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10.1.p716
10.1.p716
Whether one ought to say tertium consul or tertio; and how Gnaeus Pompeius, when he would inscribe his honours on the theatre which he was about to dedicate, by Cicero's advice evaded the difficulty as to the form of that word.
10.1.p717
10.1.p717
I SENT a letter from Athens to a friend of mine in Rome. In it I said that I had now written him for the third time (
10.1.p717
tertium
10.1.p717
). In his reply he asked me to give my reason for having written
10.1.p717
tertium
10.1.p717
and not
10.1.p717
tertio.
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He added that he hoped I would at the same time inform him what I thought about the question whether one should say
10.1.p717
tertium consul,
10.1.p717
meaning
10.1.p717
consul for the third time,
10.1.p717
and
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quartum,
10.1.p717
or
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tertio
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and
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quarto;
10.1.p717
since he had heard a learned man at Rome say
10.1.p717
tertio
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and
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quarto consul,
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not
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tertium
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and
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quartum;
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also, that Coelius had so written
10.1.p717
1
10.1.p717
at the beginning of his third book and that Quintus Claudius in his eleventh book said
10.1.p717
2
10.1.p717
that Marius was chosen consul for the seventh time, using
10.1.p717
septimo.
10.1.p718
10.1.p718
In reply to these questions, to decide both matters about which he had written to me, I contented myself with quoting Marcus Varro, a more learned man in my opinion than Coelius and Claudius together. For Varro has made it quite plain what ought to be said, and I did not wish, when at a distance, to enter into a dispute with a man who had the name of being learned.
10.1.p719
10.1.p719
Marcus Varro's words, in the fifth book of his
10.1.p719
Disciplinae,
10.1.p719
are as follows:
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1
10.1.p719
It is one thing to be made praetor
10.1.p719
quarto,
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and another
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quartum;
10.1.p719
for
10.1.p719
quarto
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refers to order and indicates that three were elected before him;
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2
10.1.p719
quartum
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refers to time and indicates that he had been made praetor three times before. Accordingly Ennius was right when he wrote:
10.1.p719
3
10.1.p719
Quintus, his sire, a fourth time (quartum) consul is,
10.1.p719
and Pompeius was timid when, in order to avoid writing
10.1.p719
consul tertium
10.1.p719
or
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tertio
10.1.p719
on his theatre, he did not write the final letters.
10.1.p719
4
10.1.p720
10.1.p720
What Varro briefly and somewhat obscurely hinted at concerning Pompey, Tullius Tiro, Cicero's freedman, wrote at greater length in one of his letters, substantially as follows:
10.1.p720
1
10.1.p720
When Pompey was preparing to consecrate the temple of Victory, the steps of which formed his theatre, Because of the sentiment against a permanent theatre at Rome, Pompey placed a temple of Venus Victrix at the top of his theatre, so that the seats of the auditorium formed an approach to it. It was built in 55 B.C. and to inscribe upon it his name and honours, the question arose whether consul tertium should be written, or tertio. Pompey took great pains to refer this question to the most learned men of Rome, and when there was difference of opinion, some maintaining that tertio ought to be written, others tertium, Pompey asked Cicero,
10.1.p720
says Varro,
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to decide upon what seemed to him the more correct form.
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Then Cicero was reluctant to pass judgment upon learned men, lest he might seem to have censured the men themselves in criticizing their opinion.
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He accordingly advised Pompey to write neither tertium nor tertio, but to inscribe the first four letters only, so that the meaning was shown without writing the whole word, but yet the doubt as to the form of the word was concealed.
10.1.p721
10.1.p721
But that of which Varro and Tiro spoke is not now written in that way on this same theatre. For when, many years later, the back wall of the stage had fallen and was restored, the number of the third consulship was indicated, not as before, by the first four letters, but merely by three incised lines.
10.1.p721
1
10.1.p722
10.1.p722
However, in the fourth book of Marcus Cato's
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Origines
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we find:
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1
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The Carthaginians broke the treaty for the sixth time (sextum).
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This word indicates that they had violated the treaty five times before, and that this was the sixth time. The Greeks too in distinguishing numbers of this kind use
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tri/ton kai\ te/tarton,
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which corresponds to the Latin words
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tertium quartumque.
10.2.p723
10.2.p723
What Aristotle has recorded about the number of children born at one time.
10.2.p724
10.2.p724
THE philosopher Aristotle has recorded
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1
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that a woman in Egypt bore five children at one birth; this, he said, was the limit of human multiple parturition; more children than that had never been known to be born at one time, and even that number was very rare. But in the reign of the deified Augustus the historians of the time say that a maid servant of Caesar Augustus in the region of Laurentum brought forth five children, and that they lived for a few days; that their mother died not long after she had been delivered, whereupon a monument was erected to her by order of Augustus
10.2.p724
on the via Laurentina, and on it was inscribed the number of her children, as I have given it.
10.3.p725
10.3.p725
A collection of famous passages from the speeches of Gaius Gracchus, Marcus Cicero and Marcus Cato, and a comparison of them.
10.3.p726
10.3.p726
GAIUS GRACCHUS is regarded as a powerful and vigorous speaker. No one disputes this. But how can one tolerate the opinion of some, that he was more impressive, more spirited and more fluent than Marcus Tullius? Indeed, I lately read the speech of Gaius Gracchus On the Promulgation of Laws, in which, with all the indignation of which he is master, he complains that Marcus Marius and other distinguished men of the Italian free-towns were unlawfully beaten with rods by magistrates of the Roman people.
10.3.p727
10.3.p727
His words on the subject are as follows:
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1
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The consul lately came to Teanum Sidicinum. His wife said that she wished to bathe in the men's baths. Marcus Marius, the quaestor of Sidicinum, was instructed to send away the bathers from the baths. The wife tells her husband that the baths were not given up to her soon enough and that they were not sufficiently clean. Therefore a stake was planted in the forum and Marcus Marius, the most illustrious man of his city, was led to it. His clothing was stripped off, he was whipped with rods. The people of Cales, when they heard of this, passed a decree that no one should think of using the public baths when a Roman magistrate was in town. At Ferentinum, for the same reason, our praetor ordered the quaestors to be arrested; one threw himself from the wall, the other was caught and beaten with rods.
10.3.p728
10.3.p728
In speaking of such an atrocious action, in so lamentable and distressing a manifestation of public injustice, has he said anything either fluent or brilliant, or in such a way as to arouse tears and pity; is there anything that shows an outpouring of indignation and solemn and impressive remonstrance? Brevity there is, to be sure, grace, and a simple purity of expression, such as we sometimes have in the more refined of the comedies.
10.3.p729
10.3.p729
Gracchus also in another place speaks as follows:
10.3.p729
1
10.3.p729
I will give you a single example of the lawlessness of our young men, and of their entire lack of self-control. Within the last few years a young man who had not yet held a magisterial office was sent as an envoy from Asia. He was carried in a litter. A herdsman, one of the peasants of Venusia, met him, and not knowing whom they were bearing, asked in jest if they were carrying a corpse. Upon hearing this, the young man ordered that the litter be set down and that the peasant be beaten to death with the thongs by which it was fastened.
10.3.p730
10.3.p730
Now these words about so lawless and cruel an outrage do not differ in the least from those of ordinary conversation. But in Marcus Tullius, when in a similar case Roman citizens, innocent men, are beaten with rods contrary to justice and contrary to the laws, or tortured to death, what pity is then aroused! What complaints does he utter! How he brings the whole scene before our eyes! What a mighty surge of indignation and bitterness comes seething forth! By Heaven! when I read those
10.3.p730
words of Cicero's, my mind is possessed with the sight and sound of blows, cries and lamentation. For example, the words which he speaks about Gaius Verres, which I have quoted so far as my memory went, which was all that I could do at present:
10.3.p730
1
10.3.p730
The man himself came into the forum, blazing with wickedness and frenzy. His eyes burned, every feature of his face displayed cruelty. All were waiting to see to what ends he would go, or what he would do, when on a sudden he gave orders that the man be dragged forth, that he be stripped in the middle of the forum and bound, and that rods be brought.
