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Book III

I

1arg

A discussion of the question why Sallust said that avarice rendered effeminate, not only a manly soul, but also the very body itself.

1 WHEN winter was already waning, we were walking with the philosopher Favorinus in the court of the Titian baths, ¹ enjoying the mild warmth of the sun; and there, as we walked, Sallust's Catiline was being read, a book which Favorinus had seen in the hands of a friend and had asked him to read. The following passage from that book had been recited: ²

Avarice implies a desire for money, which no wise man covets; steeped as it were with noxious poisons, it renders the most manly body and soul effeminate; it is ever unbounded, nor can either plenty or want make it less.

Then Favorinus looked at me and said:

How does avarice make a man's body effeminate? For I seem to grasp in general the meaning of his statement that it has that effect on a manly soul, but how it also makes his body effeminate I do not yet comprehend.

I too,

said I,

have for a long time been putting myself that question, and if you had not anticipated me, I should of my own accord have asked you to answer it.

Scarcely had I said this with some hesitation, when one of the disciples of Favorinus, who seemed to be an old hand in the study of literature, broke in:

I once heard Valerius Probus say that Sallust here used a kind of poetic circumlocution, and meaning to say that a man was corrupted by avarice, spoke of his body and soul, the two factors which indicate a man; for man is made up of body and soul.

Never,

replied Favorinus,

at least, so far as I know, was our Probus guilty of such impertinent and bold subtlety as to say that Sallust, a most skilful artist in conciseness, used poetic paraphrases.

There was with us at the time in the same promenade a man of considerable learning. He too, on being asked by Favorinus whether he had anything to say on the subject, answered to this effect:

We observe that almost all those whose minds are possessed and corrupted by avarice and who have devoted themselves to the acquisition of money from any and every source, so regulate their lives, that compared with money they neglect manly toil and attention to bodily exercise, as they do everything else. For they are commonly intent upon indoor and sedentary pursuits, in which all their vigour of mind and body is enfeebled and, as Sallust says, 'rendered effeminate.'

Then Favorinus asked to have the same words of Sallust read again, and when they had been read, he said:

How then are we to explain the fact, that it is possible to find many men who are greedy for money, but nevertheless have strong and active bodies?

To this the man replied thus:

Your answer is certainly to the point. Whoever,

said he,

is greedy for money, but nevertheless has a body that is strong and in good condition, must necessarily be possessed either by an interest in, or devotion to, other things as well, and cannot be equally niggardly in his care of himself. For if extreme avarice, to the exclusion of everything else, lay hold upon all a man's actions and desires, and if it extend even to neglect of his body, so that because of that one passion he has regard neither for virtue nor physical strength, nor body, nor soul—then, and then only, can that vice truly be said to cause effeminacy both of body and of soul, since such men care neither for themselves nor for anything else except money.

Then said Favorinus:

Either what you have said is reasonable, or Sallust, through hatred of avarice, brought against it a heavier charge than he could justify.

II

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Which was the birthday, according to Marcus Varro, of those born before the sixth hour of the night, or after it and in that connection, concerning the duration and limits of the days that are termed

civil

and are reckoned differently all over the world; and in addition, what Quintus Mucius wrote about that woman who claimed freedom from her husband's control illegally, because she had not taken account of the civil year.

1 IT is often inquired which day should be considered and called the birthday of those who are born in the third, the fourth, or any other hour of the night; that is, whether it is the day that preceded, or the day that followed, that night. Marcus Varro, in that book of his Human Antiquities which he wrote On Days, says: ⁴

Persons who are born during the twenty-four hours between one midnight and the next midnight are considered to have been born on one and the same day.

From these words it appears that he so apportioned the reckoning of the days, that the birthday of one who is born after sunset, but before midnight, is the day after which that night began; but that, on the other hand, one who is born during the last six hours of the night is considered to have been born on the day which dawned after that night.

However, Varro also wrote in that same book ⁵ that the Athenians reckon differently, and that they regard all the intervening time from one sunset to the next as one single day. That the Babylonians counted still differently; for they called by the name of one day the whole space of time between sunrise and the beginning of the next sunrise; but that in the land of Umbria many said that from midday to the following midday was one and the same day.

But this,

he said,

is too absurd. For the birthday of one who is born among the Umbrians at mid-day on the first of the month will have to be considered as both half of the first day of the month and that part of the second day which comes before midday.

⁶

But it is shown by abundant evidence that the Roman people, as Varro said, reckoned each day from midnight to the next midnight. The religious ceremonies of the Romans are performed in part by day, others by night; but those which take place by night are appointed for certain days, not for nights; accordingly, those that take place during the last six hours of the night are said to take place on the day which dawns immediately after that night. Moreover, the ceremony and method of taking the auspices point to the same way of reckoning; for the magistrates, whenever they must take the auspices, and transact the business for which they have taken the auspices, on the same day, take the auspices after midnight and transact tile business after midday, when the sun is high, and they are then said to have taken the auspices and acted on the same day. Again, when the tribunes of the commons, who are not allowed to be away from Rome for a whole day, leave the city after midnight and return after the first lighting of the lamps on the following day, but before midnight, they are not considered to have been absent for a whole day, since they returned before the completion of the sixth hour of the night, and were in the city of Rome for some part of that day.

I have read that Quintus Mucius, the jurist, also used to say ⁷ that a woman did not become her own mistress who, after entering upon marriage relations with a man on the day called the Kalends of January, left him, for the purpose of emancipating herself, on the fourth day before the Kalends of the following January; ⁸ for the period of three nights, during which the Twelve Tables⁹ provided that a woman must be separated from her husband for the purpose of gaining her independence, could not be completed, since the last ¹⁰ six hours of the third night belonged to the next year, which began on the first of January.

Now since I found all the above details about the duration and limits of days, pertaining to the observance and the system of ancient law, in the works of our early writers, I did not doubt that Virgil also indicated the same thing, not directly and openly, but, as became one treating poetic themes, by an indirect and as it were veiled allusion to ancient observance. He says: ¹¹

For dewy Night has wheeled her way

Far past her middle course; the panting steeds

Of orient Morn breathe pitiless on me.

For in these lines he wished to remind us covertly, as I have said, that the day which the Romans have called

civil

begins after the completion of the sixth hour of the night.

III

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On investigating and identifying the comedies of Plautus, since the genuine and the spurious without distinction are said to have been inscribed with his name; and further as to the report that Plautus wrote plays in a bakery and Naevius in prison.

1 I AM convinced of the truth of the statement which I have heard made by men well trained in literature, who have read a great many plays of Plautus with care and attention: namely, that with regard to the so-called

doubtful

plays they would ¹² trust, not the lists of Aelius or Sedigitus or Claudius or Aurelius or Accius or Manilius, but Plautus himself and the characteristic features of his manner and diction. Indeed, this is the criterion which we find Varro using. For in addition to those one and twenty known as

Varronian,

which he set apart from the rest because they were not questioned but by common consent were attributed to Plautus, he accepted also some others, influenced by the style and humour of their language, which was characteristic of Plautus; and although these had already been listed under the names of other poets, he claimed them for Plautus: for example, one that I was recently reading, called The Boeotian woman. For although it is not among those one and twenty and is attributed to Aquilius, still Varro had not the least doubt that it was Plautine, nor will any other habitual reader of Plautus doubt it, even if lie knows only the following verses from that play, which, since they are, to speak in the manner of that famous poet, most Plautine, I recall and have noted down. There a hungry parasite speaks as follows: ¹³

The gods confound the man who first found out

How to distinguish hours! Confound him, too,

Who in this place set up a sun-dial

To cut and hack my days so wretchedly

Into small portions! When I was a boy,

My belly was my only sun-dial, one more sure,

Truer, and more exact than any of them.

This dial told me when 'twas proper time

To go to dinner, when I had aught to eat;

But nowadays, why even when I have,

I can't fall to unless the sun gives leave.

The town's so full of these confounded dials

The greatest part of the inhabitants,

Shrunk up with hunger, crawl along the streets.

My master Favorinus too, when I was reading the Nervularia of Plautus, and he had heard this line of the comedy: ¹⁴

Old, wheezing, physicky, mere foundered hags

With dry, parched, painted hides, shrivell'd and shrunk,

delighted with the wit of the archaic words that describe the ugly defects of harlots, cried:

By heaven! just this one verse is enough to convince one that the play is Plautine.

I myself too a little while ago, when reading the Fretum—that is the name of a comedy which some think is not Plautine—had no manner of doubt that it was by Plautus and in fact of all his plays the most authentic. From it I copied these two lines, ¹⁵ with the intention of looking up the story of the Arretine oracle: ¹⁶

Now here we have at the great games ¹⁷ the Arretine response:

I perish if I don't, and if I do, I'm flogged.

Yet Marcus Varro, in the first book of his Comedies of Plautus,¹⁸ quotes these words of Accius: ¹⁹

For not the Twin Panders nor the Slave-ring nor the Old Woman were the work of Plautus, nor were ever the Twice Violated or the Boeotian woman, nor were the Clownish Rustic or the Partners in, Death the work of Titus Maccius.

²⁰

In that same book of Varro's we are told also that there was another writer of comedies called Plautius. Since his plays bore the title

Plauti,

²¹ they were accepted as Plautine, although in fact they were not Plautine by Plautus, but Plautinian by Plautius.

Now there are in circulation under the name of Plautus about one hundred and thirty comedies; but that most learned of men Lucius Aelius thought that only twenty-five of them were his. ²² However, there is no doubt that those which do not appear to have been written by Plautus but are attached to his name, were the work of poets of old but were revised and touched up by him, and that is why they savour of the Plautine style. Now Varro and several others have recorded that the Saturio, the Addictus, and a third comedy, the name of which I do not now recall, were written by Plautus in a bakery, when, after losing in trade all the money which he had earned in employments connected with the stage, he had returned penniless to Rome, and to earn a livelihood had hired himself out to a baker, to turn a mill, of the kind which is called a

push-mill.

²³

So too we are told of Naevius that he wrote two plays in prison, the Soothsayer and the Leon, when by reason of his constant abuse and insults aimed at the leading men of the city, after the manner of the Greek poets, he had been imprisoned at Rome by the triumvirs. ²⁴ And afterwards he was set free by the tribunes of the commons, when he had apologized for his offences and the saucy language with which he had previously assailed many men.

IV

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That it was an inherited custom of Publius Africanus and other distinguished men of his time to shave their beard and cheeks.

1 I FOUND it stated in books which I read dealing with the life of Publius Scipio Africanus, that Publius Scipio, the son of Paulus, after he had celebrated a triumph because of his victory over the Carthaginians and had been censor, was accused before the people by Claudius Asellus, tribune of the commons, whom he had degraded from knighthood during his censorship; and that Scipio, although he was under accusation, neither ceased to shave his beard and to wear white raiment nor appeared in the usual garb of those under accusation. But since it is certain that at that time Scipio was less than forty years old, I was surprised at the statement about shaving his beard. I have learned, however, that in those same times the other nobles shaved their beards at that time of life, and that is why we see many busts of early men represented in that way, men who were not very old, but in middle life. ²⁵

V

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How the philosopher Arcesilaus severely yet humorously taunted a man with the vice of voluptuousness and with unmanliness of expression and conduct.

1 PLUTARCH tells us ²⁶ that Arcesilaus the philosopher used strong language about a certain rich man, who was too pleasure-loving, but nevertheless had a reputation for uprightness and freedom from sensuality. For when he observed the man's affected speech, his artfully arranged hair, and his wanton glances, teeming with seduction and voluptuousness, he said:

It makes no difference with what parts of your body you debauch yourself, front or rear.

VI

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On the natural strength of the palm-tree; for when weights are placed upon its wood, it resists their pressure.

1 A TRULY wonderful fact is stated by Aristotle in the seventh book of his Problems,²⁷ and by Plutarch in the eighth of his Symposiaca.²⁸

If,

say they,

you place heavy weights on the wood of the palmtree, and load it so heavily and press it down so hard that the burden is too great to bear, the wood does not give way downward, nor is it made concave, but it rises against the weight and struggles upward and assumes a convex form. ²⁹ It is for that reason,

says Plutarch,

that the palm has been chosen as the symbol of victory in contests, since the nature of its wood is such that it does not yield to what presses hard upon it and tries to crush it.

VII

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A tale from the annals about Quintus Caedicius, tribune of the soldiers; and a passage from the Origins of Marcus Cato, in which he likens the valour of Caedicius to that of the Spartan Leonidas.

1 A GLORIOUS deed, by the Gods! and well worthy of the noble strains of Greek eloquence, is that of the military tribune Quintus Caedicius, recorded by Marcus Cato in his Origins.³⁰

The actual account runs about as follows: In the first Punic war the Carthaginian general in Sicily advanced to meet the Roman army and was first to take possession of the hills and strategic points. As the result of this, the Roman soldiers made their way into a place exposed to surprise and extreme danger. The tribune went to the consul and pointed out that destruction was imminent from their unfavourable position and from the fact that the enemy had surrounded them.

