters.
§1.10.18cum moreretur, habuisse credatur, tum Eupolis, apud quem Prodamus et musicen et litteras docet, et Maricas, qui est Hyperbolus, nihil se ex musice scire nisi litteras confitetur. Aristophanes quoque non uno libro sic institui pueros antiquitus solitos esse demonstrat, et apud Menandrum in Hypobolimaeo senex, qui reposcenti filium patri velut rationem impendiorum, quae in educationem contulerit, exponens, psaltis se et geometris multa dicit dedisse.
Aristophanes also in more than one book demonstrates that boys were accustomed to be so instructed in ancient times, and in Menander, in the Hypobolimaeus, an old man, explaining to a father who demands back his son, as if an account of the expenses which he contributed to his education, says that he had given much to harpists and geometers.
§1.10.19unde etiam ille mos, ut in conviviis post cenam circumferretur lyra; cuius cum se imperitum Themistocles confessus esset ut verbis Ciceronis utar, est habitus indoctior.
Whence also that custom arose, that at banquets after dinner the lyre should be carried round; of which when Themistocles confessed himself ignorant, to use the words of Cicero, he was deemed more unlearned.
§1.10.20sed veterum quoque Romanorum epulis fides ac tibias adhibere moris fuit.
But also in the banquets of the ancient Romans, it was the custom to employ stringed instruments and flutes.
versus quoque Saliorum habent carmen.
The verses of the Salii also have song.
quae cum omnia sint a Numa rege instituta, faciunt manifestum, ne illis quidem, qui rudes ac bellicosi videntur, cura musices, quantum illa recipiebat aetas, defuisse.
Since all these things were instituted by King Numa, they make it manifest that not even in those who seem rude and warlike was the care of music wanting, as far as that age admitted.
§1.10.21denique in proverbium usque Graecorum celebratum est, indoctos a Musis atque a Gratiis abesse.
Finally, it has been celebrated even into a proverb of the Greeks that the unlearned are far from the Muses and the Graces.
§1.10.22verum quid ex ea proprie petat futurus orator, disseramus.
But let us discuss what the future orator should properly seek from it.
numeros musice duplices habet in vocibus et in corpore, utriusque enim rei aptus quidam modus desideratur.
Music has double rhythms in voices and in the body; for in both matters a certain suitable measure is required.
vocis rationem Aristoxenus musicus dividit in ῥυθμόν et μέλος, quorum alterum modulatione, alterum canore ac sonis constat.
The musical writer Aristoxenus divides the system of the voice into 'rhythm' and 'melody,' of which the one consists in modulation, the other in singing and sounds.
num igitur non haec omnia oratori necessaria? quorum unum ad gestum, alterum ad collocationem verborum, tertium ad flexus vocis, qui sunt in agendo quoque plurimi, pertinet: §1.10.23nisi forte in carminibus tantum et in canticis exigitur structura quaedam et inoffensa copulatio vocum, in agendo supervacua est; aut non compositio et sonus in oratione quoque varie pro rerum modo adhibetur sicut in musice.
Are not all these, then, necessary to the orator? One of these pertains to gesture, another to the collocation of words, and the third to the inflections of the voice, which are very numerous also in delivery: unless perchance a certain structure and unobstructed coupling of words is required only in poems and songs, but is superfluous in delivery; or composition and sound are not also employed variously in speech according to the nature of the subjects, just as in music.