Cicero quote yes or Cicero quote no?

[elbales]

"Times are bad. Children no longer obey their parents, and everyone is writing a book."

It's said that Cicero wrote this, but I guess there's some disagreement. So did he?

Emma? Amanda?

Comments

[aspasia02.livejournal.com]

oh god... I *think* so... but that's a bad translation. Or is it Cato?

Emma?

[aspasia02.livejournal.com]

On second thought - seems that it's been made up: http://listserv.dom.edu/cgi-bin/wa.exe?A2=ind0307&L=stumpers-l&P=83573 (the site's been down for me lately, but I used the cached version).

It *does* sound familiar, though... the listserv answer, I'll bet, was produced by librarians and not classicists. Cicero and Cato both griped about "kids today", and the "writing a book" bit could easily just be a loose, LOOSE translation. So... I dunno. But it seems plausible, though no one's tracked it down.

Helpful?

[emidala.livejournal.com]

o tempora, o mores? that's cicero if so. (in catalinam - either I or IV)

but the "writing a book" part - sounds made up.

[elbales]

Thank you.

♥

[elbales]

Yes, thanks. I was just curious, really.

♥