My advice is,

said he,

if you want to save the day, that you order some four hundred soldiers to advance to yonder wart

—for that is Cato's term for a high and rough bit of ground—

and command and conjure them to hold it. When the enemy see that, undoubtedly all their bravest and most active men will be intent upon attacking and fighting with them; they will devote themselves to that one task, and beyond a doubt all those four hundred will be slaughtered. Then in the meantime, while the enemy is engaged in killing them, you will have time to get the army out of this position. There is no other way of safety but this.

The consul replied to the tribune that the plan seemed to him equally wise;

but who, pray,

said he,

will there be to lead those four hundred men of yours to that place in the midst of the enemy's troops?

If you find no one else,

answered the tribune,

you may use me for that dangerous enterprise. I offer this life of mine to you and to my country.

The consul thanked and commended the tribune. The tribune and his four hundred marched forth to death. The enemy marvelled at their boldness; they were on tiptoe of expectation to see where they would go. But when it appeared that they were on their way to occupy that hill, the Carthaginian commander sent against them the strongest men in his army, horse and foot. The Roman soldiers were surrounded; though surrounded, they resisted; the battle was long and doubtful. At last numbers triumphed. Every man of the four hundred fell, including the tribune, either run through with swords or overwhelmed with missiles. Meanwhile the consul, while the battle was raging there, withdrew to a safe position on high ground.

But what, by Heaven's help, befell that tribune, the leader of the four hundred soldiers, in the battle, I have added, no longer using my own words, but giving those of Cato himself, who says:

The immortal gods gave the tribune good fortune equal to his valour; for this is what happened. Although he had been wounded in many places during the battle, yet his head was uninjured, and they recognized him among the dead, unconscious from wounds and loss of blood. They bore him off the field, he recovered, and often after that rendered brave and vigorous service to his country; and by that act of leading that forlorn hope lie saved the rest of the army. But what a difference it makes where you do the same service! ³¹ The Laconian Leonidas, who performed a like exploit at Thermopylae, because of his valour won unexampled glory and gratitude from all Greece, and was honoured with memorials of the highest distinction; they showed their appreciation of that deed of his by pictures, statues and honorary inscriptions, in their histories, and in other ways; but the tribune of the soldiers, who had done the same thing and saved an army, gained small glory for his deeds.

With such high personal testimony did Marcus Cato honour this valorous deed of Quintus Caedicius the tribune. But Claudius Quadrigarius, in the third book of his Annals,³² says that the man's name was not Caedicius, but Laberius.

VIII

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A fine letter of the consuls Gaius Fabricius and Quintus Aemilius to king Pyrrhus, recorded by the historian Quintus Claudius.

1 AT the time when king Pyrrhus was on Italian soil and had won one or two battles, when the Romans were getting anxious, and the greater part of Italy had gone over to the king, a certain Timochares, an Ambracian and a friend of king Pyrrhus, came stealthily to the consul Gaius Fabricius and asked a reward, promising that if they could come to terms, he would poison the king. This, he said, could easily be done, since his son was the monarch's cup-bearer. Fabricius transmitted this offer to the senate. The senate sent envoys to the king, instructing them not to reveal anything about Timochares, but to warn the king to act with more caution, and be on his guard against the treachery of those nearest to his own person. This, as I have told it, is the version found in the History of Valerius Antias. ³³ But Quadrigarius, in his third book, ³⁴ says that it was not Timochares, but Nicias, that approached the consul; that the embassy was not sent by the senate, but by the consuls; and that Pyrrhus thanked and complimented the Roman people in a letter, besides clothing and returning all the prisoners that were then in his hands.

The consuls at that time were Gaius Fabricius and Quintus Aemilius. ³⁵ The letter which they sent to king Pyrrhus about that matter, according to Claudius Quadrigarius, ran as follows:

" The Roman consuls greet king Pyrrhus.

We, being greatly disturbed in spirit because of your continued acts of injustice, desire to war with you as an enemy. But as a matter of general precedent and honour, it has seemed to us that we should desire your personal safety, in order that we may have the opportunity of vanquishing you in the field. Your friend Nicias came to us, to ask for a reward if he should secretly slay you. We replied that we had no such wish, and that he could look for no advantage from such an action; at the same time it seemed proper to inform you, for fear that if anything of the kind should happen, the nations might think that it was done with our connivance, and also because we have no desire to make war by means of bribes or rewards or trickery. As for you, if you do not take heed, you will have a fall."

IX

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The characteristics of the horse of Seius, which is mentioned in the proverb; and as to the colour of the horses which are called spadices; and the explanation of that term.

1 GAVIUS BASSUS in his Commentaries,³⁶ and Julius Modestus in the second book of his Miscellaneous Questions,³⁷ tell the history of the horse of Seius, a tale wonderful and worthy of record. They say that there was a clerk called Gnaeus Seius, and that he had a horse foaled at Argos, in the land of Greece, about which there was a persistent tradition that it was sprung from the breed of horses that had belonged to the Thracian Diomedes, those which Hercules, after slaying Diomedes, had taken from Thrace to Argos. They say that this horse was of extraordinary size, with a lofty neck, bay in colour, with a thick, glossy mane, and that it was far superior to all horses in other points of excellence; but that same horse, they go on to say, was of such a fate or fortune, that whoever owned and possessed it came to utter ruin, as well as his whole house, his family and all his possessions. Thus, to begin with, that Gnaeus Seius who owned him was condemned and suffered a cruel death at the hands of Marcus Antonius, afterwards one of the triumvirs for setting the State in order. ³⁸ At that same time Cornelius Dolabella, the consul, on his way to Syria, attracted by the renown of this horse, turned aside to Argos, was fired with a desire to own the animal, and bought it for a hundred thousand sesterces; but Dolabella in his turn was besieged in Syria during the civil war, and slain. And soon afterwards Gaius Cassius, who had besieged Dolabella, carried off this same horse, which had been Dolabella's. It is notorious too that this Cassius, after his party had been vanquished and his army routed, met a wretched end. Then later, after the death of Cassius, Antonius, who had defeated him, sought for this famous horse of Cassius, and after getting possession of it was himself afterwards defeated and deserted in his turn, and died an ignominious death. Hence the proverb, applied to unfortunate men, arose and is current:

That man has the horse of Seius.

The meaning is the same of that other old proverb, which I have heard quoted thus:

the gold of Tolosa.

For when the town of Tolosa in the land of Gaul was pillaged by the consul Quintus Caepio, and a quantity of gold was found in the temples of that town, whoever touched a piece of gold from that sack died a wretched and agonizing death.

Gavius Bassus reports that he saw this horse at Argos; that it was of incredible beauty and strength and of the richest possible colouring.

This colour, as I have said, we call poeniceus; the Greeks sometimes name it foi=nic, at others spa/dic, since the branch of the palm ( foi=nic), torn from the tree with its fruit, is called spadix.³⁹

X

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That in many natural phenomena a certain power and efficacy of the number seven has been observed, concerning which Marcus Varro discourses at length in his Hebdomades.⁴⁰

1 MARCUS VARRO, in the first book of his work entitled Hebdomades or On Portraits, speaks of many varied excellencies and powers of the number seven, which the Greeks call e(bdoma/s.

For that number,

he says,

forms the Greater and the Lesser Bear in the heavens; also the vergiliae,⁴¹ which the Greeks call pleia/des; and it is likewise the number of those stars which some call 'wandering,' but Publius Nigidius' wanderers.'

⁴² Varro also says that there are seven circles in the heavens, perpendicular to its axis. The two smallest of these, which touch the ends of the axis, he says are called po/loi, or

poles

; but that because of their small diameter they cannot be represented on what is termed an armillary sphere. ⁴³ And the zodiac itself is not uninfluenced by the number seven; for the summer solstice occurs in the seventh sign from the winter solstice, and the winter solstice in the seventh after the summer, and one equinox in the seventh sign after the other. Then too those winter days during which the kingfishers nest on the water he says are seven in number. ⁴⁴ Besides this, he writes that the course of the moon is completed in four times seven complete days;

for on the twenty-eighth day,

he says,

the moon returns to the same point from which it started,

and he quotes Aristides ⁴⁵ of Samos as his authority for this opinion. In this case he says that one should not only take note of the fact that the moon finishes its journey in four times seven, that is eight and twenty, days, but also that this number seven, if, beginning with one and going on until it reaches itself, it includes the sum of all the numbers through which it has passed and then adds itself, makes the number eight and twenty, which is the number of days of the revolution of the moon. ⁴⁶ He says that the influence of that number extends to and affects also the birth of human beings.

For,

says he,

when the life-giving seed has been introduced into the female womb, in the first seven days it is compacted and coagulated and rendered fit to take shape. Then afterwards in the fourth hebdomad the rudimentary male organ, the head, and the spine which is in the back, are formed. But in the seventh hebdomad, as a rule, that is, by the forty-ninth day,

says he,

the entire embryo is formed in the womb.

He says that this power also has been observed in that number, that before the seventh month neither male nor female child can be born in health and naturally, and that those which are in the womb the most regular time are born two hundred and seventy-three days after conception, that is, not until the beginning of the fortieth hebdomad. Of the periods dangerous to the lives and fortunes of all men, which the Chaldaeans call

climacterics,

all the gravest are combinations of the number seven. Besides this, he says that the extreme limit of growth of the human body is seven feet. That, in my opinion, is truer than the statement of Herodotus, the story-teller, in the first book of his History,⁴⁷ that the body of Orestes was found under ground, and that it was seven cubits in height, that is, twelve and a quarter feet; unless, as Homer thought, ⁴⁸ the men of old were larger and taller of stature, but now, because the world is ageing, as it were, men and things are diminishing in size. The teeth too, he says, appear in the first seven months seven at a time in each jaw, and fall out within seven years, and the back teeth are added, as a rule, within twice seven years. He says that the physicians who use music as a remedy declare that the veins of men, or rather their arteries, are set in motion according to the number seven, ⁴⁹ and this treatment they call th\n dia\ tessa/rwn sumfwni/an,⁵⁰ because it results from the harmony of four tones. He also believes that the periods of danger in diseases have greater violence on the days which are made up of the number seven, and that those days in particular seem to be, as the physicians call them, krisi/moi or

critical

; namely, the first, second and third hebdomad. And Varro does not fail to mention a fact which adds to the power and influence of the number seven, namely, that those who resolve to die of starvation do not meet their end until the seventh day.

These remarks of Varro about the number seven show painstaking investigation. But he has also brought together in the same place others which are rather trifling: for example, that there are seven wonderful works in the world, that the sages of old were seven, that the usual number of rounds in the races in the circus is seven, and that seven champions were chosen to attack Thebes. Then he adds in that book the further information that he has entered upon the twelfth hebdomad of his age, and that up to that day he has completed seventy hebdomads of books, ⁵¹ of which a considerable number were destroyed when his library was plundered, at the time of his proscription. ⁵²

XI

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The weak arguments by which Accius in his Didascalica attempts to prove that Hesiod was earlier than Homer.

1 As to the age of Homer and of Hesiod opinions differ. Some, among whom are Philochorus ⁵³ and Xenophanes, ⁵⁴ have written that Homer was older than Hesiod; others that he was younger, among them Lucius Accius the poet and Euphorus the historian. ⁵⁵ But Marcus Varro, in the first book of his Portraits,⁵⁶ says ⁵⁷ that it is not at all certain which of the two was born first, but that there is no doubt that they lived partly in the same period of time, and that this is proved by the inscription ⁵⁸ engraved upon a tripod which Hesiod is said to have set up on Mount Helicon. Accius, on the contrary, in the first book of his Didascalica,⁵⁹ makes use of very weak arguments in his attempt to show that Hesiod was the elder:

Because Homer,

he writes,

when he says at the beginning of his poem ⁶⁰ that Achilles was the son of Peleus, does not inform us who Peleus was; and this he unquestionably would have done, if he did not know that the information had already been given by Hesiod. ⁶¹ Again, in the case of Cyclops,

says Accius,

he would not have failed to note such a striking characteristic and to make particular mention of the fact that he was oneeyed, were it not that this was equally well known from the poems of his predecessor Hesiod.

⁶²

Also as to Homer's native city there is the very greatest divergence of opinion. Some say that he was from Colophon, some from Smyrna; others assert that he was an Athenian, still others, an Egyptian; and Aristotle declares ⁶³ that he was from the island of los. Marcus Varro, in the first book of his Portraits, placed this couplet under the portrait of Homer: ⁶⁴

This snow-white kid the tomb of Homer marks;

For such the Ietae ⁶⁵ offer to the dead.

