Eventus stultorum magister est

In English: The outcome is the teacher of fools.

This is a saying very similar to yesterday's proverb: experientia magistra stultorum, "experience is the teacher of fools."

Of course, yesterday we were dealing with experientia, a feminine noun, so she was the school-mistress, the magistra of fools. Today, we have eventus, a masculine noun, so he is the school-master, the magister of fools.

You can see this saying illustrated in Boissard's Emblematum Liber of 1593:

Haec decuit primae tentare in flore iuventae,
Cum tibi tot palmas detulit alta Croton.
Quae doceat sero, turpi discenda pudore,
Stultorum eventus multa magister habet.

These things it was appropriate to attempt in the flower of first youth, when the tall city of Croton gave to you so many palms of victory. The outcome, teacher of fools, has many things to teach later on, things which are to be learned with shameful disgrace.

The example is based on Milo of Croton, the famous athlete of ancient Greece, who did not realize that he could only accomplish great athletic feats in his youth, before his prowess faded in old age. Instead of anticipating this change, he had to learn his lesson from the actual results, eventus, of aging.

For an ancient citation, you can find this sentiment expressed in Livy, where there is a contrast between eventus on the one hand, and ratio, "reason," on the other: Nec eventus modo hoc docet—stultorum iste magister est—sed eadem ratio, quae fuit futuraque donec res eaedem manebunt, immutabilis est, "And it is not only the outcome which teaches this - that school-master of fools - but reason itself, which was and will be unchanging so long as the same conditions will hold."

So, with a salute to the power of reason, here is today's proverb about those forced to make do without reason!

550. Eventus stultorum magister est.

The number here is the number for this proverb in Latin Via Proverbs: 4000 Proverbs, Mottoes and Sayings for Students of Latin.

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Experientia magistra stultorum

In English: Experience is the teacher of fools.

I thought this would be a good follow-up to yesterday's proverb about learning, painfully, from mistakes. Today's proverb is also about learning from mistakes, but it makes a sharper point: fools need to learn from mistakes, because they do not use reason to predict the outcome of their actions. Instead, fools can only learn by experience, making mistakes and suffering the consequences.

The Latin word experientia is a feminine noun, so it is the feminine teacher, the magistra, the "mistress" or "school-mistress" of people who are fools.

A fuller form of the saying makes clear the difference between the way that fools learn, and how wiser people make their decisions: Experientia stultorum magistra, prudentia sapientum, "experience is the teacher of fools, while foresight is the teacher of wise men."

You can find this notion invoked in Erasmus's introduction to his Colloquia familiaria, where he says in praise of his book: Adde quod bonae prudentiae pars est, nosse stultas vulgi cupiditates et absurdas opiniones. Eas arbitror satius ex hoc libello discere, quam experientia stultorum magistra, "Add the fact that part of good prudence is to know the foolish wants and crazy opinions of the masses. I suspect that those things can be better learned from this little book than from experience, that teacher of fools."

Even better, Erasmus goes on to say in the same preface, Et haud scio an quidquam discitur felicius, quam quod ludendo discitur, "And I don't know whether anything can be learned more fortunately than that which is learned through play."

Hurray for Erasmus! I wish he had been my Latin teacher. Although, thanks to his marvelous books, in a sense he is!

Meanwhile, here is today's proverb read out loud:

129. Experientia magistra stultorum.

The number here is the number for this proverb in Latin Via Proverbs: 4000 Proverbs, Mottoes and Sayings for Students of Latin.

If you are reading this via RSS: The Flash audio content is not syndicated via RSS; please visit the Latin Audio Proverbs blog to listen to the audio.

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Nocumentum documentum

In English: A loss, a lesson.

This is one of my favorite Latin sayings, although it's almost impossible to translation into English, since so much depends on the play on words. I've tried to capture something of that play on words by saying "a loss, a lesson." The literal meaning of the Latin would be something like "a harm is an example."

As you can see, the two words nocumentum and documentum are formed in the same way. The word nocumentum is from the verb nocere, "to hurt, do harm," while the word documentum is from the verb docere, "to teach." The idea, of course, is that when somebody (preferably somebody else!) suffers some kind of hurt or harm, this can teach you to avoid falling victim to the same kind of hurt or harm.

Of course, we have lost this sense of documentum meaning something that teaches or informs. Documents are now just so much paper! But the root of the word shows that the original Latin meaning was not a piece of paper, but rather a proof, an example, an instructive demonstration of some principle of idea - something that teaches you something, docet.

Take yesterday's proverb, for example, which was about the stag who rushes into the arrow, running straight into his own destruction. This is a big nocumentum for the stag, but it can be a good lesson, documentum, for you, the beneficiary of the stag's terrible mistake!

This always reminds me of one of the great "demotivators" from despair.com. The image shows a sinking ship, with the motto: "Mistakes: It could be that the purpose of your life is only to serve as a warning to others."

So, hoping that none of us are serving as a warning to others at this particular moment, here is today's proverb read out loud:

54. Nocumentum documentum.

The number here is the number for this proverb in Latin Via Proverbs: 4000 Proverbs, Mottoes and Sayings for Students of Latin.

