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Book X

I

1arg

Whether one ought to say tertium consul or tertio; and how Gnaeus Pompeius, when he would inscribe his honours on the theatre which he was about to dedicate, by Cicero's advice evaded the difficulty as to the form of that word.

1 I SENT a letter from Athens to a friend of mine in Rome. In it I said that I had now written him for the third time ( tertium). In his reply he asked me to give my reason for having written tertium and not tertio. He added that he hoped I would at the same time inform him what I thought about the question whether one should say tertium consul, meaning

consul for the third time,

and quartum, or tertio and quarto; since he had heard a learned man at Rome say tertio and quarto consul, not tertium and quartum; also, that Coelius had so written ¹ at the beginning of his third book and that Quintus Claudius in his eleventh book said ² that Marius was chosen consul for the seventh time, using septimo.

In reply to these questions, to decide both matters about which he had written to me, I contented myself with quoting Marcus Varro, a more learned man in my opinion than Coelius and Claudius together. For Varro has made it quite plain what ought to be said, and I did not wish, when at a distance, to enter into a dispute with a man who had the name of being learned.

Marcus Varro's words, in the fifth book of his Disciplinae, are as follows: ³

It is one thing to be made praetor quarto, and another quartum; for quarto refers to order and indicates that three were elected before him; ⁴ quartum refers to time and indicates that he had been made praetor three times before. Accordingly Ennius was right when he wrote: ⁵

Quintus, his sire, a fourth time ( quartum) consul is,

and Pompeius was timid when, in order to avoid writing consul tertium or tertio on his theatre, he did not write the final letters.

⁶

What Varro briefly and somewhat obscurely hinted at concerning Pompey, Tullius Tiro, Cicero's freedman, wrote at greater length in one of his letters, substantially as follows: ⁷

When Pompey was preparing to consecrate the temple of Victory, the steps of which formed his theatre, ⁸ and to inscribe upon it his name and honours, the question arose whether consul tertium should be written, or tertio. Pompey took great pains to refer this question to the most learned men of Rome, and when there was difference of opinion, some maintaining that tertio ought to be written, others tertium, Pompey asked Cicero,

says Varro,

to decide upon what seemed to him the more correct form.

Then Cicero was reluctant to pass judgment upon learned men, lest he might seem to have censured the men themselves in criticizing their opinion.

He accordingly advised Pompey to write neither tertium nor tertio, but to inscribe the first four letters only, so that the meaning was shown without writing the whole word, but yet the doubt as to the form of the word was concealed.

But that of which Varro and Tiro spoke is not now written in that way on this same theatre. For when, many years later, the back wall of the stage had fallen and was restored, the number of the third consulship was indicated, not as before, by the first four letters, but merely by three incised lines. ⁹

However, in the fourth book of Marcus Cato's Origines we find: ¹⁰

The Carthaginians broke the treaty for the sixth time ( sextum).

This word indicates that they had violated the treaty five times before, and that this was the sixth time. The Greeks too in distinguishing numbers of this kind use tri/ton kai\ te/tarton, which corresponds to the Latin words tertium quartumque.

II

2arg

What Aristotle has recorded about the number of children born at one time.

1 THE philosopher Aristotle has recorded ¹¹ that a woman in Egypt bore five children at one birth; this, he said, was the limit of human multiple parturition; more children than that had never been known to be born at one time, and even that number was very rare. But in the reign of the deified Augustus the historians of the time say that a maid servant of Caesar Augustus in the region of Laurentum brought forth five children, and that they lived for a few days; that their mother died not long after she had been delivered, whereupon a monument was erected to her by order of Augustus on the via Laurentina, and on it was inscribed the number of her children, as I have given it.

III

3arg

A collection of famous passages from the speeches of Gaius Gracchus, Marcus Cicero and Marcus Cato, and a comparison of them.

1 GAIUS GRACCHUS is regarded as a powerful and vigorous speaker. No one disputes this. But how can one tolerate the opinion of some, that he was more impressive, more spirited and more fluent than Marcus Tullius? Indeed, I lately read the speech of Gaius Gracchus On the Promulgation of Laws, in which, with all the indignation of which he is master, he complains that Marcus Marius and other distinguished men of the Italian free-towns were unlawfully beaten with rods by magistrates of the Roman people.

His words on the subject are as follows: ¹²

The consul lately came to Teanum Sidicinum. His wife said that she wished to bathe in the men's baths. Marcus Marius, the quaestor of Sidicinum, was instructed to send away the bathers from the baths. The wife tells her husband that the baths were not given up to her soon enough and that they were not sufficiently clean. Therefore a stake was planted in the forum and Marcus Marius, the most illustrious man of his city, was led to it. His clothing was stripped off, he was whipped with rods. The people of Cales, when they heard of this, passed a decree that no one should think of using the public baths when a Roman magistrate was in town. At Ferentinum, for the same reason, our praetor ordered the quaestors to be arrested; one threw himself from the wall, the other was caught and beaten with rods.

In speaking of such an atrocious action, in so lamentable and distressing a manifestation of public injustice, has he said anything either fluent or brilliant, or in such a way as to arouse tears and pity; is there anything that shows an outpouring of indignation and solemn and impressive remonstrance? Brevity there is, to be sure, grace, and a simple purity of expression, such as we sometimes have in the more refined of the comedies.

Gracchus also in another place speaks as follows: ¹³

I will give you a single example of the lawlessness of our young men, and of their entire lack of self-control. Within the last few years a young man who had not yet held a magisterial office was sent as an envoy from Asia. He was carried in a litter. A herdsman, one of the peasants of Venusia, met him, and not knowing whom they were bearing, asked in jest if they were carrying a corpse. Upon hearing this, the young man ordered that the litter be set down and that the peasant be beaten to death with the thongs by which it was fastened.

Now these words about so lawless and cruel an outrage do not differ in the least from those of ordinary conversation. But in Marcus Tullius, when in a similar case Roman citizens, innocent men, are beaten with rods contrary to justice and contrary to the laws, or tortured to death, what pity is then aroused! What complaints does he utter! How he brings the whole scene before our eyes! What a mighty surge of indignation and bitterness comes seething forth! By Heaven! when I read those words of Cicero's, my mind is possessed with the sight and sound of blows, cries and lamentation. For example, the words which he speaks about Gaius Verres, which I have quoted so far as my memory went, which was all that I could do at present: ¹⁴

The man himself came into the forum, blazing with wickedness and frenzy. His eyes burned, every feature of his face displayed cruelty. All were waiting to see to what ends he would go, or what he would do, when on a sudden he gave orders that the man be dragged forth, that he be stripped in the middle of the forum and bound, and that rods be brought.

Now, so help me! the mere words

he ordered that he be stripped and bound, and rods brought

arouse such emotion and horror that you do not seem to hear the act described, but to see it acted before your face.

But Gracchus plays the part, not of one who complains or implores, but of a mere narrator:

A stake,

he says,

was planted in the forum, his clothing was stripped off, he was beaten with rods.

But Marcus Cicero, finely representing the idea of continued action, says, ¹⁵ not

he was beaten,

but

a citizen of Rome was being beaten with rods in the middle of the forum at Messana, while in the meantime no groan, no sound was heard from that wretched man amid his torture and the resounding blows except these words, 'I am a Roman citizen.' By thus calling to mind his citizenship he hoped to avert all their stripes and free his body from torture.

Then Cicero with vigour, spirit and fiery indignation complains of so cruel an outrage and inspires the Romans with hatred and detestation of Verres by these words: ¹⁶

O beloved name of liberty! O eminent justice of our country! O Porcian and Sempronian laws! O authority of the tribunes, earnestly desired and finally restored to the Roman commons! Pray, have all these blessings fallen to this estate, that a Roman citizen, in a province of the Roman people, in a town of our allies, should be bound and flogged in the forum by one who derived the emblems of his power from the favour of the Roman people? What! when fire and hot irons and other tortures were applied, although your victim's bitter lamentation and piteous outcries did not affect you, were you not moved by the tears and loud groans even of the Roman citizens who were then present?

These outrages Marcus Tullius bewailed bitterly and solemnly, in appropriate and eloquent terms. But if anyone has so rustic and so dull an ear that this brilliant and delightful speech and the harmonious arrangement of Cicero's words do not give him pleasure; if he prefers the earlier oration because it is unadorned, concise and unstudied, yet has a certain native charm, and because it has, so to say, a shade and colour of misty antiquity—let such a one, if he has any judgment at all, study the address in a similar case of Marcus Cato, a man of a still earlier time, to whose vigour and flow of language Gracchus could never hope to attain. He will realize, I think, that Cato was not content with the eloquence of his own time, but aspired to do even then what Cicero later accomplished. For in the speech which is entitled On Sham Battles he thus made complaint of Quintus Thermus: ¹⁷

He said that his provisions had not been satisfactorily attended to by the decemvirs. ¹⁸ He ordered them to be stripped and scourged. The Bruttiani ¹⁹ scourged the decemvirs, many men saw it done. Who could endure such an insult, such tyranny, such slavery? No king has ever dared to act thus; shall such outrages be inflicted upon good men, born of a good family, and of good intentions? Where is the protection of our allies? Where is the honour of our forefathers? To think that you have dared to inflict signal wrongs, blows, lashes, stripes, these pains and tortures, accompanied with disgrace and extreme ignominy, since their fellow citizens and many other men looked on! But amid how great grief, what groans, what tears, what lamentations have I heard that this was done! Even slaves bitterly resent injustice; what feeling do you think that such men, sprung from good families, endowed with high character, had and will have so long as they live?

When Cato said

the Bruttiani scourged them,

lest haply anyone should inquire the meaning of Bruttiani, it is this: When Hannibal the Carthaginian was in Italy with his army, and the Romans had suffered several defeats, the Bruttii were the first people of all Italy to revolt to Hannibal. Angered at this, the Romans, after Hannibal left Italy and the Carthaginians were defeated, by way of ignominious punishment refused to enrol the Bruttii as soldiers or treat them as allies, but commanded them to serve the magistrates when they went to their provinces, and to perform the duties of slaves. Accordingly, they accompanied the magistrates in the capacity of those who are called

floggers

in the plays, and bound or scourged those whom they were ordered. And because they came from the land of the Bruttii, ²⁰ they were called Bruttiani.

IV

4arg

How Publius Nigidius with great cleverness showed that words are not arbitrary, but natural.

1 PUBLIUS NIGIDIUS in his Grammatical Notes shows that nouns and verbs were formed, not by a chance use, but by a certain power and design of nature, a subject very popular in the discussions of the philosophers; for they used to inquire whether words originate by

nature

or are man-made. ²¹ Nigidius employs many arguments to this end, to show that words appear to be natural rather than arbitrary. Among these the following seems particularly neat and ingenious ²² :

When we say vos, or 'you,'

says Nigidius,

we make a movement of the mouth suitable to the meaning of the word; for we gradually protrude the tips of our lips and direct the impulse of the breath towards those with whom we are speaking. But on the other hand, when we say nos, or 'us,' we do not pronounce the word with a powerful forward impulse of the voice, nor with the lips protruded, but we restrain our breath and our lips, so to speak, within ourselves. The same thing happens in the words tu or 'thou,' ego or ' I,' tibi ' to thee,' and mihi 'to me.' For just as when we assent or dissent, a movement of the head or eyes corresponds with the nature of the expression, so too in the pronunciation of these words there is a kind of natural gesture made with the mouth and breath. The same principle that we have noted in our own speech applies also to Greek words.

V

5arg

Whether avarus is a simple word or, as it appears to Publius Nigidius, a compound, made up of two parts.

1 PUBLIUS NIGIDIUS, in the twenty-ninth book of his Commentaries,²³ declares that avarus is not a simple word, but is compounded of two parts:

For that man,

he says,

is called avarus, or 'covetous,' who is avidus aeris, or 'eager for money;' but in the compound the letter e is lost.

He also says ²⁴ that a man is called by the compound term locuples, or

rich,

when he holds pleraque loca, that is to say,

many possessions.

²⁵

But his statement about locuples is the stronger and more probable. As to avarus there is doubt; for why may it not seem to be derived from one single word, namely aveo,²⁶ and formed in the same way as amarus, about which there is general agreement that it is not a compound?

VI

6arg

That a fine was imposed by the plebeian aediles on the daughter of Appius Caecus, a woman of rank, because she spoke too arrogantly.

1 PUBLIC punishment was formerly inflicted, not only upon crimes, but even upon arrogant language; so necessary did men think it to maintain the dignity of Roman conduct inviolable. For the daughter of the celebrated Appius Caecus, when leaving the plays of which she had been a spectator, was jostled by the crowd of people that surrounded her, flocking together from all sides. When she had extricated herself, complaining that she had been roughly handled, she added:

What, pray, would have become of me, and how much more should I have been crowded and pressed upon, had not my brother Publius Claudius lost his fleet in the sea-fight and with it a vast number of citizens? ²⁷ Surely I should have lost my life, overwhelmed by a still greater mass of people. How I wish,

said she,

that my brother might come to life again, take another fleet to Sicily, and destroy that crowd which has just knocked poor me about.

Because of such wicked and arrogant words, Gaius Fundanius and Tiberius Sempronius, the plebeian aediles, ²⁸ imposed a fine upon the woman of twenty-five thousand pounds of full-weight bronze. ²⁹ Ateius Capito, in his commentary On Public Trials, says ³⁰ that this happened in the first Punic war, in the consulship of Fabius Licinus and Otacilius Crassus. ³¹

VII

7arg

Marcus Varro, I remember, writes that of the rivers which flow outside ³² the limits of the Roman empire the Nile is first in size, the Danube second, and next the Rhone.

1 OF all the rivers which flow into the seas included within the Roman empire, which the Greeks call

the inner sea,

it is agreed that the Nile is the greatest. Sallust wrote ³³ that the Danube is next in size; but Varro, when he discussed the part of the earth which is called Europe, placed ³⁴ the Rhone among the first three rivers of that quarter of the earth, by which he seems to make it a rival of the Danube; for the Danube also is in Europe.

VIII

8arg

That among the ignominious punishments which were inflicted upon soldiers was the letting of blood; and what seems to be the reason for such a penalty.

1 THIS also was a military punishment in old times, to disgrace a soldier by ordering a vein to be opened, and letting blood. There is no reason assigned for this in the old records, so far as I could find; but I infer that it was first done to soldiers whose minds were affected and who were not in a normal condition, so that it appears to have been not so much a punishment as a medical treatment. But afterwards I suppose that the same penalty was customarily inflicted for many other offences, on the ground that all who sinned were not of sound mind. ³⁵

IX

9arg

In what way and in what form the Roman army is commonly drawn up, and the names of the formations.

1 THERE are military terms which are applied to an army drawn up in a certain manner:

the front,

reserves,

wedge,

ring,

mass,

shears,

saw,

wings,

towers.

³⁶ These and some other terms you may find in the books of those who have written about military affairs. However, they are taken from the things themselves to which the names are strictly applied, and in drawing up an army the forms of the objects designated by each of these words is represented.

