Date Time
Translation updates Cicero’s treatise on jokes as ‘weapons’
“Memmius thinks he’s such a towering figure that when he comes into the Forum, he has to duck under the Fabian arch,” quipped Cicero, a pointed joke that still works more than 2,000 years later.
Michael Fontaine’s lively new translation of Cicero’s ancient text on humor, “How to Tell a Joke: An Ancient Guide to the Art of Humor,” amuses as well as instructs – as Cicero, called by his enemies “the stand-up Consul,” no doubt intended.
Cicero’s treatise is part of his longer masterpiece, “On the Ideal Orator”, written in 55 BCE. Fontaine’s book also includes Quintilian’s humor treatise, part of his “The Education of the Orator,” written in 95 CE.