XII

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That Publius Nigidius, a man of great learning, applied bibosus to one who was given to drinking heavily and greedily, using a new, but hardly rational, word-formation.

1 PUBLIUS NIGIDIUS, in his Grammatical Notes,⁶⁶ calls one who is fond of drinking bibax and bibosus. Bibax, like edax, I find used by many others; but as yet I have nowhere found an example of bibosus, except in Laberius, and there is no other word similarly derived. For vinosus, or vitiosus, and other formations of the kind, are not parallel, since they are derived from nouns, not from verbs. Laberius, in the mime entitled Salinator, uses this word thus: ⁶⁷

Not big of breast, not old, not bibulous, not pert.

XIII

13arg

How Demosthenes, while still young and a pupil of the philosopher Plato, happening to hear the orator Callistratus add ressing the people, deserted Plato and became a follower of Callistratus.

1 HERMIPPUS has written ⁶⁸ that Demosthenes, when quite young, used to frequent the Academy and listen to Plato.

And this Demosthenes,

says he,

when he had left home and, as usual, was on his way to Plato, saw great throngs of people running to the same place; he inquired the reason of this, and learned that they were hurrying to hear Callistratus. This Callistratus was one of those orators in the Athenian republic that they call dhmagwgoi/, or 'demagogues.' ⁶⁹ Demosthenes thought it best to turn aside for a moment and find out whether the discourse justified such eager haste. He came,

says Hermippus,

and heard Callistratus delivering that famous speech of his, h( peri\ )Wrwpou= di/kh.⁷⁰ He was so moved, so charmed, so captivated, that he became a follower of Callistratus from that moment, deserting Plato and the Academy.

XIV

14arg

That whoever says dimidium librum legi, or dimidiam fabulam audivi, and uses other expressions of that kind, speaks incorrectly: and that Marcus Varro gives the explanation of that error: and that no early writer has used such phraseology.

1 VARRO believes that dimidium librum legi (

I have read half the book

), or dimidiam fabulam legi (

I have read half the play

), or any other expression of that kind, is incorrect and faulty usage.

For,

says he, ⁷¹ one ought to say dimidiatum librum ('the halved book'), not dimidium, and dimidiatam fabulam, not dimidiam. But, on the contrary, if from a pint a half-pint has been poured, one should not say that 'a halved pint' has been poured, but a ' half-pint,' and when one has received five hundred sesterces out of a thousand that were owing him, we must say that he has received a half sestertium, ⁷² not a halved one. But if a silver bowl," he says,

which I own in common with another person, has been divided into two parts, I ought to speak of it as 'halved,' not as 'a half': but my share of the silver of which the bowl is made is a 'half,' not 'halved.'

Thus Varro discusses and analyzes very acutely the difference between dimidium and dimidiatum, and he declares that Quintus Ennius spoke, in his Annals, with understanding in the line: ⁷³

As if one brought a halved cup of wine,

and similarly the part that is missing from the cup should be spoken of as

half,

not

halved.

Now the point of all this argument, which Varro sets forth acutely, it is true, but somewhat obscurely, is this: dimidiatum is equivalent to dismediatum, and means

divided into two parts,

and therefore dimidiatum cannot properly be used except of the thing itself that is divided; dimidium, however, is not that which is itself divided, but is one of the parts of what has been divided. Accordingly, when we wish to say that we have read the half part of a book or heard the half part of a play, if we say dimidiam fabulam or dimidium librum, we make a mistake; for in that case you are using dimidium of the whole thing which has been halved and divided. Therefore Lucilius, following this same rule, says: ⁷⁴

With one eye and two feet, like halved pig,

and in another place: ⁷⁵

why not? To sell his trash the huckster lauds

(The rascal!) half a shoe, a strigil split.

Again in his twentieth book it is clearer still that Lucilius carefully avoids saying dimidiam horam, but puts dimidium in the place of dimnidiam in the following lines: ⁷⁶

At its own season and the self-same time,

The half an hour and three at least elapsed,

At the fourth hour again. ⁷⁷

For while it was natural and easy to say

three and a half elapsed,

he watchfully and carefully shunned an improper term. From this it is quite clear that not even

half an hour

can properly be said, but we must say either

a halved hour

the halt part of an hour.

And so Plautus as well, in the Bacchides,⁷⁸ writes

half of the gold,

not

the halved gold,

and in the Aulularia,⁷⁹

half of the provisions,

not

the halved provisions,

in this verse:

He bade them give him half of all the meats;

But in the Menaechmi he has

the halved day,

not

half,

as follows: ⁸⁰

Down to the navel now the halved day is dead.

Marcus Cato, too, in his work On Farming, writes: ⁸¹

Sow cypress seed thick, just as flax is commonly sown. Over it sift earth from a sieve to the depth of a halved finger. Then smooth it well with a board, with the feet, or with the hands.

He says

a halved finger,

not

a half.

For we ought to say

half of a finger,

but the finger itself should be said to be

halved.

Marcus Cato also wrote this of the Carthaginians: ⁸²

They buried the men halfway down ( dimidiatos) in the ground and built a fire around them; thus they destroyed them.

In fact, no one of all those who have spoken correctly has used these words otherwise than in the way I have described.

XV

15arg

That it is recorded in literature and handed down by tradition, that great and unexpected joy has brought sudden death to many, since the breath of life was stifled and could not endure the effects of an unusual and strong emotion.

1 ARISTOTLE the philosopher relates ⁸³ that Polycrita, a woman of high rank in the island of Naxos, on suddenly and unexpectedly hearing joyful news, breathed her last. Philippides too, a comic poet of no little repute, when he had unexpectedly won the prize in a contest of poets at an advanced age, and was rejoicing exceedingly, died suddenly in the midst of his joy. The story also of Diogoras of Rhodes is widely known. This Diogoras had three young sons, one a boxer, the second a pancratist, ⁸⁴ and the third a wrestler. He saw them all victors and crowned at Olympia on the same day, and when the three young men were embracing him there, and having placed their crowns on their father's head were kissing him, and the people were congratulating him and pelting him from all sides with flowers, there in the very stadium, before the eyes of the people, amid the kisses and embraces of his sons, he passed away.

Moreover, I have read in our annals that at the time when the army of the Roman people was cut to pieces at Cannae, ⁸⁵ an aged mother was overwhelmed with grief and sorrow by a message announcing the death of her son; but that report was false, and when not long afterwards the young man returned from that battle to the city, the aged mother, upon suddenly seeing her son, was overpowered by the flood, the shock, and the crash, so to speak, of unlooked-for joy descending upon her, and gave up the ghost.

XVI

16arg

The variations in the period of gestation reported by physicians and philosophers; and incidentally the views also of the ancient poets on that subject and many other noteworthy and interesting particulars; and the words of the physician Hippocrates, quoted verbatim from his book entitled Peri\ Trofh=s.⁸⁶

1 BOTH physicians and philosophers of distinction have investigated the duration of the period of gestation in man. The general opinion, now accepted as correct, is that after the womb of a woman has conceived the seed, the child is born rarely in the seventh month, never in the eighth, often in the ninth, more often in the tenth in number; and that the end of the tenth month, not its beginning, is the extreme limit of human gestation. And this we find the ancient poet Plautus saying in his comedy the Cistellaria, in these words: ⁸⁷

And then the girl whom he did violate

Brought forth a daughter when ten months had sped.

That same thing is stated by Menander also, a still older poet and exceedingly well informed as to current opinion; I quote his words on that subject from the play called Plocium or The Necklace:⁸⁸

The woman is ten months with child . . .

But although our countryman Caecilius wrote a play with the same name and of the same plot, and borrowed extensively from Menander, yet in naming the months of delivery he did not omit the eighth, which Menander had passed by. These are the lines from Caecilius: ⁸⁹

And may a child in the tenth month be born?—

By Pollux! in the ninth, and seventh, and eighth.

Marcus Varro leads us to believe that Caecilius did not make this statement thoughtlessly or differ without reason from Menander and from the opinions of many men. For in the fourteenth book of his Divine Antiquities he has left the statement on record that parturition sometimes takes place in the eighth month. ⁹⁰ In this book he also says that sometimes a child may be born even in the eleventh month, and he cites Aristotle ⁹¹ as authority for his statement in regard both to the eighth and the eleventh month. Now, the reason for this disagreement as to the eighth month may be found in Hippocrates' work entitled Peri\ Trofh=s, or On Nurture, from which these words are taken ⁹²

Eighth-month's children exist and do not exist.

This statement, so obscure, abrupt, and apparently contradictory, is thus explained by the physician Sabinus, who wrote a very helpful commentary on Hippocrates:

They exist, since they appear to live after the miscarriage; but they do not exist, since they die afterwards; they exist and do not exist therefore, since they live for the moment in appearance, but not in reality.

But Varro says ⁹³ that the early Romans did not regard such births as unnatural rarities, but they did believe that a woman was delivered according to nature in the ninth or tenth month, and in no others, and that for this reason they gave to the three Fates names derived from bringing forth, and from the ninth and tenth months.

For Parca,

says he,

is derived from partuis with the change of one letter, and likewise Nona and Decima from the period of timely delivery.

⁹⁴ But Caesellius Vindex in his Ancient Readings says: ' The names of the Fates are three:

Nona, Decuma, Morta

; and he quotes this verse from the Odyssey of Livius, the earliest of our poets, ⁹⁵

When will the day be present that Morta has predicted?

But Caesellius, though a man not without learning, took Morta as a name, when he ought to have taken it as equivalent to Mocra. ⁹⁶

Furthermore, besides what I have read in books about human gestation, ⁹⁷ also heard of the following case, which occurred in Rome: A woman of good and honourable character, of undoubted chastity, gave birth to a child in the eleventh month after her husband's death, and because of the reckoning of the time the accusation was made that she had conceived after the death of her husband, since the decemvirs had written that a child is born in ten months and not in the eleventh month. The deified Hadrian, however, having heard the case, decided that birth might also occur in the eleventh month, and I myself have read the actual decree with regard to the matter. In that decree Hadrian declares that he makes his decision after looking up the views of the ancient philosophers and physicians.

This very day I chanced to read these words in a satire of Marcus Varro's entitled The Will:⁹⁸

If one or more sons shall be born to me in ten months, let them be disinherited, if they are asses in music; ⁹⁹ but if one be born to me in the eleventh month, according to Aristotle, ¹⁰⁰ let Attius have the same rights under my will as Tettius.

Just as it used commonly to be said of things that did not differ from each other,

let Attius be as Tettius,

so Varro means by this old proverb that children born in ten months and in eleven are to have the same and equal rights. ¹⁰¹

But if it is a fact that gestation cannot be prolonged beyond the tenth month, it is pertinent to ask why Homer wrote that Neptune said to a girl whom he had just violated: ¹⁰²

Rejoice, O woman, in this act of love;

A year gone by, fair offspring shall be thine,

For not unfruitful is a god's embrace.

When I had brought this matter to the attention of several scholars, some of them argued that in Homer's time, as in that of Romulus, the year consisted, not of twelve months, but of ten; others, that it was in accord with Neptune and his majesty that a child by him should develop through a longer period than usual; and others gave other nonsensical reasons. But Favorinus tells me that periplome/nou e)niautou= does not mean

when the year is ended

( confectus), but

when it is nearing its end

( ad fectus.)

In this instance Favorinus did not use the word adfectus in its popular signification (but yet correctly); for as it was used by Marcus Cicero and the most polished of the early writers, it was properly applied to things which had advanced, or been carried, not to the very end, but nearly to the end. Cicero gives the word that meaning in the speech On the Consular Provinces.¹⁰³

Moreover, Hippocrates, in that book of which I wrote above, when he mentioned the number of days within which the embryo conceived in the womb is given form, and had limited the time of gestation itself to the ninth or tenth month, but had said that this nevertheless was not always of the same duration, but that delivery occurred sometimes more quickly, sometimes later, finally used these words:

In these cases there are longer and shorter periods, both wholly and in part; but the longer are not much longer or the shorter much shorter.

¹⁰⁴ By this he means that whereas a birth sometimes takes place more quickly, yet it occurs not much more quickly, and when later, not much later.

I recall that this question was carefully and thoroughly investigated at Rome, an inquiry demanded by a suit at law of no small moment at the time, whether, namely, a child that had been born alive in the eighth month but had died immediately, satisfied the conditions of the ius trium liberorrum,¹⁰⁵ since it seemed to some that the untimely period of the eighth month made it an abortion and not a birth.

But since I have told what I have learned about a birth after a year in Homer and about the eleventh month, I think I ought not to omit what I read in the seventh book of the Natural Histoy of Plinius Secundus. But because that story might seem to be beyond belief, I have quoted Pliny's own words: ¹⁰⁶

Masurius makes the statement ¹⁰⁷ that the praetor Lucius Papirius, when an heir in the second degree ¹⁰⁸ brought suit for the possession of an inheritance, decided against him, although the mother ¹⁰⁹ said that she had been pregnant for thirteen months; and the reason for his decision was that it seemed to him that no definite period of gestation had been fixed by law.