X

10arg

The reason why the ancient Greeks and Romans wore a ring on the next to the little finger of the left hand.

1 I HAVE heard that the ancient Greeks wore a ring on the finger of the left hand which is next to the little finger. They say, too, that the Roman men commonly wore their rings in that way. Apion in his Egyptian History says ³⁷ that the reason for this practice is, that upon cutting into and opening human bodies, a custom in Egypt which the Greeks call a)natomai/, or

dissection,

it was found that a very fine nerve proceeded from that finger alone of which we have spoken, and made its way to the human heart; that it therefore seemed quite reasonable that this finger in particular should be honoured with such an ornament, since it seems to be joined, and as it were united, with that supreme organ, the heart.

XI

11arg

The derivation and meaning of the word mature, and that it is generally used improperly; and also that the genitive of praecox is praecocis and not praecoquis.

1 MATURE in present usage signifies

hastily

and

quickly,

contrary to the true force of the word; for mature means quite a different thing. Therefore Publius Nigidius, a man eminent in the pursuit of all the liberal arts, says: ³⁸

Mature means neither 'too soon' nor 'too late,' but something between the two and intermediate.

Publius Nigidius has spoken well and properly. For of grain and fruits those are called matura, or

mature,

which are neither unripe and hard, nor falling and decayed, but full-grown and ripened in their proper time. But since that which was not done negligently was said to be done mature, the force of the word has been greatly extended, and an act is now said to be done mature which is done with some haste, and not one which is done without negligence; whereas such things as are immoderately hastened are more properly called inmatura, or

untimely.

That limitation of the word, and of the action itself, which was made by Nigidius was very elegantly expressed by the deified Augustus with two Greek words; for we are told that he used to say in conversation, and write in his letters, speu=de brade/ws, that is,

make haste slowly,

³⁹ by which he recommended that to accomplish a result we should use at once the promptness of energy and the delay of carefulness, and it is from these two opposite qualities that maturitas springs. Virgil also, to one who is observant, has skilfully distinguished the two words properare and maturare as clearly opposite, in these verses: ⁴⁰

Whenever winter's rains the hind confine,

Much is there that at leisure may be done ( maturare),

Which in fair weather he must hurry on ( properanda).

Most elegantly has he distinguished between those two words; for in rural life the preparations during rainy weather may be made at leisure, since one has time for them; but in fine weather, since time presses, one must hasten.

But when we wish to indicate that anything has been done under too great pressure and too hurriedly, then it is more properly said to have been done praemature, or

prematurely,

than mature. Thus Afranius in his Italian play called The Title says: ⁴¹

With madness premature ( praemature) you seek a hasty power.

In this verse it is to be observed that he says praecocem and not praecoquem; for the nominative case is not praecoquis, but praecox.

XII

12arg

Of extravagant tales which Plinius Secundus most unjustly ascribes to the philosopher Democritus; and also about the flying image of a dove.

1 PLINY THE ELDER, in the twenty-eighth book of his Natural History asserts ⁴² that there is a book of that most famous philosopher Democritus On the Power and Nature of the Chameleon, and that he had read it; and then he transmits to us many foolish and intolerable absurdities, alleging that they were written by Democritus. Of these unwillingly, since they disgust me, I recall a few, as follows: that the hawk, the swiftest of all birds, if it chance to fly over a chameleon which is crawling on the ground, is dragged down and falls through some force to the earth, and offers and gives itself up of its own accord to be torn to pieces by the other birds. Another statement too is past human belief, namely, that if the head and neck of the chameleon be burned by means of the wood which is called oak, rain and thunder are suddenly produced, and that this same thing is experienced if the liver of that animal is burned upon the roof of a house. There is also another story, which by heaven! I hesitated about putting down, so preposterous is it; but I have made it a rule that we ought to speak our mind about the fallacious seduction of marvels of that kind, by which the keenest minds are often deceived and led to their ruin, and in particular those which are especially eager for knowledge. But I return to Pliny. He says ⁴³ that the left foot of the chameleon is roasted with an iron heated in the fire, along with an herb called by the same name,

chameleon

; both are mixed in an ointment, formed into a paste, and put in a wooden vessel. He who carries the vessel, even if he go openly amid a throng, can be seen by no one.

I think that these marvellous and false stories written by Plinius Secundus are not worthy of the name of Democritus; the same is true of what the same Pliny, in his tenth book, asserts ⁴⁴ that Democritus wrote; namely, that there were certain birds with a language of their own, and that by mixing the blood of those birds a serpent was produced; that whoso ate it would understand the language of birds and their conversation.

Many fictions of this kind seem to have been attached to the name of Democritus by ignorant men, who sheltered themselves under his reputation and authority. But that which Archytas the Pythagorean is said to have devised and accomplished ought to seem no less marvellous, but yet not wholly absurd. For not only many eminent Greeks, but also the philosopher Favorinus, a most diligent searcher of ancient records, have stated most positively that Archytas made a wooden model of a dove with such mechanical ingenuity and art that it flew; so nicely balanced was it, you see, with weights and moved by a current of air enclosed and hidden within it. About so improbable a story I prefer to give Favorinus' own words:

Archytas the Tarentine, being in other lines also a mechanician, made a flying dove out of wood. Whenever it lit, it did not rise again. For until this... .

⁴⁵

XIII

13arg

On what principle the ancients said cum. partim hominum.

1 PARTIM homninum venerunt is a common expression, meaning

a part of the men came,

that is,

some men.

For partim is here an adverb and is not declined by cases. Hence we may say cum partim hominum, that is,

with some men

with a certain part of the men.

Marcus Cato, in his speech On the> property of Florius has written as follows: ⁴⁶

There she acted like a harlot, she went from the banquet straight to the couch and with a part of them ( cum partim illorum) she often conducted herself in the same manner.

The less educated, however, read cum parti, as if partim were declined as a noun, not used as an adverb.

But Quintus Claudius, in the twenty-first book of his Annals, has used this figure in a somewhat less usual manner; he says:

For with the part of the forces ( cum partim copiis) of young men that was pleasing to him.

⁴⁷ Also in the twenty-third book of the Annals of Claudius are these words: ⁴⁸

But that I therefore acted thus, but whether to say that it happened from the negligence of a part of the magistrates ( neglegentia partim magistratum), from avarice, or from the calamity of the Roman people, I know not.

XIV

14arg

In what connection Cato said iniuria mihi factum itur.

1 I HEAR the phrase illi iniuriam factum iri, or

injury will be done to him,

I hear contumeliam dictum iri, or

insult will be offered,

commonly so used everywhere, and I notice that this form of expression is a general one; I therefore refrain from citing examples. But contumelia illi or iniuria factum itur,

injury or insult is going to be offered him,

is somewhat less common, and therefore I shall give an example of that. Marcus Cato, speaking For Himself against Gaius Cassius, says: ⁴⁹

And so it happened, fellow citizens, that in this insult which is going to be put upon me ( quae mihi factum itur) by the insolence of this man I also, fellow citizens (so help me!), pity our country.

But just as contumeliam factum iri means

to go to inflict an injury,

that is, to take pains that it be inflicted, just so contumelia nihi factum itur expresses the same idea, merely with a change of case.

XV

15arg

Of the ceremonies of the priest and priestess of Jupiter; and words quoted from the praetor's edict, in which he declares that he will not compel either the Vestal virgins or the priest of Jupiter to take oath.

1 CEREMONIES in great number are imposed upon the priest of Jupiter ⁵⁰ and also many abstentions, of which we read in the books written On the Public Priests; and they are also recorded in the first book of Fabius Pictor. ⁵¹ Of these the following are in general what I remember: It is unlawful for the priest of Jupiter to ride upon a horse; it is also unlawful for him to see the

classes ⁵² arrayed

outside the pomerium, ⁵³ that is, the army in battle array; hence the priest of Jupiter is rarely made consul, since wars were entrusted to the consuls; also it is always unlawful for the priest to take an oath; likewise to wear a ring, unless it be perforated and without a gem. It is against the law for fire to be taken from the flaminia, that is, from the home of the flamen Dialis, except for a sacred rite; if a person in fetters enter his house, he must be loosed, the bonds must be drawn up through the impluvium⁵⁴ to the roof and from there let down into the street. He has no knot in his head-dress, girdle, or any other part of his dress; if anyone is being taken to be flogged and falls at his feet as a suppliant, it is unlawful for the man to be flogged on that day. Only a free man may cut the hair of the Dialis. It is not customary for the Dialis to touch, or even name, a she-goat, raw flesh, ivy, and beans.

The priest of Jupiter must not pass under an arbour of vines. The feet of the couch on which he sleeps must be smeared with a thin coating of clay, and he must not sleep away from this bed for three nights in succession, and no other person must sleep in that bed. At the foot of his bed there should be a box with sacrificial cakes. The cuttings of the nails and hair of the Dialis must be buried in the earth under a fruitful tree. Every day is a holy day for the Dialis. He must not be in the open air without his cap; that he might go without it in the house has only recently been decided by the pontiffs, so Masurius Sabinus wrote, ⁵⁵ and it is said that some other ceremonies have been remitted and he has been excused from observing them.

The priest of Jupiter

must not touch any bread fermented with yeast. He does not lay off his inner tunic except under cover, in order that he may not be naked in the open air, as it were under the eye of Jupiter. No other has a place at table above the flamen Dialis, except the rex sacrificulus.⁵⁶ If the Dialis has lost his wife he abdicates his office. The marriage of the priest cannot be dissolved except by death. He never enters a place of burial, he never touches a dead body; but he is not forbidden to attend a funeral.

The ceremonies of the priestess of Jupiter are about the same; they say that she observes other separate ones: for example, that she wears a dyed robe, that she has a twig from a fruitful tree in her head-dress, that it is forbidden for her to go up more than three rounds of a ladder, except the so called Greek ladders; ⁵⁷ also, when she goes to the Argei, ⁵⁸ that she neither combs her head nor dresses her hair.

I have added the words of the praetor in his standing edict concerning the flamen Dialis and the priestess of Vesta: ⁵⁹

In the whole of my jurisdiction I will not compel the flamen of Jupiter or a priestess of Vesta to take an oath.

The words of Marcus Varro about the flamen Dialis, in the second book of his Divine Antiquities, are as follows: ⁶⁰

He alone has a white cap, either because he is the greatest of priests, or because a white victim should be sacrificed to Jupiter.

⁶¹

XVI

16arg

Errors in Roman History which Julius Hyginus noted in Virgil's sixth book.

1 HYGINUS criticizes ⁶² a passage in Virgil's sixth book and thinks that he would have corrected it. Palinurus is in the Lower World, begging Aeneas to take care that his body be found and buried. His words are: ⁶³

O save me from these ills, unconquered one;

Or throw thou earth upon me, for you can,

And to the port of Velia return.

How,

said he,

could either Palinurus know and name 'the port of Velia,' or Aeneas find the place from that name, when the town of Velia, from which he has called the harbour in that place 'Veline' was founded in the Lucanian district and called by that name when Servius Tullius was reigning in Rome, ⁶⁴ more than six hundred years after Aeneas came to Italy? For of those,

he adds,

who were driven from the land of Phocis ⁶⁵ by Harpalus, ⁶⁶ prefect of king Cyrus, some founded Velia, and others Massilia. Most absurdly, then, does Palinurus ask Aeneas to seek out the Veline port, when at that time no such name existed anywhere. Nor ought that to be considered a similar error,

said he,

which occurs in the first book: ⁶⁷

Exiled by fate, to Italy fared and to Lavinian strand,

and similarly in the sixth book: ⁶⁸

At last stood lightly poised on the Chalcidian height,

since it is usually allowed the poet himself to mention, kata\ pro/lhyin, 'by anticipation,' in his own person some historical facts which took place later and of which he himself could know; just as Virgil knew the town of Lavinium and the colony from Calchis. But how could Palinurus,

he said,

know of events that occurred six hundred years later, unless anyone believes that in the Lower World he had the power of divination, as in fact the souls of the deceased commonly do? But even if you understand it in that way, although nothing of the kind is said, yet how could Aeneas, who did not have the power of divination, seek out the Veline port, the name of which at that time, as we have said before, was not in existence anywhere?

He also censures the following passage in the same book, and thinks that Virgil would have corrected it, had not death prevented:

For,

says He,

when he had named Theseus among those who had visited the Lower World and returned, and had said: ⁶⁹

But why name Theseus? why Alcides great?

And my race too is from almighty Jove,

he nevertheless adds afterwards: ⁷⁰

Unhappy Theseus sits, will sit for aye.

But how,

says he,

could it happen that one should sit for ever in the Lower World whom the poet mentions before among those who went down there and returned again, especially when the story of Theseus says that Hercules tore him from the rock and led him to the light of the Upper World?

He also says that Virgil erred in these lines: ⁷¹

He Argos and Mycenae shall uproot,

City of Agamemnon, and the heir

Of Aeacus himself, from war-renowned

Achilles sprung, ⁷² his ancestors of Troy

Avenging and Minerva's spotless shrine. ⁷³

He has confounded,

says Hyginus,

different persons and times. For the wars with the Achaeans and with Pyrrus were not waged at the same time nor by the same men. For Pyrrus, whom he calls a descendant of Aeacus, having crossed over from Epirus into Italy, waged war with the Romans against Manius Curius, who was their leader in that war. ⁷⁴ But the Argive, that is, the Achaean war, was carried on many years after under the lead of Lucius Mummius. ⁷⁵ The middle verse, therefore, about Pyrrus,

says he,

may be omitted, since it was inserted inopportunely; and Virgil,

he said,

undoubtedly would have struck it out.

XVII

17arg

Why and how the philosopher Democritus deprived himself of his eye-sight; and the very fine and elegant verses of Laberius on that subject.

1 IT is written in the records of Grecian story that the philosopher Democritus, a man worthy of reverence beyond all others and of the highest authority, of his own accord deprived himself of eyesight, because he believed that the thoughts and meditations of his mind in examining nature's laws would be more vivid and exact, if he should free them from the allurements of sight and the distractions offered by the eyes. This act of his, and the manner too in which he easily blinded himself by a most ingenious device, the poet Laberius has described, in a farce called The Ropemaker, in very elegant and finished verses; but he has imagined another reason for voluntary blindness and applied it with no little neatness to his own subject. For the character who speaks these lines in Laberius is a rich and stingy miser, lamenting in vigorous terms the excessive extravagance and dissipation of his young son. These are the verses of Laberius: ⁷⁶

Democritus, Abdera's scientist,

Set up a shield to face Hyperion's rise,

That sight he might destroy by blaze of brass,

Thus by the sun's rays he destroyed his eyes,

Lest he should see bad citizens' good luck;

So I with blaze and splendour of my gold,

Would render sightless my concluding years,

Lest I should see my spendthrift son's good luck.

XVIII

18arg

The story of Artemisia; and of the contest at the tomb of Mausolus in which celebrated writers took part.

