The Power of Silence

Hoc agere est causas, hoc dicere, Cinna, diserte, horis, Cinna, decem dicere uerba nouem? Sed modo clepsydras ingenti uoce petisti quattuor. O quantum, Cinna, tacere potes! Is this your pleading of causes, is this eloquence, Cinna, In ten hours, Cinna, to say nine words? And just now in loud tones you asked for four water-clocks! Oh, what store of silence, Cinna, you possess!

Martial, Epigrams, Book 8, VII
English translation by Walter C. A. Ker

The internal workings of a water-clock. From “The Book of Archimedes on the Construction of Water-Clocks”. Or. 14270, f. 16v. Credit: Qatar National Library.