| John Bartlett (18201905). Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. 1919. |
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| NUMBER: | 8732 |
| AUTHOR: | Pliny the Elder (A.D. c. 23A.D. 79) |
| QUOTATION: | When a building is about to fall down, all the mice desert it. 1 |
| ATTRIBUTION: | Natural History. Book viii. Sect. 103. |
| BIOGRAPHY: | Columbia Encyclopedia. |
| | Note 1. This is alluded to by Cicero in his letters to Atticus, and is mentioned by Ælian (Animated Nature, book vi. chap. 41). It is like our proverb, Rats leave a sinking ship. [back] |
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