1 ARTEMISIA is said to have loved her husband Mausolus with a love surpassing all the tales of passion and beyond one's conception of human affection. Now Mausolus, as Marcus Tullius tells us, ⁷⁷ was king of the land of Caria; according to some Greek historians he was governor of a province, the official whom the Greeks term a satrap. When this Mausolus had met his end amid the lamentations and in the arms of his wife, ⁷⁸ and had been buried with a magnificent funeral, Artemisia, inflamed with grief and with longing for her spouse, mingled his bones and ashes with spices, ground them into the form of a powder, put them in water, and drank them; and she is said to have given many other proofs of the violence of her passion. For perpetuating the memory of her husband, she also erected, with great expenditure of labour, that highly celebrated tomb, ⁷⁹ which has been deemed worthy of being numbered among the seven wonders of the world. ⁸⁰ When Artemisia dedicated this monument, consecrated to the deified shades of Mausolus, she instituted an agon, that is to say, a contest in celebrating his praises, offering magnificent prizes of money and other valuables. Three men distinguished for their eminent talent and eloquence are said to have come to contend in this eulogy, Theopompus, Theodectes ⁸¹ and Naucrates; some have even written that Isocrates himself entered the lists with them. But Theopompus was adjudged the victor in that contest. He was a pupil of Isocrates.

The tragedy of Theodectes, entitled Mausolus, is still extant to-day; and that in it Theodectes was more pleasing than in his prose writings is the opinion of Hyginus in his Examples.⁸²

XIX

19arg

That a sin is not removed or lessened by citing in excuse similar sins which others have committed; with a passage front a speech of Demosthenes on that subject.

1 THE philosopher Taurus once reproved a young man with severe and vigorous censure because he had turned from the rhetoricians and the study of eloquence to the pursuit of philosophy, declaring that he had done something dishonourable and shameful. Now the young man did not deny the allegation, but urged in his defence that it was commonly done and tried to justify the baseness of the fault by citing examples and by the excuse of custom. And then Taurus, being the more irritated by the very nature of his defence, said:

Foolish and worthless fellow, if the authority and rules of philosophy do not deter you from following bad examples, does not even the saying of your own celebrated Demosthenes occur to you? For since it is couched in a polished and graceful form of words, it might, like a sort of rhetorical catch, the more easily remain fixed in your memory. For,

said he,

if I do not forget what as a matter of fact I read in my early youth, these are the words of Demosthenes, spoken against one who, as you now do, tried to justify and excuse his own sin by those of others: ⁸³ 'Say not, Sir, that this has often been done, but that it ought to be so done; for if anything was ever done contrary to the laws, and you followed that example, you would not for that reason justly escape punishment, but you would suffer much more severely. For just as, if anyone had suffered a penalty for it, you would not have proposed this, so if you suffer punishment now, no one else will propose it.'

Thus did Taurus, by the use of every kind of persuasion and admonition, incline his disciples to the principles of a virtuous and blameless manner of life.

XX

20arg

The meaning of rogatio, lex, plebisscitum and privilegium, and to what extent all those terms differ.

1 I HEAR it asked what the meaning is of lex, plebisscitum, rogatio, and privilegium. Ateius Capito, a man highly skilled in public and private law, defined the meaning of lex in these words: ⁸⁴

A law,

said he,

is a general decree of the people, or of the commons, answering an appeal ⁸⁵ made to them by a magistrate.

If this definition is correct, neither the appeal for Pompey's military command, nor about the recall of Cicero, nor as to the murder or Clodius, nor any similar decrees of the people of commons, can be called laws. For they are not general decrees, and they are framed with regard, not to the whole body of citizens, but to individuals. Hence they ought rather to be called privilegia, or

privileges,

since the ancients used priva where we now use singula (private or individual). This word Lucilius used in the first book of his Satires:⁸⁶

I'll give them, when they come, each his own ( priva) piece

Of tunny belly and acarne ⁸⁷ heads.

Capito, however, in the same definition divided ⁸⁸ the plebes,⁸⁹ or

commons,

from the populus, or

people,

since in the term

people

are embraced every part of the state and all its orders, but

commons

is properly applied to that part in which the patrician families of the citizens are not included. Therefore, according to Capito, a plebisscitum is a law which the commons, and not the people, adopt.

But the head itself, the origin, and as it were the fount of this whole process of law is the rogatio, whether the appeal ( rogatio) is to the people or to the commons, on a matter relating to all or to individuals. For all the words under discussion are understood and included in the fundamental principle and name of rogatio; for unless the people or commons be appealed to ( rogetur), no decree of the people or commons can be passed.

But although all this is true, yet in the old records we observe that no great distinction is made among the words in question. For the common term lex is used both of decrees of the commons and of

privileges,

and all are called by the indiscriminate and inexact name rogatio.

Even Sallust, who is most observant of propriety in the use of words, has yielded to custom and applied the term

law

to the

privilege

which was passed with reference to the return of Gnaeus Pompeius. The passage, from the second book of his Histories, reads as follows: ⁹⁰

For when Sulla, as consul, proposed a law ( legem) touching his return, the tribune of the commons, Gaius Herennius, had vetoed it by previous arrangement.

XXI

21arg

Why Marcus Cicero very scrupulously avoided any use of the words novissime and novissimus.

1 IT is clear that Marcus Cicero was unwilling to use many a word which is now in general circulation, and was so in his time, because he did not approve of them; for instance, novissimus and novissine. For although both Marcus Cato ⁹¹ and Sallust, ⁹² as well as others also of the same period, have used that word generally, and although many men besides who were not without learning wrote it in their books, yet he seems to have abstained from it, on the ground that it was not good Latin, since Lucius Aelius Stilo, ⁹³ who was the most learned man of his time, had avoided its use, as that of a novel and improper word.

Moreover, what Marcus Varro too thought of that word I have deemed it fitting to show from his own words in the sixth book of his De Lingua Latina, dedicated to Cicero: ⁹⁴

What used to be called extremum or 'last,'

says he,

is beginning to be called generally novissimum, a word which within my own memory both Aelius and several old men avoided as too new a term; as to its origin, just as from vetus we have vetustior and veterrimus, so from novus we get novior and novissimus.

⁹⁵

XXII

22arg

A passage taken from Plato's book entitled Gorgias, on the abuses of false philosophy, with which those who are ignorant of the rewards of true philosophy assail philosophers without reason.

1 PLATO, a man most devoted to the truth and most ready to point it out to all, has said truly and nobly, though not from the mouth of a dignified or suitable character, all that in general may be said against those idle and worthless fellows, who, sheltered under the name of philosophy, follow profitless idleness and darkness of speech and life. For although Callicles, whom he makes his speaker, being ignorant of true philosophy, heaps dishonourable and undeserved abuse upon philosophers, yet what he says is to be taken in such a way that we may gradually come to understand it as a warning to ourselves not to deserve such reproofs, and not by idle and foolish sloth to feign the pursuit and cultivation of philosophy.

I have written down Plato's own words on this subject from the book called Gorgias, not attempting to translate them, because no Latinity, much less my own, can emulate their qualities: ⁹⁶

Philosophy, Socrates, is indeed a nice thing, if one pursue it in youth with moderation; but if one occupy oneself with it longer than is proper, it is a corrupter of men. For even if a man be well endowed by nature and follow philosophy when past his youth, he must necessarily be ignorant of all those things in which a man ought to be versed if he is to be honourable, good and of high repute. For such men are ignorant both of the laws relating to the city, and of the language which it is necessary to use in the intercourse of human society, both privately and publicly, and of the pleasures and desires of human life; in brief, they are wholly unacquainted with manners. Accordingly, when they engage in any private or public business, they become a laughing-stock; just exactly as statesmen, I suppose, become ridiculous when they enter into your debates and discussions.

A little later he adds the following: "But I think it best to take part in both. It is good to pursue philosophy merely as a matter of education, and to be a philosopher is not dishonourable when one is young; but when one who is already older persists in the business, the thing becomes laughable, Socrates, and I for my part feel the same towards those who philosophize as towards those who lisp and play. Whenever I see a little boy, to whom it is fitting to speak thus, lisping and playing, I am pleased, and it seems to me becoming and liberal and suited to the age of childhood; but when I hear a small boy speaking with precision, it seems to me to be a disagreeable thing; it wounds my ears and appears to be something befitting a slave. When, however, one hears a man lisping, or sees him playing, it appears ridiculous, unmanly and deserving of stripes. I feel just the same way towards the philosophers When I see philosophy in a young man, I rejoice; it seems to me fitting, and I think that the young man in question is ingenuous; that he who does not study philosophy is not ingenuous and will never himself be worthy of anything noble or generous. But when I see an older man still philosophizing and not giving it up, such a man, Socrates, seems to me to deserve stripes. For, as I have just said, it is possible for such a man, even though naturally well endowed, to become unmanly, avoiding the business of the city and the marketplace, where, as the poet says, ⁹⁷ men become

most eminent,

and living the rest of his life in hiding with young men, whispering in a corner with three or four of them, but never accomplishing anything liberal, great or satisfactory."

These sentiments, as I have said, Plato put into the mouth of a man of no great worth indeed, yet possessing a reputation for common sense and understanding and a kind of uncompromising frankness. He does not, of course, refer to that philosophy which is the teacher of all the virtues, which excels in the discharge of public and private duties alike, and which, if nothing prevents, governs cities and the State with firmness, courage and wisdom; but rather to that futile and childish attention to trifles which contributes nothing to the conduct and guidance of life, but in which people of that kind grow old in

ill-timed playmaking,

⁹⁸ regarded as philosophers by the vulgar, as they were by him from whose lips the words that I have quoted come. ⁹⁹

XXIII

23arg

A passage from a speech of Marcus Cato on the mode of life and manners of women of the olden time; and also that the husband had the right to kill his wife, if she were taken in adultery.

1 Those who have written about the life and civilization of the Roman people say that the women of Rome and Latium

lived an abstemious life

; that is, that they abstained altogether from wine, which in the early language was called temetum; that it was an established custom for them to kiss their kinsfolk for the purpose of detection, so that, if they had been drinking, the odour might betray them. But they say that the women were accustomed to drink the second brewing, raisin wine, spiced wine ¹⁰⁰ and other sweet-tasting drinks of that kind. And these things are indeed made known in those books which I have mentioned, but Marcus Cato declares that women were not only censured but also punished by a judge no less severely if they had drunk wine than if they had disgraced themselves by adultery.

I have copied Marcus Cato's words from the oration entitled On the Dowry, in which it is also stated that husbands had the right to kill wives taken in adultery: ¹⁰¹

When a husband puts away his wife,

says he,

he judges the woman as a censor would, and has full powers if she has been guilty of any wrong or shameful act; she is severely punished if she has drunk wine; if she has done wrong with another man, she is condemned to death.

Further, as to the right to put her to death it was thus written:

If you should take your wife in adultery, you may with impunity put her to death without a trial; but if you should commit adultery or indecency, she must not presume to lay a finger on you, nor does the law allow it.

XXIV

24arg

That the most elegant speakers used the expressions die pristini, die crastini, die quarti, and die quinti, not those which are current now.

1 I HEAR die quarto and die quinto, which the Greeks express by ei)s teta/rthn kai\ ei)s pe/mpthn, used nowadays even by learned men, and one who speaks otherwise is looked down upon as crude and illiterate. But in the time of Marcus Tullius, and earlier, they did not, I think, speak in that way; for they used diequinte and diequinti as a compound adverb, with the second syllable of the word shortened. The deified Augustus, too, who was well versed in the Latin tongue and an imitator of his father's ¹⁰² elegance in discourse, has often in his letters ¹⁰³ used that means of designating the days. But it will be sufficient to show the undeviating usage of the men of old, if I quote the regular formula of the praetor, in which, according to the usage of our forefathers, he is accustomed to proclaim the festival known as the Compitalia. ¹⁰⁴ His words are as follows:

On the ninth day the Roman people, the Quirites, will celebrate the Compitalia; when they shall have begun, legal business ceases.

The praetor says dienoni, not die nono.

And not the praetor alone, but almost all antiquity, spoke in that way. Look you, this passage of the well-known poet Pomponius comes to my mind, from the Atellan farce entitled Mevia:¹⁰⁵

For six days now I've done no stroke of work;

The fourth day ( diequarte) I, poor wretch, shall starve to death.

There is also the following passage from Coelius in the second book of his Histories:¹⁰⁶

If you are willing to give me the cavalry and follow me yourself with the rest of the army, on the fifth day ( diequinti) I will have your dinner ready for you in the Capitol at Rome.

¹⁰⁷ But Coelius took both the story itself and the word from the fourth book of Marcus Cato's Origines, where we find the following: ¹⁰⁸

Then the master of the horse thus advised the Carthaginian dictator: 'Send me to Rome with the cavalry; on the fifth day ( diequinti) your dinner shall be ready for you in the Capitol.'

The final syllable of that word I find written sometimes with e and sometimes with i; for it was usual with those men of olden times very often to use those letters without distinction, saying praefiscine and praefiscini, proclivi and proclive, and using many other words of that kind with either ending; in the same way too they said die pristini, that is,

the day before,

which is commonly expressed by pridie, changing the order of the words in the compound, as if it were pristino die. Also by a similar usage they said die crastini, meaning crastino die or

to-morrow.

The priests of the Roman people, too, when they make a proclamation for the third day, say diem perendini. But just as very many people said die pristini, so Marcus Cato in his oration Against Furius¹⁰⁹ said die proximi or

the next day

; and Gnaeus Matius, an exceedingly learned man, in his Mimiambi, instead of our nudius tertius, or

four days ago,

has die quarto, in these lines: ¹¹⁰

Of late, four days ago ( die quarto), as I recall,

The only pitcher in the house he broke.

Therefore the distinction will be found to be, that we use die quarto of the past, but diequarte of the future.

XXV

25arg

The names of certain weapons, darts and swords, and also of boats and ships, which are found in the books of the early writers.

1 ONCE upon a time, when I was riding in a carriage, to keep my mind from being dull and unoccupied and a prey to worthless trifles, it chanced to occur to me to try to recall the names of weapons, darts and swords which are found in the early histories, and also the various kinds of boats and their names. Those, then, of the former that came to mind at the time are the following: spear, pike, fire-pike, half-pike, iron bolt, Gallic spear, lance, hunting-darts, javelins, long bolts, barbed-javelins, German spears, thonged-javelin, Gallic bolt, broadswords, poisoned arrows, ¹¹¹ Illyrian hunting-spears, cimeters, darts, swords, daggers, broadswords, double-edged swords, small-swords, poniards, cleavers.

Of the lingula, or

little tongue,

since it is less common, I think I ought to say that the ancients applied that term to an oblong small-sword, made in the form of a tongue; it is mentioned by Naevius in his tragedy Hesione. I quote the line: ¹¹²

Pray let me seem to please you with my tongue,

But with my little tongue ( lingula).