10.3.p730
Now, so help me! the mere words
10.3.p730
he ordered that he be stripped and bound, and rods brought
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arouse such emotion and horror that you do not seem to hear the act described, but to see it acted before your face.
10.3.p731
10.3.p731
But Gracchus plays the part, not of one who complains or implores, but of a mere narrator:
10.3.p731
A stake,
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he says,
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was planted in the forum, his clothing was stripped off, he was beaten with rods.
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But Marcus Cicero, finely representing the idea of continued action, says,
10.3.p731
1
10.3.p731
not
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he was beaten,
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but
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a citizen of Rome was being beaten with rods in the middle of the forum at Messana, while in the meantime no groan, no sound was heard from that wretched man amid his torture and the resounding blows except these words, 'I am a Roman citizen.' By thus calling to mind his citizenship he hoped to avert all their stripes and free his body from torture.
10.3.p731
Then Cicero with vigour, spirit and fiery indignation complains of so cruel an outrage and inspires the Romans with hatred and detestation of Verres by these words:
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2
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O beloved name of liberty! O eminent justice of our country! O Porcian and Sempronian laws! O authority of the tribunes, earnestly desired and finally restored to the Roman commons! Pray, have all these blessings fallen to this estate, that a Roman citizen, in a province of the Roman people, in a town of our allies, should be bound and flogged in the forum by one who derived the emblems of his power from the favour of the Roman people? What! when fire and hot irons and other tortures were applied, although your victim's bitter lamentation and piteous outcries did not affect you, were you not moved by the tears and loud groans even of the Roman citizens who were then present?
10.3.p732
10.3.p732
These outrages Marcus Tullius bewailed bitterly and solemnly, in appropriate and eloquent terms. But if anyone has so rustic and so dull an ear that this brilliant and delightful speech and the harmonious arrangement of Cicero's words do not give him pleasure; if he prefers the earlier oration because it is unadorned, concise and unstudied, yet has a certain native charm, and because it has, so to say, a shade and colour of misty antiquity—let such a one, if he has any judgment at all, study the address in a similar case of Marcus Cato, a man of a still earlier time, to whose vigour and flow of language Gracchus could never hope to attain. He will realize, I think, that Cato was not content with the eloquence of his own time, but aspired to do even then what Cicero later accomplished. For in the speech which is entitled
10.3.p732
On Sham Battles
10.3.p732
he thus made complaint of Quintus Thermus:
10.3.p732
1
10.3.p732
He said that his provisions had not been satisfactorily attended to by the decemvirs. The local magistrates. He ordered them to be stripped and scourged. The Bruttiani See § 18, below. scourged the decemvirs, many men saw it done. Who could endure such an insult, such tyranny, such slavery? No king has ever dared to act thus; shall such outrages be inflicted upon good men, born of a good family, and of good intentions? Where is the protection of our allies? Where is the honour of our forefathers? To think that you have dared to inflict signal wrongs, blows, lashes, stripes, these pains and tortures, accompanied with disgrace and extreme ignominy, since their fellow citizens and many other men looked on! But amid how great grief, what groans, what tears, what lamentations have I heard that this was done! Even slaves bitterly resent injustice; what feeling do you think that such men, sprung from good families, endowed with high character, had and will have so long as they live?
10.3.p733
10.3.p733
When Cato said
10.3.p733
the Bruttiani scourged them,
10.3.p733
lest haply anyone should inquire the meaning of
10.3.p733
Bruttiani,
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it is this: When Hannibal the Carthaginian was in Italy with his army, and the Romans had suffered several defeats, the Bruttii were the first people of all Italy to revolt to Hannibal. Angered at this, the Romans, after Hannibal left Italy and the Carthaginians were defeated, by way of ignominious punishment refused to enrol the Bruttii as soldiers or treat them as allies, but commanded them to serve the magistrates when they went to their provinces, and to perform the duties of slaves. Accordingly, they accompanied the magistrates in the capacity of those who are called
10.3.p733
floggers
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in the plays, and bound or scourged those whom they were ordered. And because they came from the land of the Bruttii,
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1
10.3.p733
they were called
10.3.p733
Bruttiani.
10.4.p734
10.4.p734
How Publius Nigidius with great cleverness showed that words are not arbitrary, but natural.
10.4.p735
10.4.p735
PUBLIUS NIGIDIUS in his
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Grammatical Notes
10.4.p735
shows that nouns and verbs were formed, not by a chance use, but by a certain power and design of nature, a subject very popular in the discussions of the philosophers; for they used to inquire whether words originate by
10.4.p735
nature
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or are man-made.
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1
10.4.p735
Nigidius employs many arguments to this end, to show that words appear to be natural rather than arbitrary. Among these the following seems particularly neat and ingenious
10.4.p735
2
10.4.p735
:
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When we say vos, or 'you,'
10.4.p735
says Nigidius,
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we make a movement of the mouth suitable to the meaning of the word; for we gradually protrude the tips of our lips and direct the impulse of the breath towards those with whom we are speaking. But on the other hand, when we say nos, or 'us,' we do not pronounce the word with a powerful forward impulse of the voice, nor with the lips protruded, but we restrain our breath and our lips, so to speak, within ourselves. The same thing happens in the words tu or 'thou,' ego or ' I,' tibi ' to thee,' and mihi 'to me.' For just as when we assent or dissent, a movement of the head or eyes corresponds with the nature of the expression, so too in the pronunciation of these words there is a kind of natural gesture made with the mouth and breath. The same principle that we have noted in our own speech applies also to Greek words.
10.5.p736
10.5.p736
Whether avarus is a simple word or, as it appears to Publius Nigidius, a compound, made up of two parts.
10.5.p737
10.5.p737
PUBLIUS NIGIDIUS, in the twenty-ninth book of his
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Commentaries,
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1
10.5.p737
declares that
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avarus
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is not a simple word, but is compounded of two parts:
10.5.p737
For that man,
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he says,
10.5.p737
is called avarus, or 'covetous,' who is avidus aeris, or 'eager for money;' but in the compound the letter e is lost.
10.5.p737
He also says
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2
10.5.p737
that a man is called by the compound term
10.5.p737
locuples,
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or
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rich,
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when he holds
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pleraque loca,
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that is to say,
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many possessions.
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3
10.5.p738
10.5.p738
But his statement about
10.5.p738
locuples
10.5.p738
is the stronger and more probable. As to
10.5.p738
avarus
10.5.p738
there is doubt; for why may it not seem to be derived from one single word, namely
10.5.p738
aveo,
10.5.p738
1
10.5.p738
and formed in the same way as
10.5.p738
amarus,
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about which there is general agreement that it is not a compound?
10.6.p739
10.6.p739
That a fine was imposed by the plebeian aediles on the daughter of Appius Caecus, a woman of rank, because she spoke too arrogantly.
10.6.p740
10.6.p740
PUBLIC punishment was formerly inflicted, not only upon crimes, but even upon arrogant language; so necessary did men think it to maintain the dignity of Roman conduct inviolable. For the daughter of the celebrated Appius Caecus, when leaving the plays of
10.6.p740
which she had been a spectator, was jostled by the crowd of people that surrounded her, flocking together from all sides. When she had extricated herself, complaining that she had been roughly handled, she added:
10.6.p740
What, pray, would have become of me, and how much more should I have been crowded and pressed upon, had not my brother Publius Claudius lost his fleet in the sea-fight and with it a vast number of citizens? In 249 B.C. He was warned not to fight by the refusal of the sacred chickens to eat; but he threw them overboard, saying that they might drink, since they would not eat. See Suet. Tib. ii. 2. Surely I should have lost my life, overwhelmed by a still greater mass of people. How I wish,
10.6.p740
said she,
10.6.p740
that my brother might come to life again, take another fleet to Sicily, and destroy that crowd which has just knocked poor me about.
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Because of such wicked and arrogant words, Gaius Fundanius and Tiberius Sempronius, the plebeian aediles,
10.6.p740
2
10.6.p740
imposed a fine upon the woman of twenty-five thousand pounds of full-weight bronze.
10.6.p740
3
10.6.p740
Ateius Capito, in his commentary
10.6.p740
On Public Trials,
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says
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4
10.6.p740
that this happened in the first Punic war, in the consulship of Fabius Licinus and Otacilius Crassus.