In the same book of Plinius Secundus are these words: ¹¹⁰

Yawning during childbirth is fatal, just as to sneeze after coition produces abortion.

XVII

17arg

The statement of men of the highest authority that Plato bought three books of Philolaus the Pythagorean, and that Aristotle purchased a few books of the philosopher Speusippus, at prices beyond belief.

1 THE story goes that the philosopher Plato was a man of very slender means, but that nevertheless he bought three books of Philolaus the Pythagorean for ten thousand denarii.1 That sum, according to some writers, was given him by his friend Dion of Syracuse.

Aristotle too, according to report, bought a very few books of the philosopher Speusippus, after the latter's death, for three Attic talents, a sum equivalent in our money to seventy-two thousand sesterces. ¹¹¹

The bitter satirist Timon wrote a highly abusive work, which he entitled Si/llos.¹¹² In that book he addresses the philosopher Plato in opprobrious terms, alleging that he had bought a treatise on the Pythagorean philosophy at an extravagant figure, and that from it he had compiled that celebrated dialogue the Timaeus. Here are Timon's lines on the subject: ¹¹³

Thou, Plato, since for learning thou didst yearn,

A tiny book for a vast sum did'st buy,

Which taught thee a Timacus to compose.

XVIII

18arg

What is meant by pedari senafores, and why they are so called; also the origin of these words in the customary edict of the consuls:

senators and those who are allowed to speak in the senate.

1 THERE are many who think that those senators were called pedarii who did not express their opinion in words, but agreed with the opinion of others by stepping to their side of the House. How then? Whenever a decree of the senate was passed by division, did not all the senators vote in that manner? Also the following explanation of that word is given, which Gavius Bassus has left recorded in his Commentaries. For he says ¹¹⁴ that in the time of our forefathers senators who had held a curule magistracy used to ride to the House in a chariot, as a mark of honour; that in that chariot there was a seat on which they sat, which for that reason was called curulis;¹¹⁵ but that those senators who had not yet held a curule magistracy went on foot to the House: and that therefore the senators who had not yet held the higher magistracies were called pedarii. Marcus Varro, however, in the Menippean Satire entitled (Ippoku/wn, says ¹¹⁶ that some knights were called pedarii, and he seems to mean those who, since they had not yet been enrolled in the senate by the censors, were not indeed senators, but because they had held offices by vote of the people, used to come into the senate and had the right of voting. In fact, even those who had filled curule magistracies, if they had not yet been added by the censors to the list of senators, were not senators, and as their names came among the last, they were not asked their opinions, but went to a division on the views given by the leading members. That was the meaning of the traditional proclamation, which even to-day the consuls, for the sake of following precedent, use in summoning the senators to the House. The words of the edict are these:

Senators and those who have the right to express their opinion in the senate.

I have had a line of Laberius copied also, in which that word is used; I read it in a mime entitled Stricturae:¹¹⁷

The aye-man's vote is but a tongueless head.

I have observed that some use a barbarous form of this word; for instead of pedarii they say pedanii.

XIX

19arg

Why, according to Gavius Bassus, a man is called parcus and what he thought to be the explanation of that word; and how, on the contrary, Favorinus made fun of that explanation of his.

1 AT the dinners of the philosopher Favorinus, after the guests had taken their places and the serving of the viands began, a slave commonly stood by his table and began to read something, either from Grecian literature or from our own. For example, one day when I was present the reading was from the treatise of the learned Gavius Bassus On the Origin of Verbs and Substantives. In it this passage occurred: ¹¹⁸

Parcus is a compound word, made up of par arcae, that is 'like a strong-box;' for just as all valuables are put away in a strong-box and preserved and kept under its protection, just so a man who is close and content to spend little keeps all his property guarded and hidden away, as in a strong-box. For that reason he is called parcus, as if it were par arcus.

¹¹⁹

Then Favorinus, on hearing these words, said:

That fellow Gavius Bassus has made up and contrived an origin for that word in an unnatural, altogether laboured and repellent manner, rather than explained it. For if it is permissible to draw on one's imagination, why would it not seem more reasonable to believe that a man is called parcus for the reason that he forbids and prevents tile spending of money, as if he were pecuniarcus. Why not rather,

he continued,

adopt an explanation which is simpler and nearer the truth? For parcus is derived neither from arca nor from arceo, but from parum and parvum.

¹²⁰

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).) — 3.1 focus

I

Argument

Quaesitum atque tractatum quam ob causam Sallustius avaritiam dixerit non animum animumum modo virilem, sed corpus quoque ipsum effeminare efferninare.

[1] HIEME iam decedente, apud balneas Titias in area subcalido sole cum Favorino philosopho ambulabamus; atque ibi inter ambulandum legebatur Catilina Sallustii, quem in manu amici conspectum legi iusserat.

[2] Cumque haec verba ex eo libro lecta essent: Avaritia pecuniae studium habet, quam nemo sapiens concupivit; ea quasi venenis malis imbuta corpus animumque virilem effeminat, semper infinita et ¹ insatiabilis est, neque copia neque inopia minuitur,

[3] tum Favorinus me aspiciens Quo, inquit, pacto corpus hominis avaritia effeminat? Quid enim istuc sit, quod animum virilem ab ea effeminari dixit, videor ferme assequi, set quonam modo corpus quoque hominis effeminet nondum reperio rcperio. Et ego,

[4] inquam, longe iamdiu in eo ipse quaerendo fui ac, nisi tu occupasses, ultro te hoc rogassem.

[5] Vix ego haec dixeram cunctabundus, atque inibi quispiam de sectatoribus Favorini, qui videbatur esse in litteris veterator, Valerium, inquit, Probum audivi haec dicere: usum esse Sallustium circumlocutione quadam poetica et, cum dicere vellet hominem avaritia corrumpi, corpus et animum dixisse, quae duae res hominem demonstrarent; namque homo ex anima et corpore est.

[6] Numquam, inquit Favorinus, quod equidem scio, tam inportuna tamque audaci argutia fuit noster Probus, ut Sallustium, vel subtilissimum brevitatis artificem, periphrasis poetarum facere diceret.

[7] Erat tum nobiscum in eodem ambulacro homo quispiam sane doctus.

[8] Is quoque a Favorino rogatus ecquid haberet super ea re dicere, huiuscemodi verbis usus est:

[9] Quorum, inquit, avaritia mentem ² tenuit et corrupit quique sese quaerundae undique pecuniae dediderunt, eos plerosque tali genere vitae occupatos videmus, ut sicuti alia in his omnia prae pecunia, ita labor quoque virilis exercendique corporis studium relictui sit.

[10] Negotiis enim se plerumque umbraticis et sellulariis quaestibus intentos habent, in quibus omnis eorum vigor animi corporisque elanguescit et, quod Sallustius ait, effeminatur.

[11] Tum Favorinus legi denuo verba eadem Sallustii iubet atque, ubi lecta sunt, Quid igitur, inquit, dicimus, quod multos videre est pecuniae cupidos et eosdem tamen corpore esse vegeto ac valenti?

[12] Tum ille ita respondit: Respondes non hercle inscite. Quisquis, inquit, est pecuniae cupiens et corpore tamen est bene habito ac strenuo, aliarum quoque rerum vel studio vel exercitio eum teneri necessum est atque in sese colendo non aeque esse parcum.

[13] Nam si avaritia sola summa omnes hominis partes affectionesque occupet et si ad incuriam usque corporis grassetur, ut per illam unam neque virtutis neque virium neque corporis neque animi cura adsit, tum denique id vere dici potest effeminando esse et animo et corpori, si ³ qui neque sese neque aliud curent, nisi pecuniam.

[14] Tum Favorinus Aut hoc, inquit, quod dixisti, probabile est, aut Sallustius odio avaritiae plus quam par fuit ⁴ eam criminatus est.

II

Argument

Quemnam esse natalem diem M. Varro dicat, qui ante noctis horam sextam postve eam earn nati sunt; atque inibi de temporibus terminisque dierum qui civiles nominantur et usquequaque gentium varie observantur; et praeterea quid Q. Mucius scripserit super ea muliere quae a ⁵ marito non iure se usurpavisset, quod rationem civilis anni non habuerit.

[1] QUAERI solitum est, qui noctis hora tertia quartave sive qua alia nati sunt, uter dies natalis haberi appellarique debeat, isne quem nox ea consecuta est, an qui dies noctem consecutus est.

[2] M. Varro in libro Rerum humanarum Humnanarum, quem De Diebus scripsit, homines, inquit, qui inde a ⁶ media nocte ad proximam mediam noctem in his horis viginti quattuor nati sunt, uno die nati dicuntur.

[3] Quibus verbis ita videtur dierum observationem divisisse, ut qui post solem occasum ante mediam noctem natus sit, is ei dies natalis sit, a quo die ea nox coeperit; contra vero, qui in sex noctis horis posterioribus nascatur, eo die videri natum, qui post eam earn noctem diluxerit.

[4] Athenienses autem aliter observare, idem Varro in eodem libro scripsit, eosque a sole occaso ad solem iterum occidentem omne id medium tempus unum diem esse dicere.

[5] Babylonios porro aliter; a sole enim exorto ad exortum eiusdem incipientem ⁷ totum id spatium unius diei nomine appellare;

[6] multos vero in terra Umbria unum et eundem diem esse dicere a meridie ad insequentem meridiem; quod quidem, inquit, nimis absurdum est. Nam qui Kalendis hora sexta apud Umbros natus est, dies eius natalis videri debebit et Kalendarum dimidiarum et qui est post Kalendas dies ante horam eius diei sextam.

[7] Populum autem Romanum ita, uti Varro dixit, dies singulos adnumerare a media nocte ad mediam proximam, multis argumentis ostenditur.

[8] Sacra sunt Romana partim diurna, alia nocturna, sed ea quae inter noctem fiunt diebus addicuntur, non noctibus;

[9] quae igitur sex posterioribus noctis horis fiunt, eo die fieri dicuntur qui proximus eam noctem inlucescit.

[10] Ad hoc ritus quoque et mos auspicandi eandem esse observationem docet; nam magistratus, quando uno die eis auspicandum est et id super quo auspicaverunt agendum, post ⁸ mediam noctem auspicantur et post meridiem sole magno agunt, ⁹ auspicatique esse et egisse eodem die dicuntur.

[11] Praeterea tribuni plebei, quos nullum diem abesse alesse Roma licet, cum post mediam noctem proficiscuntur et post primam facem ante mediam sequentem revertuntur, non videntur afuisse unum diem, quoniam, ante horam noctis sextam regressi, parte aliqua illius in urbe Roma sunt.

[12] Q. ¹⁰ quoque Mucium iureconsultum dicere solitum legi, non esse usurpatam mulierem, quae, cum Kalendis Ianuariis apud virum matrimonii causa esse coepisset, ante diem IV. Kalendas Ianuarias sequentes usurpatum usulpatum isset;

[13] non enim posse impleri trinoctium, quod abesse a viro usurpandi causa ex Duodecim Tabulis deberet, quoniam tertiae noctis posterioris sex horae alterius anni essent, qui inciperet ex Kalendis.

[14] Istaec autem omnia de dierum temporibus et finibus ad observationem disciplinamque iuris antiqui pertinentia cum in libris veterum inveniremus, non dubitabamus quin Vergilius quoque id ipsum ostenderit, non exposite atque aperte, sed, ut hominem hoiniem decuit poeticas res agentem, recondita et quasi operta veteris ritus significatione:

[15]

Torquet (inquit) medios nox umida cursus

Et me saevus equis oriens afflavit anhelis.

[16] His enim versibus oblique, sicuti dixi, admonere voluit, diem quem Romani civilem appellaverunt a sexta noctis hora oriri.

III

Argument

De noscendis explorandisque Plauti comoediis, quoniam quonian promisce promise verae atque falsae nomine eius inscriptae inscriptac feruntur; atque inibi, quod Plautus in pistrino ¹¹ et Naevius in carcere fabulas scriptitarint.

[1] VERUM esse comperior quod quosdam bene litteratos homines dicere audivi, qui plerasque Plauti comoedias curiose atque contente lectitarunt, non indicibus Aelii nec Sedigiti nec Claudii nec Aurelii nec Accii nec Manilii super his fabulis quae dicuntur ambiguae crediturum, sed ipsi Plauto moribusque ingeni atque linguae eius.

[2] Hac enim iudicii norma Varronem quoque usum videmus.