The rumpia too is a kind of weapon of the Thracian people, and the word occurs in the fourteenth book of the Annals of Quintus Ennius. ¹¹³

The names of ships which I recalled at the time are these: merchant-ships, cargo-carriers, skiffs, warships, cavalry-transports, cutters, fast cruisers, or, as the Greeks call them, ke/lhtes, barques, smacks, sailing-skiffs, light galleys, which the Greeks call i(stiokopoi or e)paktri/des, scouting-boats, galliots, tenders, flatboats, vetutiae moediae, yachts, pinnaces, long-galliots, scullers' boats, caupuls, ¹¹⁴ arks, fair-weather craft, pinks, lighters, spy-boats.

XXVI

26arg

That Asinius Pollio showed ignorance in criticizing Sallust because he used transgressus (crossing) for transfretatio (crossing the sea) and trangressi (those who had crossed) for qui transfretaverant (those who had crossed the sea).

1 ASINIUS POLLIO, in a letter which he addressed to Plancus, and certain others who were unfriendly to Gaius Sallustius, thought that Sallust deserved censure because in the first book of his Histories he called the crossing of the sea and a passage made in ships transgresses, using transgressi of those who had crossed the sea, for which the usual term is transfretare. I give Sallust's own words: ¹¹⁵

Accordingly Sertorius, having left a small garrison in Mauretania and taking advantage of a dark night and a favourable tide, tried either by secrecy or speed to avoid a battle while crossing ( in transgressu).

Then later he wrote: ¹¹⁶

When they had crossed ( transgressos), a mountain which had been seized in advance by the Lusitanians gave them all shelter.

This, they say, is an improper and careless usage, supported by no adequate authority.

For transgressus,

says Pollio,

comes from transgredi, 'to step across,' and this word itself refers to walking and stepping with the feet.

Therefore Pollio thought that the verb transgredi did not apply to those who fly or creep or sail, but only to those who walk and measure the way with their feet. Hence they say that in no good writer can transgressus be found applied to ships, or as the equivalent of transfretatio.

But, since cursus, or

running,

is often correctly used of ships, I ask why it is that ships may not be said to make a transgressus, especially since the small extent of the narrow strait which flows between Spain and the Afric land is most elegantly described by the word transgressio, as being a distance of only a few steps. But as to those who ask for authority and assert that ingredi or transgredi has not been used of sailing, I should like them to tell me how much difference they think there is between ingredi, or

march,

and ambulare, or

walk.

Yet Cato in his book On Farming says: ¹¹⁷

A farm should be chosen in a situation where there is a large town near by and the sea, or a river where ships pass ( ambulant).

Moreover Lucretius, by the use of this same expression, bears testimony that such figures are intentional and are regarded as ornaments of diction. For in his fourth book he speaks of a shout as

marching

( gradientem) through the windpipe and jaws, which is much bolder than the Sallustian expression about the ships. The lines of Lucretius are as follows: ¹¹⁸

The voice besides doth often scrape the throat;

A shout forth marching ( gradiens) doth make the windpipe rough.

Accordingly, Sallust, in the same book, uses progressus, not only of those who sailed in ships, but also of floating skiffs. I have added his own words about the skiffs: ¹¹⁹

Some of them, after going ( progressae) but a little way, the load being excessive and unstable, when panic had thrown the passengers into disorder, began to sink.

XXVII

27arg

A story of the Roman and the Carthaginian people, showing that they were rivals of nearly equal strength.

1 IT is stated in ancient records that the strength, the spirit and the numbers of the Roman and the Carthaginian people were once equal. And this opinion was not without foundation. With other nations the contest was for the independence of one or the other state, with the Carthaginians it was for the rule of the world.

An indication of this is found in the following word and act of each of the two peoples: Quintus Fabius, a Roman general, delivered a letter to the Carthaginians, in which it was written that the Roman people had sent them a spear and a herald's staff, signs respectively of war and peace; they might choose whichever they pleased and regard the one which they should choose as sent them by the Roman people. The Carthaginians replied that they chose neither one; those who had brought them might leave whichever they liked; that whatever should be left them they would consider that they themselves had chosen.

Marcus Varro, however, says that neither the spear itself nor the staff itself was sent, but two tokens, on one of which was engraved the representation of a staff; on the other that of a spear.

XXVIII

28arg

About the limits of the periods of boyhood, manhood and old age, taken from the History of Tubero.

1 TUBERO, in the first book of his History,¹²⁰ has written that King Servius Tullius, when he divided the Roman people into those five classes of older and younger men for the purpose of making the enrolment, regarded as pueri, or

boys,

those who were less than seventeen years old; then, from their seventeenth year, when they were thought to be fit for service, he enrolled them as soldiers, calling them up to the age of forty-six iuniores, or

younger men,

and beyond that age, seniores, or

elders.

I have made a note of this fact, in order that from the rating of Servius Tullius, that most sagacious king, the distinctions between boyhood, manhood, and old age might be known, as they were established by the judgment, and according to the usage, of our forefathers.

XXIX

29arg

That the particle atque is not only conjunctive, but has many and varied meanings.

1 THE particle atque is said by the grammarians to be a copulative conjunction. And as a matter of fact, it very often joins and connects words; but sometimes it has certain other powers, which are not sufficiently observed, except by those engaged in a diligent examination of the early literature. For it has the force of an adverb when we say

I have acted otherwise than ( atque) you,

for it is equivalent to aliter quam tu; and if it is doubled, it amplifies and emphasizes a statement, as we note in the Annals of Quintus Ennius, unless my memory of this verse is at fault: ¹²¹

And quickly ( atque atque) to the walls the Roman manhood came.

The opposite of this meaning is expressed by deque, also found in the early writers. ¹²²

Atque is said to have been used besides for another adverb also, namely statim, as is thought to be the case in these lines of Virgil, where that particle is employed obscurely and irregularly: ¹²³

Thus, by Fate's law, all speeds towards the worse,

And giving way, falls back; e'en as if one

Whose oars can barely force his skiff upstream

Should chance to slack his arms and cease to drive;

Then straightway ( atque) down the flood he's swept away.

Noctes Atticae. Aulus Gellius. John C. Rolfe (Translator). Cambridge, Mass.. 1927.

Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.

Funding provided by Tufts University.

Current edition Perseus

Attic Nights (English) (Gellius, Aulus. The Attic Nights of Aulus Gellius. Rolfe, John C., translator. Cambridge, Mass.; London: Harvard University Press; William Heinemann, 1927 (printing).)

Editions (1)

Noctes Atticae Perseus (Gellius, Aulus. The Attic Nights of Aulus Gellius. Rolfe, John C., editor. Cambridge, Mass.; London: Harvard University Press; William Heinemann, 1927 (printing).) — 10.1 focus

I

Argument

Tertiumne consul an tertio dici oporteat; et quonam modo Cn. Pompeius, cum in theatro, quod erat dedicaturus, honores suos scriberet, ¹ quaestionem ancipitem istius verbi de consilio Ciceronis vitaverit.

[1] FAMILIARI meo cuipiam litteras Athenis Romam misi.

[2] In his scriptum fuit me illi iam tertium scripsisse.

[3] Is ad me rescripsit petivitque ut rationem dicerem cur tertium ac non tertio scripsissem. Id etiam adscripsit, ut eadem, quid super illo quoque mihi videretur, facerem se certiorem, tertium ne consul et quartum an tertio et quarto dicendum esset, quoniam Romae doctum virum dicere audisset tertio et quarto consul, non tertium quartum que; idque in principio libri III. ² Coelium scripsisse et Quintum Claudium in libro undevicesimo C. Marium creatum septimo consulem dixisse.

[4] Ad haec ego rescripsi nihil amplius quam verba M. Varronis, hominis, opinor, quam fuit Claudius cum Coelio doctioris, quibus verbis utrumque de quo ad me scripserat decideretur;

[5] nam et Varro satis aperte quid dici oporteret edocuit et ego adversus eum qui doctus esse dicebatur litem meam facere absens nolui.

[6] Verba M. Varronis ex libro Disciplinarum quinto haec hace sunt: Aliud est quarto praetorem fieri et quartum; quod quarto locum adsignificat ac tres ante factos, quartum tempus adsignificat et ter ante factum. Igitur Ennius recte, quod scripsit:

Quintus pater quartum fit consul,

et Pompeius timide, quod in theatro, ne adscriberet consul tertium aut tertio, extremas litteras non scripsit.

[7] Quod de Pompeio Varro breviter et subobscure dixit, Tiro Tullius, Ciceronis libertus, in epistula quadam enarratius scripsit ad hunc ferme modum: Cum Pompeius, inquit, aedem Victoriae dedicaturus foret, cuius gradus vicem theatri essent, nomenque eius et honores scriberentur, ³ quaeri coeptum est, utrum consul tertio inscribendum esset an tertium. Eam rem Pompeius exquisitissime rettulit ad doctissimos civitatis, cumque dissentiretur et pars tertio, alii tertium scribendum contenderent, rogavit, inquit, Ciceronem Pompeius, ut quod ei rectius videretur scribi iuberet. Tum Ciceronem iudicare de viris doctis veritum esse, ne, quorum opinionem inprobasset, ipsos videretur inprobasse. Persuasit igitur Pompeio, ut neque tertium. neque tertio scriberetur, sed ad secundum usque t fierent litterae, ut verbo non perscripto res quidem demonstraretur, sed dictio tamen ambigua verbi lateret.

[8] Id autem, quod et Varro et Tiro dixerunt, in eodem nunc theatro non est ita scriptum.

[9] Nam cum multis annis postea scaena, quae prociderat, refecta esset, numerus tertii consulatus non uti initio primoribus litteris, sed tribus tantum lineolis liniolis incisis significatus est.

[10] In M. autem Catonis quarta Origine ita perscriptum est: Carthaginienses sextum de foedere decessere. Id verbum significat quinquiens ante eos fecisse contra foedus et tum sextum.

[11] Graeci quoque in significandis huiuscemodi rerum numeris τρίτον καὶ τέταρτον dicunt, quod congruit cum eo quod Latine dicitur: tertium quartumque.

II

Argument

Quid Aristoteles de numero puerperii memoriae mandaverit.

[1] ARISTOTELES philosophus memoriae tradidit, mulierem in Aegypto uno partu quinque pueros enixam, eumque esse finem dixit multiiugae hominum partionis neque plures umquam simul genitos compertum, hunc autem numerum ait esse rarissimum.

[2] Sed et divo Augusto imperante qui temporum eius historiam scripserunt ancillam Caesaris Augusti in agro Laurente peperisse quinque pueros dicunt eosque pauculos dies vixisse; matrem quoque eorum, non multo postquam peperit, mortuam monumentumque ei factum iussu Augusti in via Laurentina inque eo scriptum esse numerum puerperii eius, de quo diximus.

III

Argument

Locorum quorundam inlustrium conlatio contentioque facta ex orationibus C. Gracchi et M. Ciceronis et M. Catonis.

[1] FORTIS ac vehemens orator existimatur esse C. Gracchus. Nemo id negat. Sed quod nonnullis videtur severior, acrior ampliorque esse M. Tullio, ferri id qui potest?

[2] Legebamus adeo nuper orationem Gracchi De Legibus Promulgatis, in qua M. Marium et quosdam ex municipiis muiicipiis Italicis honestos viros virgis per iniuriam caesos a magistratibus populi Romani quanta maxima invidia potest conqueritur.

[3] Verba haec sunt quae super ea re fecit: Nuper Teanum Sidicinum consul venit. Uxor eius dixit se in balneis virilibus lavari velle. Quaestori Sidicino M. Mario datum est negotium, uti balneis exigerentur qui lavabantur. Uxor renuntiat viro parum cito sibi balneas traditas esse et parum lautas fuisse. Idcirco palus destitutus est in foro eoque adductus suae civitatis nobilissimus homo M. Marius. Vestimenta detracta sunt, virgis caesus est. Caleni, ubi id audierunt, edixerunt ne quis in balneis lavisse vellet, cum magistratus Romanus ibi esset. Ferentini ob eandem causam praetor noster quaestores arripi iussit; alter se de muro deiecit, alter prensus et virgis caesus est.

[4] In tam atroci re ac tam misera atque maesta iniuriae publicae contestatione, ecquid est quod aut ampliter insigniterque aut lacrimose atque miseranter aut multa copiosaque invidia gravique et penetrabili querimonia dixerit? Brevitas sane et venustas et mundities orationis est, qualis haberi ferme in comoediarum festivitatibus solet.

[5] Item Gracchus alio in loco ita dicit: Quanta libido quantaque intemperantia sit hominum adulescentium, unum exemplum vobis ostendam. His annis paucis ex Asia missus est qui per id tempus magistratum non ceperat, homo adulescens pro legato. Is in lectica ferebatur. Ei obviam bubulcus de plebe Venusina advenit et per iocum, cum ignoraret qui ferretur, rogavit num mortuum ferrent. Ubi id audivit, lecticam iussit deponi, struppis, quibus lectica deligata erat, usque adeo verberari iussit, dum animam efflavit.

[6] Haec quidem oratio super tam violento atque crudeli facinore nihil profecto abest a cotidianis sermonibus.

[7] At cum in simili causa aput M. Tullium cives Romani, innocentes viri, contra ius contraque leges virgis caeduntur aut supplicio extremo necantur, quae ibi tunc miseratio! quae comploratio! quae totius rei sub oculos subiectio! quod et quale invidiae atque acerbitatis fretum effervescit!

[8] Animum hercle meum, cum illa M. Ciceronis lego, imago quaedam et sonus verberum et vocum et eiulationum circumplectitur;

[9] velut sunt ista quae de C. Verre dicit, quae nos, ut in praesens potuimus, quantum memoria subpeditabat, adscripsimus: Ipse inflammatus scelere et furore in forum venit. Ardebant oculi, toto ex ore crudelitas eminebat. Expectabant omnes quo tandem progressurus aut quidnam acturus esset, cum repente hominem horminem proripi atque in foro medio nudari ac deligari et virgas expediri iubet.

[10] iam lam haec medius fidius sola verba: nudari ac deligari et virgas expediri iubet tanti motus horrorisque sunt, ut non narrari quae gesta sunt, sed rem geri prosus videas.

[11] Gracchus autem non querentis neque implorantis, sed nuntiantis vicem: Palus, inquit, in foro destitutus est, vestimenta detracta sunt, virgis caesus est.

[12] Sed enim M. Cicero praeclare cum diutina repraesentatione, non caesus est, sed caedebatur, inquit, virgis in medio foro Messanae civis Romanus, cum interea nullus gemitus, nulla vox illius miseri inter dolorem strepitumque ⁴ plagarum audiebatur, nisi haec: civis Romanus sum! Hac ⁵ commemoratione civitatis omnia verbera depulsurum cruciatumque a corpore deiecturum arbitrabatur.

[13] Complorationem deinde tam acerbae rei et odium in Verrem detestationemque aput civis Romanos inpense atque acriter atque inflammanter facit, cum haec dicit: O nomen dulce libertatis! O ius eximium nostrae civitatis! O lex Porcia legesque Semproniae! O graviter desiderata et aliquando reddita plebi Romanae tribunicia potestas! Hucine tandem haec ⁶ omnia reciderunt, ut civis Romanus in provincia populi Romani, in oppido foederatorum, ab eo qui beneficio populi Romani fasces ac secures haberet, deligatus in foro virgis caederetur? Quid? cum ignes ardentesque laminae ceterique cruciatus admovebantur, si te illius acerba imploratio et vox miserabilis non leniebat, ⁷ ne civium quidem Romanorum, qui tum aderant, fletu gemituque maximo commovebare?

