Page:Correspondence of Marcus Cornelius Fronto volume 2 Haines 1920.djvu/131

 for myself a coin of Antoninus or Commodus or Pius? Those old words are stained and contaminated and discoloured and spotted, aye, more spotted than a nurse's apron. There is need, therefore, of all your pains to render your language, if possible, current coin; be ever on the look-out for some word, not one coined by you, for that, indeed, is an absurdity, but used by you more elegantly or more aptly or more happily than by others.

13. Says Sallust: Such reverent regard and affection did our ancestors have for the Italian race. This word antiquitas is often used, but nowhere employed in that sense, and therefore is not properly correct. For it is commonly said that what is preferable is antiquius. Thence undoubtedly did Sallust derive his use of antiquitas itself; and, since a word that is less usual is also less clear, he interpreted it by means of the following word, antiquitatis curaeque.

In this way     In the mouths of the people words of this kind have hitherto always been in vogue; Accius, Plautus, Sallust very often, even occasionally Cicero, (use them)

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