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Book VIII

I

1 Whether the expression hesterna nocte, for

last night,

is right or wrong, and what the grammarians have said about those words; also that the decemvirs in the Twelve Tables ¹ used nox for noctu, meaning

by night.

II

1 TEN words pointed out to me by Favorinus which, although in use by the Greeks, are of foreign origin and barbarous; also the same number given him by me which, though of general and common use by those who speak Latin, are by no means Latin and are not to be found in the early literature.

III

1 IN what terms and how severely the philosopher Peregrinus in my hearing rebuked a young Roman of equestrian rank, who stood before him inattentive and constantly yawning.

. . . and saw him continually yawning and noticed the degenerate dreaminess expressed in his attitude of mind and body. ³

IV

1 THAT Herodotus, that most famous writer of history, was wrong in saying ⁴ that the pine alone of all trees never puts forth new shoots from the same roots, after being cut down; and that he stated as an established fact ⁵ about rainwater and snow a thing which had not been sufficiently investigated.

V

1 ON the meaning of Virgil's expression caelum stare pulvere⁶ and of Lucilius' pectus sentibus stare.⁷

VI

1 THAT when a reconciliation takes place after trifling offences, mutual complaints are useless; and Taurus' discourse on that subject, with a quotation from the treatise of Theophrastus; and what Marcus Cicero also thought about the love arising from friendship, added in his own words. ⁸

VII

1 WHAT we have learned and know of the nature and character of memory from Aristotle's work entitled Peri\ Mnh/mhs or On Memory; and also some other examples, of which we have heard or read, about extraordinary powers of memory or its total loss. ⁹

VIII

1 MY experience in trying to interpret and, as it were, to reproduce in Latin certain passages of Plato.

IX

1 How Theophrastus, the most eloquent philosopher of his entire generation, when on the point of making a brief speech to the people of Athens, was overcome by bashfulness and kept silence; and how Demosthenes had a similar experience when speaking before king Philip.

X

1 A DISCUSSION that I had in the town of Eleusis with a conceited grammarian who, although ignorant of the tenses of verbs and the exercises of schoolboys, ostentatiously proposed abstruse questions of a hazy and formidable character, to impress the minds of the unlearned.

Would wish a lying scoundrel. ¹⁰

XI

1 THE witty reply of Socrates to his wife Xanthippe, when she asked that they might spend more money for their dinners during the Dionysiac festival.

XII

1 ON the meaning of plerique omnes, or

almost all,

in the early literature; and on the probable Greek origin of that expression.

XIII

1 THAT eupsones, a word used by the people of Africa, is not Phoenician, but Greek.

XIV

1 A HIGHLY entertaining discussion of the philosopher Favorinus with a tiresome person who held forth on the double meaning of certain words; also some unusual expressions from the poet Naevius and from Gnaeus Gellius; and further, some investigations of the derivation of words by Publius Nigidius.

XV

1 How the poet Laberius was ignominiously treated by Gaius Caesar, with a quotation of Laberius' own words on that subject. ¹¹

A pleasant and remarkable story from the books of Heracleides of Pontus. ¹²

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).) — 8.1 focus

I

HESTERNA noctu rectene an cum vitio dicatur et quaenam super istis verbis grammatica traditio sit; item quod decemviri in XII. Tabulis nox pro noctu dixerunt.

II

QUAE mihi decem verba ediderit Favorinus, quae usurpentur quidem a Graecis, sed sint adulterina et barbara; quae item a me totidem acceperit, quae ex medio communique usu Latine loquentium minime Latina sint neque in veterum libris reperiantur.

III

QUAE in modum et quam severe increpuerit audientibus nobis Peregrinus philosophus adulescentem Romanum ex equestri familia, stantem segnem apud se et assidue oscitantem oscitaitem.

Et adsiduo oscitantem vidit, atque illius quidem delicatissimas mentis et corporis halucinationes.

IV

QUOD Herodotus, scriptor historiae memoratissimus, parum vere dixerit unam solamque pinum arborum omnium caesam numquam denuo ex isdem radicibus pullulare; et quod item de aqua pluviali et nive rein non satis exploratam pro comperta posuerit.

V

QUID illud sit, quod Vergilius caelum stare pulvere, et quod Lucilius pectus sentibus stare dixit.

VI

CUM post offensiunculas in gratiam redeatur, expostulationes fieri mutuas minime utile esse, superque ea re et sermo Tauri expositus et verba ex Theophrasti libro sumpta; et quid M. quoque Cicero de amore amicitiae senserit, cum ipsius verbis additum.

VII

Ex Aristotelis libro, qui Περὶ Μνήμης inscriptus est, cognita acceptaque de natura memoriae et habitu; atque inibi alia quaedam de exuberantia aut interitu eius lecta auditaque.

VIII

QUID mihi usu venerit, interpretari et quasi effingere volenti locos quosdam Platonicos Latina oratione.

IX

QUOD Theophrastus, philosophus omnis suae aetatis facundissimus, verba pauca ad populum Atheniensem facturus, deturbatus verecundia obticuerit; quodque idem hoc Demostheni apud Philippum regem verba facienti evenerit.

X

QUALIS mihi fuerit in oppido Eleusino disceptatio cum grammatico gramnatico quodam praestigioso, tempora verborum et puerilia meditamenta rneditamenta ignorante, remotarum autem quaestionum nebulas et formidines capiendis imperitorum animis ostentante.

halophantam mendaeem velit.

XI

QUAM festive responderit Xanthippae uxori Socrates, petenti ut per Dionysia largiore sumptu cenitarent.

XII

QUID significet in veterum libris scriptum plerique omnes; et quod ea verba accepta a Graecis videntur.

XIII

Cupsones EUPSONES, quod homines Afri dicunt, non esse verbum Poenicum, sed Graecum.

XIV

LEPIDISSIMA altercatio Favorini philosophi adversus quendam intempestivum de ambiguitate verborum disserentem; atque inibi verba quaedam ex Naevio poeta et Cn. Gellio non usitate collocata; atque ibidem a P. Nigidio origines vocabulorum exploratae.

XV

QUIBUS modis ignominiatus tractatusque sit a C. Caesare Laberius poeta; atque inibi appositi versus super eadem re eiusdem Laberii.

Historia ex libris Heraclidae Pontici iucunda memoratu et miranda.

Notes on the current edition

Attic Nights

1. viii. 12.

2. See Macr. Sat. i. 4.

3. This fragment is preserved by Nonius, II, p. 121, 19, s. v. halucinari.

4. vi. 37.

5. ii. 22.

The sky on columns of dust upborne,

Aen. xii. 407, where the poet is describing the effect of an advancing troop of cavalry.

The breast with thorns is filled,

Lucil. 213, Marx. According to Nonius, p. 392, 2, stat means

is full of.

Donatus, ad Ter. Andr. iv. 2. 16 (69), quotes Lucilius for stat sentibus fundus, i. e.,

the farm is full of thorns

(1301, Marx).

8. Cf. i. 3. 10 f.

9. See Nonius, s.v. meminisse, p. 441. 4, M.

10. Whether these words, from Nonius, II., p. 120, 12, M., belong here is uncertain.

11. See Macr. Sat. ii. 7.

12. This heading, of uncertain number, is quoted in Grammatici Latini ii. 246, 6, K, and attributed to Agellius, Noctium Atticarum viii., or according to the greater number of MSS., viiii.

Aulus Gellius Noctes Atticae 8

John C. Rolfe (Translator)

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Book VIII

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XV

Current edition Perseus

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IV

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VIII

IX

X

XI

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XV

Notes on the current edition

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