[14] Haec M. Tullius atrociter, graviter, apte copioseque miseratus est.

[15] Sed si quis est tam agresti aure ac tam hispida, quem lux ista et amoenitas orationis verborumque modificatio parum delectat, amat autem priora idcirco, quod incompta et brevia et non operosa, sed nativa quadam suavitate sunt quodque in his umbra et color quasi opacae vetustatis est, is, si quid iudicii habet, consideret in causa pari M. Catonis, antiquioris hominis, orationem, ad cuius vim et copiam Gracchus nec adspiravit.

[16] Intelleget, opinor, Catonem contentum eloquentia aetatis suae non fuisse et id iam tum facere voluisse quod Cicero postea perfecit.

[17] In eo namque libro qui De Falsis Pugnis inscriptus est ita de Q. Thermo conquestus est: Dixit a decemviris parum bene sibi cibaria curata esse. iussit lussit vestimenta detrahi atque flagro caedi. Decemviros Bruttiani verberavere, videre multi mortales. Quis hanc contumeliam, quis hoc imperium, quis hanc servitutem ferre potest? Nemo hoc rex ausus est facere; eane fieri bonis, bono genere gnatis, boni consultis? Ubi societas? ubi fides maiorum? Insignitas iniurias, plagas, verbera, vibices, eos dolores atque carnificinas per dedecus atque maximam contumeliam, inspectantibus popularibus suis atque multis mortalibus, te facere ausum esse? Set quantum luctum, quantum gemitum, quid lacrimarum, quantum fletum factum audivi! Servi iniurias nimis ⁸ aegre ferunt; quid illos, bono genere natos, magna virtute praeditos, opinamini animi habuisse atque habituros, dum vivent?

[18] Quod Cato dixit: Bruttiani verberavere, ne qui fortasse de Bruttianis requirat,

[19] id significat: Cum Hannibal Poenus cum exercitu in Italia esset et aliquot pugnas populus Romanus adversas pugnavisset, primi totius Italiae Bruttii ad Hannibalem desciverunt. Id Romani aegre passi, postquam Hannibal Italia decessit superatique Poeni sunt, Bruttios ignominiae causa non milites scribebant nec pro sociis habebant, sed magistratibus in provincias euntibus parere et praeministrare servorum vicem iusserunt. Itaque hi sequebantur magistratus, tamquam in scaenicis fabulis qui dicebantur lorarii, et quos erant iussi vinciebant aut verberabant; quod autem ex Bruttiis erant, appellati sunt Bruttiani.

IV

Argument

Quod P. Nigidius argutissime docuit nomina non positive esse, sed naturalia.

[1] NOMINA verbaque non positu fortuito, sed quadam vi et ratione naturae facta esse, P. Nigidius in Grammaticis Commentariis docet, rem sane in philosophiae disceptationibus celebrem.

[2] Quaeri enim solitum aput philosophos, φύσει τὰ ὀνόματα sint ἢ θέσει.

[3] In eam rem multa argumenta dicit, cur videri possint verba esse naturalia magis quam arbitraria. Ex quibus hoc visum est lepidum et festivum:

[4] Vos, inquit, cum dicimus, motu quodam oris conveniente cum ipsius verbi demonstratione utimur et labeas sensim primores emovemus ac spiritum atque animam porro versum et ad eos quibuscum sermocinamur intendimus. At contra cum dicimus nos, neque profuso intentoque flatu vocis neque proiectis labris pronuntiamus, sed et spiritum et labeas quasi intra nosmet ipsos coercemus. Hoc idem fit et in eo, quod dicimus tu, ego et tibi et mihi. Nam sicuti, cum adnuimus et abnuimus, motus quidam ille vel capitis vel oculorum a natura rei quam significat non abhorret, ita in his vocibus quasi gestus quidam oris et spiritus naturalis est. Eadem ratio est in Graecis quoque vocibus, quam esse in nostris animadvertimus.

V

Argument

Avarus simplexne vocabulum sit, an compositum et duplex, sicut P. Nigidio videtur.

[1] AVARUS non simplex vocabulum, sed iunctum copulatumque esse P. Nigidius dicit in commentariorum Commenatariorum undetricesimo. Avarus enim, inquit, appellatur, qui avidus aeris est. Sed in ea copula e littera, inquit, detrita est.

[2] Item locupletem dictum ait ex conpositis vocibus, qui pleraque loca, hoc est qui multas possessiones teneret.

[3] Sed probabilius id firmiusque est, quod de locuplete dixit. Nam de avaro ambigitur; cur enim non videri possit ab uno solum verbo inclinatum, quod est aveo, eademque esse fictura qua est amarus, de quo nihil nhil dici potest quin duplex non sit?

VI

Argument

Multam dictam esse ab aedilibus plebei Appi Caeci filiae, mulieri nobili, quod locuta esset petulantius.

[1] NON in facta modo, sed in voces etiam petulantiores publice vindicatum est; ita enim debere esse visa est Romanae disciplinae dignitas inviolabilis.

[2] Appi namque illius Caeci filia, a ludis quos spectaverat exiens, turba undique confluentis fluctuantisque populi iactata est. Atque inde egressa, cum se male habitam doleret: ⁹ Quid me nunc factum esset, inquit, quantoque artius pressiusque conflictata essem, si P. Claudius, frater meus, navali proelio classem navium cum ingenti civium numero non perdidisset? Certe quidem maiore nunc copia populi oppressa intercidissem. Sed utinam, inquit, reviviscat frater aliamque classem in Siciliam ducat atque istam multitudinem perditum eat, quae me nunc male miseram convexavit!

[3] Ob haec mulieris verba tam inproba ac tam incivilia C. Fundanius et Tiberius Sempronius, aediles plebei, multam dixerunt ei aeris gravis viginti quinque milia.

[4] Id factum esse dicit Capito Ateius in commentario De Iudiciis Publicis bello Poenico primo, Fabio Licino et Otacilio Crasso consulibus.

VII

Argument

Fluminum, quae ultra imperium Romanum fluunt, prima magnitudine esse Nilum, secunda Histrum, proxima Rodanum, sicuti M. Varronem memini scribere.

[1] OMNIUM fluminum quae in maria qua imperium Romanum est fluunt, quam Graeci τὴν εἴσω θάλασσαν appellant, maximum esse Nilum consentitur. Proxima magnitudine esse Histrum scripsit Sallustius.

[2] Varro autem cum de parte orbis quae Europa dicitur dissereret, in tribus primis eius terrae fluminibus Rodanum esse ponit, per quod videtur eum facere Histro aemulum. Histros enim quoque in Europa fluit.

VIII

Argument

Inter ignominias militares quibus milites exercebantur, fuisse sanguinis dimissionem; et quaenam esse videatur causa huiuscemodi castigationis.

[1] FUIT haec quoque antiquitus militaris animadversio, iubere ignominiae causa militi venam solvi et sanguinem dimitti.

[2] Cuius rei ratio in litteris veteribus, quas equidem invenire potui, non extat; sed opinor factum hoc primitus in militibus stupentis animi et a naturali habitu declinatis, ut non tam poena quam medicina videretur.

[3] Postea tamen ob pleraque alia delicta idem factitatum esse credo per consuetudinem, quasi minus sani viderentur omnes qui delinquerent.

IX

Argument

Quibus modis quoque qnoque habitu acies Romana instrui solita sit, quaeque earum instructionum sint vocabula.

[1] VOCABULA sunt militaria, quibus instructa certo modo acies appellari solet: frons, subsidia, cuneus, orbis, globus, forfices, serra, alae, turres.

[2] Haec et quaedam item alia invenire est in libris eorum qui de militari disciplina scripserunt.

[3] Tralata autem sunt ab ipsis rebus quae ita proprie nominantur, earumque rerum in acie instruenda sui cuiusque vocabuli imagines ostenduntur.

X

Argument

Quae eius rei causa sit, quod et Graeci veteres et Romani anulum hoc digito gestaverint qui est in manu sinistra minimo proximus.

[1] VETERES GRAECOS anulum habuisse in digito accepimus sinistrae manus qui minimo est proximus. Romanos quoque homines aiunt sic plerumque anulis usitatos.

[2] Causam esse huius rei Apion in libris Aegyptiacis hanc dicit, quod insectis apertisque humanis corporibus, ut mos in Aegypto fuit, quas Graeci ἀνατομάς appellant, repertum est nervum quendam tenuissimum ab eo uno digito de quo diximus, ad cor hominis pergere ac pervenire; propterea non inscitum visum esse eum potissimum digitum tali honore decorandum, qui continens et quasi conexus esse cum principatu cordis videretur.

XI

Argument

Verbum mature quid significet quaeque vocis eius ratio sit; et quod eo verbo volgus hominum inproprie utitur; atque inibi, quod praecox declinatum praecocis facit, non praecoquis.

[1] MATURE nunc significat propere et cito contra ipsius verbi sententiam; aliud enim est mature quam dicitur.

[2] Propterea P. Nigidius, homo in omnium bonarum artium disciplinis egregius: Mature, inquit, est, quod neque citius est neque serius, sed medium quiddam et temperatum est.

[3] Bene atque proprie P. Nigidius. Nam et in frugibus et in pomis matura dicuntur, quae neque cruda et inmitia sunt neque caduca et decocta, sed tempore suo adulta maturataque.

[4] Quoniam autem id quod non segniter fiebat, mature fieri dicebatur, progressa plurimum verbi significatione, non iam, quod non segnius, sed quod festinantius fit, id fieri mature dicitur, quando ea quae praeter sui temporis modum properata sunt inmatura verius dicantur.

[5] Illud vero Nigidianum rei atque verbi temperamentum divos Augustus duobus Graecis verbis elegantissime exprimebat. Nam et dicere in sermonibus et scribere in epistulis solitum esse aiunt σπεῦδε βραδέως, per quod monebat ut ad rem agendam simul adhiberetur et industriae celeritas et diligentiae tarditas, ex quibus duobus contrariis fit maturitas.

[6] Vergilius quoque, si quis animum adtendat, duo ista verba properare et maturare tamquam plane contraria scitissime separavit in hisce versibus:

Frigidus agricolam si quando continet imber,

Multa, forent quae mox caelo properanda sereno,

Maturare datur.

Elegantissime duo verba ista divisit;

[7] namque in praeparatu rei rusticae per tempestates pluvias, quoniam otium est, maturari potest; per serenas, quoniam tempus instat, properari necessum est.

[8] Cum significandum autem est coactius quid factum et festinantius, tum rectius praemature factum id dicitur quam mature, sicuti Afranius dixit in togata, cui Titulus Titluls nomen est:

Adpetis dominátum demens praémature praécocem,

[9] in quo versu animadvertendum est quod praecocem inquit, non praecoquem praecocluem; est enim casus eius rectus non praecoquis, sed praecox.

XII

Argument

De portentis fabularum quae Plinius Secundus indignissime in Democritum philosophum confert; et ibidem de simulacro volucri columbae.

[1] LIBRUM esse Democriti, nobilissimi philosophorum, De Vi et Natura Chamaeleontis eumque se legisse Plinius Secundus in Naturalis Historiae vicesimo octavo refert, multaque vana atque intoleranda auribus deinde quasi a Democrito scripta tradit, ex quibus pauca haec inviti meminimus, quia pertaesum est:

[2] accipitrem avium rapidissimum a chamaeleonte humi reptante, si eum forte supervolet, detrahi et cadere vi quadam in terram ceterisque avibus ¹⁰ laniandum sponte sua obiicere sese et dedere.

[3] Item aliud ultra humanam fidem: caput et collum ¹¹ chamaeleontis si uratur ligno quod appellatur robur, imbres et tonitrus fieri derepente derelente, idque ipsum usu venire, si iecur eiusdem animalis in summis tegulis uratur.

[4] Item aliud, quod hercle an ponerem dubitavi, ita est deridiculae vanitatis, nisi idcirco plane posui quod oportuit nos dicere quid de istiusmodi admirationum fallaci inlecebra sentiremus, qua plerumque capiuntur et ad perniciem elabuntur ingenia maxime sollertia, eaque potissimum quae discendi cupidiora sunt. Sed redeo ad Plinium.

[5] Sinistrum pedem ait chamaeleontis ferro ex igni calefacto torreri ¹² cum herba, quae appellatur eodem nomine chamaeleontis, et utrumque macerari unguento conligique in modum pastilli atque in vas mitti ligneum et eum qui id vas ferat, etiamsi is in medio palam versetur, a nullo videri posse.

[6] His portentis atque praestigiis a Plinio Secundo scriptis non dignum esse cognomen Democriti puto;

[7] vel illud quale est quod idem Plinius in decimo libro Democritum scripsisse adseverat, aves quasdam esse certis vocabulis et earum avium confuso sanguine gigni serpentem; eum qui ¹³ ederit linguas avium et conloquia interpretaturum.

[8] Multa autem videntur ab hominibus istis male sollertibus huiuscemodi commenta in Democriti nomen data, nobilitatis auctoritatisque eius perfugio utentibus.

[9] Sed id quod Archytam Pythagoricum commentum esse atque fecisse traditur, neque minus admirabile neque tamen vanum aeque videri debet. Nam et plerique nobilium Graecorum et Favorinus philosophus, memoriarum veterum exequentissimus, affirmatissime scripserunt simulacrum columbae e ligno ab Archyta ratione quadam disciplinaque mechanica factum volasse; ita erat scilicet libramentis suspensum et aura spiritus inclusa atque occulta concitum.

[10] Libet hercle super re tam abhorrenti a fide ipsius Favorini verba ponere: Ἀρχύτας Ταραντῖνος, τὰ ἄλλα καὶ μηχανικὸς ὤν, ἐποίησεν περιστερὰν ξυλίνην πετομένην· ὁπότε καθίσειεν, οὐκέτι ἀνίστατο. μέχρι γὰρ τούτου

XIII

Argument

Cum partim hominum qua ratione veteres dixerint.

[1] PARTIM hominum venerunt plerumque dicitur, quod significat pars hominum venit, id est quidam homines. Nam partim hoc in loco adverbium est neque in casus inclinatur, sicuti cum partim hominum dici potest, id est cum quibusdam hominibus et quasi cum quadam parte hominum.

[2] M. Cato in oratione De Re Floria ita scripsit: Ibi pro scorto fuit, in cubiculum subrectitavit ¹⁴ e convivio, cum partim illorum iam saepe ad eundem modum erat.

[3] Imperitiores autem cum parti legunt, tamquam declinatum sit quasi vocabulum, non dictum quasi adverbium.

[4] Sed Q. Claudius in vicesimo primo Annali insolentius paulo hac figura est ita usus: Enimn cum partim copiis hominum adulescentium placentem ¹⁵ sibi. Itemque Claudi in vicesimo tertio Annali verba haec sunt: Sed idcirco me fecisse, quod utrum neglegentia partim magistratum ¹⁶ an avaritia an calamitate populi Romani evenisse dicam, nescio.