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5
10.7.p741
10.7.p741
Marcus Varro, I remember, writes that of the rivers which flow outside
10.7.p741
1
10.7.p741
the limits of the Roman empire the Nile is first in size, the Danube second, and next the Rhone.
10.7.p742
10.7.p742
OF all the rivers which flow into the seas included within the Roman empire, which the Greeks call
10.7.p742
the inner sea,
10.7.p742
it is agreed that the Nile is the greatest. Sallust wrote
10.7.p742
1
10.7.p742
that the Danube is next in size; but Varro, when he discussed the part of the earth which is called Europe, placed
10.7.p742
2
10.7.p742
the Rhone among the first three rivers of that quarter of the earth, by which he seems to make it a rival of the Danube; for the Danube also is in Europe.
10.8.p743
10.8.p743
That among the ignominious punishments which were inflicted upon soldiers was the letting of blood; and what seems to be the reason for such a penalty.
10.8.p744
10.8.p744
THIS also was a military punishment in old times, to disgrace a soldier by ordering a vein to be opened, and letting blood. There is no reason assigned for this in the old records, so far as I could find; but I infer that it was first done to soldiers whose minds were affected and who were not in a normal condition, so that it appears to have been not so much a punishment as a medical treatment. But afterwards I suppose that the same penalty was customarily inflicted for many other offences, on the ground that all who sinned were not of sound mind.
10.8.p744
1
10.9.p745
10.9.p745
In what way and in what form the Roman army is commonly drawn up, and the names of the formations.
10.9.p746
10.9.p746
THERE are military terms which are applied to an army drawn up in a certain manner:
10.9.p746
the front,
10.9.p746
reserves,
10.9.p746
wedge,
10.9.p746
ring,
10.9.p746
mass,
10.9.p746
shears,
10.9.p746
saw,
10.9.p746
wings,
10.9.p746
towers.
10.9.p746
1
10.9.p746
These and some other terms you may find in the books of those who have written about military affairs. However, they are taken from the things themselves to which the names are strictly applied, and in drawing up an army the forms of the objects designated by each of these words is represented.
10.10.p747
10.10.p747
The reason why the ancient Greeks and Romans wore a ring on the next to the little finger of the left hand.
10.10.p748
10.10.p748
I HAVE heard that the ancient Greeks wore a ring on the finger of the left hand which is next to the little finger. They say, too, that the Roman men commonly wore their rings in that way. Apion in his
10.10.p748
Egyptian History
10.10.p748
says
10.10.p748
1
10.10.p748
that the reason for this practice is, that upon cutting into and opening human bodies, a custom in Egypt which the Greeks call
10.10.p748
a)natomai/,
10.10.p748
or
10.10.p748
dissection,
10.10.p748
it was found that a very fine nerve proceeded from that finger alone of which we have spoken, and made its way to the human heart; that it therefore seemed quite reasonable that this finger in particular should be honoured with such an ornament, since it seems to be joined, and as it were united, with that supreme organ, the heart.
10.11.p749
10.11.p749
The derivation and meaning of the word mature, and that it is generally used improperly; and also that the genitive of praecox is praecocis and not praecoquis.
10.11.p750
10.11.p750
MATURE
10.11.p750
in present usage signifies
10.11.p750
hastily
10.11.p750
and
10.11.p750
quickly,
10.11.p750
contrary to the true force of the word; for
10.11.p750
mature
10.11.p750
means quite a different thing. Therefore Publius Nigidius, a man eminent in the pursuit of all the liberal arts, says:
10.11.p750
1
10.11.p750
Mature means neither 'too soon' nor 'too late,' but something between the two and intermediate.
10.11.p751
10.11.p751
Publius Nigidius has spoken well and properly. For of grain and fruits those are called matura, or mature, which are neither unripe and hard, nor falling and decayed, but full-grown and ripened in their proper time. But since that which was not done negligently was said to be done mature, the force of the word has been greatly extended, and an act is now said to be done mature which is done with some haste, and not one which is done without negligence; whereas such things as are immoderately hastened are more properly called inmatura, or untimely.
10.11.p752
10.11.p752
That limitation of the word, and of the action itself, which was made by Nigidius was very elegantly expressed by the deified Augustus with two Greek words; for we are told that he used to say in conversation, and write in his letters,
10.11.p752
speu=de brade/ws,
10.11.p752
that is,
10.11.p752
make haste slowly,
10.11.p752
1
10.11.p752
by which he recommended that to accomplish a result we should use at once the promptness of energy and the delay of carefulness, and it is from these two opposite qualities that
10.11.p752
maturitas
10.11.p752
springs. Virgil also, to one
10.11.p752
who is observant, has skilfully distinguished the two words
10.11.p752
properare
10.11.p752
and
10.11.p752
maturare
10.11.p752
as clearly opposite, in these verses:
10.11.p752
2
10.11.p752
Whenever winter's rains the hind confine,
10.11.p752
Much is there that at leisure may be done (maturare),
10.11.p752
Which in fair weather he must hurry on (properanda).
10.11.p752
Most elegantly has he distinguished between those two words; for in rural life the preparations during rainy weather may be made at leisure, since one has time for them; but in fine weather, since time presses, one must hasten.
10.11.p753
10.11.p753
But when we wish to indicate that anything has been done under too great pressure and too hurriedly, then it is more properly said to have been done
10.11.p753
praemature,
10.11.p753
or
10.11.p753
prematurely,
10.11.p753
than
10.11.p753
mature.
10.11.p753
Thus Afranius in his Italian play called
10.11.p753
The Title
10.11.p753
says:
10.11.p753
1
10.11.p753
With madness premature (praemature) you seek a hasty power.
10.11.p753
In this verse it is to be observed that he says
10.11.p753
praecocem
10.11.p753
and not
10.11.p753
praecoquem;
10.11.p753
for the nominative case is not
10.11.p753
praecoquis,
10.11.p753
but
10.11.p753
praecox.
10.12.p754
10.12.p754
Of extravagant tales which Plinius Secundus most unjustly ascribes to the philosopher Democritus; and also about the flying image of a dove.
10.12.p755
10.12.p755
PLINY THE ELDER, in the twenty-eighth book of his
10.12.p755
Natural History
10.12.p755
asserts
10.12.p755
1
10.12.p755
that there is a book of that
10.12.p755
most famous philosopher Democritus
10.12.p755
On the Power and Nature of the Chameleon,
10.12.p755
and that he had read it; and then he transmits to us many foolish and intolerable absurdities, alleging that they were written by Democritus. Of these unwillingly, since they disgust me, I recall a few, as follows: that the hawk, the swiftest of all birds, if it chance to fly over a chameleon which is crawling on the ground, is dragged down and falls through some force to the earth, and offers and gives itself up of its own accord to be torn to pieces by the other birds. Another statement too is past human belief, namely, that if the head and neck of the chameleon be burned by means of the wood which is called oak, rain and thunder are suddenly produced, and that this same thing is experienced if the liver of that animal is burned upon the roof of a house. There is also another story, which by heaven! I hesitated about putting down, so preposterous is it; but I have made it a rule that we ought to speak our mind about the fallacious seduction of marvels of that kind, by which the keenest minds are often deceived and led to their ruin, and in particular those which are especially eager for knowledge. But I return to Pliny. He says
10.12.p755
2
10.12.p755
that the left foot of the chameleon is roasted with an iron heated in the fire, along with an herb called by the same name,
10.12.p755
chameleon
10.12.p755
; both are mixed in an ointment, formed into a paste, and put in a wooden vessel. He who carries the vessel, even if he go openly amid a throng, can be seen by no one.
10.12.p756
10.12.p756
I think that these marvellous and false stories written by Plinius Secundus are not worthy of the name of Democritus; the same is true of what the same Pliny, in his tenth book, asserts
10.12.p756
1
10.12.p756
that
10.12.p756
Democritus wrote; namely, that there were certain birds with a language of their own, and that by mixing the blood of those birds a serpent was produced; that whoso ate it would understand the language of birds and their conversation.
