Publius Terentius Afer (Terence) Eunuchus 2.3

Henry Thomas Riley (Translator), George Colman (Translator)

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Eunuchus. Publius Terentius Afer (Terence). Henry Thomas Riley (Translator), George Colman (Translator). Ney York. 1874.

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Current edition Perseus

Eunuchus; or, The Eunuch (English) (Terence. The Comedies of Terence. Riley, Henry Thomas; Colman, George, translators. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1872.)

Editions (1)
Eunuchus Perseus (Terence. Publii Terentii Comoediae Sex. Parry, Edward St. John, editor. London: Whittaker and Co.; George Bell, 1857.) — 2.3 focus

Notes on the current edition

Eunuchus; or, The Eunuch

1. In your little room. Though cellulam seems to be considered by some to mean cupboard or larder, it is more probable that it here signifies the little room which was appropriated to each slave in the family for his own use.
2. Shoulders kept down and chests well girthed: Ovid, in the Art of Love, B. iii., 1. 274, alludes to the strophium or girth here referred to:
For high shoulders, small pads are suitable; and let the girth encircle the bosom that is too prominent.
Becker thinks that the strophium was different from the fascia or stomacher, mentioned in the Remedy of Love, 1. 338:
Does a swelling bosom cover all her breast, let no stomacher conceal it.
From Martial we learn that the strophium was made of leather.
3. Training for a boxer: Pugilem. This means robust as a boxer, or athlete. These persons were naturally considered as the types of robustness, being dieted for the purpose of increasing their flesh and muscle.
4. Complexion genuine: Color verus. The same expression is used by Ovid, in the Art of Love, B. iii., 1. 164:
Et melior vero quaeritur arte color:
And by art a color is sought superior to the genuine one.
5. Full of juiciness: Succi plenum. A similar expression occurs in the Miles Gloriosus of Plautus, 1. 787, where Periplecoimenus wishes inquiry to be made for a woman who is
siccam, at succidam
, sober, but full of juice: i. e. replete with the plumpness and activity of youth.
6. The very flower of youth. Ovid makes mention of the flos or bloom of youth, Art of Love, B. ii., 1. 663:
And don’t you inquire what year she is now passing, nor under what Consulship she was born; a privilege which the rigid Censor possesses. And this, especially, if she has passed the bloom of youth, and her best years are fled, and she now pulls out the whitening hairs.
7. Be my advocate. Advocatus. It must be remembered that this word did not among the Romans bear the same sense as the-word advocate does with us. The advocati were the friends of a man who accompanied him when his cause was pleaded, and often performed the part of witnesses; those who assisted a person in a dispute or difficulty were also his advocati, and in this respect distantly resembled the second or friend of a party in the modern duel. In the Phormio, Hegio, Cratinus, and Crito are introduced as the advocati of Demipho. See also the Paenulus of Plautus, and the Notes to that Play in Bohn’s Translation.
8. An hour elapsed. Hora is here used to signify the long time, that, in his impatience, it appeared to him to be.
9. It’s all over with you,—you’ve said your last. Ilicet and conclamatum est, are words of mournful import, which were used with regard to the funeral rites of the Romans. Ilicet, you may begone, was said aloud when the funeral was concluded. Conclamare, implied the ceremony of calling upon the dead person by name, before light was set to the funeral pile; on no answer being given, he was concluded to be really dead, and the pile was set fire to amid the cries of those present: conclamatum est would consequently signify that all hope has gone.
10. Thais the Courtesan. Cooke remarks here, somewhat hypercritically as it would seem:
Thais is not called meretrix here opprobriously, but to distinguish her from other ladies of the same name, who were not of the same profession.
11. A Eunuchl: Eunuchs formed part of the establishment of wealthy persons, who, in imitation of the Eastern nobles, confided the charge of their wives, daughters, or mistresses to them. Though Thais would have no such necessity for his services, her wish to imitate the reginae, or great ladies, would make him a not unacceptable present. See the Addresses of Ovid to the Eunuch Bagous in the Amours, B. ii., El. 2, 3.
12. As she is reported to be. Donatus remarks this as an instance of the art of Terence, in preserving the probability of Chaerea’s being received for the Eunuch. He shows hereby that he is so entirely a stranger to the family that he does not even know the person of Thais. It is also added that she has not been long in the neighborhood, and he has been on duty at the Piraeus . The meaning of his regret is, that, not knowing Thais, he will not have an opportunity of seeing the girl.
13. Have to pay the penalty. In me cudetur faba, literally, the bean will be struck or laid about me; meaning, I shall have to smart for it. There is considerable doubt what is the origin of this expression, and this doubt existed as early as the time of Donatus. He says that it was a proverb either taken from the threshing of beans with a flail by the countrymen; or else from the circumstance of the cooks who have dressed the beans, but have not moistened them sufficiently, being sure to have them thrown at their heads, as though for the purpose of softening them. Neither of these solutions seems so probable as that suggested by Madame Dacier, that dried beans were inserted in the thongs of the scuticae, or whips, with which the slaves were beaten. According to others the knots in the whips were only called fabae, from their resemblance to beans.
14. Is it disqraceful. Donatus remarks that here Terence obliquely defends the subject of the Play.