XIV

Argument

Iniuria mihi milli factum itur quali verborum ordine Cato dixerit.

[1] AUDIO illi iniuriam factum iri, audio contumeliam dictum iri vulgo quoque ita dici, vulgo et istam esse verborum figuram iam in medio loquendi usu, idcircoque exemplis supersedeo.

[2] Sed contumelia illi vel iniuria factum itur paulo est remotius, exemplum igitur ponemus.

[3] M. Cato Pro Se contra C. Cassium: Atque evenit ita, Quirites, uti in hac contumelia quae mihi per huiusce petulantiam factum itur, rei quoque publicae medius fidius miserear, Quirites.

[4] Sicut autem contumeliam factum iri significat iri ad contumeliam faciendam, id est opera dari quo fiat, ita contumelia mihi factum itur casu tantum inmutato idem dicit.

XV

Argument

De flaminis Dialis deque flaminicae caerimonis; verbaque ex edicto praetoris apposita, quibus dicit non coacturum se ad iurandum neque virgines Vestae neque Dialem.

[1] CAERIMONIAE impositae flamini Diali multae, item castus multiplices, quos in libris qui De Sacerdotibus Publicis compositi sunt, item in Fabii Pictoris librorum primo scriptos legimus.

[2] Unde haec ferme sunt, quae commeminimus:

[3] Equo Dialem flaminem vehi religio est;

[4] item religio est ¹⁷ classem classesm procinctam extra pomerium, id est exercitum armatum, videre; idcirco rarenter flamen Dialis creatus consul est, cum bella consulibus mandabantur?

[5] item iurare Dialem fas numquam est;

[6] item anulo uti nisi pervio cassoque fas non est.

[7] Ignem e flaminia, id est flaminis Dialis domo, nisi ¹⁸ sacrum efferri ius non est;

[8] vinetum, si aedes eius introierit, solvi necessum est et vincula per impluvium in tegulas subduci atque inde foras in viam demitti.

[9] Nodum in apice neque in cinctu neque in alia parte ullum habet;

[10] si quis ad verberandum ducatur, si ad pedes eius supplex procubuerit, eo die verberari piaculum est.

[11] Capillum Dialis, nisi qui liber homo est, non detonset.

[12] Capram et carnem incoctam et hederam et fabam neque tangere Diali mos est neque nominare.

[13] Propagines e vitibus altius praetentas non succedit.

[14] Pedes lecti, in quo cubat, luto tenui circumlitos esse oportet et de eo lecto trinoctium continuum non decubat neque in eo lecto cubare alium fas est. Apud eius lecti fulcrum capsulam esse cum strue atque ferto oportet.

[15] Unguium Dialis et capilli segmina subter arborem felicem terra operiuntur.

[16] Dialis cotidie feriatus est. Sine apice sub divo esse licitum non est;

[17] sub tecto uti liceret, non pridem a pontificibus constitutum,

[18] Masurius Sabinus scripsit et alia quaedam remissa gratiaque aliquot caerimoniarum facta dicitur.

[19] Farinam fermento inbutam adtingere ei fas non est.

[20] Tunica intima, nisi in locis tectis, non exuit se, ne sub caelo, tamquam sub oculis Iovis, nudus sit.

[21] Super flaminem Dialem in convivio, nisi rex sacrificulus, haut quisquam alius accumbit.

[22] Uxorem si amisit, flamonio decedit.

[23] Matrimonium flaminis nisi morte dirimi ius non est.

[24] Locum in quo bustum est numquam ingreditur, mortuum numquam attingit;

[25] funus tamen exequi non est religio.

[26] Eaedem ferme caerimoniae sunt flaminicae Dialis; alias seorsum aiunt observitare,

[27] veluti est quod venenato operitur

[28] et quod in rica surculum de arbore felici habet et quod scalas,

[29] nisi ¹⁹ quae Graecae appellantur, escendere ei plus tribus gradibus religiosum est atque etiam,

[30] cum it ad Argeos, quod neque comit caput neque capillum depectit.

[31] Verba praetoris ex edicto perpetuo de flamine Diali et de sacerdote Vestae adscripsi: Sacerdotem Vestalem et flaminem Dialem in omni mea iurisdictione iurare non cogam.

[32] Verba M. Varronis ex secundo Rerum Divinarum super flamine Diali haec sunt: Is solum album habet galerum, vel quod maximus, vel quod Ioui lovi immolata hostia alba id fieri oporteat.

XVI

Argument

Quos errores Iulius Hyginus in sexto Vergilii animadverterit, in Romana historia erratos.

[1] REPREHENDIT Hyginus Vergilium correcturumque eum fuisse existimat quod in libro sexto scriptum est.

[2] Palinurus est aput inferos, petens ab Aenea ut suum corpus requirendum et sepeliendum curet. Is hoc dicit:

Eripe me his, invicte, malis, aut tu mihi terram

inice Iniice, namque potes, portusque require Velinos.

[3] Quo, inquit, modo aut Palinurus novisse et nominare potuit portus Velinos aut Aeneas ex eo nomine locum invenire, cum Velia oppidum, a quo portum qui in eo loco est Velinum dixit, Servio Tullio Romae regnante, post annum amplius sescentesimum quam Aeneas in Italiam venit conditum in agro Lucano et eo nomine appellatum est?

[4] Nam qui ab Harpalo, inquit, regis Cyri praefecto, ex terra Phocide fugati sunt, alii Veliam, partim Massiliam condiderunt.

[5] Inscitissime igitur petit ut Aeneas portum Velinum requirat, cum id nomen eo tempore fuerit ²⁰ nusquam gentium.

[6] Neque simile, inquit, illud videri debet, quod est in primo carmine:

Italiam fato profugus Laviniaque Lavinaque venit

Litora,

et aeque in sexto libro:

[7]

Chalcidicaque levis tandem superastitit arce,

[8] quoniam poetae ipsi quaedam κατὰ πρόληψιν historiae dicere ex sua persona concedi solet, quae facta ipse postea scire potuit, sicut Vergilius scivit de Lavinio oppido et de colonia Chalcidicensi.

[9] Sed Palinuros qui potuit, inquit, scire ea quae post annos sescentos facta sunt, nisi quis eum divinasse aput inferos putat, proinde ut animae defunctorum solent?

[10] Sed et si ita accipias, quamquam non ita dicitur, Aeneas tamen, qui non divinabat, quo pacto potuit requirere portum Velinum, cui nomen tunc, sicut diximus, nullum usquam fuit?

[11] Item hoc quoque in eodem libro reprehendit et correcturum fuisse Vergilium putat, nisi mors occupasset.

[12] Nam cum Thesea, inquit, inter eos nominasset, qui ad inferos adissent ac redissent, dixissetque:

quid Thesea, magnum

Quid memorem Alciden? et mi genus ab Iove summo est,

postea tamen infert:

sedet aeternumque sedebit

Infelix Theseus.

[13] Qui autem, inquit, fieri potest, ut aeternum aput inferos sedeat, quem supra cum is nominat qui descenderint illuc atque inde rursum evaserint, praesertim cum ita sit fabula de Theseo, atque si Hercules eum evellerit e petra et in lucem ad superos eduxerit eduxeri?

[14] Item in his versibus errasse Vergilium dicit:

Eruet ille Argos Agamemnoniasque Mycenas

Ipsumque Aeaciden, genus armipotentis Achilli,

Ultus avos Troiae, templa intemerata ²¹ Minervae.

[15] Confudit, inquit, et personas diversas et tempora. Nam neque eodem tempore neque per eosdem homines cum Achaeis et cum Pyrro bellatum est. Pyrrus enim,

[16] quem dicit Aeaciden, de Epiro in Italiam transgressus cum Romanis depugnavit adversus Manium Curium, in eo bello ducem.

[17] Argivum autem bellum, id est Achaicum, multis post annis a L. Mummio imperatore gestum est.

[18] Potest igitur, inquit, medius eximi versus, qui de Pyrro inportune inmissus est, quem Vergilius procul dubio exempturus, inquit, fuit.

XVII

Argument

Quam ob causam et quali modo Democritus philosophus luminibus oculorum sese privaverit; et super ea re versus Laberii pure admodum et venuste facti.

[1] DEMOCRITUM philosophum in monumentis historiae Graecae scriptum est, virum praeter alios venerandum auctoritateque antiqua praeditum, luminibus oculorum sua sponte se privasse, quia existimaret cogitationes commentationesque animi sui in contemplandis naturae rationibus vegetiores et exactiores fore, si eas videndi inlecebris et oculorum impedimentis liberasset.

[2] Id factum eius modumque ipsum quo caecitatem facile sollertia subtilissima conscivit, Laberius poeta in mimo quem scripsit Restionem, versibus quidem satis munde atque graphice factis descripsit, sed causam voluntariae caecitatis finxit aliam vertitque in eam rem quam tum agebat, non inconcinniter.

[3] Est enim persona, quae hoc aput Laberium dicit, divitis avari et parci, sumptum plurimum asotiamque adulescentis vivide plorantis. ²² Versus Laberiani sunt:

[4]

Demócritus Abderítes physicus phílosophus

Clipeúm constituit cóntra exortum Hyperíonis,

Oculós effodere ut pósset splendore aéreo.

Ita rádiis solis áciem effodit lúminis,

Malís bene esse né videret cívibus.

Sic égo fulgentis spléndorem pecúniae

Volo élucificare éxitum aetatí meae,

Ne in ré bona esse vídeam nequam fílium.

XVIII

Argument

Historia de Artemisia; deque eo certamine quod aput Mausoli sepulcrum a scriptoribus inclutis decertatum est.

[1] ARTEMISIA Mausolum virum amasse fertur supra omnis amorum fabulas ultraque affectionis humanae fidem.

[2] Mausolus autem fuit, ut M. Tullius ait, rex terrae Cariae, ut quidam Graecarum historiarum scriptores, provinciae ²³ praefectus σατράπην Graeci vocant.

[3] Is Mausolus, ubi fato perfunctus inter lamenta et manus uxoris funere magnifico sepultus est, Artemisia, luctu atque desiderio mariti flagrans uxor, ossa cineremque eius mixta odoribus contusaque in faciem pulveris aquae indidit ebibitque multaque alia violenti amoris indicia fecisse dicitur.

[4] Molita quoque est ingenti impetu operis conservandae mariti memoriae sepulcrum illud memoratissimum dignatumque numerari inter septem omnium terrarum spectacula.

[5] Id monumentum Artemisia cum dis manibus sacrum ²⁴ Mausoli dicaret, agona, id est certamen laudibus eius dicundis, facit ponitque praemia pecuniae aliarumque rerum bonarum amplissima.

[6] Ad eas laudes decertandas venisse dicuntur viri nobiles ingenio atque lingua praestabili, Theopompus, Theodectes, Naucrates; sunt etiam qui Isocratem ipsum cum his certavisse memoriae mandaverint. Sed eo certamine vicisse Theopompum iudicatum est. Is fuit Isocrates discipulus.

[7] Extat nunc nune quoque Theodecti tragoedia, quae inscribitur Mausolus; in qua eum magis quam in prosa placuisse Hyginus in Exemplis refert.

XIX

Argument

Non purgari neque levari peccatum, cum praetenditur peccatorum quae alii quoque peccaverunt similitudo; atque inibi verba ex oratione super ea re Demosthenis.

[1] INCESSEBAT quempiam Taurus philosophus severa atque vehementi obiurgatione adulescentem a rhetoribus et a facundiae studio ad disciplinas philosophiae transgressum, quod factum quiddam esse ab eo diceret inhoneste inlloneste et improbe. At ille non ibat infitias fecisse, sed id solitum esse fieri defendebat turpitudinemque delicti exemplorum usu et consuetudinis venia deprecabatur.

[2] Atque ibi Taurus isto ipso defensionis genere inritatior: Homo, inquit, stulte et nihili, si te a malis exemplis auctoritates et rationes philosophiae non abducunt, ne illius quidem Demosthenis vestri sententia tibi in mentem venit, quae, quia lepidis et venustis vocum modis vincta est, quasi quaedam cantilena rhetorica facilius adhaerere memoriae tuae potuit?

[3] Nam si me inquit non fallit quod quidem in primori pueritia legerim, verba haec sunt Demosthenis adversus eum, qui, ut tu nunc facis, peccatum suum peccatis alienis exemptum purgatumque ibat: Σὺ δὴ μὴ λέγε, ὡς γέγονε τοῦτο πολλάκις, ἀλλʼ ὡς οὕτω προσήκει γίγνεσθαι· οὐ γάρ, εἴ τι πώποτε μὴ κατὰ τοὺς νόμους ἐπράχθη, σὺ δὲ τοῦτο ἐμιμήσω, διὰ τοῦτο ἀποφύγοις ἂν δικαίως, ἀλλά πολλῷ μᾶλλον ἁλίσκοιο· ὥσπερ γάρ, εἴ τις ἑάλω, σὺ τοῦτα²⁵ οὐκ ἂν ἔγραψας, οὕτως, ἐὰν σὺ νῦν δίκην δῷς, ἄλλος οὐ γράψει.

[4] Sic Taurus, omni suasionum admonitionumque genere utens, sectatores suos ad rationes bonae inculpataeque indolis ducebat.

XX

Argument

Quid sit rogatio, quid lex, quid plebisscitum, quid privilegium; et quantum ista omnia differant.

[1] QUAERI audio quid lex sit, quid plebisscitum, quid rogatio, quid privilegium.

[2] Ateius Capito, publici privatique iuris peritissimus, quid lex esset hisce verbis definivit. Lex, inquit, est generale iussum populi aut plebis, rogante magistratu.

[3] Ea definitio si probe facta est, neque de imperio Cn. Pompei neque de reditu M. Ciceronis neque de caede P. Clodi quaestio neque alia id genus populi plebisve iussa leges vocari possunt.

[4] Non sunt enim generalia iussa neque de universis civibus, sed de singulis concepta; quocirca privilegia potius vocari debent, quia veteres priva dixerunt quae nos singula dicimus. Quo verbo Lucilius in primo Satirarum libro usus est:

abdomina thynni

Advenientibus priva dabo cephalaeaque acarnae.

[5] Plebem autem Capito in eadem definitione seorsum a populo divisit, quoniam in populo omnis pars civitatis omnesque eius ordines contineantur, plebes vero ea dicatur, in qua gentes civium patriciae non insunt.

[6] Plebisscitum igitur est secundum eum Capitonem lex, quam plebes, non populus, accipit.

[7] Sed totius huius rei iurisque, sive cum populus sive cum plebs rogatur, sive quod ad singulos ²⁶ sive quod ad universos pertinet, caput ipsum et origo et quasi fons ²⁷ rogatio est.

[8] Ista enim omnia vocabula censentur continenturque rogationis principali genere et nomine; nam, nisi populus aut plebs rogetur, nullum plebis aut populi iussum fieri potest.