10.12.p757
10.12.p757
Many fictions of this kind seem to have been attached to the name of Democritus by ignorant men, who sheltered themselves under his reputation and authority. But that which Archytas the Pythagorean is said to have devised and accomplished ought to seem no less marvellous, but yet not wholly absurd. For not only many eminent Greeks, but also the philosopher Favorinus, a most diligent searcher of ancient records, have stated most positively that Archytas made a wooden model of a dove with such mechanical ingenuity and art that it flew; so nicely balanced was it, you see, with weights and moved by a current of air enclosed and hidden within it. About so improbable a story I prefer to give Favorinus' own words:
10.12.p757
Archytas the Tarentine, being in other lines also a mechanician, made a flying dove out of wood. Whenever it lit, it did not rise again. For until this... .
10.12.p757
1
10.13.p758
10.13.p758
On what principle the ancients said cum. partim hominum.
10.13.p759
10.13.p759
PARTIM homninum venerunt
10.13.p759
is a common expression, meaning
10.13.p759
a part of the men came,
10.13.p759
that is,
10.13.p759
some men.
10.13.p759
For
10.13.p759
partim
10.13.p759
is here an adverb and is not declined by cases. Hence we may say
10.13.p759
cum partim hominum,
10.13.p759
that is,
10.13.p759
with some men
10.13.p759
or
10.13.p759
with a certain part of the men.
10.13.p759
Marcus Cato, in his speech
10.13.p759
On the> property of Florius
10.13.p759
has written as follows:
10.13.p759
1
10.13.p759
There she acted like a harlot, she went from the banquet straight to the couch and with a part of them (cum partim illorum) she often conducted herself in the same manner.
10.13.p759
The less educated, however, read
10.13.p759
cum parti,
10.13.p759
as if
10.13.p759
partim
10.13.p759
were declined as a noun, not used as an adverb.
10.13.p760
10.13.p760
But Quintus Claudius, in the twenty-first book of his
10.13.p760
Annals,
10.13.p760
has used this figure in a somewhat less usual manner; he says:
10.13.p760
For with the part of the forces (cum partim copiis) of young men that was pleasing to him.
10.13.p760
1
10.13.p760
Also in the twenty-third book of the
10.13.p760
Annals
10.13.p760
of Claudius are these words:
10.13.p760
2
10.13.p760
But that I therefore acted thus, but whether to say that it happened from the negligence of a part of the magistrates (neglegentia partim magistratum), from avarice, or from the calamity of the Roman people, I know not.
10.14.p761
10.14.p761
In what connection Cato said iniuria mihi factum itur.
10.14.p762
10.14.p762
I HEAR the phrase
10.14.p762
illi iniuriam factum iri,
10.14.p762
or
10.14.p762
injury will be done to him,
10.14.p762
I hear
10.14.p762
contumeliam dictum iri,
10.14.p762
or
10.14.p762
insult will be offered,
10.14.p762
commonly so used everywhere, and I notice that this form of expression is a general one; I therefore refrain from citing examples. But
10.14.p762
contumelia illi
10.14.p762
or
10.14.p762
iniuria factum itur,
10.14.p762
injury or insult is going to be offered him,
10.14.p762
is somewhat less common, and therefore I shall give an example of that. Marcus Cato, speaking
10.14.p762
For Himself against
10.14.p762
Gaius Cassius,
10.14.p762
says:
10.14.p762
1
10.14.p762
And so it happened, fellow citizens, that in this insult which is going to be put upon me (quae mihi factum itur) by the insolence of this man I also, fellow citizens (so help me!), pity our country.
10.14.p762
But just as
10.14.p762
contumeliam factum iri
10.14.p762
means
10.14.p762
to go to inflict an injury,
10.14.p762
that is, to take pains that it be inflicted, just so
10.14.p762
contumelia nihi factum itur
10.14.p762
expresses the same idea, merely with a change of case.
10.15.p763
10.15.p763
Of the ceremonies of the priest and priestess of Jupiter; and words quoted from the praetor's edict, in which he declares that he will not compel either the Vestal virgins or the priest of Jupiter to take oath.
10.15.p764
10.15.p764
CEREMONIES in great number are imposed upon the priest of Jupiter
10.15.p764
1
10.15.p764
and also many abstentions, of which we read in the books written
10.15.p764
On the Public Priests;
10.15.p764
and they are also recorded in the first book of Fabius Pictor.
10.15.p764
2
10.15.p764
Of these the following are in general what I remember: It is unlawful for the priest of Jupiter to ride upon a horse; it is also unlawful for him to see the
10.15.p764
classes Classis originally meant one of the classes into which the citizens were divided by the Servian constitution, then, collectively, the army composed of the classes. arrayed
10.15.p764
outside the pomerium,
10.15.p764
4
10.15.p764
that is, the army in battle array; hence the priest of Jupiter is rarely made consul, since wars were entrusted to the consuls; also it is always unlawful for the priest to take an oath; likewise to wear a ring, unless it be perforated and without a gem. It is against the law for fire to be taken from the
10.15.p764
flaminia,
10.15.p764
that is, from the home of the flamen
10.15.p764
Dialis, except for a sacred rite; if a person in fetters enter his house, he must be loosed, the bonds must be drawn up through the
10.15.p764
impluvium
10.15.p764
5
10.15.p764
to the roof and from there let down into the street. He has no knot in his head-dress, girdle, or any other part of his dress; if anyone is being taken to be flogged and falls at his feet as a suppliant, it is unlawful for the man to be flogged on that day. Only a free man may cut the hair of the Dialis. It is not customary for the Dialis to touch, or even name, a she-goat, raw flesh, ivy, and beans.
10.15.p765
10.15.p765
The priest of Jupiter must not pass under an arbour of vines. The feet of the couch on which he sleeps must be smeared with a thin coating of clay, and he must not sleep away from this bed for three nights in succession, and no other person must sleep in that bed. At the foot of his bed there should be a box with sacrificial cakes. The cuttings of the nails and hair of the Dialis must be buried in the earth under a fruitful tree. Every day is a holy day for the Dialis. He must not be in the open air without his cap; that he might go without it in the house has only recently been decided by the pontiffs, so Masurius Sabinus wrote,
10.15.p765
1
10.15.p765
and it is said that some other ceremonies have been remitted and he has been excused from observing them.
10.15.p766
10.15.p766
The priest of Jupiter
10.15.p766
must not touch any bread fermented with yeast. He does not lay off his inner tunic except under cover, in order that he may not be naked in the open air, as it were under the eye of Jupiter. No other has a place at table above the flamen Dialis, except the
10.15.p766
rex sacrificulus.
10.15.p766
1
10.15.p766
If the
10.15.p766
Dialis has lost his wife he abdicates his office. The marriage of the priest cannot be dissolved except by death. He never enters a place of burial, he never touches a dead body; but he is not forbidden to attend a funeral.
10.15.p767
10.15.p767
The ceremonies of the priestess of Jupiter are about the same; they say that she observes other separate ones: for example, that she wears a dyed robe, that she has a twig from a fruitful tree in her head-dress, that it is forbidden for her to go up more than three rounds of a ladder, except the so called Greek ladders;
10.15.p767
1
10.15.p767
also, when she goes to the Argei,
10.15.p767
2
10.15.p767
that she neither combs her head nor dresses her hair.
10.15.p768
10.15.p768
I have added the words of the praetor in his standing edict concerning the flamen Dialis and the priestess of Vesta:
10.15.p768
1
10.15.p768
In the whole of my jurisdiction I will not compel the flamen of Jupiter or a priestess of Vesta to take an oath.
10.15.p768
The words of Marcus Varro about the flamen Dialis, in the second book of his
10.15.p768
Divine Antiquities,
10.15.p768
are as follows:
10.15.p768
2
10.15.p768
He alone has a white cap, either because he is the greatest of priests, or because a white victim should be sacrificed to Jupiter.
10.15.p768
3
10.16.p769
10.16.p769
Errors in Roman History which Julius Hyginus noted in Virgil's sixth book.
10.16.p770
10.16.p770
HYGINUS criticizes
10.16.p770
1
10.16.p770
a passage in Virgil's sixth book and thinks that he would have corrected it. Palinurus is in the Lower World, begging Aeneas to take care that his body be found and buried. His words are:
10.16.p770
2
10.16.p770
O save me from these ills, unconquered one;
10.16.p770
Or throw thou earth upon me, for you can,
10.16.p770
And to the port of Velia return.
