Claims: in cicero quote

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18 Mar 2020
The quote 'No sane man will dance' is a mistranslation of Cicero's actual words in Pro Murena.

The problem, though, is that Cicero quote that he bases this whole thing on, no sane man will dance, is actually a mistranslation of the actual quote. Dancing is fucking dope, bros. It's not quite that. Quote Cicero. The quote is taken from Pro Morena, which is in the context of Cato accusing a dude of being a dancer, which apparently back then was a serious accusation. Sure. You, sir. That's like a man who doesn't wear a hat in the 1930s. You have to duel at that point. Somebody's got to die. So in response to this, Cicero says, quote, No man, one may almost say, ever dances when sober, unless perhaps he be a madman, nor in solitude, nor in moderate or sober party. Dancing is the last companion of prolonged feasting, of luxurious situation, and many refinements. The basic argument he was making against this accusation was that no one other than a madman danced sober, and he wasn't being accused of being drunk. So the accusation of being a dancer must be an accusation of being mad. Okay. Paraphrasing the quote as no sane man will dance is fine, I guess, but then attributing that quote to Cicero is really unfair. It essentially is putting words in Cicero's mouth, or more accurately, taking context away from what he was actually saying. Cicero wasn't saying only insane people dance. Drunk people dance, too. He was saying no sober man will dance. No sober, not sane.