Killed by a book!
Sunday 13 April 2008
Pliny the Younger, Epistles 2.1.5:
Nam cum vocem praepararet acturus in consulatu principi gratias, liber quem forte acceperat grandiorem, et seni et stanti ipso pondere elapsus est. Hunc dum sequitur colligitque, per leve et lubricum pavimentum fallente vestigio cecidit coxamque fregit, quae parum apte collocata reluctante aetate male coiit.
For while he was preparing a thanksgiving speech to the Princeps for the consulship, he happened to lift a rather large book which slipped from the old man’s hand, who was standing up at the time. When he bent down to pick it up, his foot slipped on the smooth and wet pavement, and he broke his hip, which was knocked out of joint, and because of his advanced age, re-knitted badly.
Let that be a warning to those of us who use heavy encyclopaedias and dictionaries like the Oxford Latin Dictionary…
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D.
21 April 2008, 2.56 pm #
Richard, who translated that passage? I suggest “..., it happened that he picked up a rather large book, which slipped from his hand by its own weight, he being an old man and standing up at the time. When he bent down to pick the book up, he missed his footing on the smooth and slippery pavement, and fell and broke his hip. The broken bones were not properly re-set, and because of his advanced age, the fracture knitted badly.”
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