Artemidorus, Dream Interpretation 2.15

οἶδα δέ τινα οἰκέτην, ὃς ἔδοξε βατράχοις κονδύλους ἐπισείειν. προέστη τῆς τοῦ δεσπότου οἰκίας ἄρχων τῶν ἐν τῇ οἰκίᾳ ἀνθρώπων· ἡ μὲν γὰρ λίμνη τὴν οἰκίαν ἐσήμαινεν, οἱ δὲ βάτραχοι τοὺς ἔνδον ἀνθρώπους, ὁ κονδυλισμὸς δὲ τὴν ἐπιταγήν.

I know a household slave who dreamed that he struck some frogs with his fist. He was put in charge of his master’s house as the head of the people in the household. For the pond represented the house, the frogs represented the people in it, and the punch represented his command over them.

Virgil, Aeneid 7.312

While we’re on the subject of dreams, here’s a line quoted by Freud in The Interpretation of Dreams. Juno has been frustrated in her efforts to end the building work on Rome, and utters this grimly chilling line, which Freud applies to suppressed thoughts that find ‘methods and means of forcing [their] way into consciousness’.

flectere si nequeo superos, Acheronta movebo.

If I cannot bring round the gods above, I will move the Underworld.

Artemidorus, Dream Interpretation 1.81

αὐτὸ μὲν τὸ καθεύδειν δοκεῖν ἄπρακτον, καὶ τὸ μέλλειν ὑπνοῦν καὶ αὐτὸ ἄπρακτον καὶ πονηρὸν πᾶσι πλὴν τῶν φοβουμένων ἢ βασάνους προσδοκώντων· πάσης γὰρ ἀπαλλάττει φροντίδος καὶ παντὸς δέους ὁ ὕπνος.

When one dreams that one is asleep, this is itself an indication of a lack of success; and when one dreams of being about to sleep, this is itself an indication of a lack of success and is a bad sign for everyone except for those who are afraid or who are expecting tortures. For sleep rids one of care and of all fear.

 

Virgil, Aeneid 4.174-5

fama, malum quo non aliud velocius ullum,
mobilitate viget, viresque acquirit eundo.

No evil thing is more swift than Rumour: it flourishes through its mobility, and amasses strength as it advances. 

Artemidorus, Dream Interpretation 1.4

I’m reading Artemidorus’ treatise on dreams; I’ll post some excerpts in the next few days.

τῶν ὀνείρων οἱ μὲν πολλὰ διὰ πολλῶν προαγορεύουσιν, οἱ δὲ ὀλίγα δι’ ὀλίγων, οἱ δὲ πολλὰ δι’ ὀλίγων, οἱ δὲ ὀλίγα διὰ πολλῶν.

Some dreams declare many things through many things, some declare few things through few things, others declare many things through few things, and others declare few things through many things.

Eutropius, Outline of Roman History 1.12

nono anno post reges exactos, cum gener Tarquini ad iniuriam soceri vindicandam ingentem collegisset exercitum, nova Romae dignitas est creata, quae dictatura appellatur, maior quam consulatus.

In the ninth year after the kings were expelled, when Tarquinius’ son-in-law had gathered together an army to avenge the wrong done to his father-in-law, a new office was created at Rome, which is called the Dictatorship and is greater than the Consulship.

Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Eminent Philosophers 6.63

Diogenes Laertius records a remark of his namesake, the Cynic philosopher Diogenes of Sinope.

ἐρωτηθεὶς πόθεν εἴη, “κοσμοπολίτης,” ἔφη.

On being asked where he was from, he said, ‘I’m a citizen of the world.’