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Cervus ad sagittam properat

In English: The stag rushes into the arrow.

I thought that after yesterday's proverb about the cowardly stag, this would be a good follow-up. The stag's strength is in the swiftness of his legs, so that if he is not brave enough to stand and fight, he can escape by running away as fast as he can. As this proverb points out, however, the stag can rush into his own doom, struck by the arrow in the midst of flight, rushing into his own death.

This saying can be found in the Adagia compiled by Polydorus Vergilius, a contemporary of Erasmus, the author of the most famous collection of Latin proverbs or "adagia." You can find an online edition of Polydorus's Adagia at the Herzog August Bibliothek, as well as a list of the proverb headings, listed alphabetically.

In his commentary on this particular saying, Polydorus notes that hunters would trick the deer by using the dogs to drive the stags right into an ambush where the hunters would be able to shoot the fleeing deer with arrows. Polydorus also notes a comparison to the Book of Proverbs in the Bible: Stultus eam sequitur quasi bos ductus ad victimam, sicut irretitur vinculo cervus, donec transfigat sagitta iecur eius; velut si avis festinet ad laqueum et nescit quod de periculo animae illius agitur, "The fool follows her like a cow led to sacrifice, like a deer caught in a snare, until the arrow pierces its liver; as if a bird rushed into the net and did not know that it was a matter of danger to its own life."

The first edition of Polydorus's Adagia was published in 1498, before the more famous book by Erasmus. Polydorus can thus make his claim as having published the first modern collection of Latin proverbs, but it was Erasmsus's book which set the standard for the proverb collections that were subsequently published in all the countries of Europe.

Polydorus was an Italian scholar, born in Urbino in 1470, who spent much of his career in England, where he died in 1555. Polydorus is most famous for his book De inventoribus rerum, "On the Inventors of Things," which was a best-seller during the Renaissance, although it is largely forgotten today. You can read more about Polydorus, including his involvement in the tumult of 16th-century English history, in this detailed wikipedia article.

So here is today's proverb read out loud:

1086. Cervus ad sagittam properat.

The number here is the number for this proverb in Latin Via Proverbs: 4000 Proverbs, Mottoes and Sayings for Students of Latin.

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In pace leones, in proelio cervi

In English: In peace, they are lions; in battle, deer.

Yesterday's proverb created a similar opposition: "In the palace, lions; in the camp, rabbits." Today's proverb is based on a similar opposition, between the proverbially courageous lions, and the proverbially cowardly deer.

You can see the deer's cowardice expressed in this very nice Aesop's fable about the dialogue between the young fawn and the older deer. Here is the story as told in a Latin textbook for schoolboys, circa 1857:

Hinnuleus quondam patrem suum his verbis interrogasse dicitur: Mi pater, cum multo sis maior canibus et tam ardua cornua habeas, quibus a te vim propulsare possis, qui fit, ut canes tantopere metuas? Ibi cervus ridens, Mi nate, inquit, vera memoras; mihi tamen, nescio quo pacto, semper accidit, ut, audita canum voce, in fugam statim convertar. Haec fabula docet, natura formidulosos nullis rationibus fortes reddi posse.

Once upon a time a fawn is said to have questioned his father with these words: Father, since you are so much bigger than the hounds, and you have such lofty horns with which you could drive the pack away from you, how does it happen that you are so afraid of the dogs? Then the stag laughed and said, "My child, you are telling the truth; but I don't know for what reason, it always happens to me that as soon as I hear the voice of the hounds, I immediately turn and flee. This fable shows that nature can render even the strong into little cowards for no reason at all.

The proverbial cowardice of the deer goes all the way back to the beginnings of the European literary tradition, when Homer's Achilles denounces Agamemnon for being a "drunken sot, dog-eyed, deer-timid coward!" (in Ian Johnston's translation).

So, rather than the sounds of hunting hounds baying, here is something less terrifying to hear: today's proverb read out loud:

393. In pace leones, in proelio cervi.

The number here is the number for this proverb in Latin Via Proverbs: 4000 Proverbs, Mottoes and Sayings for Students of Latin.

If you are reading this via RSS: The Flash audio content is not syndicated via RSS; please visit the Latin Audio Proverbs blog to listen to the audio.

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In praetoriis leones, in castris lepores

In English: In the palace, lions; in the camp, rabbits.

I thought this would be a good follow-up to yesterday's lion proverb. Today's proverb is about would-be lions, people who are bold as lions when far away from the battle, but who become timid as rabbits when they get near the actual fighting!

These are animal stereotypes that are still alive for us today - the bold, courageous lion, and the "scaredy rabbit." This is a good occasion for another Aesop's fable - a weird one, but very funny I think, about the rabbits who decide that they are such cowards, life is not worth living anymore. Here is the Latin version in Steinhowel:

Cum strepitus magnus ad lepores subito veniret, consilium simul fecerunt, ut se precipitarent propter assiduous metus. Et euntes ad oram fluminis venerunt, ubi multae erant ranae; at ille ubi agmen leporum viderunt veniens, expaverunt valde et in fluvium se iactaverunt. Haec ubi lepores viderunt unus ex illis ait: Sunt, inquit, et alii timentes; sequamur vitam, ut ceteri quam natura dedit!