10.16.p770
How,
10.16.p770
said he,
10.16.p770
could either Palinurus know and name 'the port of Velia,' or Aeneas find the place from that name, when the town of Velia, from which he has called the harbour in that place 'Veline' was founded in the Lucanian district and called by that name when Servius Tullius was reigning in Rome, 578—534 B.C., traditional chronology. more than six hundred years after Aeneas came to Italy? For of those,
10.16.p770
he adds,
10.16.p770
who were driven from the land of Phocis Phocis, a district of Greece west of Boeotia, was confused by Hyginus with Phocaea, a city on the western coast of Asia Minor. by Harpalus, Probably an error for Harpagus. prefect of king Cyrus, some founded Velia, and others Massilia. Most absurdly, then, does Palinurus ask Aeneas to seek out the Veline port, when at that time no such name existed anywhere. Nor ought that to be considered a similar error,
10.16.p770
said he,
10.16.p770
which occurs in the first book:
10.16.p770
6
10.16.p770
Exiled by fate, to Italy fared and to Lavinian strand,
10.16.p770
and similarly in the sixth book:
10.16.p770
7
10.16.p770
At last stood lightly poised on the Chalcidian height,
10.16.p770
since it is usually allowed the poet himself to mention,
10.16.p770
kata\ pro/lhyin,
10.16.p770
'by anticipation,' in his own person some historical facts which took place later and of which he himself could know; just as Virgil knew the town of Lavinium and the colony from Calchis. But how could Palinurus,
10.16.p770
he said,
10.16.p770
know of events that occurred six hundred years later, unless anyone believes that in the Lower World he had the power of divination, as in fact the souls of the deceased commonly do? But even if you understand it in that way, although nothing of the kind is said, yet how could Aeneas, who did not have the power of divination, seek out the Veline port, the name of which at that time, as we have said before, was not in existence anywhere?
10.16.p771
10.16.p771
He also censures the following passage in the same book, and thinks that Virgil would have corrected it, had not death prevented:
10.16.p771
For,
10.16.p771
says He,
10.16.p771
when he had named Theseus among those who had visited the Lower World and returned, and had said:
10.16.p771
1
10.16.p771
But why name Theseus? why Alcides great?
10.16.p771
And my race too is from almighty Jove,
10.16.p771
he nevertheless adds afterwards:
10.16.p771
2
10.16.p771
Unhappy Theseus sits, will sit for aye.
10.16.p771
But how,
10.16.p771
says he,
10.16.p771
could it happen that one should sit for ever in the Lower World whom the poet mentions before among those who went down there and returned again, especially when the story of Theseus says that Hercules tore him from the rock and led him to the light of the Upper World?
10.16.p772
10.16.p772
He also says that Virgil erred in these lines:
10.16.p772
1
10.16.p772
He Argos and Mycenae shall uproot,
10.16.p772
City of Agamemnon, and the heir
10.16.p772
Of Aeacus himself, from war-renowned
10.16.p772
Achilles sprung, Neoptolemus, also called Pyrrus (or Pyrrhus), the son of Achilles and Deidameia. his ancestors of Troy
10.16.p772
Avenging and Minerva's spotless shrine. Probably either Gellius or Hyginus misquotes Virgil. With their version we have a transfer of the epithet intemerata from Minerva to her shrine.
10.16.p772
He has confounded,
10.16.p772
says Hyginus,
10.16.p772
different persons and times. For the wars with the Achaeans and with Pyrrus were not waged at the same time nor by the same men. For Pyrrus, whom he calls a descendant of Aeacus, having crossed over from Epirus into Italy, waged war with the Romans against Manius Curius, who was their leader in that war. 280—275 B.C. But the Argive, that is, the Achaean war, was carried on many years after under the lead of Lucius Mummius. 146 B.C. The middle verse, therefore, about Pyrrus,
10.16.p772
says he,
10.16.p772
may be omitted, since it was inserted inopportunely; and Virgil,
10.16.p772
he said,
10.16.p772
undoubtedly would have struck it out.
10.17.p773
10.17.p773
Why and how the philosopher Democritus deprived himself of his eye-sight; and the very fine and elegant verses of Laberius on that subject.
10.17.p774
10.17.p774
IT is written in the records of Grecian story that the philosopher Democritus, a man worthy of
10.17.p774
reverence beyond all others and of the highest authority, of his own accord deprived himself of eyesight, because he believed that the thoughts and meditations of his mind in examining nature's laws would be more vivid and exact, if he should free them from the allurements of sight and the distractions offered by the eyes. This act of his, and the manner too in which he easily blinded himself by a most ingenious device, the poet Laberius has described, in a farce called
10.17.p774
The Ropemaker,
10.17.p774
in very elegant and finished verses; but he has imagined another reason for voluntary blindness and applied it with no little neatness to his own subject. For the character who speaks these lines in Laberius is a rich and stingy miser, lamenting in vigorous terms the excessive extravagance and dissipation of his young son. These are the verses of Laberius:
10.17.p774
1
10.18.p775
10.18.p775
The story of Artemisia; and of the contest at the tomb of Mausolus in which celebrated writers took part.
10.18.p776
10.18.p776
ARTEMISIA is said to have loved her husband Mausolus with a love surpassing all the tales of passion and beyond one's conception of human
10.18.p776
affection. Now Mausolus, as Marcus Tullius tells us,
10.18.p776
1
10.18.p776
was king of the land of Caria; according to some Greek historians he was governor of a province, the official whom the Greeks term a satrap. When this Mausolus had met his end amid the lamentations and in the arms of his wife,
10.18.p776
2
10.18.p776
and had been buried with a magnificent funeral, Artemisia, inflamed with grief and with longing for her spouse, mingled his bones and ashes with spices, ground them into the form of a powder, put them in water, and drank them; and she is said to have given many other proofs of the violence of her passion. For perpetuating the memory of her husband, she also erected, with great expenditure of labour, that highly celebrated tomb,
10.18.p776
3
10.18.p776
which has been deemed worthy of being numbered among the seven wonders of the world.
10.18.p776
4
10.18.p776
When Artemisia dedicated this monument, consecrated to the deified shades of Mausolus, she instituted an
10.18.p776
agon,
10.18.p776
that is to say, a contest in celebrating his praises, offering magnificent prizes of money and other valuables. Three men distinguished for their eminent talent and eloquence are said to have come to contend in this eulogy, Theopompus, Theodectes
10.18.p776
5
10.18.p776
and Naucrates; some have even written that Isocrates himself entered the lists with them. But Theopompus was adjudged the victor in that contest. He was a pupil of Isocrates.
10.18.p777
10.18.p777
The tragedy of Theodectes, entitled
10.18.p777
Mausolus,
10.18.p777
is still extant to-day; and that in it Theodectes was more pleasing than in his prose writings is the opinion of Hyginus in his
10.18.p777
Examples.
10.18.p777
1
10.19.p778
10.19.p778
That a sin is not removed or lessened by citing in excuse similar sins which others have committed; with a passage front a speech of Demosthenes on that subject.
10.19.p779
10.19.p779
THE philosopher Taurus once reproved a young man with severe and vigorous censure because he had turned from the rhetoricians and the study of eloquence to the pursuit of philosophy, declaring that he had done something dishonourable and shameful. Now the young man did not deny the allegation, but urged in his defence that it was commonly done and tried to justify the baseness of the fault by citing examples and by the excuse of custom. And then Taurus, being the more irritated by the very nature of his defence, said:
10.19.p779
Foolish and worthless fellow, if the authority and rules of philosophy do not deter you from following bad examples, does not even the saying of your own celebrated Demosthenes occur to you? For since it is couched in a polished and graceful form of words, it might, like a sort of rhetorical catch, the more easily remain fixed in your memory. For,
10.19.p779
said he,
10.19.p779
if I do not forget what as a matter of fact I read in my early youth, these are the words of Demosthenes, spoken against one who, as you now do, tried to justify and excuse his own sin by those of others: Adv. Androt. 7, p. 595. 'Say not, Sir, that this has often been done, but that it ought to be so done; for if anything was ever done contrary to the laws, and you followed that example, you would not for that reason justly escape punishment, but you would suffer much more severely. For just as, if anyone had suffered a penalty for it, you would not have proposed this, so if you suffer punishment now, no one else will propose it.'
