Quintus Ennius (idea)

Strangely enough, Ennius once penned a character sketch (from a fragment of the orginal work, probably preserved in Cicero's writing) of the perfect noder:
or was it the ideal Roman? Whatever.

“…a learned, trusty, winsome man and a fine talker,
content with his own, happy and shrewd;
one who spoke the right thing at the right time,
and obliging; of few words;
keeping many old-time ways of which a bygone age
long buried is the maker,
and manners old and new;
keeping also to the modes of many a one of our elders,
and the laws too of gods and men;
one who could prudently speak out hearsay or keep it to himself.”

And you thought the Classics had nothing left to teach us. (Translation by E. H. Warmington)