Julian introducing and citing cicero
Against Julian 4.12.58
Balbus, in Cicero, discussed the matter truthfully and carefully with Cotta.
I quote a few things to increase his shame: under the teaching of the sacred law he has failed to understand things that pagans could grasp through reason alone.
Balbus touches on the working of the sexes under the subject of animals because, for the sake of propriety, he passed over it in describing human beings.
He portrays the human being in words: the stomach lies below the gullet as a receptacle for food and drink; the lungs and heart draw breath from outside; many things in the stomach are wonderfully fashioned from sinews; its many folds and windings hold and contain what it receives, whether dry or liquid.
The remaining food is expelled as the intestines alternately contract and relax.
Latin
Balbus - inquis - apud Tullium cum Cotta vere diligenterque disseruit [n107] . Unde ob hoc pauca ponis - ut dicis - ut oneres pudorem meum, non ea me intellexisse sub magisterio sacrae legis, ad quorum notionem Gentiles solo rationis ductu pervenire potuerunt
quod ideo sub bestiarum occasione sexuum tangat effectum, quia propter honestatem hoc in hominis descriptione praeteriit
propter honestatem
quomodo ipsum hominem oratione depingat
et quomodo disserat alvi naturam stomacho esse subiectam, quod cibi et potionis sit, receptaculum: pulmones autem et cor extrinsecus spiritum adducant; multa in alvo mirabiliter effecta, quae constarent ex nervis; et quod sit multiplex et tortuosa, arceatque et contineat, sive illud aridum sit, sive humidum quod receperit
quemadmodum reliquiae cibi depellantur, tum astringentibus se intestinis, tum relaxantibus
Quemadmodum - inquit - fiat, haud sane difficile dictu est: sed tamen praetereundum, ne quid habeat iniucunditatis oratio
ne quid iniucunditatis