Meditations VIII.30

Say thy say in the Senate or to any person whatsoever becomingly and naturally.³⁰ Use sound speech.

• 30.Dr. Bigg does not scruple to say that Marcus spoke in such a pedantic jargon as to be unintelligible to his hearers! This is pitiable nonsense. See Fronto’s letter to Marcus as Emperor, i. 1: quanto studio quantoque favore et voluptate dicentem te audit senatus populusque Romanus; compare his letter to Marcus as Caesar, ii. 1.

  Charles Bigg wrote the introduction to John Jackson’s 1906 translation of the Meditations, listed in Haines’s Introduction. Fronto’s Latin, in translation: “with what zeal, what favour and delight the Senate and people of Rome hear you speak.”