Translations:CP 05410/10/en
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- ↑ The "general's brevitas" is an almost literal translation of an expression by Tacitus that is well known to Latin scholars: imperatoria brevitas (Histories, I, 18), this "brevity of command" denoting laconic and effective speech by military men (as opposed to the persuasive rhetoric of advocates and politicians). But the word "silentium" introduced into the expression by Proust is an allusion to a particular general, commander in chief Joseph Joffre, chief of staff of the French army, the "victor of the Marne," who was famous for his silences and his concision. (See the biography by Alexander Kahn, Life of General Joffre, New York, Stokes, 1915, p. 9; see too, for example, this caricature, "Le silencieux : Joffre" (The silent one: Joffre), in Le Rire rouge of 19 December 1914). [With gratitude to Christiane Deloince-Louette for her identification of the allusion to Tacitus.] [LJ, FL]