[9] Sed quamquam haec ita sunt, in veteribus tamen scriptis non magnam vocabulorum istorum differentiam esse animadvertimus. Nam et plebisscita et privilegia translaticio nomine legis appellaverunt eademque omnia confuso et indistincto vocabulo rogationes dixerunt.

[10] Sallustius quoque, proprietatum in verbis retinentissimus, consuetudini concessit et privilegium, quod de Cn. Pompei reditu ferebatur, legem appellavit. Verba ex secunda eius Historia haec sunt: Nam Sullam consulem de reditu eius legem ferentem ex conposito tr. pl. C. Herennius prohibuerat.

XXI

Argument

Quam ob causam M. Cicero his omnino verbis novissime et novissimus observantissime uti vitarit.

[1] NON paucis verbis, quorum frequens usus est nunc et fuit, M. Ciceronem noluisse uti manifestum est, quod ea non probaret; velut est et novissimus et novissime.

[2] Nam cum et M. Cato et Sallustius et alii quoque aetatis eiusdem verbo isto promisce usitati sint, multi etiam non indocti viri in libris id suis scripserint, abstinuisse eo tamen tamquam non Latino videtur, quoniam qui doctissimus eorum temporum fuerat, L. Aelius Stilo, ut novo et inprobo verbo uti vitaverat.

Propterea, quid M. quoque Varro de ista voce existimaverit, verbis ipsius Varronis ex libro De Lingua Latina ad Ciceronem sexto demonstrandum putavi. Quod extremum, inquit, dicebatur, dici novissimum coeptum vulgo, quod mea memoria ut Aelius, sic senes aliquot, ²⁸ quod nimium novum verbum esset, vitabant; cuius origo, ut a vetere vetustius ac veterrimum, sic a novo declinatum novius et ²⁹ novissimum.

XXII

Argument

Locus exemptus ex Platonis libro qui inscribitur Gorgias, de falsae philosophiae probis, quibus philosophos temere incessunt qui emolumenta verae philosophiae ignorant.

[1] PLATO, veritatis homo amicissimus eiusque omnibus exhibendae promptissimus, quae omnino dici possint in desides istos ignavosque, qui obtentu philosophiae nominis inutile otium et linguae vitaeque tenebras secuntur, ex persona quidem non gravi neque idonea, vere tamen ingenueque dixit.

[2] Nam etsi Callicles, quem dicere haec facit, verae philosophiae ignarus, inhonesta indignaque in philosophos confert, proinde tamen accipienda sunt quae dicuntur, ut nos sensim moneri intellegamus, ne ipsi quoque culpationes huiuscemodi mereamur neve inerti inanique desidia cultum et studium philosophiae mentiamur.

[3] Verba ipsa super hac re Platonis ex libro qui appellatur Gorgias scripsi, quoniam vertere ea consilium non fuit, cum ad proprietates eorum nequaquam possit Latina oratio aspirare ac multo minus etiam mea: φιλοσοφία γάρ τοί ἐστιν,

[4] ὦ Σώκρατες, χαρίεν, ἐάν τις αὐτοῦ μετρίως ἅψηται ἐν τῇ ἡλικίᾳ· ἐὰν δὲ περαιτέρω τοῦ δέοντος ἐνδιατρίψῃ, διαφθορὰ τῶν ἀνθρώπων.

[5] ἐὰν γὰρ καὶ πάνυ εὐφυὴς ᾖ καὶ πόρρω τῆς ἡλικίας φιλοσοφῇ, ἀνάγκη πάντων ἄπειρον γεγονέναι ἐστίν, ὧν χρὴ ἔμπειρον εἶναι τὸν μέλλοντα καλὸν κἀγαθὸν καὶ εὐδόκιμον ἔσεσθαι ἄνδρα.

[6] καὶ γὰρ τῶν νόμων ἄπειροι γίγνονται τῶν κατὰ τὴν πόλιν καὶ τῶν λόγων, οἷς δεῖ χρώμενον ὁμιλεῖν ἐν τοῖς συμβολίαοις τοῖς ἀνθρώποις, καὶ ἰδίᾳ καὶ δημοσίᾳ, καὶ τῶν ἡδονῶν τε καὶ ἐπιθυμιῶν τῶν ἀνθρωπείων, καὶ συλλήβδην τῶν ἠθῶν παντάπασιν ἄπειροι γίγνονται.

[7] ἐπειδὰν οὖν ἔλθωσιν εἴς τινα ἰδίαν ἢ πολιτικὴν πρᾶξιν, καταγέλαστοι γίγνονται ὥσπερ γε, οἶμαι,

[8] οἱ πολιτικοί, ἐπειδὰν αὖ εἰς τὰς ὑμετέρας διατριβὰς ἔλθωσι καὶ τοὺς λόγους, καταγέλαστοί εἰσι.

[9]

Paulo post addit haec: ἀλλʼ,

[10] οἶμαι, τὸ ὀρθότατόν ἐστιν, ὀμφοτέρων μετασχεῖν. φιλοσοφίας μέν, ὅσον παιδείας χάριν, καλὸν μετέχειν, καὶ οὐκ αἰσχρὸν μειρακίῳ ὄντι φιλοσοφεῖν· ἐπειδὰν δὲ ἤδη πρεσβύτερος ὢν ἄνθρωπος ἔτι φιλοσοφῇ, καταγέλαστον, ὦ Σώκρατες, τὸ χρῆηα γίγνεται,

[11] καὶ ἔγωγε ὁμοιότατον πάσχω πρὸς τοὺς φιλοσοφοῦντας, ὥσπερ πρὸς τοὺς ψελλιζομένους καὶ παίζοντας.

[12] ὅταν μὲν γὰρ παιδίον ἴδω, ᾧ ἔτι προσήκει διαλέγεσθαι οὕτω, ψελλιζόμενον καὶ παῖζον, χαίρω τε, καὶ χαρίεν μοι φαίνεται καὶ ἐλευθέριον καὶ πρέπον τῇ τοῦ παιδίου ἡλικίᾳ.

[13] ὅταν δὲ σαφῶς διαλεγομένου παιδαρίου ἀκούσω, πικρόν τί μοι δοκεῖ χρῆμα εἶναι καὶ ἀνιᾷ μου τὰ ὦτα καί μοι δοκεῖ δουλοπρεπές τι εἶναι·

[14] ὅταν δὲ ἀνδρὸς ἀκούσῃ τις ψελλιζομένου ἢ παίζοντα ὁρᾷ, καταγέλαστον φαίνεται καὶ ἄνανδρον καὶ πληγῶν ἄξιον.

[15] ταὐτὸν οὖν ἔγωγε τοῦτο πάσχω καὶ πρὸς τοὺς φιλοσοφοῦντας.

[16] περὶ νέῳ μὲν γὰρ μειρακίῳ ὁρῶν φιλοσοφίαν ἄγαμαι καὶ πρέπειν μοι δοκεῖ καὶ ἡγοῦμαι ἐλεύθερόν τινα εἶναι τοῦτον τὸν ἄνθρωπον, τὸν δὲ μὴ φιλοσοφοῦντα ἀνελεύθερον καὶ οὐδέποτε οὐδενὸς ἀξιώσοντα ἑαυτὸν οὔτε καλοῦ οὔτε γενναίου πράγματος·

[17] ὅταν δὲ δὴ πρεσβύτερον ἴδω ἔτι φιλοσοφοῦντα καὶ μὴ ἀπαλλαττόμενον, πληγῶν μοι δοκεῖ ἤδη δεῖσθαι, ὦ Σώκρατες, οὗτος ὁ ἀνήρ.

[18] ὃ γὰρ νῦν δὴ ἔλεγον, ὑπάρχει τούτῳ τῷ ἀνθρώπῳ,

[19] κἂν πάνυ εὐφυὴς ᾖ, ἀνάνδρῳ γενέσθαι,

[20] φεύγοντι τὰ μέσα τῆς πόλεως καὶ τὰς ἀγοράς,

[21] ἐν αἷς ἔφη ὁ ποιητὴς τοὺς ἄνδρας ἀριπρεπεῖς γίγνεσθαι,

[22] καταδεδυκότι δὲ τὸν λοιπὸν βίον βιῶναι μετὰ μειρακίων, ἐν γωνίᾳ τριῶν ἢ τεττάρων ψιθυρίζοντα,

[23] ἐλεύθερον δὲ καὶ μέγα καὶ ἱκανὸν μηδέποτε φθέγξασθαι.

[24] Haec Plato sub persona quidem, sicuti dixi, non proba, set cum sensus tamen intellegentiaeque communis fide et cum quadam indissimulabili veritate disseruit, non de illa scilicet philosophia, quae virtutum omnium disciplina est quaeque in publicis simul et privatis officiis excellit civitatesque et rempublicam, si nihil prohibeat, constanter, fortiter et perite administrat, sed de ista futtili atque puerili meditatione argutiarum, nihil ad vitam neque tuendam neque ordinandam promovente, in qua id genus homines consenescunt male feriati, quos philosophos esse et vulgus putat et is putabat, ex cuius persona haec dicta sunt.

XXIII

Argument

Verba ex oratione M. Catonis de mulierum veterum victu et moribus; atque inibi, quod fuerit ius marito in adulterio uxorem deprehensam necare.

[1] Qui de victu atque cultu populi Romani scripserunt mulieres Romae atque in Latio aetatem abstemias egisse, hoc est vino semper, quod temetum prisca lingua appellabatur, abstinuisse dicunt, institutumque ut cognatis osculum ferrent deprehendendi causa, ut odor indicium faceret, si bibissent.

[2] Bibere autem solitas ferunt loream, passum, murrinam et quae id genus sapiant potu dulcia. Atque haec quidem in his quibus dixi libris pervulgata sunt,

[3] sed Marcus Cato non solum existimatas, set et multatas quoque a iudice mulieres refert, non minus si vinum in se, quam si probrum et adulterium admisissent.

[4] Verba Marci Catonis adscripsi ex oratione quae inscribitur De Dote, in qua id quoque scriptum est, in adulterio uxores deprehensas ius fuisse maritis necare: Vir, inquit, cum divortium fecit, mulieri iudex pro censore est, imperium quod videtur habet, si quid perverse taetreque factum est a muliere; multatur multitatur, ³⁰ si vinum bibit; si cum alieno viro probri quid fecit, condemnatur.

[5] De iure autem occidendi ita scriptum: In adulterio uxorem tuam si prehendisses, sine iudicio inpune necares; illa te, si adulterares sive tu adulterarere, digito non auderet contingere, neque ius est.

XXIV

Argument

Die pristini, die crastini et die quarti et die quinti qui elegantius locuti sint dixisse, non ut ea nunc vulgo dicuntur.

[1] DIE quarto et die quinto, quod Graeci εἰς τετάρτην καὶ εἰς πέμπτην dicunt, ab eruditis nunc quoque dici audio, et qui aliter dicit pro rudi atque indocto despicitur. Sed Marci Tullii aetas ac supra eam non, opinor, ita dixerunt, diequinte enim et diequinti pro adverbio copulate dictum est, secunda in eo syllaba correpta.

[2] Divus etiam Augustus, linguae Latinae non nescius munditiarumque patris sui in sermonibus sectator, in epistulis plurifariam significatione ista dierum non aliter usus est.

[3] Satis autem erit perpetuae veterum consuetudinis demonstrandae gratia verba sollemnia praetoris ponere, quibus more maiorum ferias concipere solet quae appellantur Compitalia. Ea verba haec sunt: Dienoni populo Romano Quiritibus Compitalia erunt; quando concepta fuerint, nefas. Dienoni praetor dicit, non die nono.

[4] Neque praetor solum, sed pleraque omnis vetustas sic locuta est.

[5] Venit ecce illius versus Pomponiani in mentem, qui est ex Atellania, quae Mevia inscribitur:

Díes hic sextus, cúm nihil egi: ³¹ diequarte Moriár fame.

[6] Suppetit etiam Coelianum illud ex libro Historiarum secundo: Si vis mihi equitatum dare et ipse cum cetero exercitu me sequi, diequinti Romae in Capitolium curabo tibi cena sit cocta.

[7] Et historiam autem et verbum hoc sumpsit Coelius ex Origine IV. ³² M. Catonis, in qua ita scriptum est: Igitur dictatorem Carthaginiensium magister equitum monuit: Mitte mecum Romam equitatum; diequinti in Capitolio tibi cena cocta erit.

[8] Extremam istius vocis syllabam tum per e tum per i scriptam legi; nam sane quam consuetum is veteribus fuerit, litteris is plerumque uti indifferenter, sicuti praefiscine et praefiscini, proclivi et proclive atque alia item multa hoc genus varie dixerunt; die pristini quoque eodem modo dicebatur, quod significabat die pristino, id est priore, quod vulgo pridie dicitur, converso compositionis ordine, quasi pristino die. Atque item simili figura die crastini dicebatur, id erat crastino die.

[9] Sacerdotes quoque populi Romani, cum condicunt in diem tertium, die ³³ perendini dicunt.

[10] Sed ut plerique die pristini, ita M. Cato in oratione Contra Furium die proximi dixit, die quarto autem Cn. Matius, homo impense doctus, in Mimiambis pro eo dicit, quod nudius quartus nos dicimus, in his versibus:

Nuper die quarto, ut recordor, et certe

Aquarium urceum unicum domi fregit.

Hoc igitur intererit, ut die quarto quidem de praeterito dicamus, diequarte autem de futuro.

XXV

Argument

Telorum et iaculorum gladiorumque, atque inibi navium quoque vocabula, quae scripta in veterum libris reperiuntur.

[1] TELORUM, iaculorum gladiorumque vocabula quae in historiis veteribus scripta sunt, item navigiorum genera et nomina, libitum forte nobis est sedentibus in reda conquirere, ne quid malarum ³⁴ ineptiarum vacantem stupentemque animum occuparet.

[2] Quae tum igitur suppetierant, haec sunt: hasta, pilum, phalarica, semiphalarica, soliferrea, gaesa, lancea, spari, rumices, trifaces, tragulae, frameae, mesanculae, cateiae, rumpiae, scorpii, sibones, siciles, veruta, enses, sicae, machaerae macherae, spathae, lingulae, pugiones, clunacula.

[3] De lingula, quoniam est minus frequens, admonendum existimo, lingulam veteres dixisse gladiolum oblongum in speciem linguae factum, cuius meminit Naevius in tragoedia Hesiona. Versum Naevi apposui:

Síne mi gerere mórem videar língua, verum língula.

[4] Item rumpia genus teli est Thraecae nationis, positumque hoc vocabulum in Quinti Enni Annalium XIV.

[5] Navium autem, quas reminisci tunc potuimus, appellationes hae sunt: gauli, corbitae, caudicae, longae, hippagines, cercuri, celoces vel, ut Graeci dicunt, κέλητες, lembi, oriae, lenunculi, actuariae, quas Graeci ἱστιοκώπους vocant vel ἐπακτρίδας, prosumiae vel geseoretae vel oriolae, stlattae, scaphae, pontones, vectoriae vetutiae mydia moediae, phaseli, parones, myoparones, lintres, caupuli, camarae, placidae, cydarum, ratariae, catascopium.

