Lexitechnia

Pliny on earthquakes (Naturalis Historia 2.82): praecedit vero comitaturque terribilis sonus, alias murmuri similis, alias mugitibus aut clamori humano armorumve pulsantium fragori, pro qualitate materiae excipientis formaque vel cavernarum vel cuniculi, per quem meet Indeed, a terrifying noise goes before and along with it, sometimes a rumbling, sometimes like bellowing or human shouting or the […]

Marcus Caelius, writing to Cicero (Ad Familiares 8.4): Coactus est dicere Pompeius se legionem abducturum sed non statim sub mentionem et convicium obtrectatorum; inde interrogatus de successione C. Caesaris… Pompey was forced to say his legion would be withdrawn, though not immediately, in response to insinuation and the public outcry of his detractors; then he […]

Cicero, in On the Nature of the Gods 2.37, considers the sun and stars. He then states, in a precursor to the infinite monkey theorem, that the works of Ennius are not at all likely to form from the fall of letters thrown in the air, and from this premise he continues: Isti autem quemadmodum […]