[3] Nam praeter illas unam et viginti quae Varronianae vocantur, quas idcirco a ceteris segregavit, quoniam dubiosae non erant set consensu omnium Plauti esse censebantur, quasdam item alias probavit adductus filo atque facetia sermonis Plauto congruentis easque iam nominibus aliorum occupatas Plauto vindicavit, sicuti istam quam nuperrime legebamus, cui est nomen Boeotia.

[4] Nam cum in illis una et viginti non sit et esse Aquili dicatur, nihil tamen Varro dubitavit quin Plauti foret, neque alius quisquam non infrequens Plauti lector dubitaverit, si vel hos solos ex ea fabula versus cognoverit, qui quoniam sunt, ut de illius Plauti more dicam, Plautinissimi, propterea et meminimus eos et ascripsimus.

[5] Parasitus ibi esuriens haec dicit:

Ut illúm di perdant, prímus qui horas répperit,

Quique ádeo primus státuit hic hie solárium,

Qui míhi comminuit mísero articulatím diem.

Nam unúm ¹² me puero vénter erat soláríum

Multo ómnium istorum óptimum et veríssimum;

Ubivís monebat ésse, nisi quom níl erat.

Nunc étiam quod est non éstur, nisi solí libet;

Itaque ádeo iam oppletum óppidum est soláriis,

Maiór pars populi iam ¹³ áridi reptánt fame.

[6] Favorinus quoque noster, cum Nervulariam Plauti legerem, quae inter incertas habita est, et audisset ex ea comoedia versum hunc:

Scrattáe, scrupipedae, stríttivillae sórdidae,

delectatus faceta verborum antiquitate, meretricum vitia atque deformitates significantium, vel unus hercle, inquit, hic versus Plauti esse hanc fabulam satis potest fidei fecisse.

[7] Nos quoque ipsi nuperrime, cum legeremus Fretum—nomen est id comoediae quam Plauti esse quidam non putant,—haut quicquam dubitavimus quin ea Plauti foret, et omnium quidem maxime genuina.

[8] Ex qua duo hos versus exscripsimus, ut historiam quaereremus oraculi Arretini:

Nunc íllud est quód responsum Arreti ¹⁴ ludis magnis ¹⁵ dícitur:

Períbo, si non fécero, si fáxo, vapulábo.

[9] M. tamen Varro in libro De Comoediis Plautinis primo Accii verba haec ponit: Nam nec Geminei Lenones nec Condalium nec Anus Plauti, nec Bis Coimpressa nec Boeotia umquam fuit, neque adeo Agroecus neque Commorientes Macci Titi.

[10] In eodem libro M. Varronis id quoque scriptum, et Plautium fuisse quempiam poetam comoediarum. Quoniam fabulae eae Plauti inscriptae forent, acceptas esse quasi Plautinas, cum essent non a Plauto Plautinae, sed a Plautio Plautianae.

[11] Feruntur autem sub Plauti nomine comoediae comoediac circiter centum atque triginta;

[12] sed homo eruditissimus L. Aelius quinque et viginti eius esse solas existimavit.

[13] Neque tamen dubium est quin istaec quae scriptae a Plauto non videntur et nomini eius addicuntur, veterum poetarum fuerint et ab eo retractatae et ¹⁶ expolitae sint ac propterea resipiant stilum Plautinum.

[14] Sed enim Saturionem et Addictum et tertiam quandam, cuius nunc mihi nomen non subpetit, in pistrino eum scripsisse Varro et plerique alii memoriae tradiderunt, cum, pecunia omni quam in operas artificum scaenicorum pepererat peperat, in mercatibus perdita, inops Romam redisset et ob quaerendum victum ad circumagendas molas quae trusatiles appellantur, operam pistori locasset.

[15] Sicuti de Naevio quoque accepimus fabulas eum in carcere duas scripsisse, Hariolum et Leontem, cum ob assiduam maledicentiam et probra in principes civitatis de Graecorum poetarum more dicta in vincula Romae a triumviris coniectus esset. Unde post a tribunis plebis exemptus est, cum in his quas supra dixi fabulis delicta sua et petulantias dictorum quibus multos ante laeserat diluisset.

IV

Argument

Quod P. Africano et aliis tunc viris nobilibus ante aetatem senectam barbam et genas radere mos patrius fuit.

[1] IN libris quos de vita P. Scipionis Africani compositos legimus, scriptum esse animadvertimus P. Scipioni, Pauli filio, postquam de Poenis triumphaverat censorque fuerat, diem dictum esse ad populum a Claudio Asello tribuno plebis, cui equum in censura ademerat, eumque, cum esset reus, neque barbam desisse radi neque candida veste uti neque fuisse cultu solito reorum.

[2] Sed cum in eo tempore Scipionem minorem quadraginta annorum fuisse constaret, quod de barba rasa ita scriptum esset mirabamur.

[3] Comperimus autem ceteros quoque in isdem temporibus nobiles viros barbam in eiusmodi aetate rasitavisse, idcircoque plerasque imagines veterum, non admodum senum, sed in medio aetatis, ita factas videmus.

V

Argument

Deliciarum vitium et mollities oculorum et corporis ab Arcesila philosopho cuidam obprobrata acerbe simul et festiviter.

[1] PLUTARCHUS refert Arcesilaum philosophum vehementi verbo usum esse de quodam nimis delicato divite, qui incorruptus tamen et a stupro integer dicebatur.

[2] Nam cum vocem eius infractam capillumque arte compositum et oculos ludibundos atque inlecebrae voluptatisque plenos videret, Nihil interest, inquit, quibus membris cinaedi sitis, posterioribus posteriorilus an prioribus.

VI

Argument

De vi atque natura palmae arboris, quod lignum ex ea ponderibus positis renitatur.

[1] PER hercle rem mirandam Aristoteles in septimo Problematorum et Plutarchus in octavo Symposiacorum dicit.

[2] Si super palmae, inquiunt, arboris lignum magna pondera inponas ac tam graviter urgeas oneresque, ut magnitudo mnagnitudo oneris sustineri non queat, non deorsum palma cedit nec intra flectitur, sed adversus pondus resurgit et sursum nititur recurvaturque ;

[3] propterea, inquit Plutarchus, in certaminibus palmam signum esse placuit victoriae, quoniam ingenium ligni eiusmodi est, ut urgentibus opprimentibusque non cedat.

VII

Argument

Historia ex annalibus sumpta de Q. Caedicio tribuno militum militu; verbaque ex Originibus M. Catonis apposita, quibus Caedici virtutem cum Spartano Leonida aequiperat.

[1] PULCRUM, dii boni, facinus Graecarumque facundiarum magniloquentia condignum M. Cato libris Originum de Q. Caedicio tribuno militum scriptum reliquit.

[2]

[3] 2.3 Id profecto est ad hanc ferme sententiam: Imperator Poenus in terra Sicilia, bello Carthaginiensi primo, obviam Romano exercitu progreditur, colles locosque idoneos prior occupat. Milites Romani, uti res nata est,

[4] in locum insinuant fraudi et perniciei obnoxium.

[5] Tribulus ad consulem venit, ostendit exitium de loci importunitate et hostium circumstantia maturum.

[6] Censeo, inquit, si rem servare vis, faciundum ut quadringentos ¹⁷ aliquos milites ad verrucam illam, sic enim Cato locum editum asperumque appellat, ire iubeas, eamque uti occupent imperes horterisque; hostes profecto ubi id viderint, fortissimus quisque et promptissimus ad occursandum pugnandumque in eos praevertentur unoque illo negotio sese alligabunt atque illi omnes quadringenti procul dubio obtruncabuntur.

[7] Tunc interea, occupatis in ea caede hostibus, tempus exercitus ex hoc loco educendi habebis.

[8] Alia nisi haec salutis via nulla est. Consul tribuno respondit, consilium quidem istud aeque providens sibi viderier; sed istos, inquit, milites quadringentos ad eum locum in hostium cuneos quisnam erit qui ducat?

[9] Si alium, inquit tribunus, neminem reperis repperis, me licet ad hoc periculum utare; ego hanc tibi et reipublicae animam do.

[10] Consul tribuno gratias laudesque agit.

[11] Tribunus et quadringenti ad moriendum proficiscuntur.

[12] Hostes eorum audaciam demirantur, quorsum ire pergant in expectando sunt.

[13] Sed ubi apparuit ad eam ¹⁸ verrucam occupandam iter intendere, mittit adversum illos imperator Carthaginiensis peditatum equitatumque quos in exercitu viros habuit strenuissimos.

[14] Romani milites circumveniuntur, circumventi repugnant;

[15] fit proelium diu anceps.

[16] Tandem superat multitudo.

Quadringenti omnes cum tribuno ¹⁹ perfossi gladiis aut missilibus operti cadunt.

[17] Consul interim, dum ibi pugnatur, se in locos tutos atque editos subducit.

[18] Sed quod illi tribuno, duci militum quadringentorum, divinitus in eo proelio usus venit, non iam nostris, sed ipsius Catonis verbis subiecimus:

[19] Dii inmortales tribuno militum fortunam ex virtute eius dedere. Nam ita evenit: cum saucius multifariam ibi factus esset, tamen vulnus capiti nullum evenit, eumque inter mortuos, defetigatum vulneribus atque quod sanguen eius defluxerat, cognovere. Eum sustulere, isque convaluit, saepeque post illa operam reipublicae fortem atque strenuam perhibuit praehibuit illoque facto, quod illos milites subduxit, exercitum ceterum servavit. Sed idem benefactum quo in loco ponas, nimium interest. Leonides Laco, qui ²⁰ simile apud Thermopylas fecit, propter eius virtutes omnis Graecia gloriam atque gratiam praecipuam claritudinis inclitissimae decoravere monumentis: signis, statuis, elogiis, historiis aliisque rebus gratissimum id eius factum habuere; at tribuno militum parva laus pro factis relicta, qui idem fecerat atque rem servaverat.

[20] Hanc Q. Caedici tribuni virtutem M. Cato tali suo testimonio decoravit.

[21] Claudius autem Quadrigarius Annalis tertio non Caedicio nomen fuisse ait, sed Laberio.

VIII

Argument

Litterae eximiae consulum C. Fabricii et Q. Aemilii ad regem Pyrrum, a Q. Claudio scriptore historiarum in memoriam memorial datae.

[1] CUM Pyrrus rex in terra Italia esset et unam atque alteram pugnas prospere pugnasset satisque agerent Romani et pleraque Italia ad regem descivisset, tum Ambraciensis quispiam Timochares, ²¹ regis Pyrri amicus, ad C. Fabricium consulem furtim venit ac praemium petivit et, si de praemio conveniret, promisit regem venenis necare, idque facile esse factu dixit, quoniam filius suus pocula in convivio regi ministraret.

[2] Eam rem Fabricius ad senatum scripsit.

[3] Senatus ad regem legatos misit mandavitque ut de Timochare nihil proderent, sed monerent uti rex circumspectius ageret atque a proximorum insidiis salutem tutaretur.

[4] Hoc ita, uti diximus, in Valeri Antiatis Historia scriptum est.

[5] Quadrigarius autem in libro tertio non Timocharem, sed Niciam adisse ad consulem scripsit, neque legatos a senatu missos, sed a consulibus, et Pyrrum ²² populo Romano laudes atque gratias scripsisse captivosque omnes quos tum habuit vestivisse et reddidisse.

[6] Consules tum fuerunt C. Fabricius et Q. Aemilius.

[7] Litteras, quas ad regem Pyrrum super ea causa miserunt, Claudius Quadrigarius scripsit fuisse hoc exemplo: 8

Consules Romani salutem dicunt Pyrro regi.

Nos pro tuis iniuriis continuis animo tenus²³ commoti inimiciter tecum bellare studemus. Sed communis exempli et fidei ergo visum ut te salvum velimus, ut esset quem armis vincere possemus. Ad nos venit Nicias familiaris tuus, qui sibi praemium a nobis peteret, si te clam interfecisset. Id nos negavimus velle, neve ob eam rem quicquam commodi expectaret, et simul visum est ut te certiorem faceremus, ne quid eiusmodi, si accidisset, nostro consilio civitates putarent factum fittum, et quod nobis non placet pretio aut praemio aut dolis pugnare. Tu, nisi caves, iacebis.

IX

Argument

Quis et cuiusmodi fuerit qui in proverbio fertur equus Seianus; et qualis color equorum sit qui spadices vocantur; deque istius vocabuli ratione.

[1] GAVIUS BASSUS in commentariis Commenariis suis, item Iulius lulius Modestus in secundo Quaestionum Confusarum, historiam de equo Seiano tradunt dignam memoria atque admiratione:

[2] Gnaeum Seium quempiam scribam fuisse eumque habuisse equum natum Argis in terra Graecia, de quo fama constans esset tamquam de genere equorum progenitus foret qui Diomedis Thracis fuissent, quos Hercules, Diomede occiso, e Thracia Argos perduxisset.