XXVI

Argument

Inscite ab Asinio Pollione reprehensum Sallustium Sellustium, quod transfretationem transgressum dixerit, et transgressos qui transfretassent.

[1] ASINIO POLLIONI in quadam epistula, quam ad Plancum scripsit, et quibusdam aliis C. Sallusti iniquis, dignum nota visum est, quod in primo Historiarum maris transitum transmissumque navibus factum transgressum appellavit eosque, qui fretum transmiserant, quos transfretasse dici solitum est, transgressos dixit.

[2] Verba ipsa Sallusti posui: Itaque Sertorius, levi praesidio relicto in Mauretania, nanctus obscuram noctem, aestu secundo furtim aut celeritate vitare proelium in transgressu conatus est.

[3] Ac deinde infra ita scripsit: Transgressos omnis recipit mons ³⁵ praeceptus a Lusitanis.

[4] Hoc igitur et minus proprie et ἀπερισκέπτως et nullo gravi auctore dictum aiunt. Nam transgressus, inquit, a transgrediendo dicitur idque ipsum ab ingressu et a pedum gradu appellatum.

[5] Idcirco verbum transgredi convenire non putavit neque volantibus neque serpentibus neque navigantibus, sed his solis qui gradiuntur et pedibus iter emetiuntur. Propterea negant aput scriptorem idoneum aut navium transgressum reperiri posse aut pro transfretatione transgressum.

[6] Sed quaero ego, cur non, sicuti cursus navium recte dici solet, ³⁶ ita transgressus etiam navibus factus dici possit. Praesertim cum brevitas tam angusti fretus, qui terram Africam Hispaniamque interfluit, elegantissime transgressionis vocabulo, quasi paucorum graduum spatium, definita sit.

[7] Qui auctoritatem autem requirunt et negant dictum ingredi transgredi ve in navigantibus, volo uti respondeant quantum existiment interesse ingredi atque ambulare.

[8] Atqui Cato De Re Rustica: Fundus, inquit, eo in loco habendus est, ut et ³⁷ oppidum prope ³⁸ amplum sit et mare aut amnis, qua naves ambulant.

[9] Appetitas porro huiuscemodi translationes habitasque esse pro honestamentis orationis, Lucretius quoque testimonium in hac eadem voce dicit. In quarto enim libro clamorem per arterias et per fauces gradientem dicit, quod est nimio confidentius quam illud de navibus Sallustianum. Versus Lucreti hi sunt:

Praeterea radit vox fauces saepe, facitque

Asperiora foras gradiens arteria clamor.

[10] Propterea Sallustius in eodem libro non eos solum qui navibus veherentur, sed et scaphas quoque nantes progressas dicit. Verba ipsa de scaphis posui: Earum aliae paululum progressae nimio simul et incerto onere, cum pavor corpora agitaverat, deprimebantur.

XXVII

Argument

Historia de populo Romano deque populo Poenico, quod pari propemodum vigore fuerint aemuli.

[1] IN litteris veteribus memoria extat quod par quondam fuit vigor et acritudo amplitudoque populi Romani atque Poeni.

[2] Neque inmerito aestimatum. Cum aliis quidem populis de uniuscuiusque republica, cum Poenis autem de omnium terrarum imperio decertatum.

[3] Eius rei specimen est in illo utriusque populi verbo factoque: Q. Fabius, imperator Romanus, dedit ad Carthaginienses epistulam. Ibi scriptum fuit populum Romanum misisse ad eos hastam et caduceum, signa duo belli ³⁹ aut pacis, ex quis utrum vellent eligerent; quod elegissent, id unum ut esse missum existimarent.

[4] Carthaginienses Cathaginienses responderunt neutrum sese eligere, sed posse qui adtulissent utrum mallent relinquere; quod reliquissent, id sibi pro electo futurum.

[5] M. autem Varro non hastam ipsam neque ipsum caduceum missa dicit, sed duas tesserulas, in quarum altera caduceum, in altera hastae simulacra fuerint incisa.

XXVIII

Argument

De aetatum finibus pueritiae, iuventae, senectae, ex Tuberonis historia sumptum.

[1] TUBERO in Historiarum primo scripsit Servium Tullium regem, populi Romani cum illas quinque classes seniorum et ⁴⁰ iuniorum census faciendi gratia institueret, pueros esse existimasse qui minores essent annis septem decem, atque inde ab anno septimo decimo, quo idoneos iam esse reipublicae arbitraretur, milites scripsisse, eosque ad annum quadragesimum sextum iuniores supraque eum annum seniores appellasse.

[2] Eam rem propterea notavi, ut discrimina, quae fuerint iudicio moribusque maiorum pueritiae, iuventae, senectae, ex ista censione Servi Tulli, prudentissimi regis, noscerentur.

XXIX

Argument

Quod particula atque non complexiva tantum sit, sed vim habeat plusculam variamque.

[1] ATQUE particula a grammaticis quidem coniunctio esse dicitur conexiva. Et plerumque sane coniungit verba et conectit; sed interdum alias quasdam potestates habet non satis notas, nisi in veterum litterarum tractatione atque cura exercitis.

[2] Nam et pro adverbio valet, cum dicimus aliter ego feci atque tu, significatur enim aliter quam tu, et si gemina fiat, auget incenditque rem de qua agitur, ut animadvertimus in Q. Enni Annalibus, nisi memoria in hoc versu labor:

Atque atque accedit muros Romana iuventus;

[3] cui significationi contrarium est quod itidem a veteribus dictum est, deque.

[4] Et praeterea pro alio quoque adverbio dicitur, id est statim⁴¹ factum, quod in his Vergili versibus existimatur, ubi obscure et insequentur particula ista posita est: ⁴²

sic omnia fatis

In peius ruere ac retro sublapsa referri;

Non aliter quam qui adverso vix flumine lembum

Remigiis subigit, si brachia forte remisit,

Atque illum in praeceps prono rapit alveus amni.

Notes on the current edition

Attic Nights

1. Fr. 59, Peter 2.

2. Fr. 82, Peter 2.

3. p. 202, Bipont.

4. That is, that he was fourth in order of election.

5. Ann. 295, Vahlen 2.

6. He wrote tert.; see § 7. Tertium is correct; the inscription on the Pantheon reads MA. Agrippa, L.f., cos. Tertium fecit.

7. p. 12, Lion.

8. Because of the sentiment against a permanent theatre at Rome, Pompey placed a temple of Venus Victrix at the top of his theatre, so that the seats of the auditorium formed an approach to it. It was built in 55 B.C.

9. That is, by the Roman numeral III.

10. Fr. 84, Peter 2.

11. Cf. Hist. Anim. vii. 4, p. 584, 29.

12. O.R.F., p. 236, Meyer 3.

13. O.R.F., p. 236, Meyer. 2

14. In Verr. ii. 5. 161.

15. In Verr. ii. 5. 162.

16. Id. ii. 5. 163.

17. ix, Jordan.

18. The local magistrates.

19. See § 18, below.

20. The name Bruttium is of late origin

21. That is, whether language is a natural growth or a conscious product.

22. Fr. 41, Swoboda.

23. Fr. 42, Swoboda.

24. Id. fr. 44.

25. The derivation from locus and the root ple- (of pleo, plenus, etc.) seems to be correct.

26. This is, of course, the accepted etymology. The derivation of amarus is uncertain; it is perhaps connected with Greek w)mo/s,

raw

(cf. crudus and crudelis). Sanscrit âma-s.

27. In 249 B.C. He was warned not to fight by the refusal of the sacred chickens to eat; but he threw them overboard, saying that they might drink, since they would not eat. See Suet. Tib. ii. 2.

28. The two plebeian aediles were first appointed with the tribunes of the commons in 494 B.C. (see xvii. 21. 11), and the designation plebei or plebi was perhaps not added until the appointment of two curule aediles in 388 B.C. They were assistants to the tribunes, but also had the right of independent action, as here. Julius Caesar added two aediles ceriales; Suet. Jul. xli. 1.

29. Aes gravis or aes libralis refers to the old coinage, when the as was equal to a pound of copper or bronze.

30. Fr. 2, Huschke; 2 Bremer (ii, p. 284).

31. 246 B.C.

32. This was true in Varro's time.

33. Hist. iii. 80, Maur.

34. Ant. Hum. xiii, fr. 6, Mirsch.

35. Muretus, Var. Lect. xiii, p. 199, thought it was in order that they night lose with ignominy the blood which they had been unwilling to shed for their country.

36. The globus was a detached body of troops, qui a sua acie separatus incursat. The forfex or forceps was arranged in the form of a letter V, to take in the enemy's wedge ( cuneues) and attack it on both sides (Veget. iii. 19). The serra was a constant advance and retreat, corresponding to the motion of a saw (Paul. -Fest. p. 467, Linds.). The turris was probably a kind of square formation for attack.

37. F.H.G. iii. 511.

38. Fr. 48, Swoboda.

39. See Suetonius, Aug. xxv. 4. Hence the common festina lente and German Eile mit Weile.

40. Goorg. i. 259 ff.; Dryden's translation.

41. ii, 335 Ribbeck. 3

42. xxviii. 112.

43. xxviii. 115.

44. x. 137.

45. There is a lacuna and the sense is uncertain.

46. p. 64. 8, Jordan.

47. Fr. 87, Peter. The passage is corrupt and unintelligible.

48. Fr. 89, Peter.

49. p. 63. 6, Jordan.

50. The flamen was the special priest of an individual deity. There were three flamines maiores—of Jupiter ( Dialis), Mars and Quirinus—and twelve flamines minores. For

taboos

imposed on priests see Frazer, Golden Bough, ch. 2.

51. Fr. 19, 24, 35, 46, R. Peter; fr. 3, Huschke; id. Bremer (i, p. 10).

52. Classis originally meant one of the classes into which the citizens were divided by the Servian constitution, then, collectively, the army composed of the classes.

53. The pomerium was the religious boundary of the city; see xiii. 14.

54. The opening in the roof of the atrium or main room of a Roman house.

55. Fr. 28, Huschke; Memor. 16, Bremer (ii, p. 372).

56. The priest who succeeded the kings, after their expulsion, in presiding over the sacrifices. Although he nominally outranked the flamens and the pontifex maximus, the office was unimportant.

57. What these were is uncertain. Probably they offered less exposure of the person than an ordinary ladder.

58. The term Argei was applied to twenty-four chapels distributed among the four regions of early Rome, and also called Sacella Argeiorum and Argea. It also designated the same number of puppets, or bundles of straw in the shape of men, which were thrown from the Pons Sublicius into the Tiber by the Vestal virgins on the Ides of May. See Fowler, Roman Festivals, pp. 111 ff. and Thes. Ling. Lat. s.v. Argei.

59. Fontes Jur. Rom., p. 197.

60. Fr. 4, p. cxiii, Merkel.

61. White was emblematic of royalty. Cf. Suetonius Jul. Ixxix, I.

62. Fr. 7, Fun.

63. Aen. vi. 365 ff.

64. 578—534 B.C., traditional chronology.

65. Phocis, a district of Greece west of Boeotia, was confused by Hyginus with Phocaea, a city on the western coast of Asia Minor.

66. Probably an error for Harpagus.

67. Aen. i. 2.

68. Alen. vi. 17.

69. Aen. vi. 122.

70. Aen.vi. 617.

71. Aen. vi. 838. The rendering is by Rhoades, except for

spotless

in the last line.

72. Neoptolemus, also called Pyrrus (or Pyrrhus), the son of Achilles and Deidameia.

73. Probably either Gellius or Hyginus misquotes Virgil. With their version we have a transfer of the epithet intemerata from Minerva to her shrine.

74. 280—275 B.C.

75. 146 B.C.

76. ii, 72, Ribbeck 3.

77. Tusc. Disp. iii. 75.

78. In 353 B.C.

79. The famous Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, adorned by Scopas, Bryaxis, Timotheus and Leochares with sculptures, the remains of which are now in the British Museum. It was a square building, 140 feet high, surrounded by Ionic columns. It stood upon a lofty base and was surmounted by a pyramid of steps ending in a platform, on which was a four-horse chariot. The term mausoleum was applied by the Romans to large and magnificent tombs such as the mausoleum of Augustus and that of Hadrian.

80. The other six

wonders

were: The walls and hanging gardens of Babylon; the temple of Diana at Ephesus; the statue of Olympian Zeus by Phidias; the Pyramids; and the Pharos, or lighthouse, at Alexandria.

81. The more approved spelling is Theodectas; see C.I.G. ii. 977.

82. Fr. 1, Peter.

83. Adv. Androt. 7, p. 595.

84. Fr. 22, Huschke; Coniect. fr. 13, Bremer.

85. That is, a royatio.

86. v. 49, Marx.

87. The acarne was a kind of sea-fish.

88. Fr. 23, Huschke; 14, Bremer.

89. The older form of the nominative plebs.

90. ii. 21, Maur.

91. Fr. inc. 51, Jordan.

92. Cat. xxxiii. 2; Jug. x. 2; xix. 7, etc.

93. p. 53, 15, Fun.

94. vii. 59.

95. Novissimus occurs in Caesar and in Cicero, Rosc. Com. 30; novior is avoided wholly by the classical writers.

96. Gorgias 40, p. 484 C-D; 485 A-E.

97. Homer, Iliad ix. 441 f. ou)/pw ei)do/q' o(moii/ou pole/moio Ou)d' a)gore/wn, i(/na t' a)/ndres a)riprepe/es tele/qousin.

98. Cf. Hor. Odes iv. 6 15, Troas male feriatos. Since Gellius mentions Horace by name only once, and once by possible implication (see Index), the expression had doubtless become proverbial.

99. That is, Callicles; see § 2.

100. Flavoured with myrrh.

101. p. 68. 3, Jordan.

102. That is, his adoptive father, Julius Caesar.

103. p. 145, Weichert.

104. A movable festival, celebrated between Dec. 15 and Jan. 5, at cross-roads, in honour of the Lares compitales.

105. ii, 77, Ribbeck. 3

106. Fr. 25, Peter 2.

107. Said to Hannibal by his officer Maharbal after the battle of Cannae, 216 B.C.

108. Fr. 86, Peter 2.

109. xix. 7, Jordan.

110. Fr. 11, Bahrens.

111. See McCartney, Figurative Use of Animal Names, p. 47.

112. Fr. 1, Ribbeck 3, who gives the title as Aesiona. There is of course a word-play on lingula.

113. Ann. 390, Vahlen 2; cf. Livy xxxi. 39. 11.

114. Many of these names, both of weapons and ships, are most uncertain; for some no exact equivalent can be found.

115. Hist. i. 104, Maur.

116. ib. i. 105.

117. i. 3.

118. iv. 526.

119. Hist. i. 98, Maur.

120. Fr. 4, Peter 2.

121. Ann. 537, Vahlen. 2

122. Text and meaning are uncertain of this and the following sentence; see critical note.

123. Georg. i. 199.