From PESELYG@APSU01.APSU.EDU Sun Sep 17 19:19:41 2000 Received: from mxu4.u.washington.edu (mxu4.u.washington.edu [140.142.33.8]) by lists.u.washington.edu (8.9.3+UW00.05/8.9.3+UW99.09) with ESMTP id TAA158404 for ; Sun, 17 Sep 2000 19:19:40 -0700 From: PESELYG@APSU01.APSU.EDU Received: from apsu01.apsu.edu (apsu01.apsu.edu [198.146.56.9]) by mxu4.u.washington.edu (8.9.3+UW00.02/8.9.3+UW99.09) with ESMTP id TAA18468 for ; Sun, 17 Sep 2000 19:19:39 -0700 Received: from APSU01.APSU.EDU by APSU01.APSU.EDU (PMDF V5.2-31 #38960) id <01JUAKUR92H4008LW3@APSU01.APSU.EDU> for classics@u.washington.edu; Sun, 17 Sep 2000 21:19:02 CDT Date: Sun, 17 Sep 2000 21:19:01 -0500 (CDT) Subject: Cicero and Beetle Bailey To: classics@u.washington.edu, PESELYG@APSU.EDU Message-id: <01JUAKUR93EY008LW3@APSU01.APSU.EDU> X-VMS-To: IN%"classics@u.washington.edu" X-VMS-Cc: PESELYG MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII The comic strip Beetle Bailey for Sept. 17, 2000, recalls an anecdote in Cicero, although I would hesitate to credit or accuse Mort Walker of conscious imitation. In the strip, the nitwit lieutenant wants to see General Halftrack; Miss Buxley insists that the general is out but the lieutenant doesn't want to believe her. Finally the general sticks his head in the room and declares, "Yes, I'm really, REALLY out!" In the final frame he is in his office muttering, "Why doesn't anyone believe anyone anymore?" Cicero, De Oratore II.276 tells how Scipio Nasica (presumably the consul of 191 B.C.) called on the poet Ennius but was told by a servant that he wasn't home; Nasica believed he really was. A few days later, Ennius called at Nasica's and asked for him at the entrance, whereupon Nasica called out that he was not at home. "What?" said Ennius, "don't I know your voice?" Nasica replied, "You have a lot of nerve. When I asked for you, I believed your servant when she said you were not home; aren't you going to believe me myself?" ---------------------------------------------------------------- George Pesely, Austin Peay State Univ. peselyg@apsu.edu .