Here is the Caxton translation, from 1484 (as you can tell by the spelling... or the lack thereof):

For somtyme as a hunter chaced thurgh the feldes and woodes / the hares beganne to flee for fere And as they ranne / they adressyd them in to a medowe fulle of frogges / And whanne the frogges herd the hares renne they beganne also to flee and to renne fast / And thenne a hare whiche perceyued them so ferdfull sayd to alle his felawes / Lete vs no more be dredeful ne doubtuous / for we be not alone that haue had drede / For alle the frogges ben in doubte / and haue fere and drede as we haue .

You can also see some early illustrations to Steinhowel online.

Luckily, the rabbits were content just to be braver than frogs. They didn't aspire to feel as brave as lions!

So, you can ponder whether you tend towards the lion or the rabbit end of the spectrum as you listen to today's proverb read out loud:

394. In praetoriis leones, in castris lepores.

The number here is the number for this proverb in Latin Via Proverbs: 4000 Proverbs, Mottoes and Sayings for Students of Latin.

If you are reading this via RSS: The Flash audio content is not syndicated via RSS; please visit the Latin Audio Proverbs blog to listen to the audio.

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Leonina societas periculorum plena

In English: Alliance with a lion is full of dangers.

I thought this would be a good follow-up to yesterday's proverb, which was a moral from an Aesop's fable about the "lion's share." Today's fable puts the lion right into the saying itself: if you make an alliance with a lion, you are running a terrible risk. You can decide who the metaphorical lions might be in your life whom you have to watch out for! (I have tangled with some lions in my time, that's for sure!)

Yesterday I posted the Aesop's fable by Phaedrus about how the lion went hunting with a sheep, goat, and a cow, and ended up cheating his "partners" out of their spoils by taking it all for himself - the proverbial lion's share. For those animals, alliance with the lion was a big mistake. Note that the emphasis here is not at all on how bad the lion is. Of course the lion is bad - that's how lions are! The point of the story is that if you are a sheep, you should not make alliances with lions. Sheep can be smarter than that, and they need to use their smarts since they don't have teeth and claws to match the lion. So if you are a sheep, watch out for the lions... or you will regret it.

To show just how dangerous things can get with your partner the lion, I thought I'd share today a different version of the fable about the lion's share, this time about a lion, a fox and a wolf who go hunting together. This is another popular Aesop's fable, found in both the Latin and Greek fable traditions. Here is a wonderful version of that story by Odo of Cheriton:

Leo, Lupus et Vulpes condixerunt sibi ad invicem quod venarentur. Vulpes cepit anserem, Lupus arietem pinguem, Leo bovem macilentum. Debuerunt prandere. Dixit Leo Lupo quod praedam partiretur. Dixit Lupus: Vnusquisque habet quod cepit, Leo suum bovem, ego arietem, Vulpes anserem. Leo iratus erexit palmam, et cum unguibus extraxit totum corium de capite Lupi. Et dixit Leo Vulpi quod divideret. Et ait Vulpes: Domine, vos comedatis de pingui ariete, quantum volueritis, quod teneras habet carnes, et postea de ansere, quantum volueritis, tandem de bove temperate quod duras habet carnes, et quod remanserit detis nobis qui homines vestri sumus. Ait Leo: Certe bene dicis. Quis te docuit ita bene partiri? Et ait Vulpes: Domine, ille rubens capellus socii mei, demonstrato capite excoriato.

The lion, the wolf, and the fox agreed to go hunting together. The fox caught a goose, the wolf caught a fat ram, and the lion caught a scrawny cow. Then it was time to eat. The lion told the wolf to divide their catch. The wolf said, "Let each one take what he has caught: the lion will take the cow, I'll take the ram, and the fox will take the goose." The lion was enraged and, raising his paw, he used his claws to strip the wolf's head of all its fur and skin. The lion then ordered the fox to divide the spoils. The fox said, "My lord, you should eat as much of the fat ram as you want, since its meat is tender, then you should eat as much of the goose as you want, but you should eat the cow's flesh only in moderation, since it is so tough. Whatever is left over you can give to us, your servants." "Well done," said the lion. "Who taught you how to do such a good job of dividing the spoils?" The fox said, "My lord, I have learned from my associate's red cap: his excoriated skull provides a very vivid lesson."

If you are interested in reading some more Latin or Greek versions of this story, you can do that at the aesopica.net website.

So, still keeping an eye out for those lions, here is today's proverb read out loud:

314. Leonina societas periculorum plena.

The number here is the number for this proverb in Latin Via Proverbs: 4000 Proverbs, Mottoes and Sayings for Students of Latin.

If you are reading this via RSS: The Flash audio content is not syndicated via RSS; please visit the Latin Audio Proverbs blog to listen to the audio.

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