[3] Eum equum fuisse dicunt magnitudine invisitata, cervice ardua, colore poeniceo, flora et comanti iuba, omnibusque aliis equorum laudibus quoque longe praestitisse; sed eundem equum tali fuisse fato sive fortuna ferunt, ut quisquis haberet eum possideretque, ut is cum omni domo, familia fortunisque omnibus suis ad internecionem deperiret.

[4] Itaque primum illum Gnaeum Seium, dominum eius, a M. Antonio, qui postea triumvirum reipublicae constituendae fuit, capitis damnatum, miserando supplicio affectum esse; eodem tempore Cornelium Dolabellam consulem, im Syriam proficiscentem, fama istius equi adductum adductumi Argos devertisse cupidineque habendi eius exarsisse emisseque eum sestertiis centum milibus; sed ipsum quoque Dolabellam in Syria bello civili obsessum atque interfectum esse; mox eundem equum, qui Dolabellae fuerat, C. Cassium, qui Dolabellam obsederat, abduxisse.

[5] Eum Cassium postea satis notum est victis partibus fusoque exercitu suo miseram mortem oppetisse, deinde post Antonium, post interitum Cassii parta victoria, equum illum nobilem Cassi requisisse et, cum eo potitus esset, ipsum quoque postea victum atque desertum, detestabili exitio interisse.

[6] Hinc proverbium de hominibus calamitosis ortum dicique solitum: Ille homo habet equum Seianum.

[7] Eadem sententia est illius quoque veteris proverbii, quod ita dictum accepimus: aurum Tolosanum. Nam cum oppidum Tolosanum in terra Gallia ²⁴ Quintus Caepio consul diripuisset multumque auri in eius oppidi templis fuisset, quisquis ex ea direptione aurum attigit misero cruciabilique exitu periit.

[8] Hunc equum Gavius Bassus vidisse se ²⁵ Argis refert haut credibili pulcritudine vigoreque et colore exuberantissimo.

[9] Quem colorem nos, sicuti dixi, poeniceum dicimus, Graeci partim φοίνικα, alii σπάδικα appellant, quoniam palmae termes ex arbore cum fructu avulsus spadix dicitur.

X

Argument

Quod est quaedam septenarii numeri vis et facultas in multis naturae rebus animaduersa aninadversa, de qua M. Varro in Hebdomadibus disserit copiose.

[1] M. VARRO in primo librorum qui inscribuntur Hebdomades vel De Imaginibus, septenarii numeri, quem Graece ἑβδομάδα²⁶ appellant, virtutes potestatesque multas variasque dicit.

[2] Is namque numerus, inquit, septentriones maiores minoresque in caelo facit, item vergilias, quas πλειάδας Graeci vocant, facit etiam stellas quas alii erraticas, P. Nigidius errones appellat.

[3] Circulos quoque ait in caelo circum longitudinem axis septem esse; ex quis duos minimos, qui axem extimum tangunt, πόλους appellari dicit; sed eos in sphaera, quae κρικωτὴ vocatur, propter brevitatem non inesse. Ac neque ipse zodiacus septenario numero caret;

[4] nam in septimo signo fit solstitium a bruma, in septimo bruma a solstitio, in septimo aequinoctium ab aequinoctio.

[5] Dies deinde illos quibus alcyones hieme anni in aqua nidulantur, eos quoque septem esse dicit.

[6] Praeterea scribit lunae curriculum confici integris quater septenis diebus: nam die duo- ²⁷ detricesimo luna, inquit, ex quo vestigio profecta est, eodem redit, auctoremque opinionis huius Aristidem esse Samium; in qua re non id solum animadverti debere dicit quod quater septenis, id est octo et viginti, diebus conficeret luna iter suum, sed quod is numerus septenarius, si ab uno profectus, dum ad semetipsum progreditur, omnes per quos progressus est numeros comprehendat ipsumque se addat, facit numerum octo et viginti, quot ²⁸ dies sunt curriculi lunaris.

[7] Ad homines quoque nascendos vim numeri istius porrigi pertinereque ait: Nam cum in uterum, inquit, mulieris genitale semen datum est, primis septem diebus conglobatur, coagulaturque fitque ad capiendam figuram idoneum. Post deinde quarta hebdomade, quod eius virile secus futurum est, caput et spina, quae est in dorso, informatur. Septima autem fere hebdomade, id est nono et quadragesimo die, totus, inquit, homo in utero absolvitur.

[8] Illam quoque vim numeri huius observatam refert, quod ante mensem septimum neque mas neque femina salubriter ac secundum naturam nasci potest, et quod hi qui iustissime in utero sunt, post ducentos septuaginta tres dies postquam sunt concepti, quadragesima denique hebdomade inita ²⁹ nascuntur.

[9] Pericula quoque vitae fortunarumque omnium, quae climacteras Chaldaei appellant, gravissimos quosque fieri septenarios.

[10] Praeter hoc, modum esse dicit summum adolescendi humani corporis septem pedes.

[11] Quod esse magis verum arbitramur quam quod Herodotus, homo fabulator, in primo Historiarum inventum esse sub terra scripsit Oresti corpus cubita longitudinis habens septem, quae faciunt pedes duodecim et quadrantem, nisi si, ut Homerus opinatus est, vastiora prolixioraque fuerunt corpora hominum antiquiorum et nunc, quasi iam mundo senescente, rerum atque hominum decrementa sunt.

[12] Dentes quoque et in septem mensibus primis et septenos ex utraque parte gigni ait et cadere annis septimis et genuinos adnasci annis fere bis septenis.

[13] Venas etiam in hominibus, vel potius arterias, medicos musicos dicere ait numero moveri septenario, quod ipsi appellant τὴν διὰ τεσσάρων συμφωνίαν, quae fit in collatione quaternarii numeri.

[14] Discrimina etiam periculorum in morbis maiore vi fieri putat in diebus qui conficiuntur ex numero septenario, eosque dies omnium maxime, ita ut medici appellant, κρισίμους videri ³⁰ primam hebdomadam et secundam et tertiam.

[15] Neque non id etiam sumit ad vim facultatesque eius numeri augendas, quod, quibus inedia mori consilium est, septimo demum dernum die mortem oppetunt.

[16] Haec Varro de numero septenario scripsit admodum conquisite. Sed alia quoque ibidem congerit frigidiuscula: veluti septem opera esse in orbe terrae miranda et sapientes item veteres septem fuisse et curricula ludorum circensium sollemnia septem esse et ad oppugnandas Thebas duces septem delectos.

[17] Tum ibi addit, se quoque iam duodecimam annorum hebdomadam ingressum esse et ad eum diem septuaginta hebdomadas librorum conscripsisse, ex quibus aliquammultos, cum proscriptus esset, direptis bibliothecis suis non comparuisse.

XI

Argument

Quibus et quam frivolis argumentis Accius in Didascalicis utatur, quibus docere nititur Hesiodum esse quam Homerum natu antiquiorem.

[1] SUPER aetate Homeri atque Hesiodi non consentitur.

[2] Alii Homerum quam Hesiodum maiorem natu fuisse scripserunt, in quis Philochorus et Xenophanes, alii minorem, in quis L. Accius poeta et Ephorus historiae scriptor.

[3] M. autem Varro in primo De Imaginibus, uter prior sit natus parum constare dicit, sed non esse dubium quin aliquo tempore eodem vixerint, idque ex epigrammate ostendi quod in tripode scriptum est, qui in monte Helicone ab Hesiodo positus traditur.

[4] Accius autem in primo Didascalico levibus admodum argumentis utitur, per quae ostendi putat, Hesiodum natu priorem:

[5] Quod Homerus, inquit, cum in principio carminis Achillem esse filium Pelei diceret, quis esset Peleus non addidit; quam rem procul, inquit, dubio dixisset, nisi ab Hesiodo iam dictum videret. De Cyclope itidem, inquit, vel maxime quod unoculus fuit, rem tam insignem non praeterisset, nisi aeque prioris Hesiodi carminibus invulgatum esset.

[6] De patria quoque Homeri multo maxime dissensum est. Alii Colophonium, alii Smyrnaeum, sunt qui Atheniensem, sunt etiam qui Aegyptium fuisse dicant, Aristoteles tradidit ex insula Io.

[7] M. Varro in libro De Imaginibus primo Homeri imagini epigramma hoc apposuit.

Capélla Homeri candida haec tumulum índicat,

Quod hac Ietae letae mórtuo faciúnt sacra.

XII

Argument

Largum atque avidum bibendi a P. Nigidio, doctissimo viro, nova et prope absurda vocabuli figura bibosum dictum.

[1] BIBENDI avidum P. Nigidius in Commentariis grammaticis Granmmaticis bibacem et bibosum dicit.

[2] Bibacem ego, ut edacem, a plerisque aliis dictum lego; bibosum dictum nondum etiam usquam repperi nisi apud Laberium, neque aliud est quod simili inclinatu dicatur.

[3] Non enim simile est ut vinosus aut vitiosus ceteraque quae hoc modo dicuntur, quoniam a vocabulis, non a verbo, inclinata sunt.

[4] Laberius in mimo, qui Salinator inscriptus est, verbo hoc ita utitur:

Nón mammosa, nón annosa, nón bibosa, nón procax.

XIII

Argument

Quod Demosthenes etiamtum adulescens, cum Platonis philosophi discipulus foret, audito forte Callistrato rhetore in contione populi, destitit a Platone et sectatus Callistratum est.

[1] HERMIPPUS hoc scriptum reliquit, Demosthenen admodum adulescentem ventitare in Academiam Platonemque audire solitum.

[2] Atque is, inquit, Demosthenes domo egressus, ut ei mos erat, cum ad Platonem pergeret complurisque populos concurrentes videret, percontatur eius rei causam cognoscitque currere eos auditum Callistratum.

[3] Is Callistratus Athenis orator in republica fuit quos illi δημαγωγούς appellant.

[4] Visum est paulum devertere experirique an digna auditio tanto properantium studio foret.

[5] Venit, inquit, atque audit Callistratum nobilem illam τὴν περὶ Ὠρωποῦ δίκην dicentem, atque ita motus et demultus ³¹ et captus est ut Callistratum iam inde sectari coeperit Academiam cum Platone reliquerit.

XIV

Argument

Dimidium librum legi aut dimidiam fabulam audivi aliaque huiuscemodi qui dicat, vitiose dicere; eiusque vitii causas reddere M. Varronem; nec quemquam veterem hisce verbis ita usum esse.

[1] DIMIDIUM librum legi aut dimidiam fabulam audivi, vel quid aliud huiuscemodi, male ac vitiose dici existumat Varro.

[2] Oportet enim, inquit, dicere dimidiatum librum, non dimidium, et dimidiatam fabulam, non dimidiam. Contra autem si ex sextario hemina fusa est, non dimidiatum sed dimidium,³² sextarium fusum dicendum est, et qui ex mille nummum, quod ei debebatur, quingentos recepit, non dimidiatum recepisse dicemus, sed dimidium.

[3] At si scyphus scyplus, inquit, argenteus mihi cum alio communis in duas partis disiectus sit, dimidiatum eum esse dicere scyphum debeo, non dimidium, argenti autem, quod in eo scypho inest, dimidium meum esse, non dimidiatum ;

[4] disseritque ac dividit subtilissime quid dimidium dimidiato intersit,

[5] et Q. Ennium scienter hoc in Annalibus dixisse ait:

Sicuti si quis ferat vas vini dimidiatum,

sicuti pars quae deest ei vaso non dimidiata dicenda est, sed dimidia.

[6] Omnis autem disputationis eius, quam subtiliter quidem, sed subobscure suboscure explicat, summa haec est: dimidiatum est quasi dismediatum et in partis duas pares divisum,

[7] dimidiatum ergo nisi ipsum quod divisum est dici haut convenit;

[8] dimidium vero est, non quod ipsum dimidiatum diinidiatum est, sed quae ex dimidiato pars altera est.

[9] Cum igitur partem dimidiam libri legisse volumus dicere aut partem dimidiam fabulae audisse, si dimidiam fabulam aut dimidium librum dicimus, peccamus; totum enim ipsum quod dimidiatum atque divisum est dimidium dicis.

[10] Itaque Lucilius eadem secutus:

Uno oculo (inquit) pedibusque duobus dimidiatus Ut porcus,

et alio loco:

Quidni? et scruta quidem ut vendat scrutarius laudat,

Praefractam strigilem, soleam inprobus dimidiatam.

[11] Iam in vicesimo manifestius dimidiam horam dicere studiose fugit, sed pro dimidia dimidium ponit in hisce versibus:

Tempestate sua atque eodem uno tempore, et horae

Dimidio et tribus confectis dumtaxat—eandem

Ad quartam.

Nam cum obvium proximumque esset dicere:

[12] dimidia et tribus confectis, vigilate atque attente verbum non probum vitavit.