10.19.p779
Thus did Taurus, by the use of every kind of persuasion and admonition, incline his disciples to the principles of a virtuous and blameless manner of life.
10.20.p780
10.20.p780
The meaning of rogatio, lex, plebisscitum and privilegium, and to what extent all those terms differ.
10.20.p781
10.20.p781
I HEAR it asked what the meaning is of
10.20.p781
lex, plebisscitum, rogatio,
10.20.p781
and
10.20.p781
privilegium.
10.20.p781
Ateius Capito, a man highly skilled in public and private law, defined the meaning of
10.20.p781
lex
10.20.p781
in these words:
10.20.p781
1
10.20.p781
A law,
10.20.p781
said he,
10.20.p781
is a general decree of the people, or of the commons, answering an appeal That is, a royatio. made to them by a magistrate.
10.20.p781
If this definition is correct, neither the appeal for Pompey's military command, nor about the recall of Cicero, nor as to the murder or Clodius, nor any similar decrees of the people of commons, can be called laws. For they are not general decrees, and they are framed with regard, not to the whole body of citizens, but to individuals. Hence they ought rather to be called
10.20.p781
privilegia,
10.20.p781
or
10.20.p781
privileges,
10.20.p781
since the ancients used
10.20.p781
priva
10.20.p781
where we now use
10.20.p781
singula
10.20.p781
(private or individual). This word Lucilius used in the first book of his
10.20.p781
Satires:
10.20.p781
3
10.20.p781
I'll give them, when they come, each his own (priva) piece
10.20.p781
Of tunny belly and acarne The acarne was a kind of sea-fish. heads.
10.20.p782
10.20.p782
Capito, however, in the same definition divided
10.20.p782
1
10.20.p782
the
10.20.p782
plebes,
10.20.p782
2
10.20.p782
or
10.20.p782
commons,
10.20.p782
from the
10.20.p782
populus,
10.20.p782
or
10.20.p782
people,
10.20.p782
since in the term
10.20.p782
people
10.20.p782
are embraced every part of the state and all its orders, but
10.20.p782
commons
10.20.p782
is properly applied to that part in which the patrician families of the citizens are not included. Therefore, according to Capito, a
10.20.p782
plebisscitum
10.20.p782
is a law which the commons, and not the people, adopt.
10.20.p783
10.20.p783
But the head itself, the origin, and as it were the fount of this whole process of law is the rogatio, whether the appeal (rogatio) is to the people or to the commons, on a matter relating to all or to individuals. For all the words under discussion are understood and included in the fundamental principle and name of rogatio; for unless the people or commons be appealed to (rogetur), no decree of the people or commons can be passed.
10.20.p784
10.20.p784
But although all this is true, yet in the old records we observe that no great distinction is made among the words in question. For the common term lex is used both of decrees of the commons and of privileges, and all are called by the indiscriminate and inexact name rogatio.
10.20.p785
10.20.p785
Even Sallust, who is most observant of propriety in the use of words, has yielded to custom and applied the term
10.20.p785
law
10.20.p785
to the
10.20.p785
privilege
10.20.p785
which was passed with reference to the return of Gnaeus Pompeius. The passage, from the second book of his
10.20.p785
Histories,
10.20.p785
reads as follows:
10.20.p785
1
10.20.p785
For when Sulla, as consul, proposed a law (legem) touching his return, the tribune of the commons, Gaius Herennius, had vetoed it by previous arrangement.
10.21.p786
10.21.p786
Why Marcus Cicero very scrupulously avoided any use of the words novissime and novissimus.
10.21.p787
10.21.p787
IT is clear that Marcus Cicero was unwilling to use many a word which is now in general circulation, and was so in his time, because he did not approve of them; for instance,
10.21.p787
novissimus
10.21.p787
and
10.21.p787
novissine.
10.21.p787
For although both Marcus Cato
10.21.p787
1
10.21.p787
and Sallust,
10.21.p787
2
10.21.p787
as well as others also of the same period, have used that word generally, and although many men besides who were not without learning wrote it in their books, yet he seems to have abstained from it, on the ground that it was not good Latin, since Lucius Aelius Stilo,
10.21.p787
3
10.21.p787
who was the most learned man of his time, had avoided its use, as that of a novel and improper word.
10.21.p788
10.21.p788
Moreover, what Marcus Varro too thought of that word I have deemed it fitting to show from his own words in the sixth book of his
10.21.p788
De Lingua Latina,
10.21.p788
dedicated to Cicero:
10.21.p788
1
10.21.p788
What used to be called extremum or 'last,'
10.21.p788
says he,
10.21.p788
is beginning to be called generally novissimum, a word which within my own memory both Aelius and several old men avoided as too new a term; as to its origin, just as from vetus we have vetustior and veterrimus, so from novus we get novior and novissimus.
10.21.p788
2
10.22.p789
10.22.p789
A passage taken from Plato's book entitled Gorgias, on the abuses of false philosophy, with which those who are ignorant of the rewards of true philosophy assail philosophers without reason.
10.22.p790
10.22.p790
PLATO, a man most devoted to the truth and most ready to point it out to all, has said truly and nobly, though not from the mouth of a dignified or suitable character, all that in general may be said against those idle and worthless fellows, who, sheltered under the name of philosophy, follow profitless idleness and darkness of speech and life. For although Callicles, whom he makes his speaker, being ignorant of true philosophy, heaps dishonourable and undeserved abuse upon philosophers, yet what he says is to be taken in such a way that we may gradually come to understand it as a warning to ourselves not to deserve such reproofs, and not by idle and foolish sloth to feign the pursuit and cultivation of philosophy.
10.22.p791
10.22.p791
I have written down Plato's own words on this subject from the book called
10.22.p791
Gorgias,
10.22.p791
not attempting to translate them, because no Latinity, much less my own, can emulate their qualities:
10.22.p791
1
10.22.p791
Philosophy, Socrates, is indeed a nice thing, if one pursue it in youth with moderation; but if one occupy oneself with it longer than is proper, it is a corrupter of men. For even if a man be well endowed by nature and follow philosophy when past his youth, he must necessarily be ignorant of all those things in which a man ought to be versed if he is to be honourable, good and of high repute. For such men are ignorant both of the laws relating to the city, and of the language which it is necessary to use in the intercourse of human society, both privately and publicly, and of the pleasures and desires of human life; in brief, they are wholly unacquainted with manners. Accordingly, when they engage in any private or public business, they become a laughing-stock; just exactly as statesmen, I suppose, become ridiculous when they enter into your debates and discussions.
10.22.p792
10.22.p792
A little later he adds the following: "But I think it best to take part in both. It is good to pursue philosophy merely as a matter of education, and to be a philosopher is not dishonourable when one is young; but when one who is already older persists in the business, the thing becomes laughable, Socrates, and I for my part feel the same towards those who philosophize as towards those who lisp and play. Whenever I see a little boy, to whom it is fitting to speak thus, lisping and playing, I am pleased, and it seems to me becoming and liberal and suited to the age of childhood; but when I hear a small boy speaking with precision, it seems to me to be a disagreeable thing; it wounds my ears and appears to be something befitting a slave. When, however, one hears a man lisping, or sees him playing, it appears ridiculous, unmanly and deserving of stripes. I feel just the same way towards the philosophers When I see philosophy in a young man, I rejoice; it seems to me fitting, and I think that the young man in question is ingenuous; that he who does not study philosophy is not ingenuous and will never himself be worthy of anything noble or generous. But when I see an older man still philosophizing and not giving it up, such a man, Socrates, seems to me to deserve stripes. For, as I have just said, it is possible for such a man, even
10.22.p792
though naturally well endowed, to become unmanly, avoiding the business of the city and the marketplace, where, as the poet says,
10.22.p792
1
10.22.p792
men become
10.22.p792
most eminent,
10.22.p792
and living the rest of his life in hiding with young men, whispering in a corner with three or four of them, but never accomplishing anything liberal, great or satisfactory."
