Quintilian, Institutio Oratoria, Book 9, chapter 4, section 17

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[17] Sallust, on the other hand, borrows a number of idioms from the Greek, such as vulgus amat fieri:¹ the same is true of Horace, who strongly approves of the practice. Compare his

nec ciceris net longae invidit avenae.
Sat. II. vi. 83. ² The gen. of respect is regarded as a Graecism.

Virgil³ does the same in phrases such as

Tyrrhenum navigat aequor

or saucius pectus (“wounded at heart”), an idiom which has now become familiar in the public gazette.

1 “Such things as the people love to see done.” Not found in Sallust's extant works. But cp. Jug. 34: ira amat fieri.

2 “Nor grudged him vetches nor the long-eared oat.”

3 Aen. i. 67. “He sails the Tyrrhene deep.” The internal ace. after the intrans. navigat is treated as a Graecism, as is ace. of part concerned after saucius.

Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1922.

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