[13] Per quod satis apparet ne horam quidem dimidiam recte dici, sed vel dimidiatam horam vel dimidiam partem horae.

[14] Propterea Plautus quoque in Bacchidibus dimidium auri dicit, non dimidiatum diridiatum aurum ;

[15] item in Aulularia dimidium obsoni, non dimidiatum obsonium, in hoc versu:

Ei ádeo obsoni hic ³³ iússit dimidiúm dari;

in Menaechmis Menaeclmis autem dimidiatum diem,

[16] non dimidium in hoc hoe versu:

Diés quidem iam ad úmbilicum dímidiatus mórtuust.

[17] M. etiam Cato in libro quem De Agricultura conscripsit: Semen cupressi serito crebrum, ita uti linum seri solet. Eo cribro terram incernito, dimidiatum digitum. Iam id bene tabula aut pedibus aut manibus complanato.

[18] Dimidiatum, inquit, digitum, non dimidium. Nam digiti quidem dimidium, digitum autem ipsum dimidiatum dici oportet.

[19] Item M. Cato de Carthaginiensibus ita scripsit: Homines defoderunt in terram dimidiatos ignemque circumposuerunt, ita interfecerunt.

[20] Neque quisquam omnium qui probe locuti sunt his verbis sequius quam dixi usus est.

XV

Argument

Extare in litteris perque hominum memorias traditum, quod repente multis mortem attulit gaudium ingens insperatum, interclusa anima et vim magni novique motus non sustinente.

[1] cognito repente insperato gaudio expirasse animam refert Aristoteles philosophus Polycritam, nobilem feminam Naxo insula.

[2] Philippides quoque, comoediarum poeta haut ignobilis, aetate iam edita cum in certamine poetarum praeter spem vicisset et laetissime gauderet, inter illud gaudium repente mortuus est.

[3] De Rodio etiam Diagora celebrata historia est. Is Diagoras tris filios adulescentes habuit, unum pugilem, alterum pancratiasten, tertium luctatorem. Eos omnis vidit vincere coronarique Olympiae eodem die et, cum ibi eum tres adulescentes amplexi coronis suis in caput patris positis saviarentur, cum populus gratulabundus flores undique in eum iaceret, ibidem in stadio inspectante populo in osculis atque in manibus filiorum animam efflavit.

[4] Praeterea in nostris annalibus scriptum legimus, qua tempestate apud Cannas exercitus populi Romani caesus est, anum matrem, nuntio de morte filii allato, luctu atque maerore affectam esse; sed is nuntius non verus fuit, utque ³⁴ is adulescens non diu post ex ea pugna in urbem redit, anus repente filio viso copia atque turba et quasi ruina incidentis inopinati gaudii oppressa exanimataque est.

XVI

Argument

Temporis varietas in puerperis mulierum quaenam sit a medicis et a philosophis tradita; atque inibi poetarum quoque veterum super eadem re opiniones multaque alia auditu atque memoratu digna; verbaque ipsa Hippocratis medici nedici ex libro illius sumpta qui inscriptus est Περὶ Τροφῆς.

[1] ET medici et philosophi inlustres de tempore humani partus quaesiverunt. Multa opinio est, eaque iam pro vero recepta, postquam mulieris uterum semen conceperit, gigni hominem septimo rarenter, numquam octavo, saepe nono, saepius numero decimo mense, eumque esse hominum gignendi summum finem: decem menses non inceptos, sed exactos. Idque Plautum,

[2] veterem poetam, dicere videmus in comoedia Cistellaria his verbis:

tum ílla, quam comprésserat,

Decumó post mense exácto hic peperit fíliam.

Hoc idem tradit etiam Menander,

[3] poeta vetustior, humanarum opinionum vel peritissimus; versus eius super ea re de fabula Plocio posui:

Γυνὴ κυεῖ δέκα μῆνας.

4 sed noster Caecilius, cum faceret eodem nomine et eiusdem argumenti comoediam ac pleraque a Menandro sumeret, in mensibus tamen genitalibus nominandis non praetermisit octavum, quem praeterierat Menander. Caecilii versus hisce hice sunt:

sóletne mulier décimo mense párere?—

Pol nonó quoque

étíam septimo átque octavo.

[5] eam Earn rem Caecilium non inconsiderate dixisse neque temere a Menandro atque a multorum opinionibus descivisse, M. Varro uti credamus facit.

[6] Nam mense nonnumquam octavo editum esse partum in libro quarto decimo Rerum Divinarum scriptum reliquit; quo in libro etiam undecimo mense aliquando nasci posse hominem dicit, eiusque sententiae tam de octavo quam de undecimo mense Aristotelem auctorem laudat.

[7] Sed huius de mense octavo dissensionis causa cognosci potest in libro Hippocratis qui inscriptus est Περὶ Τροφῆς, ex quo libro verba haec sunt: Ἔστιν δὲ καὶ οὐκ ἔστιν τὰ ὀκτάμηνα.

[8] Id tam obscure atque praecise et ³⁵ tamquam adverse dictum Sabinus medicus, qui Hippocratem commodissime commentatus est, verbis his ³⁶ enarravit: Ἔστιν μέν, φαινόμενα ὡς ζῶα μετὰ τὴν ἔκτρωσιν· οὐκ ἔστιν δέ, θνήσκοντα μετὰ ταῦτα· καὶ ἔστιν οὖν καὶ οὐκ ἔστιν, φαντασίᾳ μὲν παραυτίκα ὄντα, δυνάμει δὲ οὐκέτι.

[9] Antiquos autem Romanos Varro dicit non recepisse huiuscemodi quasi monstruosas raritates, sed nono mense aut decimo, neque praeter hos aliis, partionem mulieris secundum naturam fieri existimasse idcircoque eos nomina Fatis tribus fecisse apariendo et a nono atque decimo mense.

[10] Nam Parca, inquit, inmutata una littera, a partu nominata, item Nona et Decima a partus tempestivi tempore.

[11] Caesellius autem Vindex in Lectionibus suis Antiquis: Tria, inquit, nomina Parcarum sunt: Nona, Decuma, Morta, et versum hunc Livii, antiquissimi poetae, ponit ex Ὀδυσσείᾳ:

Quandó diés advéniet quém profáta Mórta est?

Sed homo minime malus Caesellius Mortam quasi nomen accepit, cum accipere quasi Moeram deberet.

[12] Praeterea ego de partu humano, praeterquam quae quac scripta in libris legi, hoc quoque usu venisse Romae comperi: feminam bonis atque honestis moribus, non ambigua pudicitia, in undecimo mense post mariti mortem peperisse factumque esse negotium propter rationem temporis, quasi marito mortuo postea concepisset, quoniam decemviri in decem mensibus gigni hominem, non in undecimo scripsissent; sed divum Hadrianum, causa cognita, decrevisse in undecimo undecino quoque mense partum edi posse; idque ipsum eius rei decretum nos legimus. In eo decreto Hadrianus id statuere se dicit requisitis veterum philosophorum et medicorum sententiis.

[13] Hodie quoque in satura forte M. Varronis legimus, quae inscribitur Testamentum, verba haec: Si quis mihi filius unus pluresve in decem mensibus gignantur, ii si erunt ὄνοι λύρας, exheredes sunto; quod si quis undecimo mense, Ἀριστοτέλην, natus est, Attio idem, quod Tettio, ius esto apud me.

[14] Per hoc vetus proverbium Varro significat, sicuti vulgo dici solitum erat de rebus nihil inter sese distantibus: idem Atti, quod Tetti, ita pari eodemque iure esse in decem mensibus natos et in undecim.

[15] Quod si ita neque ultra decimum mensem fetura mulierum protolli potest, quaeri oportet cur Homerus scripserit, Neptunum dixisse puellae a se recens compressae:

Χαῖρε γυνὴ φιλότητι· περιπλομένου δʼ ἐνιαυτοῦ

Τέξεις ἀγλαὰ τέκνʼ, ἐπεὶ οὐκ ἀποφώλιοι εὐναὶ

Ἀθανάτων.

[16] Id cum ego ad complures grammaticos attulissem, partim eorum disputabant Homeri quoque aetate, sicuti Romuli, annum fuisse non duodecim mensium, sed decem; alii convenisse Neptuno maiestatique eius dicebant, ut longiori tempore fetus ex eo grandesceret;

[17] alii alia quaedam nugalia. Sed Favorinus mihi ait περιπλομένου ἐνιαυτοῦ non confecto esse anno, sed adfecto.

[18] In qua re verbo usus est non vulgariae significationis.

[19] Adfecta enim, sicuti Marcus Cicero et veterum elegantissimi locuti sunt, ea proprie dicebantur quae non ad finem ipsum, sed proxime finem progressa deductave erant. Hoc verbum ad hanc sententiam Cicero in hac ³⁷ fecit, ³⁸ quam dixit De Provinciis Consularibus.

[20] Hippocrates autem in eo libro de quo supra scripsi, cum et numerum dierum quibus conceptum in utero coagulum conformatur, et tempus ipsius partionis nono aut decimo mense definisset neque id tamen semper eadem esse fini dixisset, sed alias ocius fieri, alias serius, hisce ad postremum verbis usus est: Γίνεται δὲ ἐν τούτοις καὶ πλείω καὶ ἐλάσσω καὶ ὅλον καὶ κατὰ μέρος· οὐ πολλὸν δὲ καὶ πλείω πλείω καὶ ἐλάσσω ἐλάσσω. Quibus verbis significat, quod aliquando ocius fieret, non multo tamen fieri ocius, neque quod serius, multo serius.

[21] Memini ego Romae accurate hoc atque sollicite quaesitum, negotio non rei tunc parvae postulante, an octavo mense infans ex utero vivus editus et statim mortuus ius trium liberorum supplevisset, cum abortio quibusdam, non partus, videretur mensis octavi intempestivitas.

[22] Sed quoniam de Homerico annuo partu ac de undecimo mense diximus quae cognoveramus, visum est non praetereundum quod in Plinii Secundi libro septimo Naturalis Historiae legimus.

[23] Id autem quia extra fidem esse videri potest, verba ipsius Plinii posuimus: Masurius auctor est, L. Papirium praetorem, secundo herede lege agente, bonorum bonoruin possessionem contra eum dedisse, cum mater partum se tredecim mensibus tulisse diceret, quoniam nullum certum tempus pariendi statutum ei ³⁹ videretur.

[24] In eodem libro Plini Secundi verba haec scripta sunt: Oscitatio in nixu letalis est, sicut sternuisse a coitu abortivum.

XVII

Argument

Id quoque esse a gravissimis viris memoriae mandatum, quod tris libros Plato Philolai Pythagorici et Aristoteles pauculos Speusippi philosophi mercati sunt pretiis fidem non capientibus.

[1] MEMORIAE mandatum est Platonem philosophum tenui admodum pecunia familiari fuisse atque eum tamen tris Philolai Pythagorici libros decem milibus denarium mercatum.

[2] Id ei pretium donasse quidam scripserunt amicum eius Dionem Syracosium.

[3] Aristotelem quoque traditum libros pauculos Speusippi philosophi post mortem eius emisse talentis Atticis tribus; ea summa fit nummi nostri sestertia duo et septuaginta milia.

[4] Τίμων amarulentus librum maledicentissimum conscripsit, qui Σίλλος inscribitur.

[5] In eo libro Platonem philosophum ⁴⁰ contumeliose appellat, quod inpenso pretio librum Pythagoricae disciplinae emisset exque eo Timaeum, nobilem illum dialogum, concinnasset. Versus super ea re Τίμωνος hi sunt:

[6]

Καὶ σύ, Πλάτων, καὶ γάρ σε μαθητείης πόθος ἔσχεν,

Πολλῶν δʼ ἀργυρίων ὀλίγην ἠλλάξαο βίβλον,

Ἔνθεν ἀπαρχόμενος τιμαιογραφεῖν ἐδιδάχθης.

XVIII

Argument

Quid sint pedari senatores et quam ob causam ita appellati; quamque habeant originem verba haec ex edicto tralaticio consulum: senatores quibusque in senatu sententiam dicere licet.

[1] NON pauci sunt qui opinantur pedarios senatores appellatos, qui sententiam in senatu non verbis dicerent, sed in alienam sententiam pedibus irent. Quid igitur?

[2] cum senatusconsultum per discessionem fiebat, nonne universi senatores sententiam pedibus ferebant?

[3] Atque haec etiam vocabuli istius ratio dicitur, quam Gavius ⁴¹ Bassus in Commentariis suis scriptam reliquit.

[4] Senatores enim dicit in veterum aetate, qui curulem magistratum gessissent, curru solitos honoris gratia in curiam vehi, in quo curru sella esset super quam considerent, quae ob eam causam curulis appellaretur; sed eos senatores, qui magistratum curulem nondum ceperant, pedibus itavisse in curiam: propterea senatores nondum maioribus honoribus usos ⁴² pedarios nominatos.