10.22.p793
10.22.p793
These sentiments, as I have said, Plato put into the mouth of a man of no great worth indeed, yet possessing a reputation for common sense and understanding and a kind of uncompromising frankness. He does not, of course, refer to that philosophy which is the teacher of all the virtues, which excels in the discharge of public and private duties alike, and which, if nothing prevents, governs cities and the State with firmness, courage and wisdom; but rather to that futile and childish attention to trifles which contributes nothing to the conduct and guidance of life, but in which people of that kind grow old in
10.22.p793
ill-timed playmaking,
10.22.p793
1
10.22.p793
regarded as philosophers by the vulgar, as they were by him from whose lips the words that I have quoted come.
10.22.p793
2
10.23.p794
10.23.p794
A passage from a speech of Marcus Cato on the mode of life and manners of women of the olden time; and also that the husband had the right to kill his wife, if she were taken in adultery.
10.23.p795
10.23.p795
Those who have written about the life and civilization of the Roman people say that the women of Rome and Latium
10.23.p795
lived an abstemious life
10.23.p795
; that
10.23.p795
is, that they abstained altogether from wine, which in the early language was called
10.23.p795
temetum;
10.23.p795
that it was an established custom for them to kiss their kinsfolk for the purpose of detection, so that, if they had been drinking, the odour might betray them. But they say that the women were accustomed to drink the second brewing, raisin wine, spiced wine
10.23.p795
1
10.23.p795
and other sweet-tasting drinks of that kind. And these things are indeed made known in those books which I have mentioned, but Marcus Cato declares that women were not only censured but also punished by a judge no less severely if they had drunk wine than if they had disgraced themselves by adultery.
10.23.p796
10.23.p796
I have copied Marcus Cato's words from the oration entitled
10.23.p796
On the Dowry,
10.23.p796
in which it is also stated that husbands had the right to kill wives taken in adultery:
10.23.p796
1
10.23.p796
When a husband puts away his wife,
10.23.p796
says he,
10.23.p796
he judges the woman as a censor would, and has full powers if she has been guilty of any wrong or shameful act; she is severely punished if she has drunk wine; if she has done wrong with another man, she is condemned to death.
10.23.p796
Further, as to the right to put her to death it was thus written:
10.23.p796
If you should take your wife in adultery, you may with impunity put her to death without a trial; but if you should commit adultery or indecency, she must not presume to lay a finger on you, nor does the law allow it.
10.24.p797
10.24.p797
That the most elegant speakers used the expressions die pristini, die crastini, die quarti, and die quinti, not those which are current now.
10.24.p798
10.24.p798
I HEAR
10.24.p798
die quarto
10.24.p798
and
10.24.p798
die quinto,
10.24.p798
which the Greeks express by
10.24.p798
ei)s teta/rthn kai\ ei)s pe/mpthn,
10.24.p798
used nowadays even by learned men, and one who speaks otherwise is looked down upon as crude and illiterate. But in the time of Marcus Tullius, and earlier, they did not, I think, speak in that way; for they used
10.24.p798
diequinte
10.24.p798
and
10.24.p798
diequinti
10.24.p798
as a compound adverb, with the second syllable of the word shortened. The deified Augustus, too, who was well versed in the Latin tongue and an imitator of his father's
10.24.p798
1
10.24.p798
elegance in discourse, has often in his letters
10.24.p798
2
10.24.p798
used that means of designating the days. But it will be sufficient to show the undeviating usage of the men of old, if I quote the regular formula of the praetor, in which, according to the usage of our forefathers, he is accustomed to proclaim the festival known as the Compitalia.
10.24.p798
3
10.24.p798
His words are as follows:
10.24.p798
On the ninth day the Roman people, the Quirites, will celebrate the Compitalia; when they shall have begun, legal business ceases.
10.24.p798
The praetor says
10.24.p798
dienoni,
10.24.p798
not
10.24.p798
die nono.
10.24.p799
10.24.p799
And not the praetor alone, but almost all antiquity, spoke in that way. Look you, this passage of the well-known poet Pomponius comes to my mind, from the Atellan farce entitled
10.24.p799
Mevia:
10.24.p799
1
10.24.p799
For six days now I've done no stroke of work;
10.24.p799
The fourth day (diequarte) I, poor wretch, shall starve to death.
10.24.p800
10.24.p800
There is also the following passage from Coelius in the second book of his
10.24.p800
Histories:
10.24.p800
1
10.24.p800
If you are willing to give me the cavalry and follow me yourself with the rest of the army, on the fifth day (diequinti) I will have your dinner ready for you in the Capitol at Rome.
10.24.p800
2
10.24.p800
But Coelius took both the story itself and the word from the fourth book of Marcus Cato's
10.24.p800
Origines,
10.24.p800
where we find the following:
10.24.p800
3
10.24.p800
Then the master of the horse thus advised the Carthaginian dictator: 'Send me to Rome with the cavalry; on the fifth day (diequinti) your dinner shall be ready for you in the Capitol.'
10.24.p801
10.24.p801
The final syllable of that word I find written sometimes with
10.24.p801
e
10.24.p801
and sometimes with
10.24.p801
i;
10.24.p801
for it was usual with those men of olden times very often to use those letters without distinction, saying
10.24.p801
praefiscine
10.24.p801
and
10.24.p801
praefiscini, proclivi
10.24.p801
and
10.24.p801
proclive,
10.24.p801
and using many other words of that kind with either ending; in the same way too they said
10.24.p801
die pristini,
10.24.p801
that is,
10.24.p801
the day before,
10.24.p801
which is commonly expressed by
10.24.p801
pridie,
10.24.p801
changing the order of the words in the compound, as if it were
10.24.p801
pristino die.
10.24.p801
Also by a similar usage they said
10.24.p801
die crastini,
10.24.p801
meaning
10.24.p801
crastino die
10.24.p801
or
10.24.p801
to-morrow.
10.24.p801
The priests of the Roman people, too, when they make a proclamation for the third day, say
10.24.p801
diem perendini.
10.24.p801
But just as very many people said
10.24.p801
die pristini,
10.24.p801
so Marcus Cato in his oration
10.24.p801
Against Furius
10.24.p801
1
10.24.p801
said
10.24.p801
die proximi
10.24.p801
or
10.24.p801
the next day
10.24.p801
; and Gnaeus Matius, an exceedingly learned man, in his
10.24.p801
Mimiambi,
10.24.p801
instead of our
10.24.p801
nudius tertius,
10.24.p801
or
10.24.p801
four days ago,
10.24.p801
has
10.24.p801
die quarto,
10.24.p801
in these lines:
10.24.p801
2
10.24.p801
Of late, four days ago (die quarto), as I recall,
10.24.p801
The only pitcher in the house he broke.
10.24.p802
10.24.p802
Therefore the distinction will be found to be, that we use die quarto of the past, but diequarte of the future.
10.25.p803
10.25.p803
The names of certain weapons, darts and swords, and also of boats and ships, which are found in the books of the early writers.
10.25.p804
10.25.p804
ONCE upon a time, when I was riding in a carriage, to keep my mind from being dull and unoccupied and a prey to worthless trifles, it chanced to occur to me to try to recall the names of weapons, darts and swords which are found in the early histories, and also the various kinds of boats and their names. Those, then, of the former that came to mind at the time are the following: spear, pike, fire-pike, half-pike, iron bolt, Gallic spear, lance, hunting-darts, javelins, long bolts, barbed-javelins, German spears, thonged-javelin, Gallic bolt, broadswords, poisoned arrows,
10.25.p804
1
10.25.p804
Illyrian hunting-spears, cimeters, darts, swords, daggers, broadswords, double-edged swords, small-swords, poniards, cleavers.
10.25.p805
10.25.p805
Of the
10.25.p805
lingula,
10.25.p805
or
10.25.p805
little tongue,
10.25.p805
since it is less common, I think I ought to say that the ancients applied that term to an oblong small-sword, made in the form of a tongue; it is mentioned by Naevius in his tragedy
10.25.p805
Hesione.
10.25.p805
I quote the line:
10.25.p805
1
10.25.p805
Pray let me seem to please you with my tongue,
10.25.p805
But with my little tongue (lingula).
