Top 15 Gaius Lucilius Quotes

2nd-century BC Roman satirist

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Gaius Lucilius (180, 168 or 148 – 103 BC) was the earliest Roman satirist, of whose writings only fragments remain. A Roman citizen of the equestrian class, he was born at Suessa Aurunca in Campania, and was a member of the Scipionic Circle.

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Alternative Names: Lucilius • Caius Lucilius

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Frédéric Buret, Syphilis To-day and among the Ancients, tr. A. H. Ohmann-Dumesnil, vol. 1 (F. A. Davis, 1891), pp. 179–80

Nunc vero a mani ad noctem festo atque profesto
totus item pariterque die populusque patresque iactare indu foro se omnes, decedere nusquam;
uni se atque eidem studio omnes dedere et arti—
verba dare ut caute possint, pugnare dolose,
blanditia certare, bonum simulare virum se,
insidias facere ut si hostes sint omnibus omnes.

They agree to laws by which the people are outlaws.

Accipiunt leges, populus quibus legibus exlex.

Cupiditas ex homine cupido ex stulto numquam tollitur.

This is a little better than middling, that is a little less bad than what you would call the worst.

Paulo hoc melius quam mediocre, hoc minus malum quam ut pessumum.

You must undertake a labour that may bring praise and profit for you.

Hunc laborem sumas laudem qui tibi ac fructum ferat.

The Roman people has been often beaten by force and overcome in many battles, but never in a whole war, in which lies all that is vital.

Ut Romanus populus victus vei, superatus proeliis
saepe est multis, bello vero numquam, in quo sunt omnia.

Homini amico et familiari non est mentiri meum.

Publicanus vero ut Asiae fiam, ut scripturarius
pro Lucilio, id ego nolo et uno hoc non muto omnia.

Aurum vis hominemne? Habeas. "Hominem? quid ad aurum?"

As baby children believe that all bronze statues are alive and are men, so these (superstitious grown-ups) think the fictions of dreams are real, and believe that bronze statues have a living heart inside. These things are a painters' gallery, nothing real, all make-believe.