[5] M. autem Varro in Satira Menippea, quae Ἱπποκύων inscripta est, equites quosdam dicit pedarios appellatos, videturque eos significare qui, nondum a censoribus in senatum lecti, senatores quidem non erant, sed quia honoribus populi usi erant, in senatum veniebant et sententiae ius habebant.

[6] Nam et curulibus magistratibus functi, si ⁴³ nondum a censoribus in senatum lecti erant, senatores non erant et, quia in postremis scripti erant, non rogabantur sententias sed, quas principes dixerant, in eas discedebant.

[7] Hoc significabat edictum quo nunc quoque consules, cum ⁴⁴ senatores in curiam vocant, servandae consuetudinis causa tralaticio utuntur. Verba edicti haec sunt:

[8] Senatores quibusque in senatu sententiam dicere licet.

[9] Versum quoque Laberii. in quo id vocabulum positum est, notari iussimus, quem legimus in mimo qui Stricturae inscriptus est:

Caput sine lingua pedari sententia est.

[10] Hoc vocabulum a plerisque barbare dici animadvertimus; nam pro pedariis pedaneos appellant.

XIX

Argument

Qua ratione Gavius Bassus scripserit parcum hominem appellatum et quam esse eius vocabuli causam putarit; et contra, quem in modum quibusque verbis Favorinus hanc traditionem eius eluserit.

[1] APUD cenam Favorini philosophi philosophy cum discubitum fuerat coeptusque erat apponi cibus, servus assistens mensae eius legere inceptabat aut Graecarum quid litterarum aut nostratium; velut eo die quo ego affui, legebatur Gavii Bassi, eruditi viri, liber De Origine Verborum et Vocabulorum.

[2] In quo ita scriptum fuit: Parcus composito vocabulo est dictus, quasi par arcae, quando, sicut in area omnia reconduntur eiusque custodia servantur et continentur, ita homo tenax parvoque contentus omnia custodita et recondita habet, sicuti area. Quam ob causam parcus quasi pararcus est nominatus.

[3] Tum Favorinus, ubi haec audivit, superstitiose, inquit, et nimis moleste atque odiose confabricatus commolitusque magis est originem vocabuli Gavius iste Bassus quam enarravit.

[4] Nam si licet res dicere commenticias, cur non probabilius videatur ut accipiamus parcum ob eam causam dictum, quod pecuniam consumi atque impendi arceat et prohibeat, quasi pecuniarcus?

[5] Quin potius, inquit, quod simplicius veriusque est, id dicimus? Parcus enim neque ab area, neque ab arcendo, sed ab eo, quod est parum et parvum, denominatus est.

Notes on the current edition

Attic Nights

1. Otherwise unknown. The Baths of Titus were Thermae and the adj. is Titianae.

2. xi. 3.

3. The reading of the MSS., potuit, might perhaps be supported by such expressions as Catull. lxxvi. 16, hocfacias, sire id non pote, sive pole.

4. xiii. Frag. 2, Mirsch.

5. xiii. Frag. 3, Mirsch.

6. That is, according to the Roman reckoning. By the alleged Umbrian reckoning, the first day of the month would begin at midday and end at the next midday.

7. Fr. 7, Huschke; Jur. Civ. iv. 2, Bremer.

8. Dec. 27th; December at that time had twenty-nine days.

9. vi. 4.

10. Posterioris is nom. pl. See Varro De Ling. Lat. viii. 66.

11. Aen. v. 738.

12. Crediturum seems an archaism for credituros; see i. 7.

13. Fr. v. 21 Götz; ii, p. 38, Ribbeck. Translation by Thornton and Warner.

14. Fr. v. 100 Götz; translation by Thornton and Warner.

15. Fr. v. 76, Götz.

16. Nothing is known of this oracle. The inferior manuscripts and earlier editors read Arictini and interpreted it as that of Jupiter Ammon, because that god is sometimes represented as a ram ( aries), or with a ram's head. According to Bicheler, Thes. Ling. Lat. ii. 636. 9, the reference is to a person, not to the town of Arretium. Text and meaning are most uncertain.

17. According to Bücheler, T.L.L. ii. 636. 9, the reference is to the ludi Romani, Sept. 5–19.

18. Fr. p. 193, Bipont.

19. Didascalica, fr. inc., Müller.

20. On this passage see Leo, Plaut. Forsch., p. 32, who sees three categories: three plays under the name of Plautus, two under that of Titus Maccius, and two ( Agroecus and Boeotia ) anonymous.

21. The early gen. both of Plautius and Plautus. 249

22. p. 58. 4, Fun.

23.

A large mill with two handles, which two men, ordinarily slaves, pushed ( truso, cf. trudo) upon, in order to turn the mill. Contrasted by Cato ( Agr. x. 4 and xi. 4) with molae asinariae, which had one handle, to which a horse or an ass was attached and drew the mill around.

This whole account is discredited by Leo. Plaut., Forsch., 70ff., but defended by Marx and others. On this, and on Varro's threefold division of the plays, see Klingelhoefer, Phil. Quart. iv., pp. 336 ff.

24. The triumviri capitales, police magistrates, in charge of the public prisons.

25. This fashion changed with Hadrian.

26. Sympos. vii. 5.3, De Tuend. San. 7.

27. Fr. 229, Rose.

28. 4.5.

29. Hardly to be taken literally. The same statement is made by Pliny, N. H. xvi. 223; Theophr. Enquiry into Plants, v. 6 (i. 453, L.C.L.); Xen. Cyrop. vii. 5. 11 (ii. 267, L.C.L.)

30. Fr. 83, Peter.

31. Cf. Sall. Cat. viii.

32. Fr. 42, Peter.

33. Fr. 21, Peter.

34. Fr. 40, Peter.

35. 282 B. C.

36. Frag. 4, Fun.

37. p. 15, Bunte.

38. Illviri reipublicae constituendae was the formal designation of the powers conferred upon Antony, Octavian and Lepidus in 43 B C. by the bill of the tribune P. Titius. The so-called

first triumvirate,

in 60 B. C., was a private arrangement by Caesar, Pompey and Crassus.

39. See ii. 26, 10. The colour is a purple-red, or reddish purple.

40. Fr. p. 255, Bipont. This work, more commonly called Imagines, consisted of seven hundred portraits of dis. tinguished men, arranged in seven categories of Greeks and Romans; besides the fourteen books thus formed there was an introductory fifteenth. Under each portrait was a metrical elogium and an account of the personage in prose. Cf. Plin. N.H. xxxv. 11.

41. So called (from ver ) because their rising, from April 22 to May 10, marked the beginning of spring.

42. Fr. 87, Swoboda. The planets of the ancients were Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Saturn and Jupiter, to which they added the moon.

43. An arrangement of rings ( armillae), all circles of a single sphere, intended to show the relative position of the principal celestial circles. The sphere of Ptolemy has the earth in the centre, that of Copernicus the sun. Since the purpose is to show the apparent motions of the solar system, the former is the one most used.

44. That is, seven before, and seven after the winter solstice. During these fourteen

halcyon days

the sea was supposed to be perfectly calm.

45. A mistake for Aristarchus.

46. That is, the sum of the numbers 1 to 7 inclusive is 28.

47. i. 68.

48. Iliad, v. 302:

o( de\ xerma/dion la/be xeiri\

Tudei/dhs, me/ga e)/rgon, o(\ ou) du/o g' a)/ndre fe/roien,

Oi(=oi nu=n brotoi/ ei)s': o( de/ min r(e/a pa/lle kai\ oi)=os.

xii. 383; etc.

49. That is, by the use of the seven-stringed lyre.

50. The harmony produced by the striking of four different strings.

51. Only 39 titles have come down to us, through Hieronymus, De Vir. Ill. 54, whose catalogue is unfinished and also includes ten libri singulares under one head. Ritschl estimated Varro's publications as 74 works, comprising 620 books.

52. By Antony in 43 B. C. Varro was saved from death by Fufius Calenus, and died in 27 B.C., at the age of nearly ninety.

53. F.H.G. i. 393, Müller.

54. Poet, Phil. Frag. 13, Diels; Poesis Ludib. fr. 5, p. 191, Wachsmuth.

55. F.H.G. i. 277, Müller.

56. See note 2, p. 267.

57. Fr. p. 258, Bipont.

58. Anth. Pal. vii. 53, Greek Anth. L.C.L., ii. 53:

Hsi/odos Mou/sais (Elikwni/si to/nd' a)ne/qhka.

u(/mnw| nikh/sas e)n Xalki/di qei=on (/Omhron.

59. Fr. 1, Müller; F.P.R. 7, Bährens.

60. Iliad. 1. 1.

61. Frag. 102, Rzach.

62. Theogony, 14 2.

63. Frag. 76, Rose.

64. F.P.R. 1, Bährens.

65. That is, the inhabitants of Ios.

66. Fr. 5, Swoboda.

67. v. 80, Ribbeck 3.

68. Fr. Hist. Gr. iii. 49, Mu:;ller.

69.

Leaders of the people.

70. The Action about Oropus.

71. Fr. p. 349, Bipont.

72. The sestertium was the designation of a thousand sesterces, originally a gen. plur., later a norm. sing. neut.

73. Ann. 536, Vahlen 2, reading sicut.

74. 1342, Marx.

75. 1282 f., Marx.

76. 570, Marx.

77. The meaning is very uncertain. Marx thinks that the reference is to the quartam ague, "the attacks of which regularly subside at the same time ( eandem ad quartam horam.), after a minimum duration of three hours and a half.' Lucilius refers, not to the fourth hour of the day ( non diei horam dicit), but to every fourth hour of the period of illness ( totius temporis spatii quo aegrotus cubat febri correptus). Dumtaxat is to be taken with the numeral, as in Plaut. Truc. 445. For ad quartam he cites Seneca, Nat. Quaest. iii. 16. 2, quartana ad horam venit, and Suet. Aug. lxxxvii, 1, ad Kalendas Graecas soluturos.

78. 1189.

79. 291.

80. 157.

81. De Agr. 151.

82. p. 56, fr. 3, Jordan.

83. Frag. 559, V. Rose.

84. The pancratium was a contest including both wrestling and boxing.

85. 216 B.C.

86. On Nurture.

87. 162.

88. Fr. 413, Kock.

89. 164, Ribbeck 3.

90. Fr. 12, Agahd.

91. Hist. Anim. vii. 4.

92. ii. p. 23, Kühn; vol. 1, p. 356, xlii, L.C.L. The text is not the same as that of Gellius, but the meaning is practically the same.

93. l. c.

94. These are the Roman names of the Fates. The Greek Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos were adopted with the rest of the Greek mythology.

95. Fr. 12, Bährens.

96. i.e. the Greek Moi=ra, Fate.

97. XII Tab. iv. 4, Schöll. The fragment is not extant, but it is cited also by Ulpian, Dig. xxxviii. 16. 3. 11: post decem menses mortis natus non admittetur ad legitimam hereditatem.

98. Fr. 543, Bücheler 3.

99. That is,

stupid,

half-witted.

100. i.e., as Aristotle says may happen; Hist. Anim. vii. 4.

101. Attius and Tettius stand for any names like Smith and Jones in English.

102. Odyss. xi. 248.

103. § 19, bellum adfectum videmus ct, vere ut dicam, paene cawfectum; cf. § 29.

104. See note 1, p. 291. Here Gellius' text is followed.

105. The fathers of three children were granted certain privileges and immunities.

106. vii. 40.

107. Fr. 24, Huschke; Memor. 21, Jur. Civ. 31, Bremer.

108. The heir or heirs in the second degree inherited only in case the heirs in the first degree died, or were otherwise incompetent.

109. That is, the mother of the heir in the first degree.

110. vii. 42.

111. These were very high prices. The first book of Martial's Epigrams, 700 lines, in an elegant form, cost only five denarii, and cheaper editions could be bought for from six to ten sesterces. See Martial, i. 117. 15ff., and Friedländer, Roman Life and Manners, Eng. Trans., iii. p. 37.

112. Meaning a lampoon, or satirical poem.

113. Poet. Phil. Frag. 54, Diehls; Poesis Ludib. 26, p 130, Wachsmuth.

114. Frag. 7, Fun.

115. For currulis, from currus. This derivation is given by Thurneysen, T.L.L. s.v., with the suggestion that the name, as well as the seat itself, was of Etruscan origin.

116. Frag. 220, Büchcler.

117. v. 88, Ribbeck 3, who reads: sine lingua caput peddrii senténtias, and gives other versions.

118. Frag. 6, Fun.

119. That is, he is like a strong-box.

120. It is needless to say that all these derivations are wrong, and that parcus is connected with parco,

spare.

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