10.25.p805
The
10.25.p805
rumpia
10.25.p805
too is a kind of weapon of the Thracian people, and the word occurs in the fourteenth book of the
10.25.p805
Annals
10.25.p805
of Quintus Ennius.
10.25.p805
2
10.25.p806
10.25.p806
The names of ships which I recalled at the time are these: merchant-ships, cargo-carriers, skiffs, warships, cavalry-transports, cutters, fast cruisers, or, as the Greeks call them,
10.25.p806
ke/lhtes,
10.25.p806
barques, smacks, sailing-skiffs, light galleys, which the Greeks call
10.25.p806
i(stiokopoi
10.25.p806
or
10.25.p806
e)paktri/des,
10.25.p806
scouting-boats, galliots, tenders, flatboats,
10.25.p806
vetutiae moediae,
10.25.p806
yachts, pinnaces, long-galliots, scullers' boats, caupuls,
10.25.p806
1
10.25.p806
arks, fair-weather craft, pinks, lighters, spy-boats.
10.26.p807
10.26.p807
That Asinius Pollio showed ignorance in criticizing Sallust because he used transgressus (crossing) for transfretatio (crossing the sea) and trangressi (those who had crossed) for qui transfretaverant (those who had crossed the sea).
10.26.p808
10.26.p808
ASINIUS POLLIO, in a letter which he addressed to Plancus, and certain others who were unfriendly to Gaius Sallustius, thought that Sallust deserved censure because in the first book of his
10.26.p808
Histories
10.26.p808
he called the crossing of the sea and a passage made in ships
10.26.p808
transgresses,
10.26.p808
using
10.26.p808
transgressi
10.26.p808
of those who had crossed the sea, for which the usual term is
10.26.p808
transfretare.
10.26.p808
I give Sallust's own words:
10.26.p808
1
10.26.p808
Accordingly Sertorius, having left a small garrison in Mauretania and taking advantage of a dark night and a favourable tide, tried either by secrecy or speed to avoid a battle while crossing (in transgressu).
10.26.p808
Then later he wrote:
10.26.p808
2
10.26.p808
When they had crossed (transgressos), a mountain which had been seized in advance by the Lusitanians gave them all shelter.
10.26.p809
10.26.p809
This, they say, is an improper and careless usage, supported by no adequate authority. For transgressus, says Pollio, comes from transgredi, 'to step across,' and this word itself refers to walking and stepping with the feet. Therefore Pollio thought that the verb transgredi did not apply to those who fly or creep or sail, but only to those who walk and measure the way with their feet. Hence they say that in no good writer can transgressus be found applied to ships, or as the equivalent of transfretatio.
10.26.p810
10.26.p810
But, since
10.26.p810
cursus,
10.26.p810
or
10.26.p810
running,
10.26.p810
is often correctly used of ships, I ask why it is that ships may not be said to make a
10.26.p810
transgressus,
10.26.p810
especially since the small extent of the narrow strait which flows between Spain and the Afric land is most elegantly described by the word
10.26.p810
transgressio,
10.26.p810
as being a distance of only a few steps. But as to those who ask for authority and assert that
10.26.p810
ingredi
10.26.p810
or
10.26.p810
transgredi
10.26.p810
has not been used of sailing, I should like them to tell me how much difference they think there is between
10.26.p810
ingredi,
10.26.p810
or
10.26.p810
march,
10.26.p810
and
10.26.p810
ambulare,
10.26.p810
or
10.26.p810
walk.
10.26.p810
Yet Cato in his book
10.26.p810
On Farming
10.26.p810
says:
10.26.p810
1
10.26.p810
A farm should be chosen in a situation where there is a large town near by and the sea, or a river where ships pass (ambulant).
10.26.p810
Moreover Lucretius, by the use of this same expression, bears testimony that such figures are intentional and are regarded as ornaments of diction. For in his fourth book he speaks of a shout as
10.26.p810
marching
10.26.p810
(
10.26.p810
gradientem
10.26.p810
) through the windpipe and jaws, which is much bolder than the Sallustian expression about the ships. The lines of Lucretius are as follows:
10.26.p810
2
10.26.p810
The voice besides doth often scrape the throat;
10.26.p810
A shout forth marching (gradiens) doth make the windpipe rough.
10.26.p811
10.26.p811
Accordingly, Sallust, in the same book, uses
10.26.p811
progressus,
10.26.p811
not only of those who sailed in ships, but also of floating skiffs. I have added his own words about the skiffs:
10.26.p811
1
10.26.p811
Some of them, after going (progressae) but a little way, the load being excessive and unstable, when panic had thrown the passengers into disorder, began to sink.
10.27.p812
10.27.p812
A story of the Roman and the Carthaginian people, showing that they were rivals of nearly equal strength.
10.27.p813
10.27.p813
IT is stated in ancient records that the strength, the spirit and the numbers of the Roman and the Carthaginian people were once equal. And this opinion was not without foundation. With other nations the contest was for the independence of one or the other state, with the Carthaginians it was for the rule of the world.
10.27.p814
10.27.p814
An indication of this is found in the following word and act of each of the two peoples: Quintus Fabius, a Roman general, delivered a letter to the Carthaginians, in which it was written that the Roman people had sent them a spear and a herald's staff, signs respectively of war and peace; they might choose whichever they pleased and regard the one which they should choose as sent them by the Roman people. The Carthaginians replied that they chose neither one; those who had brought them might leave whichever they liked; that whatever should be left them they would consider that they themselves had chosen.
10.27.p815
10.27.p815
Marcus Varro, however, says that neither the spear itself nor the staff itself was sent, but two tokens, on one of which was engraved the representation of a staff; on the other that of a spear.
10.28.p816
10.28.p816
About the limits of the periods of boyhood, manhood and old age, taken from the History of Tubero.
10.28.p817
10.28.p817
TUBERO, in the first book of his
10.28.p817
History,
10.28.p817
1
10.28.p817
has written that King Servius Tullius, when he divided the Roman people into those five classes of older and younger men for the purpose of making the enrolment, regarded as
10.28.p817
pueri,
10.28.p817
or
10.28.p817
boys,
10.28.p817
those who were less than seventeen years old; then, from their seventeenth year, when they were thought to be fit for service, he enrolled them as soldiers, calling them up to the age of forty-six
10.28.p817
iuniores,
10.28.p817
or
10.28.p817
younger men,
10.28.p817
and beyond that age,
10.28.p817
seniores,
10.28.p817
or
10.28.p817
elders.
10.28.p818
10.28.p818
I have made a note of this fact, in order that from the rating of Servius Tullius, that most sagacious king, the distinctions between boyhood, manhood, and old age might be known, as they were established by the judgment, and according to the usage, of our forefathers.
10.29.p819
10.29.p819
That the particle atque is not only conjunctive, but has many and varied meanings.
10.29.p820
10.29.p820
THE particle
10.29.p820
atque
10.29.p820
is said by the grammarians to be a copulative conjunction. And as a matter of fact, it very often joins and connects words; but sometimes it has certain other powers, which are
10.29.p820
not sufficiently observed, except by those engaged in a diligent examination of the early literature. For it has the force of an adverb when we say
10.29.p820
I have acted otherwise than (atque) you,
10.29.p820
for it is equivalent to
10.29.p820
aliter quam tu;
10.29.p820
and if it is doubled, it amplifies and emphasizes a statement, as we note in the
10.29.p820
Annals
10.29.p820
of Quintus Ennius, unless my memory of this verse is at fault:
10.29.p820
1
10.29.p820
And quickly (atque atque) to the walls the Roman manhood came.
10.29.p820
The opposite of this meaning is expressed by
10.29.p820
deque,
10.29.p820
also found in the early writers.
10.29.p820
2
10.29.p821
10.29.p821
Atque
10.29.p821
is said to have been used besides for another adverb also, namely
10.29.p821
statim,
10.29.p821
as is thought to be the case in these lines of Virgil, where that particle is employed obscurely and irregularly:
10.29.p821
1
10.29.p821
Thus, by Fate's law, all speeds towards the worse,
10.29.p821
And giving way, falls back; e'en as if one
10.29.p821
Whose oars can barely force his skiff upstream
10.29.p821
Should chance to slack his arms and cease to drive;
10.29.p821
Then straightway (atque) down the flood he's swept away.