cui dono lepidum...

i'm too tired tonight to write my catullus post. in lieu of that, though, i'd like to inaugurate a new feature, which is shamelessly self-serving, but which i also hope is helpful to our loyal readers. to wit: we shall now commence our review of rhetorical figures and tropes, taking our starting point from the allen and greenough's 'new latin grammar'.

today's figure is ANTONOMASIA--the use of a proper for a common noun, or the reverse.

examples:

sint Maecenates, non deerunt, Flacce, Marones: so there be patrons (like Maecenas), poets (like Vergil) will not be lacking, Flaccus (Mart. viii. 56. 5).

illa furia et pestis: that fury and plague (i.e. Clodius).

Homeromastix: scourge of Homer (i.e. Zoilus).