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Unknown Cynic 5

Martial, Epigrams 4.53

<blockquote>53. TO COSMUS, ON AN ILLITERATE FELLOW PRETENDING TO BE A CYNIC.

Yonder person, Cosmus, whom you often see in the recesses of the temple of our Pallas, and on the threshold of the new temple,—-an old man with a stick and a wallet; whose hair bristles white and dirty, and over whose breast a filthy beard descends; whom a wax-coloured cloak, sole partner of his bare bed, covers; and to whom the crowd that encounters him gives food forced from them by his importunity,—-him, I say, you take for a Cynic, out you are deceived by a false appearance; he is no Cynic, Cosmus. What then?—-a dog.
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